me llega ya a mi derecha estÁ la bahÍa de biscayne.parece un mar de ocÉano. parece atlÁntico en su peor momento. el agua, las rÁfagas.com bi nan dos para entrar a esta ciudad. precisamente, en el centro de miami estÁ rogelio mora-tagle. rogelio mora-tagle adelante. >>> efectivamente nos encontramos en el centro de la ciudad de miami. todavÍa se siente vientos intensos. todavÍa estÁ lloviendo. y ustedes pueden ver, una de las preocupaciones que tenÍan las autoridades, que eran justamente estas grÚas. en los edificios que estÁn en construcciÓn en la ciudad. hay mÁs de 20 en el centro de miami y como pueden ver ustedes, aquella que se encuentra en el fondo se ha doblado. >>> pero les podemos dar tambiÉn una muestra de lo que ocurre aquÍ con algunas ramas de Árboles que han caÍdo. hay seÑales que tambiÉn han sido derribadas por los fuertes vientos. y pueden escuchar, no sÉ si alcanza a escuchar hasta acÁ como vibran los paneles de aluminio que cubren ese edificio, per ademÁs el wa se convierte en un problema vean allÁ la avenida biscayne b

does the access to key biscayne get affected? are you worried about the bridges and the infrastructure? >> well, absolutely. we are connected to the mainland by a series of bridge. one of the brings in particular, bearcut bridge is structurally obsolete. eight a very low profile, so a storm surge can actually lift the bridge bed from the piles and displace it. so we may not have a way to get home even if it's not a wind event, the surge could really cause, could destroy the access to key biscayne. >> what plans have you made for that? how long are your city officials expecting at this point based on current information to not be in key biscayne? >> we will try to inspect the bridges monday or tuesday to make sure that they are safe to access, and we will take it you know, from there. we don't know what to expect, but actually the bridge is owned by miami-dade county, so it is multiple jurisdictions, and it could get quite complicated. >> the' important for people either thinking of leaving key biscayne after the storm or going ba

here is key biscayne. this is the water of key biscayne and biscayne bay. here's north key largo.er is pouring now, getting pushed into biscayne bay. as it ill fills up with water that's where the storm surge will get to 6 to 10 feet. it will sneak up into the intercoastal waterway and likely get up into fort lauderdale as well. there are areas that are less than 10 feet above sea level. key biscayne, the little causeway right there, you're not in it yet, but here it comes because it will be one of those bands that sweep -- if we stay with you, your weather will change so significantly, i think people will leave florida when they see that first band. they're thinking, that is the first band? that will be a big one. they of the storm, still 155 from the hurricane center. as it exits cuba and gets to the warm water here. where does it go from here? how does it turn and what do the models say? the first thing i woke up this morning and i said, look, you know, irma does not care if there's a european model or a gfs model. we eve been saying for days it's going to turn here. didn't sti

and biscayne bay is 200 feet that way. this easily flooded. you can see the wind whipping off the water. that's some of the flooding just from the rain. that's not storm surge. we have seen rapid gusts come in. we'll see 30-40-mile-an-hour winds. then all of a sudden a gust wind comes in that throws you off a little bit. it underscores the point that conditions can change so rapidly. authorities have been talking about, once the eye of the storm was forecasted to go west, a lot of floridians and i'm one of them, i group down here. when you see the eye move away you think the severity of the storm sconts be that bad. but this storm is. it's 400 miles wide. it doesn't make the hurricane gusts any less dangerous. we are talking about an area where we'll see this type of weather for 24 hours. we are just starting now. when you have that constant bombardment of wind and rain. 130-140-mile-an-hour winds. it can cause real damage. our photographer can zoom in on the metro mover. you can see one thing falling off because i don't see anymore. we are se

we're here in myself at the mouth of biscayne bay and that is the miami river. this is the area where you see all those incredible yachts and boats and everything, the whole water world of miami and biscayne bay. a lot of those boats were evacuated on into the miami river. so we're right here at the mouth. you can see the gentle rolling swell, this happens when we get that wind pick up here. the difference between a short choppy wave and that real rolling swell, that is a powerful push of water. and the winds are picking up. we have just a little gust here. so this is a little gust band that is about 25 to 30 miles per hour. we've already had them about 40, 45 move three here. and that is the one thing we have to talk to people about over the next few hours. on the east coast of florida. where people feel like there is a lull going on here. and they walk outside, they just want to get a picture. we talked to them and they are saying this is a moment in hegser to and i wanted to get patient with my family of irma. and what we're trying to get you to understand is

it seems like the flooding will obviously extend out to biscayne bay, biscayne boulevard.wn here. you can no longer see because of the rain. i don't know if you can see this, but you see the down over there. can you see that? now the wind is really starting to pick up again. this is what we see throughout south florida. the type of wind that can tear down certain trees. a area with tons of trees, already down there. power lines down. this has been a sustained way now for about that bad. intermittent but not like this at all. about our in house ever since we started the show with you guys. pete: how much additional come in? >> it is starting to move more. i can just tell you. hold on, one second. we are surrounded by buildings on purpose that we can make sure we are not the united many ways. i would say that right now we are about to see not just a little portion right here, but about 400 feet that way. i can't see much beyond that, but it doesn't look like the road goes all the way that far on that end. this is just a small portion of downtown miami. i can only imagine wha

shep: this is just across biscayne bay on the city side, the peninsula side of biscayne bay just southf downtown miami. if you were to go east from there, that would be miami beach where the mayor is standing by. miami beach is taking quite a punch. >> there is debris everywhere, trees down and power outages in certain areas. the big issue for us is tiedal surge. we are just hoping for the best. shep require comes up out of the sewers with rising sea levels. my understanding is over the next couple hours it's a real danger zone for you. you can imagine tidal surge, hurricane, rain is no match. shep: what kind of damage are you seeing? >> we are seeing a lot of trees and branches, and trees down across roads. we plan on shutting down entries to miami beach. we need to do that. it's not safe at this point. we want to make sure we have the opportunity for our deployment teams to come on and start clearing the roads. downed power lines. it makes it a dangerous area to be outside. we encourage everyone who is listening to stay in their homes and by no means drive to miami beach. shep: the p

how would you describe key biscayne? i know a lot of it is uninhabited wetlands. >> we have approximately 580 acres of beaches and wetlands and mangroves. we have a small town, a village that is 1.5 square miles, and it is very much a small town. we all love the ocean. we -- access is through a series of bridges. and we are a low-lying barrier island. we take our building code and our resiliency very, very seriously. so we work hardin kre ment-- ha we are extremely concerned about hurricane irma. >> is everybody out and everyone who could be expected to evacuate other than first responders? >> we have a couple of hard core people that are staying. it concerns me tremendously. but we have gotten almost everyone out. >> mayor, we're going to be hoping for the best for you and your community and all of our friends on the florida peninsula. thank you very much for taking the time to be with us. we know you have other concerns on your mind, the mayor of key biscayne, florida. which bricks us to cal perry here with us in new y

. >>> i want to bring in key biscayne mayor myra pena lindsay. she joins us by phone. you're south of where phillip was reporting from there in hollywood. you are on this -- in this area that is surrounded by water. and you've seen the latest pieces of information. not sure if it makes a lot of difference to you, but now irma is tacking further west. >> caller: it is. because we are a low-lying barrier island, we have evacuated. i'm not speaking to you from key biscayne, i'm in miami proper now. we have mandatory evacuations. our biggest concern at this point is the dangerousness of the storm surge. we are expecting a storm surge. because of the timing of the hurricane, it should be coming in at high tide during a full moon. so the storm surge will be even higher. >> key bisque ain't -- biscayne completely empty for the most part? >> caller: for the most part, yes. >> what are some of your concerns? >> caller: our concerns are, for one, for the few outliers who decidesed to stay on the key -- decided to stay on the key, their safety. we will not have any kind of first

and we have three bridges that get us to the village of key biscayne. we're certainly concerned how those bridges work during a storm of this magnitude. we've never faced anything like this. so our return team is going to have to gradually take a look at the structures from underneath and try to get vessels that we've identified that will help us take a look at those structures before we can even bring our resources back to the key. >> chief, thanks very much. we'll stay close to you and your people there and our thoughts and thoughts of the nation are with you, chief charles press of the key biscayne police department. >> something we can't forget, those who have already been hit. if you think about the british virgin islands, places like st. martin and saint barts decimated. i got an e-mail this morning from his team saying they all hunkered down and were in yes, a wine cellar but now that they have emerged when you look around, whether it's virgin toretoll la -- >> the pictures from st. martin are incredible. it looks like destruction everywhere in t

we also have a crain collapse on 300 biscayne boulevard, rosa flores can give us an update.nen 300 biscaynerosa flores can give us an update. >> reporter: now, take a look around me, every noun and then you'll sea a wind blast, wind gust, as chad was mentioning, we can feel them here down on the ground, but you multiply that number and wind speed once you go up. this high rise that you see behind me, the good news, none of the patio furniture is there. that was removed. as we pan over, we see one of these cranes. we know there's between 20 and 25 cranes. they two have survived. we have confirmed another crane further north did crack. that one snapped. we are about to move our position to show you some of that water that is coming in from the ocean. i'm -- storm surge, of course, this is the ocean coming inland. people that are walking -- not advised because of the dangerous, not only because of the winds, but because of projectiles and now storm surge. john? >> all right. rosa flores, checking out the storm surge for us shortly. let's go to david hall stead for the state of florida, and dav

what are conditions like right now in key biscayne? >> right now, i'll tell you, we have surveillance cameras and they're out, so there is no power. and throughout the day yesterday we were already experiencing flooding. we had over the causeway had been covered with water, during the high tide, and we had as far as reports, a couple of downed trees and -- but it is dark, so i can't tell you exactly what is going on. but we are getting bands and we expect bad weather until 11:00 p.m. tonight. >> that is a long time to be inundated with water and winds. what is your greatest concern? what area are you most worried about that you think when you return to key biscayne, it may not be there, or be dramatically altered? >> my biggest concerns are the bridges. we have one bridge particular that is structurally obsolete. that means the profile of the bridge is very, very low, and it is susceptible to storms and storm surge. so our concern is that would -- and it is our only way in and out. our concern is that it is compromised during the storm

in the minute i want to bring in the mayor of key biscayne. know we spoke late in the afternoon, early evening yesterday. obviously you were bracing for a hit. what are you hearing about the situation on the ground now that it's an hour away? >> caller: well, we are receiving a lot of weather since about 3:00 a.m. in the our concern are the storm, the weather and the storm surge. and it's -- we need a little daylight to see exactly what's going on. but we are, you know concerned and hoping for the best. >> what do you know about the people who decided to stay behind? do you have good numbers on that? >> caller: we do. we have about less than 10% of our people stayed, so we are thinking we have over 90% evacuation. we're thinking we have maybe about 120 people, 130 people that stayed. >> for those people, what's the best advice you have for them? >> caller: find the safest place in your house in your room, in our apartment. stay there. we did have everyone who stayed we requested they register with our police department so as soon as we could e

. >> i'm very concerned because we have a series of bridges that gets us to key biscayne, that's our only entrance. >> i'm dealing with these tropical storm winds, 40 to 50 miles an hour and they're gusting now 60 to 70. >> we have a situation where 6 1/2 million people are under evacuation orders. that is the largest in history. i want to go to msnbc's thomas roberts who's in tampa, florida. how are the conditions? >> we're just about at daybreak and we've been watching bands of rain come through and wind gusts. we're just outside of the skyway bridge, i pulled it up on the map so you can get a better idea of where we are. we are at the top right of tampa bay, this would be the top portion of skyway bridge and it looped here through st. pete beach. and this is closed so up here you're going to see headlights coming over because people are trying to get north, get out. i was on the local hills borrow county app. their last update, chris, was thursday about shelters and talking about places people could go. a lot of people having listening to radios and local news to hear about shelte

all this water is pouring into key biscayne and into biscayne bay. across the bay and across and into miami. and that's what's flooding now. this wind direction will not change for two to three more hours. and the water is going to continue to come up. we're at 3.5 feet right now surge -- >> let me interrupt you for one second. you're talking about that surge, and we're looking at images right now from a cnn affiliate in downtown miami. and the streets look like a river. that surge has arrived. >> it absolutely has. here's the map that i made three days ago. what we expect with a 6 foot surge. all of downtown miami will be covered in this blue color that you see there. that's the water depth if the water goes to 6 feet. right now it's 5 1/2. that's where the water is at this exact point and still going up. >> berman, the water where you are obviously the water the deadliest force in all of this. as horrific as the winds are, it is the storm surge that ends up taking the most lives in hurricanes such as these. and where you are, you're seeing the wate

. >>> pueden ver aquÍ miami, en la zona con scombhoid brickle, aqÍi estÁ bajo agua, la bahÍa de biscaynee, es donde se enseÑa irma, liana astorga en tampa con lo Último, adelante. >>> efectivamente, nos hemos trasladado hasta tampa donde poco a poco se deteriora el tiempo, hemos sentido rÁfagas de viento y lluvia, cielo gris, nos llama la tensiÓn que en esta Área, la mayorÍa de personas no tienen precauciÓn en las ventanas. >>> preocupados porque no estÁbamos preparado para esto, y ahora viene para acÁ y cuando salimos a buscar cosas no habÍa nada, y nos ha cogido. >>> su nombre. >>> va na. >>> esta situaciÓn es la que pasan varios residentes de aquÍ de Área de tampa y tambiÉn de Área los que hemos conversado que esperaban par de lluvias pero no que la tormenta que irma llegar hasta acÁ y cuando las autoridad lo dijeron no encontraban nada, quÉ pudo hacer para tratar de prepararse porque un ciclÓn poderoso se espera que llegue esta noche, con vientos sostenido 130 mpmph. >>> ya le digo, poner poco de cinta en los cristales. aquÍ el humor de la familia hispana sigue presente. >>> no perde

ciudad mÁs grande afectada por el huracÁn, vamos con rogelio que nos cuenta lo Último desde cayo key biscayne entra de key biscayne estÁ lejos de la marina mÁs prÓxima por lo que lo arrastrÓ y solo pudo ser detenido por este Árbol que parece abrazarlo, a pesar de esta furia de irma por las calles se siente algo de alivio. >> aliviados, muy aliviados despuÉs de un gran susto, la mayorÍa sin electricidad, asi amaneciÓ miami despuÉs del paso de irma. >> cuando estaba entrando el huracÁn no tenÍamos luz hasta el dÍa de hoy, usted ve el generador de allÁ lo estamos usando para sacar el agua que estÁ mas o menos a la mitad, las mÁquinas nadando. >> casi dos millones de casas en miami dade seguÍan sin electricidad esta maÑana y podrÍa tardar dias o semanas en regresar. ella saliÓ a caminar un poco porque dice que su casa es un horno. >> no pudimos dormir, pero de ahÍ tenemos gas y tenemos agua que es lo mÁs importante y ya estamos bien, gracias a dios, y dÁndole gracias dios que no paÓo a mayores. >> sensaciÓn de alivio porque los vientos de irma derribaron Árboles en toda la ciudad, los vientos arr

i believe, it is, it's biscayne boulevard and north 30th terrace.he pig -- pictures. they wanted to get them all down. it takes weeks to dismantle. this particular crane has broken off and apparently done damage to the building. when the last crane fell earlier today they asked residents to move to the center of the building but did not order evacuations and our understanding is that there are no evacuations being ordered at this moment. as the storm was due west of miami about half an hour ago, it's moving to north at about 12 miles an hour. pretty soon the winds will change in southeast florida, the waters will begin to recede in miami-dade county, broward a little bit after that. all of miami-dade county schools are closed at least through tuesday, broward county schools closed until further notice and all of monroe county and the florida keys closed to the general public indefinitely until further notice. they told people who live there that have evacuated, do not come back, not until they can, they have to check structural buildings and that ma

that's not key biscayne. this is key largo we are looking at. key biscayne is a bare island. >> absolutely. [ inaudible ] >> all right, we got a tough line with mayor lyndsey. i know that's the danger there and it is connected to miami through with one of the bridges , and they want to make sure it does not suffer -- we are checking in with all of these mayors who we have been talking to on the other end of the storm. we are going to take a quick break and come back and our coverage of hurricane irma which is still hitting places on the gulf coast of florida continues right after this. ♪ >>> good evening. you're watching msnbc. these are hurricane gusts. these are the possibility of getting hurricane strength gusts all the way from miami. just leaving miami right now. this is why sam champion said starting to see fire trucks. the gulf coast of florida is still in it. those gusts are possible as high as tampa which is where we find thomas roberts in tampa where they are bracing for a rise in the waters. they have evacuated those areas that are cl

we have key biscayne's joining me now. you issued a mandatory evacuation on friday to people living there. how effective was that? did people listen? >> most people did listen. we have, i'd say, 98% of our residents have, in fact, evacuated. we have some people who decided to stay, despite our best efforts and our warnings. >> when you think about the changing track of irma, how difficult is it for people like yourself and also for the governor to get it right when it comes to evacuations, especially when we know that there are people trying to get shelter that are facing very hard, long lines. >> sure. well, the biggest challenge is this is a monster storm, so while we are no longer getting the worst of the worst, all of florida will be impacted and will be hit. in fact, our causeway is already under water, and you see the visual over to the left of the video. and our sand dunes are already at, you know, impacted by the waves and the wave action. so, we feel lucky and blessed that we're not getting the direct brunt of the

this links mainland miami to key biscayne over here. as you can see, key biscayne starting to get those white caps that you associate when a storm comes in here. take a look, just like jo showed you, a whole bunch of people here taking selfies, taking pictures, trying to the that last look as irma makes its way in. we've had a couple of squalls come in, some of those outer bands beginning to reach in here. at one point we could not see miami beach, fisher island, port of miami which is right over here over my left shoulder because those squalls were so strong. as you can see, it's cleared up just within the last hour. people out here are mostly locals. they say they know they're just getting their last-minute look at irma before they too go and seek shelter. take a listen to what one person had to tell us about that. >> i'm not scared. i respect what's going on pretty much, but the authorities know what's going on and if so far they didn't tell us to evacuate, so we are hoping -- we know that if it starts to get worse, we have to be ind

this is part of biscayne bay here at the pelican harbor marina. we've been here all morning. the water level gone up at least 18 inches as we speak almost spilling over on to the sidewalk so far the boats are pretty much staying afloat at this point but this has been going on for like 14 hours now. this pounding wind and rain and i've got to tell you about 12 more hours to go and all of the people that were on the beach in my live shots yesterday of course before it really started yeting bad well they never would have ever expected this day would look and turn out to be as dangerous and treacherous as it is. many people who did not evacuate in south florida then saw friday afternoon, the track of the center of the storm going from south to north up the east coast and instead going south to north up the west coast and suddenly they're like oh, this is going to be great we never should have evacuated and we'll prove everybody wrong. this is just a crazy crazy bad storm. it's tropical storm form strength borderline category 1 storm strength but for the most part tropical storm b

if you take a look at where i am at now this is biscayne boulevard, downtown miami and we already have a local lines of flooding here. this isn't from the storm surge yet but this is a mandatory evacuation area and the reason why is because this a trend biscayne bay where the storm was initially supposed to come with all of its very is less than 50. they had expected the storm surge in this area to be upwards of, well, let's say five or 6 feet and the flooding starts because you get some sort of debris that gets lodged into where this water is supposed to escape and now if you look over to my right down this road over here, about four or 500 feet that way, biscayne is already starting to come in on that road and that is the first sign of some of that storm surge that they are expecting here. again, what we are talking about with the storm is that when that storm started moving west here in south florida and i am from south florida, boca raton, palm beach, there was a message here from the folks don't let your guard down. the storm is 400 miles wide and we are expecting tropical storm c

mayor linsey of key biscayne, florida. mayor, thank you for joining us.of unbelievable to me because anything i'm hearing from dave price and our colleagues here, everybody in south florida is hearing on local news, this stuff is serious and there are some people who are staying put. >> there are. i have to say most of the residents of key biscayne have been through this before, they have ridden through andrew, and it wasn't a different hit but they're scared enough. we have one road in and out, and it's a series of bridges but some people do, you know, decide to stay put. it's putting their lives in danger. >> now tell me about how emergency services are going to work in key biscayne. a lot of the towns up and down the east coast of florida said they're cutting off the emergency services after winds reach a certain level because it's too dangerous for the rescuers and anybody who remains who needs anything has to wait until the winds get back down below 35, 40 miles an hour. >> that is our policy. we cannot put our first responders in danger. again, beca

what are the evacuation plans for key biscayne?, evacuation plans are we are currently evacuating senior citizens and individuals with special needs, and we plan on starting general evacuation this evening. >> and what are you telling citizens to do right now? just prepare for the evacuation? >> they are preparing their properties, they're gathering their personal belongings, they are planning, they are gathering supplies for the next 72 hours. and most of our residents prepare at the beginning of the season, so they are just taking inventory and making sure that they are well organized and well prepared. >> key biscayne, for those who are not fortunate enough to have visited it before, it's a beautiful island. it is connected by a series of causeways. you're an island barricaded, essentially. you have the bear cut bridge. do you think it could sustain a hurricane of this magnitude? >> i know it does and it can. miami-dade county, the owner of the bridge, had it inspected four years ago and they found it was structurally deficient,

one bridge goes to biscayne bay and you can't see that in a distance. but, so, all bridges you're watching the washover there. when you were standing there yesterday, right along with mike, there was a five-foot drop. four and a half five foot drop. there's a boopier below that. just about all those boards are off the pier right now and that lift that he's got is about a foot and a half there. it's about knee height and you're already getting washovers. >> look at the pier. you can see bits of that pier. there's wood in that water. that's the kind of thing that is happening. the power of this storm had washed away that pier. i assumed as you were talking about the pier that once that water receded we we'd see a pier again. >> that's all going to be gone. and, again, as managing editor of the weather channel for three years, these people really and truly know how to put themselves in a good position but we are moment by moment right now where i don't like where mike is, because that's all open water to biscayne bay behind him. around those islands. and l

there's the european model over key biscayne, over ft. and still 130-140 miles per hour. now, the american model. not simple, but just different. it goes to the east of miami. tens of billions of dollars in damage different in just 30 or 40 miles. we are saying why are they so different? they are not so different when you talk about 72 hours. that's a good forecast being 40 miles one way or the other. how does it make a difference for miami? let me show you this. if we are going to get 145-mile-per-hour wind gusts in miami, we are talking miami being a tall city, some buildings are over 700 feet tall. 174 in the middle, then above that, 189 miles per hour at the top. in fact, that's such a significant difference with the power in the force of the wind that it's not just a straight line. so, earlier today, they took a drop which is like a weather balloon, but they drop it out of the plane and found 140-mile-per-hour wind at the surface. 600 feet up, they found 206. if you are in a high-rise in miami and this comes toward you, you need to g

we've had a lot of watchover from business biscayne bay into downtown miami where we've seen water almost calf high, moving through some of the streets right down through downtown miami, here biscayne boulevard, around americanairlines arena, in those areas. also a lot of debris and damage there. as you pointed out, not the of the storm. these are just the tropical storm force winds with the hurricane gusts that have come through. and we have been here for a few hours. one of the areas that took the worst pounding was the area from cudjoe key to key largo. many of the areas stayed in the storm for four hours, kate, that eye wall at 140-mile-per-hour winds for about hour hours. that was a brutal hit for those areas in the keys. now, we watch the center of the storm start to work north, with its eye, its strongest winds, and those storm sturges focused on naples and fort myers. and the path that the hurricane center has laid out for the storm would drive the system and it's holding true to the forecast path, by the way. sorry, kate. i've got -- as that eye starts to work north and get a lit

the biscayne road there. and that's going to happen again. so, i just want to get people prepared for that. it's going to be a very -- and i'm very concerned that we're not only going to have the wind damage with that and the very heavy rain, but we'll really up our power outages in that. and that's not too far away from us. it's just within the next hour or so that we're going to see that. maybe even a little bit before. i haven't been able to time the travel of it yet. how quickly it's move to get north, kate. >> right. we already have more than 2 million households without power in south florida. sam, earlier, we were talking about that crane that fell over. i don't know if we have a picture of it, in miami. you've got a lot of construction in miami. a lot of new construction in miami. any sense around you of what kind of damage there's been? it looks okay behind you. i'm just wondering are there trees down or are we okay? >> reporter: so, here's the deal with where we are, miami proper is well off to our

our nbc affiliate in miami mentioned there was about a foot of award on biscayne boulevard, on one of the main east/west roads. whether that is part of the storm surge, that's absolutely possible. we have not been down there to see that for ourselves. but that is something our affiliate here in miami was reporting. earlier we're out near key biscayne, we were talking to people who were miami residents who went out there to see the storm coming in, they wanted to take selfies and bring their families out there to take a look at all this. this were bringing a sigh of relief because of that westward path irma seemed to be taking. they said we feel bad that the west coast seems to be getting more of an impact than we're going to see on the east coast but their feeling was our time will come eventually. they think maybe we don't get hit as badly as we thought we would with this particular storm but we know there will be another storm coming around the corner and that could be marked for us. >>milli >> millions evacuated for the storm. but for some -- >> reporter: for florida's most vulnera

here in maim dade, it goes a lot farther along biscayne bay. that storm surge threat is going to cream northward along the gulf coast and atlantic coast of florida as we go into sunday and into monday. >> i have not many seconds left. i am a little concerned, doctor that we flood the everglades with 12 feat of water, and miami, let's say, west kendall, can flood from the back side. are you looking at that at all? >> yeah, there is the potential for that. that's generally for a slower moving storm that would be the biggest threat for that type of flooding. but there's going to be a lot of water with the storm, a lot of rainfall. there's going to be a lot of flooding problems just in general in the florida peninsula either from storm surge and/or the combination of very heavy rain. everybody wants to keep an eye out for that. >> thank you, doctor. also displaced wildstock, wildlife, in particular, alligators, i don't like wildlife anyway. doctor, we'll talk to you at 11:00. people, this is the real deal. this truly is. if you are in key west, you

number one, there was a crane collapse in downtown miami on biscayne boulevard 300.psed, a boon fell down there. there's been pictures of that. we do not know how safe that area is. authorities have warned people not it go anywhere near it. and then,the storm surge. brickell avenue, a lot of people know brickell avenue right now covered in water. they had predicted 3 to 6 feet of storm surge. our chad myers says the number is at 5 1/2. that number has been enough to flood part of the downtown area right now. that part was part of the mandatory evacuation zone. so this is exactly what they feared might happen, exactly what they predicted might happen. all right, right now what i want to do is go down to the florida keys. our bill wier has been down in the keys for days now. we have not heard from you in a couple of hours. i asked my producer to check on you. give me a sense of what's happening there, bill? >> i appreciate the concern. we were finding a safer spot 3467 we were getting a little worried about where we were. we found a little better bunker on i guess the

bay right now and that is significant, and high side about 90 minutes or so around biscayne bay, so those water levels will still come up more, anthony so we have have a lot t to to deal with here and a couple of days yet when the, before the storm will weaken, it is looking like they avoided the worst but still they have a big storm coming at them. all right, as eric mentioned the storm is heading for tampa around 5:00 o'clock this afternoon, john blackstone is in the tampa bay, st. petersburg area and he joins us from downtown tampa, john. >> anthony, let's talk about one of the specific vulnerabilities here in tampa, much of the city, the downtown area is vulnerable, but this is tampa general hospital, it is right here on the water, in fact, it is built on islands and it is within evacuation zone a, what the city has designated as evacuation zone a, an area in which all residents have been ordered to leave. the hospital is not being evacuated, has about 1100 beds, some nip hundred patients still there, hospital officials say they can weather the storm but if necessary, they will

biscayne bay is just that way, about two blocks.t night when we were out was overflowing the banks a bit. the wind was whipping around and this is the end result. what's interesting now, the current all day long has been going north to south. going this way. but now the water is moving south to north. and our producer was checking out radar and it appears we are going to get smacked again at about 10:30 tonight. these are the last bands of hurricane irma, the southern part of the storm that are going to hit us once again, and you can rest assured that this street will rise. the waters will rise. now, there's a little bit of housekeeping to take care of. miami-dade county has issued a curfew. it began at 7:00 p.m. tonight. it goes through 7:30 tomorrow morning. the county superintendent has come out, via twitter and a news conference, and said that schools are now closed for the foreseeable future. they had initially said schools were closed friday and monday. it's now extending because roads are impassable, and there's just too much

right there, biscayne national park. and moving to the north and to the northwest, right over miami proper. up towards high leija through fort lauderdale and west palm beach finally offshore at fort pierce and turning, slams into north carolina. here's the american model, john, slightly farther offshore. only 40 miles, though. those 40 miles could make a difference in tens of billions of dollars in damage. whether your home is able to come back to or not and whether you live through it or not. because this would significantly reduce the amount of wind compared to this for the european model, still too early to tell. models are doing fantastic. we battle these all the time, but 40 miles one way or the other, three days out, is an apa amazing forecast. south florida, get ready for it. carolinas, maybe even coastal georgia, get ready for it. it's coming everywhere. it's huge. >> it's huge. a great way to put it, chad myers for us in the weather center. we'll keep in touch today and the next few days. chad noted the governor

it's now floating loose in biscayne bay. >> we've got another boat going by. >> used to seeing boats go by, but not quite like that in those conditions. >> those images are incredible. and a lot of people forget we're talking about the storm lose sight of the damage these areas suffered. and irma disrupted the sports world. we had a ball game in new york. but the yankees were the road treatment. >> the tampa bay rays were the home team, even though it was played at city field, normally the field of the new york mets. but hurricane irma prompted them to move the game. they beat the rays 5-1. >> at home in queens. >> they will play two more games at city field this week. they're about to get comfortable. >> they have that home field advantage or disadvantage, i guess. and while we're talking baseball, the cleveland indians have extended their winning streak to 19 in a row, winning 11-0. the 19-game winning streak is the longest and the third best since 1947. cleveland hasn't lost since august 23rd. they're angry over last year. they're coming bac z2gv6z zi0z y2gv6y yi0y >>> this mornin

and we've seen biscayne bay standing on biscayne boulevard up to people's like calf high. this has been -- it has been a very damaging storm for the area. i don't want people to go outside yet because this is where we're going to lose a lot of trees, ali. because all day long we've been soaking that ground and these trees with this wind are just going to go. it is a dry ground that holds the root ball in the ground. >> we got the weather channel there on the left-hand side. you see that blowing around. that is ft. myers, florida. we are now seeing the worst of it there in ft. myers. you and i, sam, were talking to mariana atencio and the streets if miami were clear this morning and now they are full of trees. trees are still coming down, things can still fly around. bottom line is there is a very big difference between a water that's trickled out of storm drains up to six inches or two feet, and water that is part of a storm surge. it is why we call it a storm surge. stand by, sam. chris hayes is in naples, florida, right now. i don't know if anything's gotten any more ser

these areas -- biscayne bay. these areas north of miami, a 60% probability of hurricane force wind up to 70 miles per one. this morning, 59 to 62 degrees. when i came in this morning it was almost like a fall day. not only here, but look at areas south. richmond, 76. we will keep the temperatures much cooler than average or the weekend, which is looking dry. we start to pick up clouds from irma and wayne -- rain chances are way up next week. the impact we could see locally, coming up. the capitals around beltway volume increases through silver spring. for those working southbound to 70, a 30 minute commute from i-70 toward rexburg with lanes open -- clarksburg with lanes open. westbound route 100 toward severn, the crash has blocked at i-97 and you route three. eastbound 66, traffic squeezing by single file to the left. for those traveling 95 in toginia, 22 minute commute travel about 16 miles from route three toward acquire. the blue and yellow lines both dealing with delays because of a traffic problem out of k

. >>> i want to turn now to the mayor of key biscayne. we have heard a lot of talk tonight about the different approaches people are taking. what are you advising folks and what are you seeing? >> i'm seeing that most of our people evacuated and we were under a tornado warnings today. when the tide went up, the water was covering the causeway which is our only inguess where and egress. the roads were washed out for a period of time. and our biggest concern, you know, in addition to a pretty strong storm and we are very grateful it is diminishing in power and not coming straight for us any more. but the storm surge for all of florida is really a big concern for safety reasons. and for you know, property and infrastructure reasons as well. >> mayor, how do you keep on top of what's happening? >> well, we're actually hunkered down a couple miles away from key biscayne. i am at a hotel in, you know, pretty high area in miami-dade with my emergency personnel, our firefighters, police, and staff and our council. and we actually had our first re

this is biscayne bay. you can see the waves are having white caps on them. we'll see continues go downhill as the evening goes on. >> martha: tell me what your plan is. where are you going to go if it gets too rough? >> we don't advise anyone to do what we do. we go through extensive training. our plan is to go to the congret garages where they will withstand the winds and we'll be safe. >> martha: bust of luck, ben. go to the national hurricane center where they are standing by with the latest look of what have they are expect being. and where they watch all of television and what is the latest track, ed? >> the latest track to continue to move west near the north coast of cuba and tomorrow make a turn to the north and where that turn occur system critical for the impacts in south florida. regardless of where the turn occurs, the florida keys are at risk for rising water storm surge 5- 10 feet and damaging waveless. and the given the size of the hurricane tis likely that almost all of the southern two-thirds of the peninsula has a high chance of getting hur

we reported in this morning's misery, one block from biscayne bay. >> i heard this crash. it was this sign. that had come fleeing down. this thing would cut somebody's head off if it hit them. >> up to 5 feet of storm surge business district. the avenue became a river. social media showed damage all over the city. high wind snapped two construction cranes on buildings two miles apart. no one reported hurt. >> side ways. >> high anxiety hit hold outs bill and judy regan in their condo. >> i heard the gurgling. recognized this morning it is the, the flooding into the, the condo. >> by late morning. first responders had to stop answering 911 calls. people who defied miami's evacuation order were on their own. like, tony and rachel coddington. >> would have taken too long to get to orlando, we didn't want to chance it. they told us in facetime interview they were grateful not to have evacuated to naples. deeper into the storm. >> are we relieved, slightly. but we hope it is going to be okay for them as well. >> but after a frightening day, some people who se evacuate must have

earlier today we were out on key biscayne. we were out in downtown miami. we were talking to folks out there who were coming out to sort of see the choppy waves in biscayne bay and irma beginning to move into the city. they told us that they were in fact slightly relieved to see that track of irma pushing further west. they said they felt very bad about the fact that people on the west coast of florida were going to be dealing with this, but they were feeling relieved that the east coast of florida perhaps would not be seeing the brunt and the worst that this storm had to offer. >> i'm looking behind you and i see all the lights. i think despite the transformers being blown, there at least is some power there. we're toll the neighbors to the south throughout the keys there is no power. this according to the florida electric company. no power in the keys right now which makes just the ominous nature of a storm of this magnitude coming their way in total darkness all the more fearful. that said, folks should have evacuated. tt point how many bepeople do you s

right now, it's blinding sheets of rain and we are on the biscayn ebay side. it's even rougher on the atlantic side of key largo. uh-oh, there goes my -- hang with me. hang with me. it is even rougher over on the atlantic side where several people are riding out the storm near their boats but even worse in key west. chad myers, allison chinchar called us, so precise, said it would hit you at 8:15, 8:30. boy, were they right. sea wall in key west, the streets that we've seen and some of the live cam pictures where we were doing live shots from in front of sloppy joe's on duvall street the water is coming up there. it's the wind and the water. you hide from the wind. you run from the water. the urgency has only gotten stiffer here, chris. >> any sense of a storm surge yet? >> not yet. we're looking at the live cams to try to gauge that but we won't be able to get out and explore for several more hours. we don't want to kaucatch a str sign in the side of the vehicle or in ourselves, obviously. >> i can't, in good conscience, leave you out there to get battered. g

tomorrow afternoon, tomorrow midday if it's going to be a direct hit. >> reporter: biscayne bay sitsend of carlos ramirez's street. >> worst case scenario this house is going to be mostly under water. so we have to get out of here. >> reporter: he's constructioning a barrier to try to hold back some of the water. then he's heading inland with his family. just to give you some perspective right now i'm standing only about 4 feet above sea level. i spoke with a man down the street who is getting ready to leave his home. he told me he was packing up as if he might never come back. >> kenneth craig live tonight in miami, thanks. >>> chief meteorologist paul deanno joins us now. this storm is really unprecedented. it's just massive in scope. >> it is a significant storm, the strongest hurricane ever in the atlantic ocean. what we don't want is landfall of a storm of that size in the united states. it looks more and more likely that that is going to happen coming up this weekend. the latest computer forecast models represented by each of those individual lines, there are lots of models mak

foot of rainfall and more than a half of foot of rainfall in 142-mile-per-hour, big pine key, key biscayneoit of miami, and a 72-mile-per-hour wind gust. you a irma as i mentioned not finished yet. irma a significant wind maker and it will continue to be a big time rain maker for the end of the week. >> plenty more to dole with and we'll have more to deal with across the state of florida. >>> a dave trot said he wanted to spend more time with family but he wrote i think america needs more divisiveness. gop senator said he's not sure if he will run next year. after nikki haley warned they will only work if they will imploment them completely. they did not complete all the sanctions they wanted. >> the draft has been unanimously. >> it cuz not include the ban on all oil imports on all >> the entire international community are united against its dangers. >> we have an enormous incentive to make it use nnanimous. >> he says china has become estranged from north korea. >> it borders on hostile relationship. >> north korea has warned of a harsh response against the u.s. for pushing these new san

key biscayne, 99 miles an hour. and irma as i mentioned not f finished yet. irma a significant wind maker will continue to be a big time rain maker for the remainder of the week. >> plenty more to deal with and ahead we'll have reports from across the state of florida on recovery efforts on the aftermath of florida. >>> another lawmaker says he will not run for re-election. he wanted to spend more time with his family but he wrote i think america needs more unity and less divisiveness. bob corker says he's not sure if he will run next year. >>> new sanctions against north korea, nikki haley wrote they will work only if they will work aggressively. >> the u.n. security council agreed to new sanctions in response to north korea's nuclear test. >> the resolution bans all textile imports. but it does not include the ban on all oil imports of the country and freezing of assets. >> its trading partners and the entire national community are united gengs its dangerous and illegal. >> we have an enormous incentive to make it use nan mouse. >> their relationship now bo

this is all water pushed in from biscayne bay, three blocks to the east of us here. water came up, came down the side streets, flooded this area of downtown. here's the thing we're trying to keep an eye on at this point. high tide here is in about 30 minutes. we have seen the water receding through the hours that we've been here. we've been out here for about five or six hours now. but it's going to be a big question now. what happens when there's high tide? will the water continue rece receding? will some of this water be pushed back into this area? it's something we are keeping an eye on, again, because this area is so flooded right now from that storm surge. cynthia? >> maya, we're going to be back to you throughout. thank you very much for that report. joining us now is nbc's meteorologist steve sosna, who has been tracking irma's path. steve, what's the latest? >> well, what we have for you is still a category 2 storm, which is nothing to sneeze at here. it is not as strong as it was in the keys, but it's still delivering impacts that are going to be very disrup

if you're in ten feet of elevation of biscayne bay, you need to get out. >> all this eerie familiarity with those areas from andrew back in 199 2, those the memories people fear. the authorities down here thank you, chad saying, because you see the eye going over one area doesn't mean you're not going to be hit. it doesn't have to be a direct hit to be a bad hit. chad, we'll check back with you in a bit. cuba is gearing up for the destructive power of irma. deadly hurricane-force winds especially the northern ridge of that vulnerable island, all in a matter of hours. cnn is there. we have patrick oppmann live in cuba with the latest. my friend, i hope your family is okay. i know you've got to be doing your job. your heart is in that home as well. what are you seeing on the ground? >> reporter: chris, thank you very much. here in cuba, people are getting ready. tourists have evacuated. cuba has its own keys on the coast full of hotels. usually a pretty season right now. they're all empty. here where cubans live, a lot of people have evacuated. some of the bombshell terse built during th

you're pouring water into biscayne bay at this point. just pushing it.'s pink is a wind gust of 75 or greater. all the way from palm beach to naples. the entire east to west coast will have a hurricane force wind gust or later. about 16 million before it dies off somewhere in georgia. right over lake oh ca choep be. the center of the eye is going to go over the everglades. that's not land. the that's just warm water. and finally pushing back up into north georgia and even the carolin carolinas. le here's the map. the european model in blue, american in red. yesterday, they didn't agree. well, today, they do. right over the keys, just to the east of naples, west of miami. the this also means that miami is going to be on the right side of the eye. that's always the highest wind side. and then up right through orlando. now look at the cone. where does it hurricane center have the cone? right over the models, as ut' expect. john. >>> florida, is a can't miss right now. for hurricane irma and it is not the kind of can't miss that you ever had bch. chad myers

sustained 50-mile-an-hour winds on biscayne bay which is the safe side of key largo where we are rightt having a lot of people expressed concern. we are tucked inside after solid concrete carport here. around the corner of the wind. it's turning the corner and saying good, irma is, right now. i was just looking at the tide charts. it looks like low tide is about 11. . 38. that's important when you consider the 5 to 10 foot storm surge everyone has been talking about. this is the main motivation for the evacuation order. flying palm fronds is one thing. some of the lower residences in the country, a few inches makes all the difference so people bracing for that. and also thinking about power. 29,000 customers down here, all of them without power, something like over 350,000 across southern florida. and so the temptation is to maybe run out to the car and charge the phone, those sorts of things. folks here with no power tell me not to do that. for the rest of you watching around the state bracing for that, something to keep in mind. get everything charged up now while you can. as far as