by the moment this water is coming in from the biscayne bay. are not too far from where you are located on north bay village. we are down in midtown. you can see the water coming in from the bay. and it's going to be a major problem. you can see it happening before our eyes here. this tree was up just about 15 minutes ago, then all of a sudden it toppled. these objects are becoming projectiles which is another major issue. but we want to show you how this storm surge is impacting this area. i know it's impacting you guys in the studio. then you have trees coming dunes well, so quite the mess. these cars will likely be under water sometime soon. this water is moving in very fast, lapping over the sea wall. the sea wall, you can't even see sit. the raves are crashing into the land. that's our story of in midtown for now. but we'll send it back to you, ladies. reporter: omar, we'll give your voice a break. as you look at those bands coming through and those outer edges, it's incredible the amount of storm surge and conditions it's creating. shep:

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 are still very close to biscayne bay. n't know how much the storm surge in terms of what we will see here. this was a mandatory evacuation because there is the bay right there and people have sandbags and what people wanted winter storms came in was to be stuck inside the building with the floor of the lobby completely flooded. which is why the curfew was put in place in miami beach in broward county beginning at 4:00. they don't want people to feel like they can let their guard down because you simply cannot. this is an extremely dangerous storm no matter how far away from that you are. we need to just look at the sheer size of the storm. it is extremely dangerous. tree into bryan llenas down on the ground. transfer also very close on the causeway. joining us now, "miami herald" reporter, it's our understanding you are the keys right now. where are you? >> i am in the heart of key west. jon: you are about to take a pounding. >> yes, we are prepared for it as best we can. we have all of our plans in place about 8:00 p.m. l

you have the barrier island, the atlantic, biscayne bay, all of that water is going to start coming in because we are potentially within minutes of irma hitting the florida keys. she was talking about 60% of the power grid in miami beach already out. when we were talking to power officials a couple hours ago, they said they had 15,000 restoration workers who are ready to address problems that happen. the biggest prestaging they have had in florida history. having said that, it could be weeks in some of these areas. the most important thing is to survive this storm just north of where it's really getting hit, which is obviously the keys. as miguel, who is in florida city, you guys have been experiencing those tough and harsh rain bands, a little bit calmer than when we spoke to you the last time, but i know this stuff does come in waves. >> it is coming in waves, and we just got hit with a heavier rain band and heavier wind. it comes in surges we have a gust then it lays down, and then it kind of picks up again here. the concern is first responders who say they will not be able to go ou

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

this will be the major problem, by the moment, this is coming in from the biscayne bay.ar from where you guys are located actually up on north bay village. we're down in midtown here in miami. you can see the water just coming in from the bay, which is just behind these buildings here, and will be a major problem. you can see it happening before our eyes here. this tree was up just about 15 minutes ago, and then all of a sudden it just topples. they objects, of course, becoming projectiles in all of this as well, which is the other major issue out here as well. we wanted to show you how this storm surge is impacting, here in midtown miami, same deal, and then you have and these cars will likely be under water sometime soon. this water moving in very fast, lapping over the sea wall. the sea wall you can't even see it actually, i should say. waves are just crashing onto the land at this point, and then this is the aftermath. so that's our story here in midtown for now, but we'll snd it back to you. >> the rain is really coming down. anyone in the tampa bay area watching, d

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

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

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

we are going to have so much storm surge water pouring into miami, pouring into biscayne bay and ft. lauderdale and the like. there could be 20 feet of surge. if your house is less than 20 feet above sea level -- tearing up the entire coastline and all the houses. 140-mile-per-hour storm. it's like an ef-3 or 2.5 tornado that sits over your house for 30 or 40 minutes. that's what you have to think about. that's how strong the winds are, plus the surge. the american model, happier here. somewhere between the bahamas. if we could keep it here, not hitting the bahamas or the east coast, we would have winds of 100, but not 140 or 150. as the storm continues to the north, to the west palm beach area, it's not slowing down. it's still 140. then it makes aim somewhere near the coast of georgia, south carolina or north carolina and still a category 4 or category 5 hurricane. that's the rub with this storm, there's nothing that we can do to make it hit nothing. this is so big, we are going to get damage somewhere. i just want you to notice, i don't know if this is true or whether it's just sl

. >> reporter: biscayne bay is carlos ramirez's street. >> we will have to get out of here. >> reporter: he is constructing a barrier to hold back some of the water and then is heading inland. kennet way. nearly 500 tourists from cana moved to shelters and 2500 people were evacuated after a landslide damaged 8 homes. after being closed for hours, the airport there is now open. puerto rico dodged a straight hit but more than half of the island is without power. 900,000 people are in the dark. 50,000 without water and the power company warns that some areas could be left without service for 4 to 6 months and 14 hospitals are using generators, trees, and light poles. >>> then, barbuda, the storm damaged nearly every building on the island people are homeless and blamed for the death of a 2-year-old. actor robert deniro is pledging to help rebuild. he owns a resort there. aerial shows extensive damage on st. maarten. the run way at the airport covered with sand and debris. this is the dock and sea front areas and the communication there has been knocked out. the island shares territory with

we off biscayne bay in miami. you can see in with some high winds and some rain.bit. obviously, that will only increase in intensity as we move along here. we do want to take a look at irma from space, if we can, because we do have video that was recorded just before noon on friday. as the international space station flew about 250 miles over the hurricane, which was then a category 4 storm, since then it strengthed to category 5 before weakening slightly to a category 4. as you mentioned, the leading edge of this storm is affecting parts of south florida, where we are, also the florida keys. elaine quijano is in florida city, south of us here. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to yo the homestead area, is known as the gateway to the florida keys. behind me is overseas highway also known as route 1. the only way in and out of the florida keys. and just a short time ago we actually saw what appeared to be some kind of transport. basically a convoy of what appeared to be school buses escorted by state troopers making their way from the keys, some kind of trans

biscayne bay is over there. it's getting so squirrely now as it's whipping around and coming through and creating a wind tunnel effect here. all the power is out in the florida keys. no surprise there. they're super worried about losing a bridge. that's the main concern of the people down here. you have to understand, they know storms in the keys. an average of one hurricane every four years but nothing like this. there hasn't been one this strong since donna, 1960, 57 years ago today. so this is once in a lifetime kind of event for the people down here. there's the time line again as we plug into the mainland f that goes down, who knows how long that will take. one hurricane ended the overseas railroad. they're worried about infrastructure here. this is one of the many harbors, a boating community. your boat is your home in many cases. we mentioned people who decided to stay near their boats and ride it in and out stone shelters like this. at some point it's up to fate whether you or your boat survive. jake? >>

and a worst-case scenario is for it to drive itself very close to biscayne bay. say just to the north of ocean reiff, k reef, key largo, homestead, cutler. the potential worst-case scenario and guess where the middle of the cone is? the worst-case scenario. i mean, it doesn't really -- i can't imagine other than coming in, slamming in like this, like andrew did, and this is bigger than andrew. this is significantly stronger, wider. andrew had a tight core and small wind of wind. this window of wind is 30 miles across, andrew was more like 12. as it drives itself up into south florida, will it stay along the coast, maintain its energy at 130 miles per hour and scour the entire coast, or could it get out here? greatnesses for florida. terrible for the carolinas. because it's going to go left from here. it's going to go into the carolinas, the strong ter is, because it's out here. the harder the carolinas will get hit. bottom line is, the u.s. is going to get socked. somebody is going to get socked and you need to pay attention now because it looks like sunday morni

powerful waves just tng boat around biscayne bay. check that out. coming up, we'll speak with the chief specialist of the national hurricane center about irma's next moves. >>> just now, wow, it just kind of picks right up and you feel the force of this. keep in mind we're not expecting a direct hit from irma, but we are expecting damage all throughout the night. we've had a tornado warnings, we've had even a funnel cloud spotted off the coast of miami and further north. i'm not sure if you can tell, but it's certainly pushing against us right now. in the next few minutes we're going to need to take shelter again because this is a dangerous situation. of course, very dark out here. difficult to see when pieces of debris may even be flying. that's what we're keeping our i eyes out for now. >> that's one of the concerns for is all approaching is that flying gree. that was wtbj's julia bagg. we appreciate that from her. hurricane irma now gaining strength as it's approaching the florida keys over the warm water. it's now a category 4 storm. irma is bri

. >> reporter: biscayne bay sits at the end of carlos ramirez's street. >> worst case storm surge scenario this house is going to be mostly under water. so we have to get out of here. prepare he's constructing a barrier to try -- >> reporter: he's constructing 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, we are only about 4 feet above sea level where we are standing. i spoke with a man who lives down the street getting ready to leave his home and he told me he was packing like he wasn't going to come back for a long, long time. >> for the folks there obviously scrambling to get out of harm's way do you know where they're evacuating to? a live look now at the dark sky over florida. again: the storm is toward >> reporter: a lot of people are leaving the state entirely, but that is not an option for a lot of folks. so the first step is to get away from the coast, get away from where we are and to go somewhere inland. others are making their way up to central florida and orlando and those parts, but that could be

biscayne bay this evening providing a glorious backdrop, belying the anticipated arrival of a now deadly hurricane irma less than 72 hours from its possible landfall. as we come on the air tonight there are new mandatory evacuations as florida stares down the barrel of this storm. as many as 700,000 people under orders to leave. florida's governor warning the time to evacuate is now because, he says, we can't save you once the storm hits. still a category 5 hurricane, irma has demolished popular caribbean resort islands killing several people. today a hurricane watch was posted for south florida which tonight has little room to escape irma's wrath. our team continued to deploy across the region. let's begin tonight with gabe gutierrez. gabe, good evening. >> reporter: lester, good evening. this is a scene playing out across the state. growing lines for fuel. often it's selling out faster than supply trucks can get here. people rushing to stock up before irma arrives. tonight, florida's largest mass evacuation in 12 years is under way. miami beach boarded up, nearly 700,000 people urged t

it's a view of what biscayne bay looks like from the seawall of miami's shores. >>> back here in our area today, two races will remember the fallen heroes of 9/11. the first starts at 9:00 this morning in pennsauken. the travis mannion foundation will host the tenth annual 9/11 heroes run. the second is at 2:00 this afternoon at the chester county justice center in west chester. that also benefits the travis mannion foundation which sponsors empowerment programs for vets. travis mannion was killed in react in 2007 while trying to draw fire away from his wounded teammates. >>> a new miss america will be crowned tonight in atlantic city. miss america hopefuls showed off their shoes in an annual pageant tradition. they paraded down the boardwalk in colorfully decorate shoes. >>> oh, happy football sunday to you. danny pommells from csn, your friendly neighborhood sportscaster. the eagles in a matter of hours. the doug pederson and carson wentz duo, year one started with a bang. but expectations are high for the birds this season. what better way to get things started than with a divisio

as we made our way to downtown miami, we saw heavy flooding in the biscayne bay area and two high-rise cranes that collapsed because of the violent wind gust. as we made our way back into the beach this morning, we saw the bridges to the beach heavily patrol by police. as talking about in the southernmost tip of florida, the same threat of looting is happening at the beach. there's still a curfew in place as authorities begin to assess the damage in miami and miami beach. matt and savannah. >> all right. mariana, thank you very much. >>> let's go to the western side of florida, kristen dahlgren in fort myself. kristen, good morning. what do you see there? >> good morning, matt and savannah. we are hearing that the roads are blocked here. some neighborhoods still cut off from trees. rescue crews working to get to those people to make sure everybody who rode out the storm here is okay. you can see behind me a lot of trees down. this one down on power lines. many, many waking up without power this morning. to give you some idea, here in this county, 234,000 customers without power, that's

we reported in this morning's misery one block from biscayne bay. >> i heard this crash and it was this sign that had come down. give you a sense, this thing would cut somebody's head off if it hit them. >> up to five feet of storm surge poured into miami's downtown business district. brickell avenue became brickell river. social media showed damage all over the city. high winds snapped two construction cranes on buildings two miles apart. no one was reported hurt. but high anxiety hit hold of bill and judy reagan in their condo. >> i heard the gurg elling and recognized this morning that it is the flooding into the condo. >> reporter: 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. >> it would have taken too long to get to orlando or orlando. we didn't want to chance it. >> as the storm hit today they shot this video of a sail boat trapped under a causeway. >> they told news a interview they were grateful not to have he yak-- evacuated to some place like naipel, deeper into t

mark straussman is in downtown miami next to biscayne bay where the wind is gusting at more than 60 miles per hour. mark, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, charlie. the winds you're talking about that are gusting, much more sustained as we've been standing out here in the last half hour. you can feel it. first of all stinging rain in my face. it's very difficult to standstill in spots. you may see me go flying around. you can see it in the amount of debris every where. i can see three traffic signs one there, one there and one over there that are on their sides. they are still anchored but toppled. you also see downed power line over there which i've been keeping an eye on. it was spark and stopped sparking. another indication of sustained wind miami beach no longer responding to emergency calls. once the winds get sustained at 40 miles per hour or higher, they made a decision they were going to stop. we have reached that point. anyone who has decided to ride out the storm on miami beach decided to hunker down there. essentially they are on their own. there could be some serious ca

in the distance is the ocean, the coast of biscayne bay near miami, but water has breached all the defences, surging through the entire area. despite dire warnings, miami itself seems to have dodged the worst of the weather, but the city is deserted, the wind intense, the rain torrential. the top of this crane blown away in the storm. what's left dangles in the strong winds. power cuts are widespread and a curfew remains across much of the state of florida. the normal rhythm of life has been suspended. we will do our best to try to make sure we help all the citizens of this committee to adjust and try to get them back to a sense of normalcy. —— community. with so many areas abandoned, looting has been a major problem. here the targets are sports shops, boxes of trainers piled into cars. the police say they won't tolerate criminal activity and a number of arrests have been made. overnight hurricane irma has weakened further but continues to cause damage in its path. today a group of dutch tourist in saint martin were evacuated to the nearby island ofjericho, still traumatised by their experi

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

in the distance is the ocean, the coast of biscayne bay nearmiami, but the ocean, the coast of biscayne the army itself seems to have dodged the worst of the weather, but the city is deserted, the wind intense, the rain torrential. the top of this crane blown away in the storm. what's left dangles in the strong winds. power cuts are widespread and a curfew remains across much of florida. the normal rhythm of life has been suspended. we will do our best to try to make sure we help all the citizens of this committee to adjust and tried to get them back to a sense of normal say. with so many areas abandoned, looting has been a major problem. here are the targets are sports shops, boxes of trainers piled into cars. the police say they won't tolerate criminal activity and a number of arrests have been made. 0vernight irma has weakened further but continues to cause damage in its past. it is now heading north through florida and will reach southern georgia later today. tampa on the state's west coast has borne the brunt of the hurricane overnight. bbc weather‘s tomasz schafernaker is there, a

move to the north, northwest and by early sunday morning will start hitting areas around miami, biscayne bay, pushing all that water off the ocean. around 2 -- 2:00 to 6:00 a.m. on sunday. look at the beeline it takes right through the state. it will cut through the state and reaches from one side to the other, from the atlantic to the gulf with very high wind. it will press on in a north, northwesterly fashion so areas like the tennessee valley and mid-atlantic will get rain. storm surge warnings right now. the forecast for the water building and pushing inland as five to 10 feet but i really think that could change and be much higher and much greater. about the other two storms, katia around mexico and hurricane jose right behind irma. julie: still looking at some unusual backups, outer loop of the counter -- capital beltway from colesville road as this crew works their way through the far right lane. a 17 minute ride to travel six miles on the outer loop. a structure fire out of howard county, ridge road at an shop road, that is what shut down a portion. look for alternate routes. you may

beautiful beach and biscayne bay comes in to the -- the river empties. and it will come in from where those tall buildings in downtown piem mime and they expect a storm surge of 3- 6 feet. look at the boats tied up on miami river. that is a yyacht and taking away the cushions and you go to the right over here. you realize how close to where the water is to where they live. next to a power line that brings up the issue of power. they expect 9 million people. that is a kraen. there are 25 cranes in downtown miami and they are designed to move in this kind of weather. but the weather they are able to sustain is 145 miles per hour. and we expect the storm to be upwards of 155 miles per hour. and there is concern about those crepes in downtown miami and people are talking comparison to hurricane andrew. a lot of people are new to miami. and they didn't experience hurricane andrew. that was small and this is big. this is it uplike anything that they have seen even if they rode through andrew. they are hunkering down, tucker. >> tucker: thank you, brian. rick s

we're on a balcony six floors up in a fortifiy eied building by biscayne bay. i'm getting pushed now. the winds are fierce. throwing debris. i saw something fly off of this high-rise up here. so, this is really starting to get significant and serious here in downtown miami. no one here along the streets, thank goodness, that i can see. a lot of people evacuated. people decided to hunker down and ride this out. and believe me, they're hearing and seeing the strong winds. gio benitez is in downtown miami, ermier this week, he was in key west chrks is getting pounded rite now. i know you evacuated with so many others. >> we had tens of thousands of people who evacuated, amy, before those orders were in place. that was unbelievable news. i went to key west quite a bit as a kid. we saw these storms come through. key westers don't like to leave in storms. in this case, it was a ghost town in so many parts. that famous street was just boarded up days before this hurricane was coming through. i want you to take a look. you were taunging, amy, about seeing things flying

that is biscayne bay. water is starting to overflow the banks there. it's about a 3-foot bank.eep in mind, we don't have the hurricane even close to us yet. but this marking lot is starting to fill up with water. that is going to be a major problem. when we first landed it was all about the wind. wore starting to feel those winds. 50-mile-an-hour gusts for sure. but the other issue is storm surge. we are certainly going to get that. the major concern appears to be the rainfall. they are saying we could get 20-plus inches of rain. we are literally 12 hours plus away from hurricane irma even landing. so making landfall. so we'll see how it plays out. but things on the dirty side of the storm are getting ugly as we speak. julie: florida is starting to feel the effects of hurricane irma. the local coast guard is getting ready for search and rescue operations once the storm is gone. ♪ to err is human. to anticipate is lexus. experience the lexus rx with advanced safety standard. experience amazing. year with the new sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses and automatically adjusts on

boats still bobbing in biscayne bay.t year we reported in the city to talk about what makes the city vulnerable to hurricanes. >> less than 90% of miami-dade county is greater than 10 feet above sea level. >> adding to the problem, most of south florida is built on porous limestone allowing water to moving around easily and seep up through the ground. flooding happens often here. seasonal high tides occur when the sun, moon and earth alone leading to flooding made worse by sea level rise. >> you can see that every day. at least in october we'll have four or five extreme flooding events when the sky is clear. it's coming right up the sewer drains. that's a climactic impact that we're seeing already today. >>> miami-dade expanded its mandatory evacuation order. right now miami residents are getting out. out of this afternoon a third of the gas stations in the miami ft. lauderdale area were out of fuel. drivers are facing long lines at the stations that still have gas. maximum sustained winds of 175 miles an hour, irma caus

. >> yeah michael, we were not spared the storm surge here in the biscayne bay region. we are in coconut grove, and hurricane irma responsible for thrusting up the entire atlantic ocean by 5 feet and creating what is now the worst damage in these marinas in the past 12 years. we do the math, it brings us back to 2005, we know the hurricane year, wilma, katrina making landfall as well. this moment, this destruction across the area, that doesn't make it any easier. the stories are many m here across miami including the sailboats behind me. this is part of a nonprofit organization that's run out of this particular marina. there are nine sailboats, which of which are on this marina, three of them are at the bottom of the marina. there's actually a large yacht, very expensive yacht behind me. that particular yacht was actually tied up and unfortunately loosened up by the strong winds and the tidal surge that moved in across the region and really caused some destruction here. we have a lot of cleanup ahead of us in miami but we have lots to be thankful for too because we were

in fact, irma responsible for thrusting the ocean from the atlanta into the biscayne bay region. we are in the bayshore marina region near coconut grove. several marinas dot this landscape. what you see behind me is some of the worst destruction that these marinas have seen in 12 years. that's 2005. we all know that's an infamous year for hurricanes. katrina, wilma to name a few. asounding to see what's happening. some personal stories that are astounding, as well. we talked to an individual who works here. he told us about some of these sailboats you see behind me that have been washed ashore. these are part of a non-profit organization that was started here that takes children out into the ocean, teaches them how to sail, life building lessons. unfortunately, there are three of the nine sailboats that they use are unaccounted for. six of which are still on shore here are completely ruined without a doubt. actually, a couple more sailboats unassociated with them only have the mast visible on the top part of the water. so hurricane irma combining her 150-kilometer-per-hour winds,

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 have biscayne bay right to the left of me. nearby is my colleague, gio benitez. he was evacuated from the florida keys earlier this week. you have experienced it all, gio. you're feeling the winds right now. >> we're feeling them. we have a bit of news. the city of miami beach has announced on twitter they will not be sending any first responders out if the streets if people need help. it is just too dangerous. they say the winds, extreme sustained winds are too powerful. there was a reading from the airport close by, saying 72 miles an hour. you're hearing the freight train sounds coming through here. they just keep going. we're seeing the wind and the rain whip around. we did evacuate. we knew it was going to be too dangerous down there. we need to see what is happening in the storm surge. we're feeling 100 miles from the eye this. it is very intense what is happening in the keys. >> you're being safe as well. as we all are here in miami. really feeling the brunt of irma as it makes its way over the florida keys. back to you, dan and paula. we'll be here throug

we have biscayne bay right to the left of me. nearby is my colleague, gio benitez. he was evacuated from the florida keys earlier this week. you have experienced it all, gio. you're feeling the winds right now. >> we're feeling them. we have a bit of news. the city of miami beach has announced on twitter they will not be sending any first responders out if the streets if people need help. it is just too dangerous. they say the winds, extreme sustained winds are too powerful. there was a reading from the airport close by, saying 72 miles an hour. you're hearing the freight train sounds coming through here. they just keep going. we're seeing the wind and the rain whip around. we did evacuate. we knew it was going to be too dangerous down there. we need to see what is happening in the storm surge. we're feeling 100 miles from the eye this. it is very intense what is happening in the keys. >> you're being safe as well. as we all are here in miami. really feeling the brunt of irma as it makes its way over the florida keys. back to you, dan and paula. we'll be here throug

powerful wesust tossing a boat around biscayne bay. check that out. coming up, we'll speak with the chief specialist of the national hurricane center about irma's next moves. >>> just now, wow, it just kind of picks right up and you feel the force of this. keep in mind we're not expecting a direct hit from irma, but we are expecting damage all throughout the night. we've had a tornado warnings, we've had even a funnel cloud spotted off the coast of miami and further north. i'm not sure if you can tell, but it's certainly pushing against us right now. in the next few minutes we're going to need to take shelter again because this is a dangerous situation. of course, very dark out here. difficult to see when pieces of debris may even be flying. that's what we're keeping our i eyes out for now. >> that's one of the concerns for people who are out as this is all approaching is that flying gree. that was wtbj's julia bagg. we appreciate that from her. hurricane irma now gaining strength as it's approaching the florida keys over the warm water. it's now a ca