gary stringer stared down the sharpest edge of the storm blades.is room as the 130 mile per hour winds whirled outside. >> did you feel like the house was going to go down? >> i picked up the dogs and said here we go. >> as the winds shook he heard the ripping of a tree. he opened the t door to see the tree had fallen on the neighbor's house, he was spared. emergency officials say some 40 people decided to ride out the storm in goodland, but no injuries reported. boats tossed around, trees toppled, and several homes destroyed. >> it blew out my oil cap. >> the storm surge drew 7 feet of water under his home. >> we have a puffer fish here. >> he works as a charter fisherman and stayed inside his home with his wife and friend. >> my windows broke on the backside and for a couple hours i thought the house might come down. it got scary. it was something i'll never forget. i'll tell you that much. >> reporter: friends showed up to hug gary stringer grateful he survived. he might have a story to tell, but he feels lucky to walk away. >> i won't do it aga

the eye of hurricane irma chain sawed its way here, and gary stringer stared down the sharpest edge ofrm's blade. he sat in this room as the 130-mile-per-hour winds recovered outside. >> did you feel the house was going to get picked up off the ground. >> i thought, >>> almost, yeah. >> as the house shook, he heard the cracking and rumbling of a giant tree ripping out of the ground. he opened the door to see the tree had fallen on to the neighbor's house. he was spared. >> at that point did you start telling yourself maybe i should have left town. >> yeah. i was telling myself that an hour before that. >> emergency officials say some 40 people decided to ride out the storm here in good land, but there were no serious injuries reported. the hurricane ripped apart this town that's home to several hundred people. boats tossed around, trees top peld and several homes destroyed. >> it blew out my oil cap here, the pressure from the water. >> the storm surge pushed about 7 feet of water under dustin shepherd's home. the water is gone now, but the surge brought in fish that aren't supposed to

we spoke with a man by the name of gary stringer who said his house was shaking and you can hear theree breaking apart and collapsing and the wind pushed it away from his house, and he said if the wind pushed it the other way he doesn't think he would have survived that destruction. and they all described the sensation as they were inside their homes, that they were just waiting for their homes to come splitting apart, john. the intensity of that moment was something they will never forget and many telling us they will never ride it out again after going through such an experience and ordeal like that in goodland, florida. john? >> we do hear that from people that chose to stay in this storm and past storms, and once you choose to stay and one hits you, you don't do it again. ed, thank you so much. >>> joining me is the republican member of congress, the representative for florida in miami beach. it's so nice to hear your voice, representative. you talked to us before the storm and you are here without electricity and air-conditioning and without water, and those are the least of you

there is a man named gary stringer who waited out this storm here in this house right here, and lookt tree collapsed here. and the wind blew it that i way way. and if he had gone that way, he is not sure that he would be alive to talk to us, and tell us about this story. crazily enough, jake, a number of people decided to ride out the storm. this is on the edge of where where the evergrades meet the gulf of mexico and the fact that some people stayed behind and withstood this storm is simply amazing. >> dianne gallagher is in bradenton, florida, south of tampa, tampa, and you are looking at where a lot of the seniors live, and many of the seniors do live in florida, but many of the seniors will be coming thhome t see the damage to their homes. >> and jake, we want to put it in perspective, and this is the gutter here and this is the remains of the carport scattered across the alley here, and pieces of roofs landed streets over, and some people found damaged carports in their home and thought it was theirs. so you can see the damage up here above from the drones, and also where close

a home where gary stringer waited out the storm by himself.thought this was all going to come crashing down on him. he described how the roof was crackling, the tree next to him was rumbling and then all of a sudden he heard the crack and this is what happened, wolf. this tree collapsed. thankfully not toward him where he was. unfortunately for this family, the tree came crashing down on their house. and the stories of survival here is just absolutely stunning as the people kind of -- the handful of people we've talked to describe what it was like to wait out the storm here in goodland, florida. this is a small fishing village, couple hundred residents call this home. this is by far the area where we've seen the most intense damage. this is an area where essentially the second landfall of hurricane irma was in here along marco island. we're on the eastern edge of marco island. the winds were 130 miles an hour. at some point the gusts reached up to 140 miles an hour. residents described the storm surge taking over most of this town. 7 feet of w

gary stringer, lives in this red house you see here behind me, talked to him a little while ago, he was in one of those front rooms as the worst of the storm was coming just sawing it's way through this community. he says the house was rattling, he could hear this crackling sound and when he looked out of his side door, he realized that it was this giant tree and because it was the north side of the storm, the wind was blowing east to west. had it been the other direction this entire tree would have landed on top of his home and gary tells us that he probably wouldn't have been doing that interview with us if that had happened to him. he said -- he actually joked around and said, this is a town called goodland. it's called gonnaland, i was gonna evacuate but i didn't get around to it. he said he will never do this again. this category 3 storm was enough for him as we have driven around this community, several hundred people call this area home. it's definitely one of the hardest hit areas that we've seen here in southwest florida. trees and power lines down everywhere. a number of homes

. >> friends showed up to hug gary stringer, grateful he survived.e might have an incredible story to tell, but he just feels lucky he can walk away. >> took a direct hit. >> won't do it again. if noah comes i will book a flight a week early and be on the other side of the world at a tiki bar or something. >> you learned your lesson? >> yeah. >> i'm glad you are all right. water services and electricity out throughout most of marco island, so that's where emergency officials are urging people if they can to stay away until the services are re-established. there's no exact timetable on when all of that will happen, and they are urging people to be patient and to come back and so you can have water and electricity, that's what they are urging. >> this will take a lot of patience. it's the unknown, you know? it's the part of makes it so challenging. we have no idea, so ed, thank you for all that. >>> the death toll in cuba is at ten after the island took a direct hit from hurricane irma as a category 5. >> reporter: power is coming back in a few neighbo

. <> ((gary sports tease))coming up a little bit later in this broadcast, we'll try you to put you to sleep with updates from the raiders and 49ers games, how are the third stringersdoing? also, we'll have a giants update. we'll show you the latest from the ball family, that ugh, it's just a little too much, we'll talk about that. hey roger federer, taken to the limit one more time. later in this broadcast. ((steve)) here's what we are tracking new tonight at nine... for most people ... cellphones are a crucial tool for work, for communicating, and for connecting.but we use them so much that the average cell phone...can be far dirtier than people think.and it could be harmful to your heatlh. tonight what you need to know...to keep your phone clean.that's new on kron 4 news at nine. if you happened to notice a lot of motorcycle cops pulling over drivers in either los altos hills, saratoga or cupertino you weren't seeing things ..(pam) it was a 5- hour traffic crackdown and guess who was there .. traffic officers from different cities in santa clara count y hit the streets looking for all forms of bad behavior from everything from drivers to pedestrians and anything