the jacksonville beach pier had a lot of trouble in previous storms and was able to survive this thing, there is some beach erosion in neptune beach and jacksonville beach. winds are still coming through there. the landing at jacksonville, we are looking at life pictures there. after the storm, local reports -- let's listen to this. >> the water is about 4-5 or even 6 feet higher than it normally would be. we are now one minute away from high tide here at the bridge. some of the tides again, high tide here in one minute, we will see our next high tide at 2:32 in the morning. >> shepard: the biggest concern with the storm surge is that it had at high tide, which combines effort and can go causes lots of problems with the locals. we just got word from a news conference in monroe county, the officer letting us know that tonight there is a curfew from dusk until dawn in monroe county. for all the florida keys, no one is allowed into the florida keys until further notice but those who remained behind, about 25% of people who live in key west remain behind and anyone through the rest of the

john's river is all the way out here to this would be jacksonville beach, the concord up there, everying break that my son and i go to. the water is funneling in here into downtown jacksonville and that's where the significant flooding is happening right there at that choke point where the water just can't get out into the ocean fast enough. >> that's in florida. savannah is feeling the effects. charleston, south carolina, feeling the effects. atlanta, set to feel some effects as well. chad sticking with it. we will be back to this as this storm slowly marches forward, this monster called irma. coming up for us, thousands in florida looking to get out but miami international airport still completely shut down today after taking on some serious water damage. officials say they don't know yet when they will be able to reopen. huge questions as irma marches on. we'll have details on that ahead. patrick woke up with back pain. but he has work to do. so he took aleve. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to

joining me by phone jacksonville beach mayor charlie latham. thank you.right in the zone where the flooding is most intense. tell me what the situation is. >> hi, andrea. good afternoon afternoon. we're going through some pretty significant flooding in jacksonville beach along the coastline and adjacent to the city of jacksonville. we've lost about 90% of our electric power, electric power to about 90% of our customers, i think, is better said. we received about 27 inches of rain in 24 hours. >> wow. 27 inches in 24 hours. no wonder that river is back up. >> it's no question addition i've lived here 50 years and that's by far the most flooding i've ever seen. we also had some surge from the ocean. you may recall that during matthew last year, we took a pretty significant hit and lost all our dunes. we just replaced them over the last couple of months. they were tested again today. and for the most part they seem to be in pretty good shape. we had a couple small breaches but they're okay. >> what about in terms of people not in shelters, people in their re

we have some massive flooding in the jacksonville beach area. we received about 27 inches of rain in 24 hours. we've lost about 90% of our electrical services to our customers. and this is flooding that, i've lived here for 50 years, i've never seen anything like it before. >> how much of this is rain, how much of this is tidal, mr. mayor? >> good question, matt. we actually had, under matthew, we had lost a significant amount of dunes during the storm. fortunately, this time, the new dunes that we recently installed held for the most part. we had a couple of small broaches, created some water along first street in jacksonville beach, but the vast majority of the water's coming from the massive amounts of rain that we've received. >> a lot of rain, but then we also talked about the storm surge. have you been able to observe or get reports that are reliable about how many feet up we might be talking here? >> well, i've heard local estimates, but jacksonville umc will have more information than i have right now. >> mr. mayor, earlier in the mornin

charlie of jacksonville beach, thanks so much for being with us, again. again, the storm pounding daytona, moving up to jacksonville and could deliver serious flooding as far north as charleston, south carolina. i had a friend there who said they were concerned about flood levels. we're down here in miami that's all the way up there in south carolina, the size of this storm. let's go over to the other side of florida with chris. chris. >> reporter: power is out here. we're hearing reports, john, of power being out all the way up into georgia because of irma, just to give you some perspective. close to 6 million people now without power because of this storm and it is not over. another place that wasn't expected to get it. but they're getting it right now. brynn. >> reporter: it died down just a bit from the last time we talked to yo. we're getting tropical storm wind gusts ever so often. certainly a lot better than it was a few hours ago. this is a light that felt from 15 stories from our hotel. you can imagine -- i mean, this is heavy. you can imagine thi

likely worse than what we saw during hurricane matthew in jacksonville beach, florida, last year. which is why even florida storm veterans like megan are anxious tonight. >> the panic has set in now, and i keep hearing where it's shifting and where the winds are, and i'm getting nervous. >> reporter: construction companies say they just didn't have enough time to take down these cranes. their plan tonight is to secure them and to let the top spin like a weather vane during irma's violent shifting winds. lester? >> kerry sanders in miami tonight with that report, thank you. >>> as all that plays out, on capitol hill today the house overwhelmingly passed a nearly $8 billion disaster relief bill for victims of hurricane harvey in texas. the senate is expected to go along, but $8 billion is just a fraction of what harvey and now irma are expected to cost. and fema is running low on cash. nbc's tom costello is at fema headquarters in washington to tell us more about it. tom, good evening. >> reporter: lester, good evening. to put it bluntly, fema is right now burning through cash. a bi

likely worse than we saw during hurricane matthew in jacksonville beach last year. which is why storm veterans are anxious. >> the panic has set in now. i keep hearing where it's shifting, where the winds are, i'm getting nervous. >> our thanks to kerry sanders for that report. >>> back in washington, republican's heads are still spinning this morning after president trump made an abrupt and unforeseen move that reportedly left his congressional leadership stunned. he sided with democrats on a plan of a combine funding the government while giving the storm victims the money they so desperately need. we go to nbc news' tracy potts. >> reporter: good morning, so siding with democrats doesn't mean it's a done deal, but it puts a lot of pressure on republicans to get this funding through. here's how politico put it, just hours before this, paul ryan and his leadership team we are told by the white house officials that trump would publicly endorse their plan, in fact, ryan says this about the democratic deal just hours before the president sat down with the leadership. >

joining me by phone is jacksonville beach mayor charlie latham. mayor, thank you for joining us. we were just talking to one of your residents, angel, who stayed inside his home. he's right on the banks of the river. he shot some video of the water clearly going over the walls there. he says it's about to start getting into the first floor. when you hear people like that who stayed, what is your thought? >> well, katy, obviously our objective is to get people to evacuate. you can never tell until it's too late whether or not the hurricane's going to be one that takes life. we did have a surprisingly large number of people stay behind this time, but hopefully i haven't heard yet of any injuries or deaths. >> it's now a tropical storm. do you think people don't take it as seriously when it becomes a tropical storm? >> i think the biggest problem we have, katy, is as it began to turn west a little bit, people didn't realize the scope and the magnitude of the storm. and they thought maybe the intended track was what they needed to be concerned with. so when the winds came, you know,

bring charlie, the mayor of jacksonville beach, florida, the coastal city which is east of jacksonvilley. your honor, i think you got hit with the storm surge big-time yesterday, is that correct? >> that's correct, stuart, thanks for having me on. we actually faced the north eastern prior to hurricane irma hitting the shore so our ground were pretty soaked and drainage ponds and reservoirs were filled. stuart: much of florida escaped real structural damage but what about you? >> we were fortunate as well, we had 7500 homes received minor damage, eight with significant damage and then we had five that were major damages, pretty much total loss. for a hurricane, that's pretty good. we had mostly wind and flooding damage and still continued to fight through restoration. stuart: are you still in rescue mode? have you started recovery mode yet? >> yes, sir, we are in recovery mode. we initially lost 90% of electric customers and we have 86% back. we are working hard to get the rest on board today. we are working hard to bring things back to normal. stuart: for those people who evacuated jack

jacksonville over the weekend. miami felt the wrath of irma. miami beach did as well. slammed into the state as a strong hurricane. we have these pictures from miami just a little while ago. tree after tree snapped in half and lining the streets and making roads undriverable for now. the airport is still closed because of significant water damage on miami beach. philipp levine is assessing the damage on the scene for us in miami. we dodged a cannon. >> the winds and thank god we received trees over the ground. we it teens on the ground since the crack of dawn and they have been there and clean up the city as fast as possible. we want the residents to return asap. >> right now the curfew will be lifted. >> we are not allowing anybody to return until tomorrow at 12:00. it's possible that we can get the people in before, but we are going to let them know if we can. otherwise it's 12:00 tomorrow afternoon. we need to make it safe. it's so important. can you imagine we kept people in preparation and kept them safe during the storm. we need to keep them safe in the recovery

in jacksonville, daytona beach.ces that weren't supposed to get hit by this storm. that is a very meaningful reminder about us. we're going to take you into the places that this happened. 5.8 million people without power. john berman is in miami. john, the story has been about flooding and duration of exposure to this storm. >> reporter: that's right. and this morning people are waking up, chris, and wondering how bad was it is and when will things get back to normal. joining me now, the mayor of miami beach mary levine and josh levy of hollywood, florida. give me a damage assessment of miami beach. >> miami beach, we didn't dodge a bullet. we dodged a cannon. we have trees down. we have electrical cables that are down. we have a couple of gas leaks. we have fire rescue, public works, crews clearing it out making it safe for all the residents to return to the barrier island. >> reporter: you don't want anyone back until tomorrow. >> we need their patience. it wouldn't be safe for their families. they wouldn't be abl

getting a first look at the damage along jacksonville beach.you can see a lot of rooftops peeled off buildings and splintered and debris scattered. >> what's leftover from irma will bring rain to our area starting tomorrow. >> let's bring in meteorologist glenn "hurricane" schwartz. time out these rain chances for us if you will. >> the rain chances go up a little bit during the day tomorrow and a lot more during the day on thursday. and as we head through the weekend, things start drying out again. it's 78 degrees. we have some of the clouds from irma in the philadelphia area. less of it farther to the north than the suburbs and lehigh valley and poconos. everybody is in the upper 70s to 80s. let's take a look at some of the suburbs. chester, bucks. montgomery county specifically. but they tend to read aç littl high. these are about average. you can see the white areas. those are the high, thin clouds. not really capable of producing rain. the clouds down in southern virginia and that's a different story. as you can see, it's not a solid area

on the phone the mayor of jacksonville beach, florida. good morning to you. i know you're on the ocean east of the city of jacksonville. how was the surge yesterday and last night and what are you dealing with today, mayor? >> good morning, thanks for having me on. it was an unparalleled storm to anything i've seen in 50 years. 24 hours before irma hit we had a nor'easter that soaked our ground and filled the drainage ponds and neighborhood lakes. and irma sustainable winds gusting to 70 to 80 miles an hour for over 12 hours. we had an unparalleled amount of flooding. approximately 90% of our customers, electrical customers lost power. that's about 32,000 people. the massive flooding was attributed to the rain inland. we had city wide all our lakes and drainage ponds flooded and many of our streets and intersections were flooded and impassable but from the ocean side last year you recall hurricane matthew we lost all our dune. we had just really restored all our dunes a couple of weeks before irma hit and we had breaches in two locations flooding past a1a and

debris there strewn all over jacksonville beach. d to make hundreds of water rescues and some areas are still under water today. schools remain closed and they may be closed for the rest of this week. jacksonville received more than they saw a record storm surge from irma, as that storm moved through yesterday. >> and in miami, the airport reopened today with limited service. many parts of the city and miami beach still don't have power. the main utility in florida says most of the eastern part of the state should see the power back on by the weekend, but it could take longer in other areas. a little good news. the miami zoo says it sustained serious damage, but none of the animals were seriously injured. that is good news. >>> hand in hand, people are uniting to help the victims of hurricanes irma and harvey rebuild their lives. tonight stars like oprah winfrey, beyonce, justin timberlake, blake shelton are teaming up for hurricane relief. the benefit concert airs at 8:00 p.m. on news 4. if you're worried about where to donate becau

augustine, florida, purity just south of jacksonville. beach erosion is another big issue, right? >> remarkable. we are in north beach, also known as vilano beach. this area hit hard by hurricane mathew a year ago. a lot of home owners had to do a lot of work to shore up their beachfront homes. they have a lot more work to do. this is a lot worse. look at the house right next to us that has come down on the beach. there are dozens of homes like this up and down the coastline that are either completely destroyed, knocked on the beach or teetering on the edge with their pilings exposed, and they are in grave danger of also falling down into the beach. if you look at the side, the seawall, the ground, the waves carved out eight to 10 feet high at least in some spots. torah background away, 4 yards and yards of beach away. if you look at this home owners seawall, he built a 400-foot wall to protect two houses next door to each other. you can see were part of the wall collapsed in the storm. but if not for this welcome of these two houses would definitely have been compromised. we want

places like jacksonville, daytona beach will continue to see powerful hurricane force winds as the storm continues to weaken and move in to georgia and alabama. where they could -- it could still dump an incredible amount of tropical rain. >> absolutely. we know that power outages are a huge issue. what is the latest on getting it restored? >> reporter: going to be a huge effort in the next few days and weeks. last check 2 million people in the state were without power. already officials have been warning them it could take several weeks to restore the power. 17,000 line workers are positioned across the state to help with that restoration process. that restoration process is already being likened to the after math of hurricane andrew 25 years ago so they have their work cut out for them. >> don champion in tampa, thank you. stay safe. >>> new tonight, devastation left by hurricane harvey is being remembered in the bay area. kpix 5's betty yu shows us musicians with texas ties got together for a fundraiser. >> reporter: organizers were able to pull this benefit together in a matter of da

if you're familiar with jacksonville beach on the northeast coast of florida, heavy surf, incredibly strong winds, the whole area boarded up and deserted and we drove about 140 miles towards the storm in just driving rain and heavy winds. fortunately there were only handful of cars on the road. we were lucky to have a sturdy suv and that helped. there were curfews here in much of florida as early as 7:00 p.m., no one allowed on the streets so the roads weren't flooded. the highways weren't flooded fortunately. we were able to get to the orlando area but driving conditions and being out of course was extremely dangerous. >> so, in orlando there where you are and in that vicinity are folks pretty much out of danger now? i know they heeded the warnings and got out of there but what's the situation right now? >> reporter: right. well, the situation right now is strong winds. as you mentioned it's been downgraded to a category one. we're still winds as strong as 70, 75 miles per hour that puts it right on the edge of what they consider tropical storm strength winds. you can hear it and se

surge looks like -- >> reporter: likely worse than what we saw during hurricane matthew in jacksonville beachar. and many people in the storm's path don't have flood insurance which is sure to be a problem once irma hits. >> only between 15% and 20% of people along the gulf have insurance. that's a serious problem. they're not going to be able to get insurance money. they're only going to be able to get low interest loans as disaster relief. and they'll have to pay that back along with their mortgages. >> reporter: a scary thought as irma takes aim for florida and the east coast. the city has budgeted about $500 million, a half a billion dollars, to try to solve this problem. they've been checking the pumps here this morning. with the roads raised as they, even with all of that, the storm surge will likely slosh over miami beach. >> kerry, you don't just cover florida. we know that you live there, as well. you also have the distinction of being one of our correspondent that's actually covered andrew some 25 years ago. compare preparations for this storm to preparations back then, if you can.

a lot of people from this area from jacksonville beach and ponte vedra, they came here to safety, john, but now these waters getting pretty close to the doors of that hotel as these waters continue to rise and the wind continues to blow. >> kaylee, please take care of yourself. people tried to go where they might be safe and it turned out to be another target for that storm. kayly hartung, please, folks, stay careful out there before this passes. i want to go over now to the west coast of florida to naples which took a really heavy hit from the eye of hurricane irma. our team was all yesterday. you saw chris cuomo, literally in the eye of the storm for some time after being hit by 140 mile-an-hour winds. on the phone with me that was bill barnett, the mayor of naples and thank you so much for being with us, and i know it's hard to get a sense of just how bad the damage is. it does take some time, but i do hear you are finally having some data to tell us about. what have you learned? >> you know, and i'd like to make a really quick statement about people wading in hurricane waters just

we were checking the win conditions around daytona beach, towards jacksonville. they are very strong. we've got dry air intrusion, that means the system is not sitting out over the open water so it's not tapping the warm moist -- moij coming in from the gulf of mexico but it is being enhanced by being picked up, carried over the atlantic and enhancing some of those storms moving through. still the risk in this upper right quadrant for the potential for tornadoes, that is one of the most dynamic areas. specifically from about jacksonville all the way towards the cape, that's where we're looking at wind gust from 60, close to 75-mile-an-hour. tampa's interesting, the system now lies to the east of tampa. the winds are essentially going out, but eventually over the next couple of hours, we're watching as the system continues its drip towards the north, and it is generally speaking moving north fairly rapidly. that is good news, we want it to move pretty swiftly so none of these conditions linger like we saw with harvey over texas, about 16 days ago. it will move on

that's more than we've heard before, and he says that the risk goes from south beach to jacksonville at the northern end of the state. why so? >> well, because the track that it looks like irma's going to take is going to take it, you know, up most of the peninsula, so you're going to ed nd up wit hurricane conditions on the west coast and east coast and the core and there's also a significant risk of storm surge. that's what really drives the evacuation decision making in a state or in a locality and so anybody who's at risk of storm surge, if they've been asked to evacuate, they should. the areas here that we have highlighted in dark pink are under a storm surge warning. there's a storm surge watch up in east central florida. these are areas that are at risk of life threatening inundation from irma that could be five to ten feet or even six to 12 feet aboveground level here in areas of southwest florida so that's really a life-threatening hazard. >> what are you looking at in terms of duration of exposure in different areas? i mean, one of the calculations is how long until the fir

we began the morning at jacksonville beach and the majority of people we have talked to say they areng. they are sticking this one out. many floridians are notorious for ignoring any type of warnings when it comes to hurricanes. just around the corner here in macclenny, we signed nursing home boarded up which is probably a good after day after those of viral energy two images we saw with harvey and texas. we talk to a gentleman a while ago who stopped to get some bags for his home in business. >> the home i live in is a concrete block. it is very good and heavy weather. you never know though. >> we have a captain here with us with the baker county sheriff's office. you are saying this is still a lot of uncertainty that this storm could be a 1 or 3 when it hits here or there still could be a lot of damage. >> we are waiting to see what the storm is going to do. irma is going to take a turn north and when it does, between all the energy built, it will know when it gets to us. our job is to prepare the citizens for baker county that we've done everything we can to keep them safe. >> so

beach. these pictures courtesy of wf ox, our jacksonville box station. they have been showing, they've been showing the damage along the beach. all of the extensive beach erosion. they say they hadn't expected that much beach erosion but once they have flown over it, they have found tens of feet of beach have been washed away. these live pictures over homes right there off the beach. you can see where the water came over the dunes, made another lake and the winds took the roofs off houses. all of these houses flooded with inches and inches and inches of rain. everything inside, they tell us will have to go. again, this is vilano beach, near jacksonville. then area that received extensive damage all up and dow down. the remarkable thing... , remember where the storm came ashore. 506 miles drive to the south. authorities say they did not expect this in northeastern florida at all. they expected the storm would go up the peninsula of florida and head to the left, as it has, but they didn't realize this extensive beach erosion, this extensive wind, and the su

i mean, when we drove yesterday from jacksonville -- jac jacksonville beach area, beautiful area normally you some of this area as we talk. we drove south about 100, 150 miles in heavy, heavy rain. some of the strongest rains and winds i've experienced. the kind of thing where you have to pull off the highway because just too dangerous. even with the wipers on high. you know, you've been in those conditions you can't even see 5. fortunately we had a big sturdy suv. so that enable to us keep going. obviously went really slow. so this is right up there. but it moved through here relatively quickly over the past 12 hours, and that's great news. i mean the skies are clearing now. people are going try to get back into their homes. one of the big issues is going to be resupplying stations. there's no gas in the hotel rooms but today i think we're going to start to see some semblance of normalcy return at least to this part of florida. >> little bit of good news. phil, thanks much appreciate your coverage throughout the morning today. stay safe down there as well as you continue on with your hur

jericka duncan reports from atlantic beach near jacksonville. >> reporter: just because this hurricane is actually going more westward does not mean communities east in the florida area or north of florida are in the clear. officials say at the end of the day, this is still a hurricane. and once winds reach a sustained wind power of 40 miles per hour in this barrier island community, all the bridges will close. what does that mean? that means no access to major hospitals. and that is very important. we spoke to the police chief about that, michelle cook. >> our closest big hospital is about 15, 20 miles away, so we don't have any hospitals close by, which, you know, is another concern because we're on an island and the hospitals are so far away. >> so what will people do? >> that's going to be a tough decision. you know, it's -- that's what concerns me about people not evacuating. because if we have high winds and somebody's injured and it's not safe for public safety to get to them or get over a bridge, what do we do? that's going to have to be a decision that's made at that moment ba

the forecast honing in on miami, fort lauderdale, palm beach, daytona beach, jacksonville and beyond. people are getting externally nervous. >> it hit me this morning and now i am in kind of panic, freak out mode. people are starting to try to get out. they are realizing it's going to be difficult to get out because the roads are backed up and there are no flights. i think people are starting to freak a little bit. >> as a parent i don't care what happens to me. i care more about her. you can never be too prepared. >> seven counties in florida have mandatory evacuations. as well as voluntary evacuations. a number that's expected to gro grow. possibly by early tomorrow morning. 40 miles an hour is the critical wind speed that keeps first responders like police officers, paramedics, firefighters from coming out and responding. if you don't heed by the mandatory warning, as soon as the wind gets about 40 miles per hour and you get hurt, you are not getting help until after the storm passes through. >> bret: thank you. let's find out where irma is, where it's going, and what's next. meteo

the heavy rain is extending up daytona beach to jacksonville.going to continue moving into georgia, you see, by this afternoon, as well as parts of south carolina. alabama looking at the heavy rain band activity moving through. it may stay a category 1, although it's more likely it will downgrade to a tropical storm by late today and into this evening, especially. heavy rain by 8:00 p.m. impacting atlanta. spreading out and starting to weaken by your tuesday morning. then the moisture moves our way. tuesday night approaching our area. and by tuesday into monday morning. we see showers. this is not going to be a washout forecast, flooding is not going to be a concern. on and off showers fire off on wednesday through the afternoon. still some rain in our forecast. there's the look at irma. still a very large system. now it's lopsided. it's all to the north. the south has started to dry out fortunately for parts of florida that were yesterday flooded out due to storm surge and periods of heavy rain. we're still also concerned with winds associated

massive storm caused record breaking flooding in jacksonville, florida. >>> after irma beach erosion is now a concern at the new jersey shore. "eyewitness news" reporter, new jersey reporter cleve bryan explains why. >> it was a surfer's paradise in ocean city as hurricanes irma and jose sent waves up the east coast. >> you can tell it is hurricane swell because it is pretty inconsistent and there is the lines that are very long and wide. >> reporter: light wind and long lines allowed surfers to show off their move but the storms also sent dangerous rip currents to the shore and water nearly up to the dunes. well, not as damaging as a nor'easter these are one more strike against the cities north end beaches which could be getting a beach replenishment project as soon as october. >> yesterday we had twice as much of the soft sand as it is here now and the waves are much, much more higher. >>> one town north in longport last in line of the dune construction project, that got delayed because of the legal battle in margate. >> we're very, very vulnerable >> reporter: the mayor says thank

we now have the mayor of jacksonville beach on with us right now. charlie latham. mr.e got a tremendous amount of flooding throughout the city. most of the flooding is from the rain, not an ocean breach. so we did -- >> how are you handling getting residents out? did you have an evacuation. >> right now we're in the damage assessment mode. the public works department are out making sure roads are safe. our instruction is still to stay inside. unless there's a medical emergency they can contact us. but there's a lot of work to do. >> we're looking at images of your area. we see the water lapping up. is this the worst of it? do you think the water has reached its peak? or is it going to get worse? >> we work in very close association with the city of jacksonville. i haven't got a brief from them recently this morning. because i've been out in the city. but i've been told that from our police chief that we are expecting some additional surging. and that this is a significant storm for us. >> mr. mayor, when you saw this storm come ashore in the keys, 500 miles away from y

the worst part of the storm today will be hitting daytona beach to jacksonville and then over to gainesvilleth winds of up to 75 miles per hour. there's also tornado watches in effect from northeast florida to georgia. >>> daylight will give us answers in the keys where we're waiting for more damage assessments from the keys. irma first made landfall as a powerful category 4 and crews will conduct house-to-house searches. the military's c-130 planes will arrive in marathon key for air lift missions. >>> irma's strong winds also battered florida's east coast tossing debris around melbourne beach as you can see causing transformers to explode. two tornadoes were confirmed in other parts of brevard county. >>> a storm surge of one to three feet expected for the tampa bay area overnight. >> the wind and rain came down hard overnight. reporter shawn daily was watching the conditions at raymond james stadium, home to the buccaneers. >> first of all, look at the top of ray jay. can you see that with the red lights up there and the rain and the wind going across? i have never seen that before. it's

jacksonville. more than 100 miles east of irma's center. the st. john's rush which runs through the city is overflowing now. jericka duncan is along the coast in atlanta beach just outside jacksonville. she spoke to the city's mayor. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. i just did get off the phone with the city's may yo. he told me these gusts are gusting at at least 80 miles an hour. we're out at atlantic beach, which is barrier island. all of the bridges to the city have been shut down and have been since 8:45 last night. we also know this city has experienced storm surge. we've been talking about it throughout the coverage of the storm. just take a look right here. you can see it better as the sun is starting to come out as a little bit. so aside from the flooding. we're told by the mayor that a lot of the roads here in atlantic beach are impassable. they're concerned about people coming out because right now this is definitely no time to be out in this. this is the worst we have seen it. you can take a look at how the wind is moving these palm trees. again, we're here along the coast and we're seeing and feeling the worst of it allow with the sand

new flooding from orlando to jacksonville, rescues currently underway near daytona beach.eading out from the coast of florida to the dmz, tracking every move. we don't even know if it's going , but now here it is. adrianna: on its way to atlanta, and people have been escaping to atlanta. veronica johnson and eileen whelan have been tracking this overnight and into the early morning hours. eileen: it is now just barely a category one hurricane. looking at is losing that center of circulation. veronica: but there is that one sweet spot, the northeast corner, where most of the power is going to be with this storm system. my sister lives in jacksonville and lost our about an hour and a half ago. i know you have a look at the storm surge in the area. eileen: and there is a risk of tornadoes as well. as a 5:00, even though a lot of has ended, weain are seeing heavy rain bands in jacksonville, florida. we thought we were going to see access it -- excessive storm bute, five to 10 feet, fortunately that didn't happen. what you get is this counterclockwise win rotation. those areas

shep: there is a tornado now in jacksonville, it's a waterspout at the moment. it's expected to move ashore in crescent beach marineland in the jacksonville area. the next 30 minutes a severe storm and tornado warning. crescent beach, summer haven, marineland. if you are in those areas get to a safe space. adam, lots of violent tornado out of this thing. >> it's still coming from my right. it's starting to switch out. as you were talking. you are talking six pieces of metal feet by 4 feet. 6 feet by 4 feet. some of the video we have seen out of key west is brutal and islamorada. the emergency services here said they would stop at 45-mile-an-hour sustained winds and that was a long time ago. we can't see the actual -- holy smokes -- we can't see the radar. you say it's passing us. you can tell it's still coming from my right and my left. shep: adam, your pictures are amazing. we were watching in northeast miami-dade county where the waters have been kicking up very high. this is dangerous. this is in miami itself. turn around, don't drown is what the national weather service is asking us to remind our viewers

if you want yet a huge district going all the up to jacksonville from palm beach.coast obviously. your residents are not going to be feeling, it looks like and we caution, these things can change and take surprising wobbles, but it looks like for district is going to be spared the worst hit from hurricane irma. the folks on the western side of florida, well, they will be in some serious hurt. speak up my district goes from the coast, it does stretch out into central florida, northwest of orlando. lake county florida, emergency center there come a are working hard. they got everything on all cylinders. this is a county that is more in the center part of the state. if the storm is taking that i-75 track north, guess what? they will be east of it and that northeast quadrant, which is the most dangerous part of the storm. they are preparing. for matthew, they did not have to prepare much. now it is a different ball game. there will be a lot of counties and areas in florida, especially in the midsection of the state, that will be on their game. they will be tested. i th

. >>> from the keys to jacksonville, from daytona beach to tampa the entire state of florida hit by hurricane irma. the entire state of florida now working to begin the arduous task of recovering from irma. let's get a play of where things are and the most need is, new perspective. senator bill nelson joining me on the phone. can you hear me. >> good morning, kate. >> good morning, senator. i appreciate you coming on. you have been out there, we spoke with senator rubio a couple minutes ago. you both have been out there viewing the damage that you have seen. what are you seeing today? >> marco and i were both in the keys yesterday and on our way to jacksonville now. i want to tell you, one of the great heroic stories that has come out of this hurricane be, florida,ens helping floridians. there's a small catholic university, ava maria, east of napeles out near [ inaudible ] [ no audio ] those poor people had no place to go. they had no shelter. the university took them in to their fieldhouse and the hurricane with spinoff tornadoes, completely tearing up the stands and their football stadium,

east of jacksonville in atlantic beach. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. we're here on one of the barrier islands and you can probably hear the wind is definitely whipping up and it's not just the wind but take a look over here at some of the storm surge. it's some of the worst they've seen in the jackson area according to the national weather service. i just got off the phone with the deputy city manager. he told me he was able to survey this area for the first time about an hour ago. he said most of the roads are impassable. he said power is out in most places. in fact, the communications center where they're located at city hall is being operated by generators, so that's the only reason they have power. he also said that the police station and city hall is experiencing flooding and some of the water is starting to come into their building right now. people are advised again to stay out of this weather because this is the worst that they've seen as far as winds gusting as high as 80 miles per hour. i'm sorry. it's hard to look at the camera right now thi

theresa is driving along coast in atlantic beach just outside jacksonville and she's taking a look at the initial damage. >> we are in atlantic beach. we saw that a lot of the flooding was happening near the beach but wanted to get out near the neighborhoods to show you what it looks like. a lot of downed trees. electrical crews trying to restore some thatch power. we're here on the corner of seminole and paul avenue. if you look down there, you can see the amount of flooding. this is because we're near a creek. you can also see what appears to be a tree leaning. i'm not sure if it's on a home. we're going to keep riding just so you can get a sense of what it's looking like in some of the neighborhoods outside of the beach area where we were. but it is still very windy. a lot of these palm trees have come down. a lot of the homes that are boarded up did so for good reason. because they knew these winds were going to be as powerful as they are. we see some people outside right now. maybe we can just get a sense of what they're dealing with. really quickly. good morning. we're from cbs

injurica-- jericka duncan is in atlantic beach near jacksonville. >> >> reporter: yeah, just because this hurricane is actually going more westward does not mean that communities east in the florida area or even north of florida are in the clear. officials say at the end of the day this is still a hurricane, and once winds reach a sustained wind power of 40 miles per hour in this barrier island community, all the bridges will close. what does that mean? that means no access to major hospitals. and that is very important, we spoke to the police chief about that, michelle cook. >> our closest big hospital is about 15 to 20 miles a way. so we don't have any hospitals close by. which is another concern, because we're on an island and the hospitals are so far away. >> reporter: so what will people do? >> it's going to be a tough decision, you know. and that's what concerns me about people not evacuating. because if we had high winds, and somebody is injured, and it is not safe for public safety to get to them or get over a bridge, what do they do. that's going to have to be a decision tha

now we have have seen water going over the sea walls from jacksonville down to daytona beach. i mention daytona beach because one of the lasting memories that we will probably have from this is sara sidner who's been pelted in the face and there you can see it right now. sara is really braved irma if its worst form there. there are saying there are high water rescues taking place around daytona beach now and india atlantic beach area has all righted very heavy rainfall. some of these locations, we could see isolated amounts there of 20 inches but indy atlantic some of the water and homes were up to waist deep. also right around lakeland we had reports there were some water in homes up to about 19 inches. daytona, you could see another poengly hvy bachbds before it really starts to taper off. that's the news for sara. but i want to mention the power outages. we know about miami airport having been impacted by the heavy rainfall. they are closed. september 11. may open for limited service on tuesday, but that's still an unknown. you can see this east coast of florida, which if y