ron anderson lives in lakeland, near tampa.any and used to help officials organise evacuations. we can speak to him now. thanks forjoining us, i know it's a difficult time for everyone. can you tell us what you are experiencing 110w tell us what you are experiencing now and how the preparations are going? good morning. here in lakeland going? good morning. here in la keland the wind going? good morning. here in lakeland the wind gusts probably haven't reached 25 mph yet but the storm is located around 250 miles south of us so i think it is close. we're expecting a lot of wind to occui’ we're expecting a lot of wind to occur here in lakeland. we will not get any storm surge over here but neighbouring communities in tampa will. we are just reading that the hurricane has now been upgraded again toa hurricane has now been upgraded again to a category four hurricane andi again to a category four hurricane and i know if you're living in the path of the storm that makes little difference as to weather it is a three or a four but nonet

irma zeroing in on lakeland. more on that next.

here is the lakeland area i just mentioned. wauchula, that would be the city right there or the town because you are going through that northern eye wall right now. i'm sure it has your attention and it's dark outside. you probably don't have power. and it's just -- the winds are whistling. you probably never felt your house shake the way it is right now. it's interesting, brian. a lot of people are saying this has taken a path very similar to what charlie did when it came on shore near port charlotte. and it was supposed to come up to east of tampa and ended up going right over the top of orlando. a lot of people are saying is this going to happen again in the orlando area? we'll watch it. there is winterhaven here. this right in here, that's the strongest winds, up to 100 miles per hour. that's what you want to avoid. >> hey, bill, question from a high school graduate. i hope i can articulate this. the embedded pink doesn't move around counterclockwise with the storm. it seems to remain a constant as the storm moves up. why i

look at: another live lakeland, florida. the man is getting gas for his generator. will bey, the power turned on sooner than later. well, to help restore is a florida electrical grid, virginia's to minion power is sending workers to florida. -- dominion power is sending workers to florida. >> more local responders heading to florida to assist with a recovery that could take weeks if not months. around 400 staff and contractors will join the more than 300 already deployed over the weekend to they will assist in getting the lights turned back onto the estimated 12 million people currently without electricity. is massive catastrophic damage. you are going to have a lot of roca in polls that need to be replaced, wires on the -- a lot to beken poles that need replaced, wires on the graham, that sort of thing. >> to emergency response vehicles -- wires on the ground, that sort of thing. >> this is the second crew to floyd from the northern virginia area in three days to the hurricane impact -- deployed from the northern virginia area hurricaneays to a impacted region. >>

come up east of lakeland, west of orlando and head up the state. so the thinking here is as it comes ashore, the most likely area, everyone could be affected. the most likely area for the eye wall, thick of labelle and sebring in from southwest florida. lake wales as you move past the lake. lakeland, ocala and heading north. that's most likely. everything is in the cone. anything here could be hit by the walls of this storm. sometime tomorrow forecasters say it should churn north. flooding across all areas of the coastal areas. forecasters say the current models show miami is in the risk for the dirty side of the storm. the higher winds and the storm surge. think what will happen with the storm surge. remember, it's moving counter clockwise. as it comes in, the waters are coming to shore like this. that brings in the storm surge up the state. all the way up to melbourne, daytona beach. because it's counter clockwise, the waters will come in in this direction in fort myers and naples, everglades city and tampa bay. that's the way the storm moves. at

also in lakeland, florida, just about in this vicinity, in lakeland, florida, there is a home with reported 19 inches of water in it. along palm coast, they say the seawall was battered above the storm surge there. above jacksonville, they've seen a storm surge there. this is about an hour ago. of about three feet. that's because that long fetch of moisture, the surge along the northeastern coast, and now we see along the back side of the system. i will give you a different view. let's go to google earth for a different perspective. this is where ifrma made land fall right around marco island around 3:30 in the morning. we know it battered the florida keys he. we are just scratching the surface. now in this vicinity, racing off rapidly into southern georgia. affecting southern georgia. also south carolina and into the panhandle. with you thought the panhandle you might escape some of this. here is clear water. some southern coasts are going to be battered first with the storm surge and high tide. so dave and christine, eventually makingity way through that bay area. we could see storm surge

that of course all of our families up up there in the lakeland and tampa area.ng about them. while we're flying of mission, we have to put full focus on the mission itself and we're always looking for good news. but good news for us is bad news for someone else. we want to make it as accurate as we can. >> jack parrish, hurricane hunting with nooa flight drerkt, thank you so much for your time. we appreciate the work you do and stay safe. >> well, don, you're very welcome and we're headed back to lakeland now. we will put two or three more flights into it and one more mission. by that time, it can sh be cast where the storm is going strong. >> jash parrish. >>> now i want to turn to brigadier general ralph on the phone. how is the national guard preparing tonight in florida? >> well, the national guard as of right now has approximately 7,000 soldiers and airmen activated throughout the state. we have been fortunate that governor v nor scott has been proactive activating us very early and with his support, we have been able to posture our soldiers and airmen in t

meanwhile, a 7-year-old girl in lakeland florida. allegedly died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator and the mother had the generator running in the living room and a fan in the bedroom. she called 911 saying she was feeling dizzy. officials warn everyone using a generate only to run them outside and away from the house. >> there is new video o devastation that irma left on tortola. virtually every billing is damaged. resident called it armageon a johnson got the first look. islow to respond to the britain disaster. >> the remnants c passover. but we won't see more than a fr. sky 6 hd looking liv at city doesn't look bad at all. david murphy is live in the weather center. >> reporter: we are light showers at the end of the rush hour and now additional showers building out to the west. there are sunny breaks but we expect to clout up at times this afternoon and the chance of a spotty pop-up shower or an isolated thunderstorm. 76 in philadelphia. 77 in wilmington and 77 in trenton and 76 in alltown and fairlyumbers acros t

---ocurrio en " lakeland" florida...irven para limpiar cocinas industriales... ---la causa de la explosion de esta maÑana esta bajo investigacion. take vo cesar ---la camara de seguridad de una funeraria capto a este sujeto que ingreso desnudo y procedio a robarse la ropa que seria utilizada para vestir a un difunto... ---ocurrio en kentucky... ---el sujeto paso varias horas en el edificio, tomo una sieta, comio dulces, tomo soda y se robo las llaves de una carroza funeraria... ---la policia cree que el hombre esta relacionado a otro robo en una tienda de la zona. cesar - celebrando junto a la comunidad mexicana el grito de su da de independencia, les tenemos una historia especial. - se trata de la charrera, el deporte nacional mexicano, recientemente nombrado por la unesco como patrimonio cultural de la humanidad. linda candelo nos tiene el reportaje. 00:15 00:54 01:36 02:17 pack duracin 2:24 nat charro + música ruben moreno quirz 32:48:29 un charro representa a méxico. nat charro + música ruben moreno quirz (abuelo) 32

jen mortens said her dad, stem mop and two siblings were evacuated from their new modular home in lakelandthey took up shelter with her grandfather. she's watching and worrying from south philadelphia. >> there's nothing i can do from here to help them, and that in itself is another frustrating feeling where i feel like all i can do is watch and hope they're okay. >> in asten, the martellas just escaped, getting one of the last flights out of sarasota. the winds caused at least two construction cranes to collapse in miami. there are more than 20 cranes still standing in the city. the equipment is able to sustain high winds, but it's the arm of the cranes that pose danger. city official s warned everyone living near the cranes to find shelter away from the construction. >>> our coverage continues from the suburbs of miami, a city where 70% of residents don't have power. tim furlong spent the entire day there capturing irma's wrath and the damage it caused. >> reporter: so you might have heard hurricane irma went west of miami and "spared our area." here where we are, if this is sparing us,

right past tampa and through lakeland and up through perhaps oca ocala.erhaps fizzle iing out in the tennessee valley. maybe making a move right into music city in nashville. look at this path that you can see the cone is now beginning to shift further west and off of miami. doesn't mean that they are in the clear. it just mean this is hurricane pa path is taking accurate shape. 74 on sunday. 77 on monday. we may see some of the sprinkles or light rain tuesday, wednesday or thursday of next week. >>> let's go to breaking news now from south jersey. one person has died in this crash right here. you see the scene there. a fire truck as well. the remains of that vehicle unders. another person is hurt here. sky force 10 is over crown. point road near i-295. this road closed as you might expect while police are investigating this accident. we don't know the details, but we'll be right back. before they can stand tall... they must first learn to stand out. get everything they need to shine, for less. this week at staples, shop our fifty cent deals. staples. it'

. >> dean is in lakeland florida east of tampa. >> right around tampa, yeah, yeah.we still don't know exactly where it's going and here's part of the frustration, the anxiousness for everybody in florida. even if this storm goes a little bit farther to the west and stays off shore of florida it probably means it just moves up and hits the panhandle of florida. i don't see how people in florida don't escape this. so, maybe it moves farther and it doesn't come up the west coast of florida but it hits the panhandle and then goes up into the southeast. somebody's going get this storm, somebody gets this storm aren't the longer it stays over water the longer it has to just be more intense. >> intensify. >> exactly or even intensify a little bit more. so, so, frustrating and it hasn't started to make the turn yet and it seems like with every new model run perhaps it goes a little means the east coast of florida thinks oh, we're in the clear now which in you isn't true because the windfield with this is so large. the tropical storm force winds extend almost 200 miles out f

. >> and in lakeland east of tampa the wind and rain pounded that area overnight and matt smith of wfts shows us some of the conditions he faced. >> reporter: the wind is whipping harder. i can tell you the trees look like they're bending but the good news here when those gusts stop, you can get a chance here, you can see this marriott behind me, yeah, this is actually blocking a lot of that wind and i'll step to the side here and danny can take a look here. when the wind truly picks up it almost looks like a fire hydrant just busting out here around the corner. that's what we're getting is a lot of redirected wind because of the way these buildings are situated. it is good and safe for those who are inside of them. it is a dangerous situation out here and it is only getting worse. we actually -- keep our back to that moving forward here. you can see when the gusts kick in here, you're seeing those lines of rain actually come across. you're seeing a lot of power behind this storm right now. that's why we're going to actually send it back to you in the studio right now because i'm wrappi

a town called lakeland got hit really hard by the storm.astating out there for a lot of people. trees into houses. we saw branches. we saw power lines everywhere. trees just uprooted. pretty much every corner you turned. but, if there is anything good to take away from a situation like, this we met a couple who found it. listen. >> >> we had neighbors who come over start helping and chainsawing and hauling out limbs and all of a sudden people started stopping and walking up and pitching in and helping. it was really amazing thing. jillian: isn't that incredible? people they didn't know just came over with chainsaws and said what can we do to help? when you have that tragic situations like that you have people coming in to say let me help you. what do you need? situations like that make say okay we can get through. this that's exactly what they said. brian: spirit of texas transferred to florida. thanks, jillian. ainsley: thank you, jillian. let's give you more headlines this morning. the corruption trial of democratic senator continues toda

was given exclusive access to see the seals in action on lakeland now on mindanao island. we've been given a rare access to join what is the elite forces of the local military. the navy seals they specialize in counterterrorism operations in guerrilla combat they've been fighting armed groups in the southern philippines like the door yes i would say yes an armed group known for its criminal activities the philippines the military has been warning for some time that the security threat to the philippines will only get worse if you have ground which is a departure from the hit and takes of the past ten or fifteen years it is an application of a new teaching that the caliphate must have very thoroughly and they must be prepared to defend at the diapering. months later that did happen members of the merged with another local armed group called them out they took control of several parts of mirali city in the southern philippines the group raised its black flag in several key government buildings for a month over the work of the philippine navy's special warfare group is seen t

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 you were second-guessing yourself and saying why did i go from the east coast to the west coast, because they were impacted as well. all the way from brevard into dade county, 70 to 77% of the florida power and light customers are without power. and then you jump over here towards naples, florida, caollir county, 95% of the florida power and light customers without power. not out of the woods for georgia, south carolina and into alabama coming up. >> really important information there. talking about some of those coastal areas expecting four to six-foot storm surge. look at the satellite imagery of what the water'

on into central secretaries of florida, hills burrow county, into also lot of the counties around lakeland florida is what i'm trying to say. we've got 20 million plus people that live throughout the state of florida. pretty much, unless you live on this extreme western edge of the pan handle, everybody is going to be affected by irma. and what michael said earlier about irma is so frightening because we don't know exactly what's going to happen. the computer models can tell us all kind of information. we know what hurricanes so. we know it slowed down a little bit. it was barlg along at 16 miles an hour, now it's 12 miles an hour. it's frightening to think this may slow down even more. look at the powerful rainfall totals, up and down the florida peninsula, tampa, fort myers, west palm beach, just all these areas could expect maybe 10 to 20 inches of rainfall. and power outages. with some of these bands that move on shore with the lightening, with the gusty winds, some people may lose power temporarily, but look, sunday into monday morning, and there you see the orange and the red you, al

. >> there was lakeland high school.here was douglas and there was high land park, all three of only went to >> graduated from fair mont in 1963. >> it was the first high school for black students that actually went all the way to the 12th grade. >> in the 70s, desegregation led to influx of white students. soon after many white families left prince georges and the school returned to predominantly african-american, with few changes to the building in its 66-year history. now fair mont heights has a new $93.7 million building. >> they're going to get hands-on experiences that inner city kids don't get that opportunity to have. >> the former school is a registered historic site. the goal is to preserve it, although its students are moving on. >> all the tradition and legacy of this building still need to be a part of prince georges county. >> when the brand new high school opens tomorrow, it will welcome nearly 700 new students. >> well, nice ending to a story that started with some pretty scarey moments on the side of the

lieutenant eric harper of lakeland police. can you hear me, sir? >> yes, sir, i can. >> thank you for joining us. thank you for everything your men and women have done during the storm. we are all waiting for some relief so you can get out and do your job. that did you have to deal with yesterday and tomorrow? >> a lot of trees down, power lines down. one interesting call is we responded to a motorist that called our 911 center that they were trapped inside their vehicle with another adult and two infants. we rolled out our military surplus vehicle, rescue vehicle, and we pulled up in three or four feet of water, pulled up alongside of them and evacuated the twoen fans from the back seat. the water was rushing in and the adults couldn't get out. we took them to safety. we're happy that we were able to save lives last night. >> thank god for you guys. storm surge. what do people need to know? even today, people will get into standing water getting back to their homes. the wind get the headlines but the storm surge is the big thing. what has your exp

the national hurricane center says the eye of the storm is nearing lakeland, east of tampa, as it continues its trek north. the word from city and state officials from those hunkered down at this hour, stay put. the situation is still highly fluid. at least report, the storm still had sustained winds of 100 miles per hour, which has knocked out power for well more than 3 million customers and there is flooding from coast to coast as heavy rains and storm surge push water into florida cities. >> the river right now is going that way toward the gulf. what it should be doing is going in the opposite direct. >> we're getting serious winds. i want to show you this enormous tree that has just been uproot in the past couple of hours. >> and we've just gotten this video taken by a drone in naples, florida. those are flooded canals and streets and houses. that part of southwest florida got as much as 15 inches of rain. can you see flooding and damage left behind by hurricane irma. we have our team of reporters covering this storm from every angle. we begin with thomas roberts in tampa, florida. we j

a few more heavy blinding bands of rainfall that will slide through your area move iing through lakelandspeak. it's this band that's offshore on the east coast that's producing some frightening flash floding that continues to make its way north of melbourne. >> is it still about 14 miles per hour? >> it is. significantly faster than it was yesterday when it was about 6 or 7. so again, that will add to the track when they take the speed, the center point, the possible movements with the steering currents, we're going to find our track a little more inland but that's not until 11:00 p.m. it's still producing enough winds to knock out more power to many more people. >> is it possible that the eye could reform sor it past that? >> it's pretty much past that. once it makes landfall, the eye, the core is closing up and more of a rain shaft. but it's still a center point, which is is still the cornerstone of all of its energy. so until we get a little bit further north in the state, that's where it will run into some winds that are higher aloft and should start sheering the system apart. it's n

keep in mind, even though the eye right now is about 20 miles northwest of lakeland, florida, we're still seeing the extent of the winds all the way down into miami, 40-mile-plus per hour winds right now. it's going to continue to push northward, the strength of the winds where we see the eye, and as we move into the later afternoon and evening, the winds picking up to 55 to 60 miles per hour as it making its way through georgia. even though it is weakening, we're still seeing strong bands, strong winds, but still significant enough to have damage on property. >> beyond the winds, you have some areas will get more than 12 inches of rain. >> absolutely. we're talking about likelihood of some areas seeing 15 inches of rain. there are flash flood watches that extend well northward through much of georgia, and there's that likelihood of inland flooding. that's a concern. there's that locally 15 inch mark, pushing into georgia. it's not only florida feeling the impact of the flooding, it's also much of georgia likely going to se going to see the impact. we'll see the transfer of florida feelin

we're going to be heading back to our home in lakeland, florida. >> those images are just incredible. late read on the storm from the weather center. so give us a sense of the track and strength of it, tom. >> this storm really anderson continues to amaze us. we notice it back on thursday when it came as a little wave off of the coast of africa, within 24 hours it went from a tropical storm a category three and there is only one storm stronger and that wassal nen 1980 and only five miles away from this. and this is catastrophic. i hope everyone in the northern -- in the islands are getting into a safe location. the conditions will start to deteriorate and parts of the u.s. and british virgin islands and puerto rico. a lot of times we talk about the models. let's give you a break down here. when we talk about the storm system, and when you hear us talk about spaghetti plots and european models, and we rely on the models an it has taken years to develop the models and right know they are precious. and sure they could get better. but we are a long far where fr where we used to be. some a

became trapped inside one of the county vehicles as they were transporting an elderly person to lakeland regional medical center. they dropped off the patient. as they were returning back to duties, they encountered a fallen utility line and got trapped for a little while. both are said to be okay. they returned to work to assist in hurricane recovery efforts. one thing in hillsborough county, that's where tampa is located, they suspended any type of emergency service rescue during irma because they didn't. to put emergency personnel in harm's way. we know there were a lot of different municipalities and counties here in florida that had to do the very same thing because they didn't want to endanger people of their own staff to go get people that hadn't evacuated under those mandatory evacuations. in hillsborough, they only did a partial -- they canceled emergency rescues to the east first and then to the west later on. they suspended them in full until the storm fully passes by. but, alex, what a difference several hours makes. irma is quite an historic storm for many, many reasons. the

the plane is refueling in lakeland, florida. is that right? >> yes, that's correct. the aircraft just landed. we just cain after going through irma four times. the aircraft has to be evacuated to new orleans. some crew are getting off, some getting on. we just completed about an eighth hour mission, four passes through the center. >> take us inside that hurricane. what did you see? how does it compare to other hurricanes you've flown through? >> very good question. compares a great deal to hurricane hugo when it was making landfall in charleston in about '89. this one, itsmillibar, which is drop. we did not see winds increase very much the time we were there. what we were able to do was get a fix, half the center on cuba, half wasn't. during the time we were getting fixes, the center moved off cuba, which was our number one mission to figure out when this storm was starting to make the turn toward florida. i believe it has done that during our mission. >> that's our understanding as well. commander, for folks who might not necessarily be all that familiar with precis

police in lakeland say a family with small children was rescued from a car that was submerged in wateraching the children's car seats. how frightening. people are being reminded to stay inside and observe the curfew. many are without power right now. that number has grown to nearly 6 million customers. wind and rain from irma have moved into south carolina and officials are warning residents there to be very careful throughout the day. mike nicco is tracking irma as it slowly loses strength but i think it's too early to say this is all over, right, mike? >> that is correct, reggie. it will dump a lot of rain and has winds fast enough to cause damage. notice behind me on live doppler 7 and also tampa, and you can see the eye opening as it unwinds due to the fact it's been over land and because it's unwinding like a skater who throws her arms out to slow down her spin or his. that's what we're seeing happen right now. notice the moisture being pulled off the atlantic into south carolina, georgia, and florida. and that's where we're going to see the flooding. winds 70 miles an hour so tha

above flood stage, still rising, but no reports of major flooding in the tampa area, east of here in lakeland, florida, around 12:30 a.m., rescuers had to use a military style vehicle to rescue a family, two adults and two very young children stranded in a vehicle. they are okay this morning. again, no reports of major injuries. no reports of significant flooding. and the mayor of tampa tells us the curfew is still in effect. what they want to do is wait until sun rise, get out and survey the area. but they could lift this curfew shortly after day break. gayle? >> all right, david. we'll be following. storm. eric, good morning. how is it looking? >> good morning. we're on that slow weakening trend but it will be gradual. we have the center of the storm making its way to ocala. and there you see tampa that center just off to the east and that really helped them dodge a bullet there in the tampa bay area. 75-mile-per-hour winds picking up steam at 18 miles per hour. you see most of the action is along and north and east of the path. look at the heavy rain spreading across georgia, south carolin

weapons ammunition and material to make bombs jamila island dog and was with the seals in action on lakeland now on mindanao island. we've been given a rare access to join what is the elite forces of the little military. the navy seals they specialize in counterterrorism operations in guerrilla combat they've been fighting armed groups in the southern philippines like the door yes i would say yes an armed group known for its criminal activities the philippines the military has been warning for some time that the security threat to the philippines will only get worse as you have ground which is a departure from the hit and takes of the past ten or fifteen years it is an application of a new teaching that the caliphate must have very thoroughly and they must be prepared to defend it the die for. months later that did happen members of the merged with another local armed group called them out they took control of several parts of mirali city in the southern philippines the group raised its black flag in several key government buildings for a month over the work of the philippine navy vessel war

at that point, we have to evacuate the airplanes because our home base in lakeland is kind of ground >> all right, so, a little over three more hours for you and your team above irma right now. the flight director on board one of the hurricane hunting flights that is live above irma right now, jack parish, thank you, sisi sir, i really appreciate your time and insight. it's fascinating to think about how important that is to the calculations. with we know there have been a lot of comparisons made between irma and the 1992 killer storm andrew. there are similarities and huge differences. but first, what it looks like in one florida resident trying to drive through irma. this was from westchester, and it's not in florida. this is in north carolina. it's expecting to feel the remnants of irma by monday. we've got the governor there, roy cooper, saying the preps to be best prepared are under way but today he had this message to people that were fleeing florida. >> many of those fleeing from the direct path of the hurricane have come to north carolina. and we want them to know that they a

as the system moves up, stronger winds in lakeland, towards inverness. gainesville will be on the edge of uncertainty. that's in that front right quadrant as it makes its way to lake city, valdosta, columbus, some of the stronger winds, but even though it can still down winds down with gusts over 50 miles per hour we're still looking at sustained winds that are going to keep this system together enough to be a real pain. rainfall amounts, too. so again, it's not over with when it gets into areas like georgia and alabama. governor nathan diehl declared a state of emergency for 159 counties in georgia. a couple of things i want to point out. we're 50 miles now southeast of tampa with the eye. we've had heavy rainfall blanketing areas of tampa, st. pete, clearwater, back down to sarasota on the back end. we are continuing, however, watching the southern flow keeping the water banged up against the coastline in the southwest. interesting to note if you have not been with us all day, it did make landfall as a category 4 in the keys, big key west and big pine

once we get to lakeland and start to approach i-4, that's very highly densely populated areas up here that are -- they're going to be going through this almost until daybreak tomorrow. still have to watch out for tornadoes, too. we've had a couple tornado warnings with this band over here near the titusville area. we'll continue to monitor that, too. the wind story is going to last into tomorrow with those power outages spreading to georgia. this was a huge storm. even though the eye is starting to weaken, the wind field is so huge, it's going to take a long time for this to wind itself down and it only takes 50 to 70-mile-per-hour wind gusts to knock trees and power out. that will go over 24 more hours. >> talking about titusville. we're thinking about our friends along the space coast. a lot of whom thought they were perhaps going to be okay. i'm sure they're getting some sporty winds and rain off the water. >> they are getting the storm surge also. we saw that storm surge in miami. what that did to four feet of water. wooefr still expecting two to four feet. the wind is coming off

aircraft home place in lakeland, florida, taking a mandatory down day and we'll fly continuously untilger a threat. >> all right, jack parish, thank you very much. >> very good, nice talking with you. >> the images are just incredible, we'll get another read on the weather, give us a sense of the track of this and the strength of it, tom. >> this storm, really, anderson continues to amaze us. we noticed it back only thurs-- thursday, when it came in a wave. it went from a four to five and still is stronger, only one storm that was stronger in the recorded history and that was alan in 1980, we were only five miles away from this. this is catastrophic, i hope everybody in the lesser analytis are getting to safety. i want to talk about the models, anderson, because a lot of times we talk about the models, when we talk about the storm systems, the european models, we rely heavily on the models, it takes time. sure they can get better, but we're a long way from where we used to be. first of all, the spaghetti plots, some are global models, some are statistical, many times we'll pull out two

lake loond -- lakeland got hit by the eye of the storm really bad. devastating for some people.plex in half. we happened to say, do you live here and we said, we used to, the first time they were seeing that video, excuse me, the first time they were seeing the damage, as you can imagine, they were devastated, listen. >> when we come back to nothing and this is like the first major hurricane. i've only been down here since august of last year. this is the first major hurricane that i've been through >> they were very upset. the guy that was with her, he was walking around paces, he didn't know what to do. he said, that's my home and that's the situation for a lot of people here, they don't know where they are going to go and what to do. the beginning for a long process for some of them, dagen. dagen: i know that a lot of people are angry, particularly as you move south in florida, angry that they can't get back to homes now particularly trying to head into the keys. julian, thank you so much. helping in the wake of the hurricanes, the jajun in for the call. let's bring cajun mem

we think that the eye of this storm is going to pass over something like lakeland and lake wales which is due east of tampa and st. petersburg which would put you guys on the dry side of the storm. >> reporter: but then you get that spin on the back end of it, right? shepard: exactly. >> reporter: it's unknown what that's going to mean. do we have any sense what that's going to mean? shepard: from my perspective, i think it means this eye will be over the land for long enough to to where it will lose some of its punch. that is not to say it's not dangerous for people there, it definitely is. >> reporter: yeah. we'll see. [laughter] shepard: yeah. we will see. jeff flock who's been moving up and down the coast for us all afternoon. it's hard to imagine that when we started, when i started coverage this morning, 8:00 eastern time, miami was already getting battered. the water was coming inland, the winds were really high. here it is 5:30 in the afternoon, and that's still the case. phil keating is somewhere around the 79th street causeway in miami. phil's -- phil, how's it looking there

pilots right into these storms and one of those pilots joins me now, lieutenant dave cowan from lakeland, florida. i believe you just landed out of a hurricane run? >> yes, sir. >> what are you flying into those things? >> yes, sir, we just landed about 20 minutes ago. say again, i'm sorry? >> what do you fly into the hurricanes? >> so behind me you see the noaa gulf stream 4 hurricane hunter and our job is to fly the high altitude research portion of the hurricane mission to better forecast the track of the storm. >> that is very helpful to us in really understanding where these storms are going and how they're built. but how exactly, most people who fly on airplanes would say isn't that remarkably dangerous, aren't your wings going to fall off and plane tossed around? how do you fly through a hurricane? >> there is some level of risk involved but we've got some pretty talented group of individuals here that have been doing this for a long time. we have the appropriate safety measures in place, the appropriate aircraft we're flying to do these things. the way we hand tell with the high

also overnight, we have some really, really incredible pictures from orlando and lakeland, florida, as the storm moved through. those families will have to wake up and see whether the pieces of their roofs are still there and as ginger mentioned atlanta. there is now a huge concern in atlanta, schools are canceled. i know the generator at my house is on the ready as people are worried whether they're going to lose power because of all the trees and the wind knocking down tree branches over power lines. >> all right, steve, stay safe there. >> the massive scale, hurricane irma first made landfall as we said in the florida keys. just after 9:00 a.m. sunday and it hit hard. the emergency management director fears it could cause a humanitarian crisis. the entire area under mandatory evacuations, residents still barred from returning and amy robach traveled through the night to get to nearby florida city. good morning, amy. >> reporter: that's right, george. good morning to you. we got up very early and drove for about an hour from miami and we got to this point. yes, near florida city wher

to the west of here is lakeland, florida, there we saw that there are some mobile homes flooded thereay that are flooded. if neighborhoods in which people are kayaking through their neighborhoods. a lot of standing water out in that area, primarily the result of rain. the other form that the damage took was wind damage and that's when we are talking about all of these trees that were knocked down by the force of the wind, especially with the moist, saturated soil underneath them. that has resulted in all of the power lines getting knocked out. hundreds of thousands of people without power, more specifically from 54% of the population according to tampa electric is without power. crews have been brought in from literally all across the nation but they had to be stationed out of harm's way and when you have a big peninsula like is that pretty much means out of the state. they had to spend the day driving, the work of restoring power really get started tomorrow. tampa electric says it will take just a matter of days for people here but there are communities who say it will be a matter of

you have the right -- jillian: police in lakeland, florida arresting the gator and reading miranda rightsg around their yard. what would you think about that if you were to find something like that. brian: i would take it on. i have a history of that. i'm very successful. at the villages i saved the whole villages. steve: brian, the gator was that big. brian: big gator but mouth was shut. steve: all right. thank you. ainsley: jump just sat down with dr. oz to tell him something she has never told anyone about her past. coming up. brian: nancy pelosi shut down by dreamers she and her fellow democrats are trying to protect. >> do you want an answer or do you just want to shout? [shouting] brian: i guess they don't want to listen is that any way to earn a u.s. citizenship? dan bongino fired up about this. he is coming up straight ahead. ♪ ♪ what's the story behind green mountain coffee and fair trade? let's take a flight to colombia. this is boris calvo. boris grows mind-blowing coffee. and because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm and invest in his community to make even better

about 25 miles south of lakeland. big changes in the last several hours. here is your center of circulation. we are now completely over land. we have been so for a while so the storm is slowly beginning to wind down. still a category 2 store. a powerful storm as we continue to spin over land. we are going to see this continue to drop. before too much longer this is going to fall to a category 1 storm. there is tampa. we are going to keep moving up to the north. tampa will stay on the west side of this storm which will be good news for them. as this thing continues to drift that direction. good news for tampa, but you can tell from where we are moving our tornado watches and warnings, we are keeping this on the front right quadrant of where that spinning storm is. we have seen tornadoes throughout the entire day. that will continue to be the case. so areas now as far north as jacksonville may see some tornadoes run onshore throughout the rest of the evening in the overnight hours. still a category 2 storm. you put it into motion as you move north of the tam

a tornado just touched down according to local authorities in polk county , florida that's where lakelanddo itself i want to give you specifics of where it touched down. the southwestern part of that county so somewhere just north of bowling green i suppose, south and west of lake wales, at any rate thankfully this touched down within an un^ populated area. they don't speak of damages except to the trees and such but tornadoes are at enormous risk and there's a tornado . was in effect for most of south florida for the next eight hours or so. we've just gotten word from fort lauderdale fire and rescue. miami and miami-dade no longer responding to complaints, 911 calls or requests for service. now fort lauderdale police are not i should say fort lauderdale fire and rescue are not either. fort lauderdale fire and rescue just notified us that regret fully they've suspended response due to wind, strong enough to flip over a truck. that's how high the wind gusts are in fort lauderdale. a new storm tracker weather update coming to us from our station wsvn-7 in south florida. let's listen in. >>