we had a gust to 115 at the naples airport. we expect winds to possibly still gust over 100 miles per hour right through the evening, into the overnight hours, even as the storm bypasses and weakens near tampa. this, unfortunately, is only 20% of the story. we are waiting to see what the storm surge is going to do. 4:07 was high tide in naples. happy to say at least high tide has passed before the storm surge has begun, so the storm surge will be moving in as the water levels are slowly lowering just on the tide. the tide's only changed, brian, into naples. some areas have huge tidal changes. about two to three feet. so it will help, but, you know, ten to 15 feet, you know, maybe if we're in the middle of the high and low tide, it will only still be ten to 15 instead of adding to it with the high tide. >> people have not heard this wording before, but you can live your whole life and most people do in the united states and never heard the phrase flash flood emergency. as bill indicated, that means not only are conditions imminen

the parking lot. fort myers, of course, north of naples. the storm bearing down on naples now. we think the eye's going to cross over there soon, and we'll get back to our steve harrigan who's on scene. first, let's get to carlos who's riding out the storm near names. where are you and allow are you? >> good, thanks, shep. it's carlo. my folks are italian. shepard: oh, my bad. how are you and where are you? >> good. we're about 5 miles east of marco island right now. shepard: and how are things? >> the winds are really starting to bust up now. we're -- gust up now. we're getting, we lost power about 30 minutes ago. it's been in and out, but we lost it permanently about 30 minutes ago. the water's rising out in the street, you know, some downed trees. so we're just sitting tight. we're on the main floor of a two-story building, but we're ready to move upstairs if we have to. shepard: well, i hope you don't have to. thanks and very good luck. i want to get to phil keating who's out in the midst of it, and i believe phil's in miami on the 79th street causeway. how's it there now? g

the storm. that's a live look at naples, the storm is headed directly in that -- to that vicinity. hether it will hit exactly over naples or just a little bit more inland, we don't yet know. if it continues northbound, if you're from the region, you know where marco island is, if it does head north part of naples will be in the eye, eye wall which would be extremely, extremely dangerous. now, the storm has not officially made landfall because landfall is declared when the area of lowest pressure within that eye, the lowest pressure of that storm comes across the land mass, this morning that happened, a few minutes after 9:00 o'clock in cudjoe keys, in lower keys in north and east of key west but lower keys we now e reports of 15-foot storm surge there. the next landfall will be coming startly. truth be told, it's made landfall and the eye of the storm is there but when the lowest pressure rating, reading makes its way inland at marco island or nearby, we will have a second landfall in marco island and could be many more to come. at some time the storm will pass right through naples

jesse is riding out the storm in naples. is the, is the eye over you now, jesse, or is it still howling? >> it's still howling a little bit. we should be seeing the first signs of the eye any second, and as i'm saying that, the trees look like they're starting to stand back up a little bit straighter. it's been pretty scary here for a while. shepard: i'm guessing you're on the north side of naples. >> yep, about as far north as you can get. shepard: well, that makes perfect sense, because the identify the storm has left naples proper, and you're probably 6, 7 miles north of there, i guess, huh? >> yeah, just about that, yep. shepard: so what was the last 30 minutes like? >> the last 30 minutes was about as scary as it could have gotten. our pool cage has started to kind of deteriorate. what we could see before we were unable to see for about the last 20-30 minutes. the trees have been bent almost in half, and some of the trees are not standing. so it's been a little bit scary for a while. shepard: what about damage to propert

the storm. there's naples. now, you've been reporting i'm sure, the water is being pushed out in the gulf. so there's this large area, hundreds of yards going out where you don't have any water. well, as soon as that eye goes by, these winds are coming in. and then we're going to get the water shooting back in the other way. that's the storm surge. so the fact we're seeing the water go out is really telling us how vulnerable that coastline is to storm surge. because if you didn't have that, you know, if it takes a relatively light wind to push the water out, a much stronger wind is going to push it back with much more vengeance and that's unsurvivable. that's why that part of the coast has been evacuated. >> i could sense and i can tell you could sense around about yesterday when the path went more to the west there was a little hint of regret among some of the people who had evacuated. a little hint that maybe the eastern part of the state would be spared. and i, along with you, hope that everyone is paying att

and the storm surge on both coasts. naples and ft. myers, on high alert for a 10-to-15-foot storm surge. trees and power lines down. homes battered across the state. the last-minute rescues. but tonight, already some lives lost. >>> finding shelter. irma's track, and the dramatic shift westward, leaving millions scrambling to evacuate. >>> tampa will be tested next. into the evening, authorities say a storm this powerful for them hasn't been seen in a century. >> we're about to be punched in the face. >>> and in miami tonight, some neighborhoods under water. streets disappearing amid the storm surge. construction cranes crashing down. and tonight, new images of the storm's first strike. the devastation in key west. millions across the state without power. a dark and difficult night ahead. "world news tonight" begins now. >>> good evening from naples, florida, tonight. as we come on the air in the west what a difference from what we saw late here today. it was noft long ago, the eye of hurricane irma was right over this city with heavy

the naples area. the national weather service said the emergency operations center recorded a wind gust of 130 miles an hour a few minutes ago. we're expecting to be really close to the eye wall right about now, and we've seen this wind and rain pick up in intensity in the last few minutes. it's howling right now behind me, and thankfully we're in the second floor balcony, one of the hotels here in downtown naples. not too far from me is the beach, and again, local residents, they are fearful about the storm surge and it's incredible, the pictures that you've been talking about. we've seen kerry sanders reporting on it, as well, all that water going away, going out to sea, being pulled out to sea. the fear is when this eyewall crosses, what's going to happen when it's -- when it slams back on to shore. so we expect that to happen over the next couple of hours. right now we're getting some really strong winds and heavy rains as we try to stay inside in a safe location and away from this stuff. brian? >>

again with the system approaching naples area, 10 to 15 feet down to the southern tip of florida. and what we have seen so far which is a bit animus we still have offshore in naples, 4 feet from where it's supposed to be but as soon as that system switches around to the other side, that ocean will come back roaring back up. this will be happening within the next couple of hours. this is going to play out and this has a potential to be life-threatening and people need to stay where they are and be prepared for this in the next few hours. in the longer term, we have the forecast continuing to go up the west coast of florida, again, because of the large size of the system and what we are seeing in miami-dade and broward counties. we have hurricane warnings up for essentially the entire state of florida except the western panhandle. in terms of timing, the tampa area, we are looking still hurricane conditions, those peak and overnight hours, storm surge 5 to 8 feet in tampa area. there's also going to be significant impact of rainfall. people in the tampa-st. pete area need to be prepa

marco island, the word, got in the way. naples next. fort myers after that, port charlotte and all the like. the area that will see the isle wall move to the north and still for john berman one cell after another pounding the east coast from miami to lauderdale to west palm. still significant damage going to happen here. more flooding going to happen here. a widespread storm. chris, we talked about this. there's going to be a hurricane from one side of florida to the other, and there is. >> chad, let me ask you something. you say in about an hour. what about duration? what are the concerns for people here? how much can they take? you know, very low-lying area. the entire city. taking rain a long time. a lot of pooling on water of streets already and that storm surge hasn't come into effect and they're worried how many structures, how they're fey over time. what are they looking at in terms of a window? >> just tweeted out a man on marco island showing video. just minute after minute, waiting for it to stop, and it's not stopping. the win

the way. look again at naples. the way of life from naples that we can switch back and there it is. the first of the ban while over tropical storm winds now expecting hurricane force winds in southwest florida, particularly southern collier county, everglades city, into the naples area. in a pretty short period of time, remember the hurricane force winds extend from the center of the storm about 80 miles. depends on the update. sometimes it's 70, sometimes 80. it varies a little bit. from the center of the eye of the storm, 70 miles north, hurricane force winds and moving at nine miles an hour, they look at hurricane force winds for a very long period of time. you can see the flag ripping apart a little bit. john fort lauderdale beach that send very heavy winds and high surf again this now fort lauderdale. you can see the palm trees and just an incredible amount of cameras and develop cross his storm continues to move north on the west coast. the winds in the search will be more prevalent in broward county, which is

on the left, chris hayes in naples, on the right is kerry sanders in naples. s location is facing directly into one of these localized bands. bill karins, see what is possible within the same town. >> that's going to rotate through. the eye where kerry is is still 30 miles away. kerry is squarely now in hurricane sustained winds. those winds are gusting up to 90, maybe getting close to 100 in some cases. he is 30 miles from the eye. >> he can't hear us to viewers wondering why we are not talking to kerry. we're going to put him on when we can hear from him. they continue to wipe the lens. you see a lot of that the next couple hours. without it, it is impossible to see our correspondents. bill, that's how the shifting tides of the storm. >> getting close to the point to tell all the families that still remain in that area to -- if they still have power, they're lucky. it is just about time to get to safe rooms, when you see it get like this. and two hours from now, a lot worse. look at kerry. that's how it is. that's how the squalls come in. they come in quicker

the president is taking upper naples, florida, we records on the ground. we'll head to naples when we come back. whoooo. you're searching for something. like the perfect deal... ...on the perfect hotel. so wouldn't it be perfect if... ....there was a single site... ...where you could find the... ...right hotel for you at the best price? there is. because tripadvisor now compares... ...prices from over 200 booking... ...sites ...to save you up to 30%... ...on the hotel you want. trust this bird's words. tripadvisor. the latest reviews. the lowest prices. >> melissa: president trump and vice president pence moments ago arriving in fort myers, florida, when they got a briefing on relief efforts following hurricane irma before heading off to naples to survey the damage there. mike tobin is live in naples with the president will head to meet with more victims next. what's it like there today? >> it's quite hot here today and that makes it especially tough for people who are sweltering away without air conditioning. the president is just a 42 miles away. that bri

we have the mayor of naples, florida on the phone with us. probably the third or fourth time we have spoken to him today. mr. mayor, what have you been told? i know it is all preliminary, especially about this storm surge. is there a chance nothing more materializes? >> there is. we just got word about 30 minutes ago from our city manager and staff that the back end of the storm broke up and there is no more storm surge. we certainly have flooding. the reports or preliminary reports for damage, there is minimal structural damage from the preliminary. there is flooding but the waters will start to recede. and a lot of hort icultural. the water pressure is superlow which means a lot of broken water lines. it is a breath of fresh air. our batteries were just about exhausted all of us physically and mentally. to hear this is great because as you and i talked earlier a 10 to 15 foot storm surge would have absolutely been catastrophic for us. >> i want to remind viewers why this is such a blessing. in part, it is because some people evacuated to na

it's bad on the western side of the peninsula from key west to naples. we could see a storm surge at least ten feet if not higher. the storm goes up the peninsula sunday night. at this point we'll see two areas of storm surge because the winds blow counter clockwise around the storm. we see an onshore wind for the eastern side of the peninsula, 3 to 5-foot storm surge there. and western side, 2 to 4-foot from tampa to naples. this storm pulls north into georgia as we get into monday. it's not just the wind and the rain it will be a tremendous storm surge with the storm. >> a huge system. we'll keep an eye on it. irma is inching closer to the united states slowly moving away from cuba as a category five storm. the hurricane which is larger than the state of florida. it's poised to hit the sunshine state sometime tomorrow. thousands have been ordered to evacuate leading to clogged highways and gasoline shortages, but some say they plan to ride out the storm. >> heck no. i've been here every other hurricane and never had a problem. you know. i'm not afraid o

around the naples area or marko island. this area here landfall expected tomorrow morning between 2 and 5:00 a.m. as a category four storm with winds 150 miles per hour as the storm moves over land getting close to tampa, it weakens dramatically as it loses its fuel source which is the warm waters of the atlantic and the gulf. tuesday and wednesday it weakens into a tropical storm or tropical low. we're seeing good concensus between the forecast models. we have a couple of outliers which brings it over the gulf which will be good news for people in southern florida but terrible news for the folks up here. the track is who will get hit hardest. looks like it's naples. rainfall totals range anywhere from 6 to 12 inches when all is said and done. we'll see winds 150 miles per hour for a brief period of time. this wall of water approaches ten feet from the coast fort meyers beach into the everglades national park. these areas are close to sea level ranging 3 to 8 feet above sea level. that wall of water will push i understand la

he is on the ground in naples. we have "gma's" amy row b y roy in miami. >> we're going the start with ginger zee. irma is getting ready to make landfall? >> landfall is imminent in the keys. the eye wall giving them an extreme wind warning. 115-plus mile per hour gusts. that creates potential for damage. the eye movers northward. who gets it next and when? most of the areas south of naples and marco island is the everglades. tonight, fot. myers. a gat goir 3. still considered major. then becomes a 1 as it reaches tallahassee and makes its way into tennessee and alabama. we can stop talking about it wednesday into thursday. >> there are big cities. tampa. metro area. one of the most vulnerable places in the country to storm surge and flooding. are they prepare snd. >> i don't know that you can be, for a five to eight-foot storm surge. that's the area five to ten feet that includes sarasota, ft. myers' beaches. and south, 10 to 15 feet. think about how high your house is. filling your home with water rushing at a hig

he is on the ground in naples. we have "gma's" am in miami. >> we're going the start with ginger zee. irma is getting ready to make landfall? >> landfall is imminent in the keys. the eye wall giving them an extreme wind warning. 115-plus mile per hour gusts. that creates potential for damage. the eye movers northward. who gets it next and when? most of the areas south of naples and marco island is the everglades. tonight, fot. myers. a gat goir 3. still considered major. then becomes a 1 as it reaches tallahassee and makes its way into tennessee and wednesday into thursday. >> there are big cities. tampa. metro area. one of the most vulnerable places in the country to storm surge and flooding. are they prepare snd. >> i don't know that you can be, for a five to eight-foot storm surge. that's the area five to ten feet that includes sarasota, ft. myers' beaches. and south, 10 to 15 feet. think about how high your house is. filling your home with water rushing at a high pace. that's why storm surge is so, so powerful.

that 142-mile-per-hour wind gusts at the naples airport. that was -- wow, that would do significant damage to not only trees, but structure snoors the people who say they have these hurricane-proof windows, it's meant to withstand something hitting it at 140 or 150 miles an hour. we're at the top of that. does the fact that it made landfall at marco island, does that mean it will weaken and slow down? >> it may help lower the winds a little bit. these are some of the tide gauges and we'll be updating these. this is st. petersburg toward the clearwater beach area. this is st. petersburg near tampa. you can see the red there. that was the low water when the water was blown out and then you will see the red line shoot way up and that's how the pattern will work and we'll be updating you and showing you all these tide gauges as we go through the storm surge. honestly because we don't know how good the pictures will be that we'll be able to show you. it's easy to put a reporter safely on the parking garage and show you the wind and the rain and i

now, look the sun shining over naples, florida. we are in the eye of this storm right now, what comes next we're not quite sure honestly it has been very unpredictable as hard as meteorologist work to predict the path, we're not sure what the next several hours hold. we know it will get worse before it gets berth and then major concern is the storm surge. we are expecting nine to 15 feet in naples. a lot of water on the ground right now. as jason is showing you. that is rainwater. we are fearful of what the gulf of mexico may bring our way. we will join you several times tonight, but for now, we will send it back to you, live there in the studio. >> quite take scene there in florida. thank you brian. >>> strength of the storm is creating all kinds of weird situations. look at what appears to be water rescue in west palm beach. man standing on lane is pulling in a rescue matt. person in the water is wearing scuba gear. it is not clear if this was an attempt to help someone not caught on camera but this person in the scuba gear had pe

of course, this is mostly the ever glades, but around naples and fort myers. it could be devastating there. what does the storm surge like this mean, let's go with amelia a little more on that. >> the winds are one thing, we can see a lot more damage from the storm surge. take a look, here is a map that doug was showing. a little bit more detailed, where you're noticing the red. these are going to be the areas where the storm surge will be the worst. you can see here, greater than 9 feet above the ground. so this is in the homestead area, just south of miami and out around the naples area just south of fort myers and then down through the ever glades. beautiful view. and here is your normal sea level, as you get the wind and the storm maybe 6 inches into your home depending on how above ground your home is. this house is in water in southwestern florida, they're talking about officials and storm surge of around 12 feet to give you an idea. 74 on your saturday. 75 on sunday. it's going to be cool in the morning. many areas will be in the 40s. 75 on your monday,

>> caller: well, we are at the hilton in naples. we really, my wife and my bulldog and two rescue cats are with us in the room. we almost had to close the blinds all the way, it was so bad looking outside. the winds were, i mean, it was hard to describe. the water was just swirling around. rain was coming in so hard you could barely see out of the window. it was scary, it really was. you had to, you know, take a couple deep breaths and say, okay, we are going to get through this. everybody was -- we had a lot of first responders here that couldn't go out, of course. but, of course we are going to be out there doing a lot of damage assessment today. >> i just heard gabe gutierrez say this, mayor, it's extraordinary, it's lucky, a great testament to wonderful preparation. no major injuries that you know of yet in your city. that's remarkable. >> caller: thank you. if that storm surge had hit as predicted, it would have been catastrophic. it would have been too late for that. we count our blessings there. we'll get naples back to her re

we're at the beach in naples. we're seeing the water pushed away from short. county authorities now say they now expect the worst of this storm surge to happen after the eye passes naples in the next few hours. the concern is, as the governor has said, the naples area expects from 2 to 15 feet of storm surge. they're very concerned about what this could mean. right now, naples is a virtual ghost town. buildings are boarded up. it's really -- authorities have pulled first responders as these winds have picked up. again, as the eyewall makes its way near naples sometime this afternoon, the biggest concern right now is for all that storm surge, all this water that's being pushed out to sea right now is expected to come crashing into naples. the question is exactly how much of it and how much of this downtown floods, matt and savannah. >> that's gabe gutierrez in naples. the storm is creeping closer and closer to that area. >>> what's the latest, dave, what can you tell us, where this is going, how long? >> the tracking doesn't so much matter at this point. we kno

this is the scene here in downtown naples. you can see what a chain saw this storm was, we're a couple hundred yards away from where we were reporting from just a little while ago. this is the park in downtown naples and you can just see how much devastation this hurricane has brought here through the naples area. of course we're very limited. we don't have a lot of time to be able to get out and survey so knowing that the back half of this storm is approaching, we venture out as quickly as possible. look at this palm tree just sawed in half and collapsing over. this is that area by the outdoor pavilion, a concert area that i was talking about if you're watching over the course of the last few hours and if you look back here, this is the pavilion and the tarp that was on top of the structure outside, i thought for sure this was going to come shredding apart in the winds that we experienced. but from what i can tell for the most part, that held on, obviously the trees in this park simply another story and giving how long and how

the totals have been really big, 142 miles-an-hour wind recorded in the naples area. the winds starting to back down just a bit with this, but there's still going to be plenty of areas that see triple digit winds here in the next several hours. guys, as i was saying, the storm is still in southern florida, still everyone to the north has a very long night ahead of them. >> uh-huh. no doubt. >> yep. >> thank you so much for that. >>> our steve herrigan has been battling wind, 142 miles-an-hour and rain all day in the hard hit city of naples, florida, on florida's west coast. >> and he joins us now live. steve, what can you tell us? what are conditions like there at this hour? >> right now some light rain falling and some gusts of wind, in the 20 miles-per-hour range. right now naples is dark. the downtown main street behind me completely dark. 170,000 people in the county without electricity right now. and the entire state of florida, at least 2 million people without electricity. the damage assessment is going to have to wait until tomorrow. there were strong winds of

the next stop for the wind coming back around is the back side of naples. at's the wind you're seeing now. chris, you had 141 earlier on the top side when you had the storm itself, the thunderstorms as well. you're not going to get 141 on the back side because there isn't much of a storm system there. you know how ever time the band comes by the wind picks up? there's no band there anymore. your wind is going to be 80 or 90 miles an hour, almost what they're seeing on the east coast. the important part is there's still an eastern component of the wind pushing the water into marco island and into naples itself. that's the big story for the rest of the night. as we push you ahead, moving the storm forward to cape coral, pun that gorda and bradenton. this is where the storm is going next. the pressure is still 938 mil y ba bars. you're going to see 27.70. as far as that thing goes. that's the pressure of the storm. it is losing wind but it's not losing pressure so it's still going to have a significant wind event, storm surge all the way up through tampa tonigh

then the city of naples and golden gate. the storm continues on its path it will make landfall at march code island and continue up, naples, cape coral, fort myers. it would be potentially devastating. a lot of high-rise buildings. you will be able to see the bays. this is and bel sanibel island,a island. cape coral and fort myers. that's the area it's now head. could it wobble and change to another area? it could. this is a cape coral, naples, fort myers storm. reporter: the first hurricane-force winds measured here was 12 1/2 hours ago. so it's been nonstop battering. it's a cool phenomenon the way mother nature works. it's blowing counter clockwise, sucks the water out of the bayside of key largo. that what per will eventually come back when the water starts coming from the other direction. we could get a pretty good storm surge on the bayside of key largo. hurricane irvin was a category 4. it hit pensacola as a 3. we were in the eye of that one. this has as much power or more and we are not in the eye. we'll be 25 miles

for the people here in naples, ft. myers, tampa, sarasota, and over inside this arena, the people who evacuated, it reminds me of katrina and i was in the superdome and the top of the superdome began to peel off in the winds. i was there with all of these families who brought their belongings, the few things they could carry. i feel for the people who will spend hours of enduring these winds of 100 miles per hour or more. that is expected. the last advisory we received was 115 miles per hour, gusting perhaps even higher than that once irma gets closer. and you can see behind me here we are broadcasting as many have broadcast throughout the day from a building. we are up a safe distance from any surge that would be below us and surrounded for the most part by these concrete walls here. obviously once the winds get up to 110, 125 miles per hour, we might be talking to george from a telephone inside a stairwell inside this building. we talked the entire crew through these safety procedures. obviously we don't want to put a

we're down on the street here in downtown naples and to give you the continued since of as this -- the eye of this hurricane gets closer and closer here to naples, i've tucked in behind a wall here to protect us from the worst of the wind. it's just too much. there's no visibility. if we can get to look down here on the street, the number of palm trees that are just blowing down the street and that's obviously a major concern for us because with such little visibility, you can't stand out here in this, there's no reason too. you can't see anything flying around. as we stand here a little bit more than an hour, we have endurds these kinds of wind, this kind of rain, we're still not quite at the -- at the eye of the storm here which we anticipate will be coming much, much closer and we will continue to monitor that. so it is a situation that is clearly deteriorating and after more than an hour of enduring this you really start to have to ask yourself, we're in downtown naples and the situation here in the buildings and the structures that were surrounded by are strong and from anything t

you can see the winds starting to pick up in naples. we're still five to six hours away from when the storm hovers right off the coast of naples. it's hugging the coastline with the track. just to keep in mind we have -- you can see it's taking a power hit because of this. the temperatures and the water right off the coast of naples, keep this in mind, that mid to upper 80s, that's what's fuelling the storm as it moves up the coast and when it gets here, ginger said the biggest concern is the storm surge, that's the case here. i talked to the mayor earlier. he told me the same thing. 10 to 15 feet storm surge well inland. 10 to 15 feet of salt water moving at incredible force both in the beginning of the hurricane and sweeping back behind it. the winds picking up already. we saw a giant tree go down next to us and debris everywhere and once the winds reach about 100 miles per hour, gusts up to 125 as we just saw in that map t model that just came out. that's going to be sustained for quite some time and they're expecting considerable dam

we are tracking if the tides are going out. this is at naples. the storm surge is around 4'4" to 5 feet. the key is once that starts going down, we know we hit the peak storm surge and that'll help us better numbers to other areas in the coast. >> lets go to st. pete right now. jacob rascon is in st. petersburg right now for us, you are not getting the worst of it yet. we are giving you information once we see what happens in fort myers and once we see what happens with that storm surge, it looks relatively calm where you are, jacob. >> reporter: right, it is been raining and the wind gusts have been on and off. a big problem here and you have been talking about is the tampa bay area, there are 3 million plus people who live here. there are thousands of buildings and a hospital and homes all along the coast and eye loislan. they have given the curfew up and a lot of areas, first responders and even though the sustained winds are not very high. they have been sheltering in place and we have video shots earlier. we are riding along earlier in downto

right now, the wind in naples is going that way. so if you're on the beach where kerry is, you're not seeing something that looks dramatic. >> you're seeing the water levels go back out. what we're watching is this pocket right here. it's the south west wind, when this center moving to the north and look at these winds, 120 miles per hour winds are pushing that water up. that's why we have big concerns here for the southwest coast. they're living easy right now in terms of the storm surge threat. not for much longer. this outer eye wall is lifting north. >> that's why kerry say thaurs' going -- he may have an opportunity to show people. it is important that people see this because he may be able to show you how you go from the scene he just had where sea levels are very low and lower than normal, into something where all of a sudden, this wall of water comes into napele the and fort meyers. >> we've seen this happen in the keys. winds gusting 100, 105 miles per hour. things calm down and then the high extreme wind warning. winds comi

and the storm surge on both coasts. naples and ft. for a 10-to-15-foot storm surge. trees and power lines down. homes battered across the state. the last minute rescues. but tonight, already some lives lost. >>> finding shelter. irma's track, and the dramatic shift westward. leaving millions scrambling to evacuate. >>> tampa will be tested next. into the evening, authorities say a storm this powerful for them hasn't been seen in a century.

julie: the rains from hurricane irma starting to fall over naples. is located on the west coast of florida, two hours north of miami. the people there isn't expect this to go that way. but now that it is, how's it going? reporter: many actually evacuating to naples, sending their families here from the east coast of florida. it's a scramble to find shelter at the last minute. the winds not strong yet. but the rain is steady. we could see 6-10 inches of rain in the naples area along with a possible storm surge of 5-15 feet. that's a lot of water and some long-time residents told us they are worried come monday morning the entire geography of this region could look different. >> i think it landscape is going to change. but we are resilient. we bounce back every time. we'll be fine. reporter: we have been seeing people scramble to find newly opened evacuation centers. at least 15,000 people in evacuation shelters. and the winds could get so bad in the naples area that even first responders might have to relocate. government buildings in the naples area

across the keys, coming inland toward the naples reason, up toward fort myers and v here's the hurricane warning that includes tampa, the entire southern third of florida under hurricane warnings. i'll show you what it means to miami, fort myers, tampa. i'll see you in 15. >> irma has killed at least 22 people in caribbean. some of the tourist hot spots decimated by the storm are reporting looting and incurring occur fuse. 5.6 million people are under evacuation orders. >> reporter: sunset on the edge of irma, a quiet evening ahead of what forecasters say would be a catastrophic weekend. >> hurricane irma continues to be a threat that will decimate the united states. >> reporter: florida is the primary target that stretches across a area bigger than the state. home improvement stores are running out grocery store shelves are empty, too, as preparations continue. >> you got to be ready. the price you pay for living in florida. >> reporter: there are concerns the cost of this storm could be overwhelming. >> we are running out of time, if you are in a evacuation zone, you need to go now. th

>> i think the entire west coast. my hometown is naples, florida. we're going to get 10 to 15 feet of storm surge above ground level. so that's going to go up the coast. we've never seen anything like this. we're having a call in just about five minutes with all the county administrators. and so we'll see if they had any unmet needs. from the standpoint of the -- my concern is, it's the entire west coast with this storm surge. the entire state is going to get impacted by the rain and winds. we'll find out now, hopefully find out quickly how the keys have done. i hope to be able to see that as soon as i can so we can make sure we get all the resources in there. i want every person in the state to be safe. i want to make sure we -- everybody survives. as soon as the first responders can go out, we'll go out and make sure everybody is safe. >> a little earlier you were on with us, governor. you made a plea asking for volunteers to help staff the shelters in the northern part of the state. have you been getting good response to that? >> absolutely. you k

you mentioned at the top of the hour naples did report the wind gusts. 103 miles per hour in naples, pembroke pines 109. miami 94. big pine key, that is 120. that was the highest gust. we could challenge that has we watch this northern eye wall make land fall. we're going to see a lot of readings in the 100 miles per hour range. that is when you really start to get roof damage. >> people can't stand up over 60, generally, in my experience. >> the trees come down when you have 60 to 80. the thing that we're watching now, and now that the northern eye is coming on shore, we'll be tracking wind damage first, and then after we'll track what will happen with the water. here is the center of the storm. and this red blob on the northeast side, the new update says 120 miles per hour sustained, gusts to 150, that will be in this thunderstorm complex to the right there. here is the closer zoomed inimage of this. this is where kerry is located in is marco island. you see them swallowing up the marco islands here. we'll go further to the north. let's give you a little distance tracker. the storm

storm is headed in the general direction of naples and it's so susceptibile to this flooding as the governor mentioned a minute ago they are expecting 10 to 15- foot storm surge along this gorgeous stretch of florida down there. the very wealthy area about 20,000 people in, 21,000 people in the city of naples proper but in the region which is southwest they're pulling into beach walk now in the region of southwest florida about 330,000 people now extraordinary growth over the past three decades or so and they are really about to get it there. marco island is to the south and west of there, beautiful stretch with a lot of tall condos and elderly people who live there and a lot of vacationers and great family place to go vacation but really tall buildings all along the shore in mark o island so all of that to take a big brush from this storm many hours of rain to come. the storm moving to the west northwest right now at eight miles an hour, so think how long with hurricane force winds extending 70 miles out from the center you could have hurricane force winds in that r

first the eye slicing through nearby marco island. then naples. this is the rain that is hitting me. wow. geez. just a few minutes after that close call -- >> it would appear right now we are in the eye of the storm right now. look how quiet this is. how calm it is. for some residents, it was anything but calm. we're in 234e eye. what's going through your head? >> if i'm going to have to home to go back to. >> reporter: i'm sorry, ma'am. across the state, other evacuees crammed into the 500 emergency shelters. but the roof of this massive one near ft. myers sprang a leak and lost power. officials insist the building is safe. >> helping one another in whatever way we can. >> reporter: kelly instead chose to ride out the storm at home with her family and her employees. >> it's scary, of course. i'm more concerned about the storm surge than anything else because we're so close to the beach. >> reporter: naples now recovering after being caught in the eye of the storm. there was a curfew in effect overnight, so many people have not been able to come ou

they started evacuating early in the week. naples is like a ghost town like it certainly should be right now. no concerns. just the aftermath. >> you have talked to the governor? you mentioned that he's asked the president to declare a state of emergency for all of the county, just to try to start the process of relief ahead of the damage even happening? >> right. and, yes, i spoke to the governor a few times this past week. and we were on, all. mayors and a lot of city officials, city and county managers were on conference with him with him for like three nights in a row. he's been doing a great job. but we're getting e-mails from state agencies, from washington, d.c., from a lot of places that are saying, hey, we will be there for you. when this is over. so, it's a positive -- it's definitely a positive sign. >> mayor bill barnett of naples, florida. thanks so much for joining us for a few minutes. we really appreciate your time. >>> let's check back in with sam champion. we spoke a little earlier this hour with you, sam. you've be

naples. live now in the extreme whether centers. three or four days ago you would've thought miami now it looks like marco island and naples. reporter: the national weather center has done a good job with the cone of uncertainty because it did show the west side of florida. the center were showing potential south florida landfall. i would say 50, 60 miles from the center offshore from what we were pretty dean is pretty good when it comes to predict emmys hurricanes. they can be unpredictable. you and i have been covering hurricanes for a long time and it certainly has the potential to go where we first thought it was going to go. right now we are pretty certain we will continue to see northward parallel track along the west coast. the tropical storm extends 220 miles from the center of the storm. hurricane force winds 80 miles. i'm not surprised steve harrigan is feeling tropical storm winds. a little bit of a wobble here. we will have to watch those advisories as they come in at 2:00 p.m. complete advisory from the national hurrican

the threat to naples, ft. myers, and tampa, on the west coast there was florida, now affected.he national weather service warning of storm surges of up to 12 feet in coastal areas. that's two feet higher than the previous estimate. first the storm is moving through the florida keys or has moved. locals warned that this may be last chance to evacuate. the outer bands of irma bringing gusts of 50 miles per hour. it will only get stronger from here. pictures from key west. back with us, meteorologist bonnie schneider. we'll get an update from the national hurricane center in 20 minutes. we already have information from their last update. >> as we get closer, the consensus in the forecast will likely get stronger. what we're seeing here now unfortunately for cuba, the e eyewall on the northern end, the battering rain and winds has not relented. it's getting hard hit. currently, the center of circulation in hurricane irma, a strong category 4, moving west at 12 miles per hour. there's irma, and look at this -- we are seeing the cloud coverage. even though it's nighttime, you can't s

thank you. >>> want to bring in the mayor of naples. city looks to get the worst of this. >> yes. it does. >> and what is your biggest worry right now? do you feel like you're ready in. >> i have felt like we're ready all week. as the week progressed, a lot of our residents, heeded the early evacuation warnings and, and left. and, we went into mandatory evacuation two days ago in the city of naples. and, um, i think -- as you were just talking about a minute ago, impact, unfortunately. people were so aware that this could be a reality and this could happen to us, whereas with wilma, they were lackadaisical. they just, yeah, we don't believe you scenario. with this, it's a great sense of awareness. we in the city, our city staff, emergency responders. everybody trained and everybody had plans from the beginning of this, which is, going on now, to -- through the storm and then, we have a plan in place, of course, we're not going to know what the damage is until tomorrow. probably. but, we definitely have a plan in place for cleanup. and --

the coast. conditions in marco island, naples, fort myers, fort myers beach extending north to tampa, st. te, the western shores of the state of florida conditions will begin to go downhill rapidly here over the next six to ten hours. here's a look at satellite 6 along with action radar, you can see the feeder bands wrapping around the center of circulation. it includes homestead, miami, west palm beach and fort lauderdale. all included in the watches now, they've extended it north and west into the tampa area as well. peak wind gusts, now, big pine key, we've had 120 miles an hour winds, that's the peak wind gusts so far, smith shoal about 94 per hour, marathon, 88 and fort lauderdale about 82 miles per hour. so what we'll do is take a quick look at future tracker 6, stop it at 3:00 this afternoon, marco island you'll see gusts around 125 miles an hour, and keys reporting winds gutting over 100 miles per hour and the evening hour, 7:00 fort myers about 98, mark still about 116, 11:00 same thing, gusts anywhere from 50 to 99 in tampa and by 7:30, we're still reporting hurricane force winds

thank you. >>> want to bring in the mayor of naples. city looks to get the worst of this. >> yes. it does. >> and what is your biggest worry right now? do you feel like you're ready in. >> i have felt like we're ready all week. as the week progressed, a lot of our residents, heeded the early evacuation warnings and, and left. and, we went into mandatory evacuation two days ago in the city of naples. and, um, i think -- as you were just talking about a minute ago, i think harvey had a tremendous impact, unfortunately. people were so aware that this could be a reality and this could happen to us, whereas with wilma, they were lackadaisical. they just, yeah, we don't believe you scenario. with this, it's a great sense of awareness. we in the city, our city staff, emergency responders. everybody trained and everybody had plans from the beginning of this, which is, going on now, to -- through the storm and then, we have a plan in place, of course, we're not going to know what the damage is until tomorrow. probably. but, we definitely have a p

in tampa as the days go on. reporter: naplesre they start getting the very intense when. it will be with them for about six hours. six hours in the keys for this before the strongest winds have made passÉ. the south side of the eye wall has moved on. then it moves towards the naples by late this afternoon at around fort myers. by tonight and towards tampa. tomorrow morning up around apalachicola and moving in towards south georgia. >> the concentric circles they show the entire state at one time with the hurricane force wind is something i've never seen before. >> this is a large storm. abby: thank you, rick. train for julian is in tampa as you heard. the storm appears to be headed that way. how is it working? reporter: everyone getting ready. most people got out of town the last couple days. no more flights if you're trying to leave this area. people are still out about driving around, hopefully trying to evacuate the area. as the sun comes up a good look at the day right now. an hour ago we had heavier rain that we saw some gu

in addition to the winds, the real concern in naples is the storm surge we talked about. now a storm surge between 10 and 15 feet and naples sits three feet above sea level. you could imagine the concern. well inland of salt water anywhere between 10 and 15 feet. as ginger pointed out, we cannot underscore this, this is something that can lift cars up and take them down streets and unfortunately can do real damage to homes even lift them off foundations if people don't heed the warnings. i talked to the mayor a short time ago who told me he believes people, even though the track changed 24 hours ago, that people did heed the call to get out. we'll be here all afternoon. dan and paula. >> that is the one piece of good news david. we know you're going to be there all afternoon leading our coverage and you are in for a hairy few hours. no question. ginger, not just naples, but straight up the west coast of florida. >> and includes the east coast. we have seen an updated storm surge of almost 5 feet in miami already, already and how far away miami is. i want to show you the w

we really saw the impact in naples. e city's mayor joins us now, mayor bill barnett is on the telephone. thank you for joining us this evening on the busy night. how is the damage in the city? how did you come through? >> well, from what i can tell, eric, it is not good, and you know the eye wall went through us now. we had that calm and then the winds started again, and it has now switched but it is blowing hard, it's still raining and the storm surge is starting. our main business fifth avenue south is flooded, and this is just the start of it. so streets are flooding. we won't be able to get out until probably sunrise tomorrow morning to assess the damage. the pictures that have come in, trees down, you power lines, it's about as bad as you can imagine without seeing it. eric: you have a double whammy, high tide late this afternoon and as you said the storm surge. killer surge, up to 15 feet. you have seen that yet? and do you think most of the people who were told to evacuate did get out? >> okay, i'll answer the las