cnn's tom slater's in the weather center for us. tom, this is a monster of a hurricane plowing throughout caribbean right now. what's the latest on this? >> you've said t perfectly, don't. we're running out of add jaefs to scribe it. when a meteorologist run out of those it's time to pack up. we've seen 32 straight hours that the system has been churning with winds at 180 miles per hour or greater. this is the strongest to ever impact the leeward islands. last night we were concerned about barbuda. in fact 1:00 in the morning, the prime minister said st. martin -- the foreign minister said the tallest buildings on the island are completely destroyed. we haven't heard from an gil la yet. if there's any good news i can find in the last couple of hours, we're not looking at a major landfall in the near future so we got maybe another 24 hours without one, it's pulling away from puerto rico. it's 70 miles away now. it's been undergoing an eye all replacement cycle. as it starts to strengthen again we're going to watch this system make its

tom slater appreciate that. it's one thing to see a major hurricane on the map, it's another thing entirely to see one up close. so many people tonight have that in more to contend with. randy k. with more. >> reporter: there was no mistaking the force of maria as t slammed puerto rico. >> this is the most devastating storm either in the industsuper fee or in modern history. >> reporter: first, came the winds. >> we are getting absolutely pounded here, that northern eye wall is about to come through here. constant wind. it's screaming and stuff hitting the building, we hear glass breaking. we are definitely definitely in a dangerous situation. >> reporter: then the water. an eyewitness captured these floods waters as they rushed through the streets of an island located on puerto rico's caribbean coast. one visitor shot this video from the floor of his holt room. >> we received 35 inches of rain which means the whole area, a lot of the -- and that's a dangerous situation. >> reporter: this video outside an apartm

tom slater in the weather center.he west coast, that surprised a lot of people on the west coast that had gone there from the east coast and it started moving. people in jacksonville saw a lot of flooding on the ground today. >> yeah, it's interesting to know. the forecast and the warns from the storm surge and the winds, it didn't encompass a lot of florida. if you tell swing expect flooding, sure they think three or four, 5 inches of flooding and then they get 30. when you talk about a category hurricane and a storm surge it's hard to fathom the damage. the damage cause for 3.4 million without power, fema went to five. we were talking about that surge coming into jacksonville and the radar was even hinting at the accumulation being heavy there with the surge moving in. didn't expect to break a record from matthew, of course the flooding in st. johns it's the worse since they start recording the flood records. the sitting of tropical storm irma is 125 south of atlanta. we have two fatalities in g and south carolina d

my colleague tom slater was talking about it earlier and tom meyer, that is there is going to be a hightampa. those are usually about 2 to 3 feet. that occur in the morning about 4:00 or 6:00 in the morning. and we'll see the wind shift. when that wind shift and it move on shore for tampa bay and clear water, st. pete and tar pa springs and knew port richie and crystal riffver you're going to see a storm surge. as been advised all along the very massive storm surge are at this point expected to be about 3 feet or so. but now that we've got the dry air intrusion along the southern edge almost anything can happen now. it isn't just that north eastern quad grant of florida, but also we're looking at some of the heavy rainfall moving in across jacksonville, into fbuford, souh carolina, atlanta georgia. heavy rainfall expected around atlanta. and in miami, there was so much rain that they have had water damage done at the airport, they are closed. september 11th. and it looks like they may reopen on limited basis on tuesday, that's yet to be seen. here take a look at this, the forecast rainf

our meteorologist tom slater with more. break down for us where exactly was impacted by this earthquake today? >> the 7.1 that took over 5,000 lives. anything that's within 42 miles is considered shallow. of course the closer to the surface the more shaky but if it's 75 miles south southeast of mexico city. typically we'll have 18.0 a year, that one came 11 days ago. we've had a few of those. are they related though, i don't think so. if you have an 8.0 like we had 11 days ago you can have one aftershock that's a 7.0 but it's nowhere near that map. it's well down the south where the aftershocks were. we got over 14 1/2 million with moderate shaking. strong over 15 million, 1.6 very strong and that means everything. whether you look at a 7.1 you can have one aftershock. that's ten at 6.1 and over a hundred at four. we'll see more damage unfold. the usg s in the computer models speck dated a 91% chance of fay taltz and we're in that area right now. as far as what we're looking at as far as maria another devastation story. how

cnn's tom slater is live for us. let's go first to paten walsh. nick, the eye of the hurricane is expected to slam into puerto rico within hours. what are the conditions on the ground right now? >> reporter: don, it's a full ten hours before we really see landfall of hurricane maria where they're reporting speeds of 175 miles an hour. that would mean you'd have to be well over 98 years old to ever see anything like this in puerto rico before. the last time they saw a category 5 was 1928. but the risk now is potentially the vast amount of water hurricane maria will bring with it. i am just close to the beachfront. there's no way you can see it now behind those houses. there's a potential of a storm surge of 11 feet. that's nearly twice my height, maybe 25 inches of rain in some places. it's the concern really the governor has about the huge areas prone to flooding and then, of course, what the impact of larger amounts of rain might do on hilly areas and land slides. they have some kind of warning, but don't forget hurricane irma caused $2 billion w

cnn's tom slater is in the weather center for us and that's where we're going to begin tonight. tom, this is a mon sfer itormon monster of a hurricane. >> it's time to pack up and head out because we've seen now 32 straight hours plus that this system has been churning with winds at 180 miles an hour or greater. we haven't had systems like this. this is the strongest to ever impact the leeward islands and last night we were concerned about barbuda. in fact around 1:00 a.m. in the morning, barely habitable. the french foreign minister said the four tallest billings on the island are completely destroyed, as well as most of the buildings. we haven't heard from akwquill . we're not looking at a major land nfl the near feature. we've got another 24 hours without one and it's pulling away from puerto rico. about 70 miles away now. it's been undergoing kind of an eye wall replacement circumstance cycle. we organizing itself. as it starts to strengthen, we're going to make the system make its way toward cuba and northward. they've moved it 60 to 70 miles from where it was this time last