trying to get them off palm beach and into a special need shelter here in west palm and then elsewhere in palm beach county. a huge challenge. a lot of ederle people did not want to move. the ones that want to are not easy to move. a short time ago i talked to the co-owner of an alzheimer's care facility run out of a small house. not really any bigger than these houses over here, and he has four alzheimer's patients, probably move them from that facility to another of his own facilities further inland in palm beach not necessarily to a shelter. he thinks he can take care of them better himself. but he's worried. they get scared, confused. only four of them. you're talking about a county full of elderly people a lot need special needs. if they go to a special needs shelter, there is one probably filled to capacity. they have to bring their caregivers with them, because there is just not the personnel there to take care of the special needs of the elderly. you know, wolf, there are hundreds of thousands of elderly here in palm beach county. >> certainly are and broud county, fort lauderd

west palm beach to the keys. and naples. that is where we have the hurricane warning for areas in red. bahamas. that is why so many cruise ships have discontinued the service or move away from the storm to stay safe. if you look at this cone from the eastern edge to the western edge the storm may go anywhere in the region. if you see miami it's not a direct hit on miami. as we move to the early morning hours of sunday we are talking midnight, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00. it could be a category four storm. winds upward of 140 miles per hour. this is likely to bring rain for us. the weekend is awesome. the race for the cure. early saturday morning. bright sunshine for the redskins game sunday afternoon. of year 83 degrees. keep you updated on the storm moving through the next couple of days. michelle: all right. thank you. the art of the deal with democrats. next, president trump worked across the aisle to fund the government and raise the debt limit. will the political fallout help or hurt his own party? michelle: president trump workin

west palm. they have the outdoor furniture piled up, tied together. there when the tide comes up, if the tide comes up and the wind blows. look at this. downtown west palm beach, thursday evening. usually busy, tonight is a ghost town. in west balm peach, brad bell, abc7 news. jonathan: that is good to see. 700,000 people under evacuation orders in florida. michelle: many are listening. this is the florida turnpike. it's packed with the evacuees bumper to bumper there. many of them are coming up our way. jonathan: we know that, northern virginia bureau chief jeff goldberg joining us along dale city tonight where he met floridians fleeing irma. you knew that because everywhere you turn the license plates were from florida. >> well, you absolutely said the trend is unmistakable. you come in the parking lot from prince william county. this is all you are seeing. the florida license plate. florida license plate. another one right there. everybody fleeing hurricane irma heading to see family and friends in the safety and the comfort in d.c. or t to stay away from the hurricane. many are relieved to get out of the storm's path. they are concerned about what is goin

this is a live picture in west palm beach.his is actually inside of a news conference we're waiting on the governor to give us a briefing on the storm so far and as he steps to the podium we'll bring it live. >>> in fort lauderdale, a tornado warning was issued. take a look at this video. appears to show a tornado forming, residents have been urged to stay inside and to hunker down. >>> a man riding out the storm in key largo captured this piece of video as the strong winds ripped off a piece of the roof. difficulty to see because of the heavy rain but we can tell you hurricane irma sustained winds at 130 miles an hour at the time it hit the southern tip of florida and you can see the trees practically horizontal from the force of the winds there. >> this is a monstrous storm. we have live team coverage for you. action news anchor brian taff is on scene with the latest >> bob brooks spoke to local companies heading south. >>> we begin with chris sowers tracking this all morning long, you have a look at the path and how much ra

in the meantime let's move up to west palm beach. jackie deangeles up near the west palm beach airport. >> reporter: good morning to you, sara. slam into florida, this storm certainly did. things are calmer on the ground now just before the sun comes up and while safety was paramount going into the storm, it also will be recovering from the storm. the sheriff's office here has told everybody in our hotel, everybody is staying put until further notice they want to get out there and assess the damage themselves and make sure it's safe to hit the streets. but you have a lot of evacuees in this hotel worried about property damage. take a look at this video last night. this is one example of a boat crashing into a sea wall obviously palm beach county is an affluent community. there's a lot of real estate here a lot of boats, for example, things that people are worried about, their personal property they're going to be in a rush to be able to get back and assess the damage themselves while the authorities just want to make sure that they're

in west palm beach we have a look at the conditions there. >> good morning. yes, we just got word moments ago that the tropical storm warning that we were under for the pa f that tropical storm warning was in effect only because of the strong wind and we are still getting some strong wind here in west palm beach. we drove up your from both the tone earlier because our hotel has been and is still without power for the last 22 hours or so. there was a lot of debris in the road. in some cases hold trees in the road, it was a slow drive to west palm beach. as you just mentioned, irma is now a category one hurricane and there is a sense on the east coast that we dodged a big bullet that west florida wound up catching. million -- over one million -- over 4 million people waking up without power. wind gusts in naples packed category 4 strength 142 miles per hour and on the east coast, heavy rain and coastal flooding here in miami. debris in the roads making travel slow, too. transformers blew statewide and are believed to have caused dozens of cars to catch fire in

"action news" at 5:00 returns in just a moment. >>> this is live from west palm beach, florida. t me show you how large this storm is, eye is over west coast of florida, west palm beach is on the east coast and on this part of the florida island, heavy rains and right now a tornado watch. they are contending with serious issues all across the state of florida. hurricane irma is being land fall twice today and within the last half an hour, it was downgraded to a category two. >>> with that said a crane gave way in downtown miami, it was being used at the site of the high rise building project of course, officials are blaming wind and rain from irma for the collapse. >>> this was the scene from key lar go, both breaking free from their docks at local marinas, blowing in the wind there, a very, very common sight this weekend all across florida. we will have much more on this story as "action news" at 5:00 . tonight at 5:30 we will continue to track irma as it makes its way up the gulf coast. >> before it made land fall just a short time ago as a category three, it has weakened to a

landfall in the florida keys on the west coast, the east coast still really feeling the impact of this monster storm. >>> irma's powerful winds whipped palm trees in west palm beache officials gave a stern warning to residents to evacuate and we're learning animal control had to rush up in that dangerous weather to rescue more than 50 animals not only left behind but had no way to escape. >> these are dogs that had literally the owners had gone. and they were left either in pens or in yards that they would not be able to get out of. or tethered or chained. >> animal control and florida state attorney said that those residents who left of their pets outside will be charged with animal cruelty. our coverage continues after this. fios is not cable. we're a 100% fiber optic network. and with the new fios gigabit connection... you get our fastest... internet ever. with download speeds up to 940 megs - 20 times faster than most people have. switch to fios gigabit connection with tv and phone for $79.99 a month online for the first year. plus hbo for one year and multi-room dvr service for two years, all with a two-year agreement. and switching has never been easier. ge

west palm beach, no cars on the road there. i'm glad, it appears people have been heeding the warning. and yes, isa and michael, the wind has picked up and so has these outer bands moving on shore. t only going to get worse from here. michael. >> just extraordinary isn't it, the sheer size of this storm. karen mcginnis thanks so much we'll check back with you shortly. >>> meanwhile irma leaving the island of barbuda completely inhabitable. 95% of buildings damaged one way or another on wednesday. at least one person died. we got some cnn drone video showing almost every house ripped over or completely destroyed damage caused right across that area. our team in barbuda says it is pure destruction and desolation, residence are in shock. listen to how some of them survived. >> i witnessed a hurricane before but it was never like this. this one it is worse and most devastated. done petitioner damage than any other storm than we and our life have experienced. >> my mom cry requested my brother wake me up. i was frightening i didn't

west palm beach is a little bit higher elevation. so they are, you know, not insulated, but they're a little safer than the people on the barrier island. >> palm beach as opposed to west palm beach, thank you very much. we'll get back to you. stand by right now the core of this extremely dangerous storm is passing near haiti. paula newt season over there, paula, what are the conditions like right now getting ready for this hurricane? >> reporter: we've had a few hours now of some fairly severe gusts with some rainstorms, but the worst is yet to come still for haiti, the good news is they're not taking a direct hit, bad news sooechb the southern edge of this storm could do catastrophic damage to haiti. this is one of the places that's most ill-prepared for this. wolf, local officials on the northern shore tell us look, we are not prepared for the storm, and not only not prepared for the storm, we're not prepared for the aftermath. critical supplies that were supposed to come from the capital are still not in place. people are not heedi

thanks so much from west palm beach.k in our live special coverage of hurricane irma just hours away from making landfall in the florida keys. be right back. it's time for some straight talk. when it comes to wireless plans, everyone is different. some people are big-time data users. others, not so much. straight talk wireless has plans of all sizes. like their newest. with the first 2 gigs of high-speed data for just 35 bucks a month. that's unlimited talk, text and data all on america's largest and most dependable 4g lte networks. big or small, everyone saves with straight talk wireless. best phones. best networks. no contracts. only at walmart. they always refer to me as master sergeant. they really appreciate the military family, and it really shows. we've got auto insurance, homeowners insurance. had an accident with a vehicle, i actually called usaa before we called the police. usaa was there hands-on very quick very prompt. i feel like we're being handled as people that actually have a genuine need. we're the webb

we're on a pier in west palm beach surrounded by water. ocean. the ocean is on to the other side of palm beach, that barrier island. that's vulnerable to storm surge. storm surges here could be several feet and once that happens all of this could be inundated up onto flagler drive over there on west palm beach, and what we have just been told by west palm beach and palm beach county officials is that in a little over two hours they are really going the start cracking down on a curfew, 3:00 p.m. eastern time is when they want people definitively off the roads. they wanted them off the roads hours ago, but starting at 3:00 p.m. eastern time they do not want to see scenes like we saw behind me here of cars coming by, people walking on the bridges over here. starting at 3:00 p.m. eastern time, people could be arrested if they are out in this. we're going to get tropical storm-force winds really within minutes. chris, another danger we of been monitoring and we'll continue to monitor as the storm hits tomorrow in earnest, those cranes over there

i want to show you one of the web cams that we have out of west palm beach. a look at the streets here, you'll see they're virtually empty. i am actually very happy to see that because that tells me either people are hunkered down, going to ride out the storm, or they have transitioned to another part of the state or they moved some place else across the state. that is good news. i take a look at the tampa tower camera. and you can see it shaking around. what are the winds? between 25 maybe close to gusts of 40 miles per hour. here is our european model. it has changed. it's been sneaking and creeping over more or less from the east coast of florida, sneaking over towards the west coast of florida. but it's only moved just a little bit. but it's enough to make a difference. but deponeon't concentrate whers going to go. nobody in florida is going to be unscathed. everybody in florida is going to see the rain and wind. it just depends how much. here is the american model. moves across the florida keys and is in agreement with the european model. we've talked a

this is west palm beach, incredible pictures live of west palm beach, the devastation that is occurringory four now category three, and that is also resulted in one researcher, a georgia-based disaster modeler, reducing their estimate of the damaged by hurricane irma to $49 billion. they said it could be $200 billion, but the numbers are moving targets as we have seen with the course of hurricane irma. guesstimates as you take into account the exports.gricultural florida is a key for this. billions of crops according to some analysts, we already have 2.5 million households that don't have power. looking at these pictures, you really are kind of hoping most of the people in west palm beach have evacuated. more to come. this is bloomberg. ♪ so new touch screens... and biometrics. in 574 branches. all done by... yesterday. ♪ ♪ banks aren't just undergoing a face lift. they're undergoing a transformation. a data fueled, security driven shift in applications and customer experience. which is why comcast business delivers consistent network performance and speed across all your locations. hel

also, jake, i just talked to one of the top fire chiefs of west palm beach. construction cranes that are right near here. you might be able to get a glimpse of one over my left shoulder, people have been very concerned about that especially since we reported that crane cracking in miami. the fire chief tells us they have just done a survey of these cranes. they're okay for now. they're monitoring them closely, but there are apartment buildings right next to these cranes some of whom in these apartments have evacuated. others have not. we're going to be looking at these cranes very closely. >> and let me bring in the past president of the meteorlogical society. what goes through your mind when you're watching this hurricane, hurricane irma. you've covered dozens of hurricanes. is this one more frightening than previous? >> i think with the population on the florida coast and also the number of people who have never experienced something like that, that's the danger. we've heard all the authorities taking the proper steps for prepation. but you can't prepare fo

palm beach. then you have west palm beach which is, of course, adjacent to it.coastline in florida. mandatory evacuations in place. a lot of people didn't want to leave. brian todd is there. he had been going around west palm beach and watching police go door to door. they're hoping that those efforts paid off. what's it like there right now? this is our first look at you this morning. >> reporter: chris, can you hear me? something cut out. if you can hear me, chris. we're in a very dangerous, very dangerous wind burst here in west palm beach. it's a very violent situation now. we're susceptible to tornadic activity all day long. our cnn weather team told us pop-up tornadoes are going to be coming all day long here. we feel like we're just about on one right now. this is flagler drive. palm fronds over here can be projectiles. they've been coming down all morning. we're really getting tossed around. we're in the northeastern quadrant of this storm which means it will be a very intense burst of energy of this storm all day long and that means pop-up tornadoes. we

you can see that west palm beach is canceled on jetblue, but if you are flying say it is -- is on timeg, that those are the lucky people to get out. we spoke with one man who said he had been trying for days to get out and that he was finally going to the at to miami because they canceled. take a look at these statistics, in florida alone 10,000 cancellations and in georgia the number jumped to 11,000. let's listen to how one passenger who finally made it out today described their situation. >> basically after two calls to american airlines and waiting an hour each time i had to find a flight from west palm beach to miami. a chaotic situation, i don't blame the airlines too much. everything going on, there's a lot of weather and airport issues. the airlines are still waiving fees, so if you are flying through the florida or the door, a lot of the flights will be canceled despite the airports reopening. guys in the studio. autria: as florida begins cleaning up, people in texas are still trying to rebuild after harvey. happening tonight, a telethon to help. hand, with big-name celebritie

tampa and west palm beach. still arriving and the folks getting out ahead of the storm. bustlalling baggage claim at reagan national airport. city folks arrive in the d.m.v. to get out of the sunshine state ahead of hurricane hurricane irma. >> no doubt. it's scary. west palm beach apartment and got on the first flight to be with family in maryland. >> it is still going to effect. it will be really, really bad. >> kevin was at a conference in miami and couldn't get out of south florida. so he rented a car and drove to savannah to catch a flight back home. >> i need a plan to get up out of there. there is nothing after 1500 tomorrow. >> to help people get out of the path, airlines like jetblue and delta added flights at airports along the hurricane path. meanwhile, thousands of florida flights have been canceled friday through monday. fran left to visit with her sister a week early. to safely get back home. >> mom was nervous. i know i was. i got to get home before the hurricane. my sister was a nervous wreck, too. she is a little nervous. this is her first time living in

may move further to the east, which could be more devastating for miami and fort lauderdale and west palm beach and boca as it moves up the coast. and then. these models are coming together, and that is definitely not good news for south florida. we will talk about the rest of the track and where we expected to be by early next week and how it could impact us. first we head over to brad bell, live in boca raton, florida. things are quiet now and a lot of folks are evacuating. family and friends have not chosen to evacuate for stop have you found that to be a common theme? brad: a lot of people who have been here a long time, they are staying. personally, the timing of the storm coming in the middle of the night, when the hurricanes come at night, it makes it that much scarier. the damage may be the same, but it is twice as frightening. there is so much worry with the storm. we are at the inlet at boca raton, where the atlantic kenexa with the intracoastal waterway. storm surge is something that we talk about. the water right now, starting to head out. t beforeabout 1.5 fee the water comes over

palm beach, that barrier island off the shore here, there's still people there. supposed to be evacuated. west palm beach, on the mainland where brian todd was, mandatory evacuation. people still there. you get the point. we know there are a lot of floridians watching. we want you to heed the warnings. we want you to make the right choice for your safety. lord willing you will all get to say, boy, did you have it wrong. i stayed and i was fine. i'd welcome that possibility. we all do because nobody wants to be right about something being catastrophic. but we do have to prepare. that's what we hear from the federal government all the way down. so we're going to take a break. we're between bands of rain right now. that's a window of opportunity for you to make the safety moves you need to. please, stay with cnn. [vo] quickbooks introduces jeanette and her new mobile wedding business. at first, getting paid was tough... until she got quickbooks. now she sends invoices, sees when they've been viewed and-ta-dah-paid twice as fast for free. visit quickbooks-dot-com. the world is not flat. you can't

palm beach. that is the barrier island. that mandatory evacuation applies to palm beach with low lying areas and mobile homes. they are trying to get people across the bridges to west palm beach, which is behind me. they have to get people across the water and over here to west palm beach. it's a challenge because a lot of people want to stay hunkered down. some think they can ride it out. authorities say that's a big mistake, get off that island. they expect five to ten feet of storm surge. what does that mean? the water level is five feet below where i'm standing. it's going to come up at least to where i'm standing maybe above it. the barrier island is going to be worse. they are telling people that they cannot procrastinate. i spoke to bill johnson, the head of emergency management here. he is worried about procrastination. he does not want people caught on the road saturday and sunday when it hits and going to feel the brunt of the storm. another huge challenge, here in palm beach county, not just getting people off the barrier islands and inland, but getting the elderly to safe places. there is one special needs shelter opening in palm beach county, in west p

brian, just in terms of storm surge, i know that had been a concern in west palm beach. have you seen any of that? is there water on the ground? >> i think for the most part they dodged that bullet here and we were told to expect flooding on flagler drive just to my left and your right from the intercoastal waterway. thankfully, that has not happened. the water's intense there and a lot of white caps and we're not out of the woods here yet and so far we have not thankfully seen the storm surge. what we have gotten was tornadic activity and water spouts have developed in the intercoastal waterway that have threatened inland in this area with tornadoes or tornado warnings just to the west of us and tornadoes that were spotted to the south. we're surrounded by tornadic activity and luckily, none have touched down right where we are, but it's close at hand. >> yeah. >> okay. we'll check back with you, brian. be careful with those winds. i want to go to tom sader just to get a sense of the time line of what to expect for the residents on the west coast and obviously on the ea

tampa by sunday morning and the winds up to hurricane force now to the north, almost through west palm beach and almost to port st. lucie and hurricane force winds would be not in the forecast. that is what we have to concentrate on because landfall is important, yes, we get that. look what happens. the entire state with the exception of the panhandle gets pummelled with tropical storm force winds. i don't think anybody in the panhandle will have a wind less than 60 miles an hour before all is said and done after irma passes. here is the track again. we'll start it now saturday at 2:00. 1:55, teetering on a category five, and then it makes landfall, again, early in the morning on sunday, and then takes a turn up the west side over florida so both sides will be affected, yes, the highest winds, more severe weather, and the stronger, higher rain fall amounts will be on the eastside. no one is going to escape in florida. look at the water temperatures it will run into warmer weather. it goes past nassau and cuba. waves not crazy right now. we're loong we showed you waves yesterday over 50 feet

jackie deangelis is working that story for us from west palm beach, florida good morning, jackie theower story appears to be the one affecting most floridans. >> that's right. because it covers most of the state. yesterday we saw more than 6 million people across florida without power. that number has dropped down to a little over 5 million people that's definitely a step in the right direction considering the fact that this storm just blew through. but sometimes it's the outskirts, the outer parts of the state that are the hardest to get to. crews not only have to get out and restore the power, but make sure that these wires are safe this is a neighborhood that didn't have power about eight hours ago. this morning, some of the lights are on and we suspect that they do. but, again, these safety impediments are something that crews have to work on. in palm beach county specifically, we saw a little over half a million yesterday with that power. that dropped about 125,000 but still, this is a massive project to take on and there are crews even coming from out of state to try to help wi

get across positive west palm beach where we are. 15 general shelters in west palm beach. none we know of in palm beach because they want people to get out. they're locking down this bridge so no boats can go through. a given. won't be boats on the water then but also manning checkpoints on these bridges. police checking to see if anyone coming across during the storm has proof of residence of palm beach. you don't have that, you can't get on to palm beach. they won't want anyone coming in just to see the waves. complicated process. trying to get people off this barrier island because the storm surge we're told will be about five to ten feet. i'm standing five feet above the water here and, of course, that means it's going to come up to where i'm standing and even higher. there's going to be wave action on top of that. this is a slightly higher elevation than over there. so they've got to get people off that island. talked about the elderly. that is just a huge problem right now. they're trying to get as many elderly people into shelters as possible. they have one special n

west palm beach and orlando. back to you. ( mark ) and take a look at these new images of the hurricane just released by nasa. on the top of your screen are the satellite images and you can see just how big this hurricane is. and on the bottom of your screen... those images show the intensity of the storm. the darker the color the stronger the storm is. areas near the eye of the storm seeing winds of up to 180 miles per hour. ( mark ) and we continue our team coverage this morning. james fletcher is here tracking the storm. (james)irma is a potentially catastrophic category 5 hurricane and will bring life- threatening wind, storm surge, and rainfall hazards to the northern coast of hispaniola today, and the turks and caicos and southeastern and central bahamas tonight and friday. hurricane watches are in effect for the northwestern bahamas and much of cuba. irma is likely to bring dangerous wind, storm surge, and rainfall to portions of these areas on friday and saturday. the threat of direct hurricane impacts in

west palm beach, late sunday or sunday night. orlando, across daytona beach -- wind gusts up to 100 miles an hour. very late sunday night into monday morning. monday afternoon, up to jacksonville, st. augustine, gainesville. probably 80 miles an hour to 10. then, gus late monday to monday night and up into atlanta where i think atlanta could get a hurricane gust for its wind. when i look at charleston, charleston is going to get strong northeast winds tomorrow but the maximum cost on monday may only be 56-60 miles an hour. >> sean: my friend, sheriff mike scott works for the county down there. you are saying 160-170, may be 180 miles an hour in naples, bonita springs, fort myers? >> yeah, when this goes ashore, if you're looking at category 5 hurricane -- what i most afraidn this year, the storms intensifying as they come to the coast. if you saw that with harvey, right? emily just developed. even though it was a minor tropical storm, it developed late in july. in people's backyards. the opposite pattern. >> sean: if you are on t

this goes from jupiter inlet over west palm beach, and these hurricane watches are for all of south florida, and we stopped the time here at sunday afternoon, and it will have a wind gust of 127, david. >> just incredible, and while we have you, ginger, we wanted to that drives the real danger here in miami and south florida. we know that miami floods easily. look at this tonight. if you had a 3-foot storm surge, those areas in yellow would be underwater. a storm surge higher than 3 feet, and watch this. the areas in red go completely under, and that's why they are so concerned here in miami tonight, ginger. authorities are trying to get the warnings out. >> reporter: water is one of the most powerful things, and this does not take into account high tide. high tide happens just after midnight, and just after noon, that could make the surge from 5 to 10, and make it 8 to 13 easily, david. >> bracing here in south florida tonight. ginger, thank you. >>> the island of barbuda taking a direct hit from hurricane irmany ma. more than 90% of the island homes and buildings destroyed and now hurrica

brian todd in west palm beach, thank you. florida officials are making a last-minute appeal to residents to evacuate or take shelter. governor rick scott, thanks once again for joining us. rick, how should florida residents and visitors be preparing at this last minute? >> so, wolf, if you can see the latest update, we're going to see more storm surge. people have got to understand, if you're in an evacuation zone, you should be very cautious, you should get out now, and you should get to a shelter or higher ground. get inland away from the storm surge. this is a powerful storm bigger than our state. it's going to impact both of our coasts. we all love our families. i don't want anybody to lose their life. >> when will it be too late to get out of the evacuation zones? >> when the storm -- when the winds start, you're going to have a very difficult time. by the way, when those winds start and we start getting the higher winds, nobody is going to be able to save you. so if you're in an evacuation zone, you need to get out now.

lauderdale, west palm beach scenario. we've shifted that to the southwest portions of florida, including ft. myers and the marco beach area. it's still going to be bad in miami beach, west palm, but this does not appear to be worst-case scenario anymore. you can see the menacing eye. that's closing in on the northern coast of cuba. they're going to get raked with it for about 12 hours. you can see a wider view. this storm just blew up so wide. not really the intensity. it didn't get more intense, but in size it's huge. the cloud field goes from jamaica, down here, to areas of the northern and central bahamas. soon those clouds will be arriving in areas of especially south florida tomorrow morning. so the latest on this storm, 155-mile-per-hour winds. if you get in that eye, especially the northeast corner of the eye -- and it's still moving west at 12. the further west it moves, the worse it is for cuba. we're going to wait and see if we get more turn to the north. the one saving grace for florida would be a weaker storm.

it's high tides tomorrow, you can see how on the right-hand side that's west palm beach how that could be flooded. if you go to the left-hand side that's palm beach. the barrier island. it's a slightly lower elevation. you can see how that can be easily and more quickly flooded with the storm surge so you get a sense of just on the intercoastal waterway here all of the water that could surge up on both shorelines here in palm beach county. and we have been talking about the construction sites over here, zoom in on the cranes. these cranes are tethered to the skeleton of that 14 story building but again, we'll watch the wind speed. the wind speed these things are not built to withstand a category 5. they would probably be in some trouble in a category 4. so it's going to be a little bit dicey watching these things sway in the wind. as we are saying the large horizontal booms at the top are designed to twist around in the weather vane. but we have had local residents tell us they're concerned. you have an apartment on the right-hand side, and another apartment to the left of another cran

bryan todd is standing by in west palm beach. how are things there? >> anderson, we're getting pounded with some of the early stages of hurricane force winds here. we're now in the window in the next several hours where we're going to get the most intense storm surge this area is going to see. the storm surge is just allowing the water of the intercoastal waterway to pound up against that walkway there. and the mayor of west palm beach, i justed to her on the phone, she told me she's really concerned about flooding. it's going to probably inundate this area where area. she's worried about this drive, flagler drive getting flooded. and the wind intensity has really picked up in the last 145 minutes. these palm trees are really starting to get compromised. palm fronds and coconuts are starting to become projectiles. they're flying all over the place here. and just below it you see street signs wobbling. and even these sturdy expansions behind me with the streetlights on them, are starting to wobble. so that's a real concern. we're basically in the windo

that's why they're trying to get palm beach evacuated right now and they're trying to get people across these bridges. we are told that in west palm beach, there are some poorer neighborhoods that are being evacuated, tens of thousands of people getting on buses to go to shelters on high ground. but a lot of people here on this street have decided to ride it out and they think -- they're confident in the structure of their houses, and they just believe that you know, they've been through this before and they can ride it out. that is not the advice that they're getting and it leads to another question, chris. are, you know, is the city going to be able to spend the resources, are they going to want to spend the resources to rescue these people when there might be other people in more dire need who are trying to get out but maybe kobt. tho couldn't. those are tough decisions. >> brian, and you put your finger on the exact issue that we keep hearing from all the officials. it's not that they're just making a decision to stay that is a decision for them. it's going to impact the first responders as well. our thanks to brian todd.

from florida keys on north, to west palm beach, all of our areas are at risk.et's hope it turns more easterly of the florida peninsula. >> mayor before i let you go, when was the last time you remember being this concerned for the safety of folks in hollywood? >> this has been the most threatening storm since the city suffered -- the whole region devastat del suffered a devastating storm in the 1920s with the huvg thrrica that devastated the entire south florida area. not since then have we had this threat. at least the hollywood area and, of course, keeping in mind andrew. >> mayor josh levy, thoughts and prayers are with you down there getting ready for irma. appreciate you joining us on this show. >> we're turning to a crisis developing overseas rather than here at home. in north korea. exclusive nbc news video of pyongyang's delegation at an economic forum in russia, accusing them of using economic meeting for dirty politics as vladimir putin hints that the trump administration might be willing to defuse tensions. ♪ there's nothing more important than your

this is -- pounding you up in west palm beach, getting me here in miami. of course, the worst yet to come on the west coast. back to the weather center now and chad myers. you know, chad, i just can't get over the duration here and the size of the storm we're dealing with. >> hey, john, you're half way done. how about that? that is scary, and that's why people need to pay attention to hurricane forecasts. i know how wet you are inside and out, whether you wear a waterproof jacket or not. this is blowing into miami right now, into kendall, all the way down to homestead, and blowing onshore and there's our brian todd in west palm. another batch of cells here, but the hurricane center just put out a warning, and they said, if you are marco, naples, everglades city, anywhere in this zone, you're about to get inundated with 10 to 15 foot of storm surge whether your water has been going out or not, get away from the water. get inside and above 15 feet above sea level, because the water is coming in. and it's coming in fast. john? >> reporter: all right, chad mye

west palm beach is almost as high at fort myers on the wind scale. everybody jump in, when a eye moves on shore like this, there's a couple things i want you to notice about that. we needed to get on land before it gets to tampa bay because -- and this isn't exactly my perfect scenario, i don't want it in the water passing tampa because that puts the strongest winds and that storm surge driving into the bay and that's exactly what we don't want to see. we need to get this eye on even before the forecast models show. yes it'll get hit by the hurricane, yes some flooding and surge and the wind, but i don't want it to get that right front quadrant. the other thing i want you to notice how now, look at all this splitting up. look at how the pink colors are not in one tight area anymore. they're spread all over the place. those winds are going to spread. so, fort pierce, at 53 miles an hour, orlando at 62 pirmiles an hour. look at see bring. it's wild, isn't it? the winds are going to be a problem for everyone. that's going to continue as it drives all th

hurricane watches from jupiter beach, north of west palm, all the way around the bend, pass naval to nita beach and in collier we will watch that. steadilys continue to keep a similar trajectory. the official track from the hurricane center. to thepay attention exact spot because the cone shows us the mathematical uncertainty over the years predicting how far off a projection can be in location. three or four days in advance. even though the west coast is .ess likely, it is possible the east coast and possibly out of the ocean and a couple of land falls. all kinds of things could happen. adrianna: thank you. people in florida are making their way out as irma heads to the u.s. and those expected to hit the roads may have gridlock traffic. flying is the best option. sam sweeney is live at reagan national where they expect sam: the airlines did an incredible job taking extraordinary measures to get more airplanes on the ground in florida early this week to get as many people out as they could. at $99.some fares if you are still there and want to get out, the window is closing. american a

joining me is dylan dryer, nbc's dylan dryer driving across west palm beach to the west gulf coast. dylan, what's the situation? >> well, hey, ali. you know, we are leaving west palm beach, which is where we were kind of hunkered down when the storm track was a little farther to the east, but we're not leaving because nothing's going to happen here. we're just heading to the west side of the state because we certainly do think there's going to be a major story in the tampa area if this storm maintains the track that it is. but as al just pointed out, it's all within that cone of uncertainty and the track of this storm is still not yet set in stone. but we are heading north on 95 right now. if you take a look out the front of the car you can see there are really not a whole lot of cars on the road. i think everybody has gotten to where they're going to be to ride out this storm. one interesting thing, you can't see and hear, but we've passed several billboards that actually had holes punched out in them because they can act like a kite or a sail in the wind. they definitely take in pr

joining us now from west palm beach is the governor of florida, rick scott. governor scott, thank you, again, for being with us this morning and could you update us on where preparations stand with irma making its way closer to florida. >> it is a massive storm. it can be devastating. you know, i'm a father. i'm a grandfather. i love my family. i hope every parent in this state and grandparent is thinking how do i protect my family? if you're in an evacuation zone you have to get out. you can't wait. the roads will get worse when it gets out, i've canceled all the schools, k-12, state college and universities to open up more shelters. they're good evacuation shellering areas. i just want everybody to listen to their local understand this is can be a devastating storm. it's way bigger than andrew. we saw the devastation of andrew. my job is to protect everybody. i want everybody in the state to be safe. >> it does appear, governor, that the people are listening to you and they're getting in their cars and they're having a difficult time still with the supply o

west palm beach seeing heavy feeder bands and torrential rains wind 50 to 60 miles per hour in south beach. later this evening, we could see tropical storm force winds affecting marco island and fort meyers and key west, 67 miles per hour. the storm makes the right hand turn and approaches southern florida by 5:00 a.m. key la are.largo, 75-mile an ho. the storm pulls away airntle. a little bit, the winds calm down sunday night into monday morning. we're talking about tropical storm force winds across southern florida. the winds are a big, big problem with the storm. it should push over sugarloaf key tomorrow morning between 2 and 5:00 a.m., a secondary hit around naples fort meyers beach area during the first part of sunday afternoon. when i come back we'll have more on hurricane irma. >> thank you for the update. millions are trying to evacuate southern florida by air, train or car, but frustration is running high as man are running into long lines and delays. "action news" anchor brian taff is in florida and saw the problems trying to escape a hurricane firsthand. >> reporter: ther

hurricane warnings and there are storm surge warnings up both coasts from ven nis beach and sarasota all the way up to west palm because they are expecting to have a large storm surge. it's been so spot on with this entire track. probably a lot of water into naples and fort myers and ven nis beach. it does the same thing. it goes more centered up the state and right over jacksonville. there's not going to be much in the way of relief. everybody is going to be dealing with this for quite some time. there's going to be a lot of damage. what we are going to feel quickly is a high risk for dangerous rip currents. and that is because all those big swells that irma is causing and behind it hurricane jose, those giant swells are going to come washing into the jersey beaches. 4 to 6-foot waves and this could be life threatening rip currents. do not go out to the beach. that's not the cooler than normal. low 70s across the area. fairmont, 72. allentown, 70. lank langhorn, a mix of sun and clouds. extra sunshine to broigt b your weekend. and wildwood at 72. 73 in newark. back to you. >>> tonight a purse snatching thief i

brian todd is in west palm beach. brian, what's the situation there? >> reporter: anderson, a real intensification here. the wind has really intensified to almost hurricane strength. what is adding to the campaigners here is we have been under tornadoes warnings just about all day. we're under one now. we're told but our weather team that popup tornadoes will be a threat. we to hang on to the railings just to walk around here. you can see they palm trees here under strain. over here is an illustration of the real danger here in palm beach. debris is flying all over the place. we've had palm fronds flying, and we've had to look up constantly to dodge them. power lines are in real danger a city official said the fire battalion is warning there will be zones they will not be able to respond to now. we're told we're on the dirty side of this hurricane, meaning the upper right-hand quadrant where the wind is pushing in from the east. that really starts to spur tornadic activity. pop-up tornadoes will threaten us all day long. that is another through here. t

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, all the way from sara soda to fort myers to naples, fort lauderdale, jupiter beach, west palm beach, widespread power outages. if you haven't left, consider that you would have difficulty food, you would have difficulty getting gas to operate anything, that you might lose power, that the roads and the infrastructure is going to be affect. there were so many things, such a long list of things that would be impacted and in your life that would lead one to believe it would be better to just get away. i still believe that whole shortedly. one, because it's still a category 5 hurricane. with the winds at hurricane strength through key west florida, up through dade, braer county, sunday afternoon

we've seen people with their cameras trying to capture things hopeful little before they leav west palm beach try to ride th. there's a different feel in the certainly getting closer. >> dylan, talk about the timing. there's been a significant change in the weather bre hind afternoon than earlier predicte. >> reporter:right. that the tra farther to the west, the timingt if it were to hit us, it would obviously get here sooner. that florida, it makes it seem like forward speed is still the same beach. after that we'll start to see some of the outer bands. see ho. those outer bands of rain will thunderstorms, possibly start to produce isolated tornadoes. conditions will rapidly deteriorate overnight and then tomorrow morning and into tomorrow afternoon it is going picture here. gusty winds up to 80, 100 miles per hour, torrential downpours because atmosphere is so humid, it can hold so much moisture, so you'll see those tropical downpours and that's picture here tomorrow. dylan, perspective, there anything co campen this, or are we bracing y possible? >> reporter: that's a good question. since

those are the areas along the intercoastal waterway in west palm beach where we are most of likely to experience storm surge. we have asked people to stay off of the roads tomorrow and sunday, and ploib into monday -- probably into monday as well so our emergency vehicles can have access. we are communicating with our public through social media and through you folks who are doing such a great job on television and radio. charles: florida has a history of dealing with these storms. but it has been a very, very long time. the lessons learned, are they being aplayed or is this a brand-new thing for many folks? >> i think especially in our area we have a lot of new people who have moved in. a lot of millennials coming to our city who never experienced a hurricane and perhaps are not taking this seriously enough. it has been a while since we had a major hurricane. 2004, 2005. we had a scare with matthew last year. but at the last minute matthew turned and went the other way. people maybe complacent but they should not be. this is a very serious storm. >> you talk about using social media

west palm beach and orlando.rk ) and we continue our team coverage this morning. james fletcher is here tracking the storm. (james)irma is a potentially catastrophic category 5 hurricane and will bring life- threatening wind, storm surge, and rainfall hazards to the northern coast of hispaniola today, and the turks and caicos and southeastern and central bahamas tonight and friday. hurricane watches are in effect for the northwestern bahamas and much of cuba. irma is likely to bring dangerous wind, storm surge, and rainfall to portions of these areas on friday and saturday. the threat of direct hurricane impacts in florida over the weekend and early next week continues to increase. hurricane watches will likely be issued ( mark ) and happening today... crews from p-g-and-e are heading to florida to help people prepare for hurricane irma.( darya ) that includes a crew from the bay area. kron 4's yoli aceves is live in hayward where the crews are getting ready this morning. yoli. ( yoli ) also happening today... cr

as they tornadic conditions start to impact here in west palm beach, we have to keep a close eye on that. you can see the strain on these trees. those palm fronds become projectiles in conditions like this. i'm going to toss it back to chris cuomo. >>> all right, brian, be safe and let us know when to come back to you. we have a crain in napl, so far so good. we have the city manager on. there have been gusts here reported in excess of 70 miles an hour. not a big deal, but we're also hours away from what was supposed to be the bad stuff. so there's a concern about the consistency of the beating and duration of the water and what that will mean to a vulnerable and low-lying area. let's get to chad myers. you gave me a piece of information of i checked with the city manager, you are right. they are seeing what looks like to be a wild phenomenon. the water seems to be reasseting. >> yes. >> you were right about something else. it fuels false optimism. what is the reality? >> the reality is that the water is getting blown out of naples, getting blown out of tampa bay, all of the rivers on th