Transcripts For FOXNEWSW Fox And Friends Sunday 20170910

Family. [inaudible] abby Hurricane Irma an hour away now from the eye of the storm making landfall on the west coast now bracing. Hundreds of thousands of the entire mayor. Sustained winds of 130 Miles Per Hour and could reach 15 feet in some areas. Others are forced to stay behind. Team coverage this morning. Pete with Griff Jenkins on the ground right now. Reporter in naples the wind is terrible. Its about 25 come in maybe 30 miles, but it coming and key west which is just minutes away from a direct impact with 130mile per hour winds are near to the west coast. They are hunkered down. Officials here describing it as a worstCase Scenario because you will have high wind combined with storm surge. The mayor telling me the biggest concern is storm surge. The west coast of florida will take the water row. Just behind me to bring it back in. Upwards of 15 feet above ground level search starts hitting here, it is going to absolutely flood everything and you do not want to be there. Thats what it is lifethreatening. Communications director for Collier County spoke earlier on fox news they need to hunker down because literally the shelters are full. Take a listen to this. We have 27 shelters open. I will say to millions on top of my head, the majority of them are filled up. Reporter guys come you know, right along the coast in 2005 come hurricane wilma bradleys storm surge like the one that is blocked in and flooded everything in its past. We will have a three parser to scenario in the next several hours are out today. One is the wind, then the storm surge following by the flooding. Catastrophic of my threat being. Get into a safe space along the west coast and stay high. A History Lesson as well on this day, september 10th in 1960, hurricane donna doing 130 per mile hour winds. It is here on the west coast destroying naples and the surrounding area in 1960. Incredible that have been 60 years ago. I communicated with key largo where i was a few days ago. He is safe and thats good news here. Coming directly for here. Abby thank you. Well be back with you short a period i imagine the conditions are a lot windy air. Reporter hey, guys. Im in downtown miami. Combat is water behind me. That is the flooded water. The third type of initiative. The wind is really around. If you could go to this coming you can see it coming from this way. The strongest weve seen over the last hour. This is why authorities are telling people we may have dodged a bullet when it came to knock in the eye. For 20 to 24 Hours Community circuit conditions we will be seeing and has been in miami and broward. Weve got localized flooding in surge in some areas. This is what we are seeing. Officials are keeping their guard up in the wind only getting stronger as they move through the keys and depending how close it gets to the west coast will determine how strong the winds would continue to be in south florida. Weve already had 250,000 people down here without power. That number is only going to go up. We may have dodged the bullet, but keep your guard up. 20 to 24 hours long will cause some damage. That is leveled out. Weve got some here. Coming in right now. They are being flown in. This is the type of sustained stuff we are starting to see over the last hour. Downtown miami. Resize window blowout over there. You see a little bit of it glistening. Even have this metro mover. Some classic pieces have fallen off the metro mover and of course that brings us down to this point. The branches connect anything flying it 30, 40 miles an hour becomes a weapon. Only imagine the large plastic wrap around the poles. We will try to show you once these go down. Its a dangerous situation. That is why they are telling people to stay in. It may be 150 miles away. It is a 400 miles storm and this is going to be the situation throughout south florida. Abby are you the only one out there . Can you see any other person . Reporter no. It is just us really, which is a good thing. A mandatory evacuation area. This is a side in the shops. This again, we did dodge a bullet that we have 20 to 24 hours and we can stay out of it at all. This is the stuff we see throughout miami, miamidade. A couple tornadoes and Broward County. Its only going to continue to get worse through today. The wind is kind of picking up again. There it is now. Trade to just briefly. You said 250,000 people at this point without power. Where is that going . Reporter thats a good point. Right now we are seeing transformers blowout. About a dozen times since weve been out here. 170,000 people without power in 76,000 broward. Im surprised we do still have power here. That is the situation. Remember what the power, this is going up and its a big storm. These people will be without power. We have to wait for it to leave forward in many cases. Until the winds go down to 35 miles an hour. So again, people need to remain patient and indoors. Weve had a transformer blowout in the back. That is the situation, guys. Abby please take care of yourself. Its not just a matter for the eye while his spirit every Single Person in florida is feeling the effect of this storm. Abby absolutely. Following this all morning long. What is the latest at this moment . 6 10 p. M. Eastern time. Reporter getting close. He is about 150 miles or so away from where the center of the storm is in the storm is still to the south. A long ways to go. The eastside of florida will get a ton of storm surge enough factor right now from South Carolina. This helps the cuban coast for 24 hours. You see these little jobs here. They kind of wobble as they rotate on in. The Center Getting right here towards the coastal areas are towards the keys. The worst of the storm surge will move over there very shortly. The radar picture shows the worst of it and to the south from right at the north of the alley anywhere to the south. Right there, and that is the outer eye wall and here are the keys, see and not moving him within the next hour or so. Its going to take a while to get over it. We will be seen as this moves then come in to key west pushing 133. Miami getting towards Hurricane Force towards this afternoon. Hurricane forces on the key is pushing 100 miles an hour in fort myers and naples by 5 00 tonight, still 110 miles an hour. Once the storm moves the storm is thin, very important to note. A lot of areas basically at sea level, maybe a couple feet above it. Some of our forecast storm surge going miles and land here. That is very dependent on exactly the issue where you are. One foot down, four to five feet higher will change where you are. Storm surge is big later on. It takes a long time. By monday night the center of the storm is somewhere over Central Georgia. Watching Hurricane Force winds as far north as up into what it is. Pete tonight is the peak storm surge. Trade made it depends on where you are. Naples, fort myers. Abby tampa. Its a very different thing in each position. In some spots water or pull away from you and then come back to you afterwards. Tampa bay is a good example. The inside of the day looking at first it has to move in one direction and all that even internally into the base. Every single spot is a different story and that is why in most cases your local forecasting is the best bet for you for that kind of specific detail. Abby thank you very much. We will watch this closely. Pete one of those scenes with just mentioned is naples, florida. Weve got the mayor, bill barnett on the phone. I know your city is under mandatory evacuation in naples, florida. Give us the latest on what you see on the ground. It is raining. It has been raining hard since last may. Its a little early to tell outside. But it just looks like its going to be one ugly day. 135. Im kind of watching it as well. 110mile per hour winds. I am like everybody else here. I dont think we will be running around the streets today. That is for sure. Storm surge is a major issue for us then maybe we will dodge the bullet. I dont know. Everybody is top the way and i can sure see it howling out here. The question is at the wobble encodes, we dont know. Thats been the toughest thing. Jon unfortunately, not everybody can dodge the bullet. How do you feel your residence did in evacuating . I think they did great. They did follow orders early in the week they started. Naples because the buyer winter resident that are here, that was a big help and for those truly in the week were on the road. About 28 shelters here in Collier Countys and had not heard anybody say they could not get in. They are still having an issue yesterday. Im thinking that its really a good thing. Abby we also had a number of people that. That was the safer place to be on the westside of florida that ended up going over to naples. Later on today, by 5 00 p. M. The wind will pick up to 100 Miles Per Hour. Of course you are prepared for the worst, praying for the very best. What is the worstCase Scenario . The worstCase Scenario weve been talking about is predicting storm surge. It was 10 to 15 feet last night. We dont know until we see it how much damage would be done. Thats our biggest concern. Rightfully so indeed. Essential Services Like medical services, hospitals. Are they open if necessary for those unsure shelters . We have our hospital is downtown. They closed and moved just north to the other facility because they didnt want to take a chance. They opened up rooms responders that need rooms. Here in the hotel and a couple of engine trucks appear. So they spread them out as needed. So far everybodys hunkered down. Abby mayor bill barnett coming thank you for being with us. We are praying for everybody. Thank you for being with us. Transfer back to downtown miami were bryan llenas is weathering the storm. Hey, guys. Ever since i started talking to you, it got even higher. Downtown miami, the stop sign is telling you about completely snapped from just the winds. This is just indicative of what we are seeing throughout south florida. This term is 150 miles away in terms of the eye. This is some of the flooded water we are talking about here. Again, we are starting to get water from biscayne bay which is 500 feet that way. You will see over here at the miami metro. The metro mover brings people in and out throughout downtown miami. What we have been seeing here is these things flying off. We are seeing miss. That is the dangerous part. This is a hard day at the thing that is dangerous about being out here. Luckily we had the same as slide any further. We see people in terms that underneath that 40 miles an hour coming back and do some serious damage. Surprising, this is the dad visited dad thinks we have been here and we got here at 11 00 last night. Trade to try and stay positioned as best you can. We were talking about wind speed, 40, 50 Miles Per Hour. What if it hits 100, 110 . How much worse would it get . Reporter i wouldnt be standing here right now. We would be seeing almost would be a lot higher. Storm surge. As a matter of fact over here on this end, you can kind of tell we are starting down. This again is the strongest winds weve seen. Hurricane wilma in 2005 and what was bad about that. Abby we want you to get to a safe place. Its looking pretty bad. Please go find a safe spot. Jon is rick pointed out, hes 103, 105 miles from the eye of the storm. Abby long way to go. A storm chaser and extreme meteorologist for the Weather Channel joins us now via skype. Where are you right now . Can you tell us what the conditions are . Key west and the eye is approaching from the east. Over 130 miles an hour here. I am on wall street here on the golf side that way. We do expect the storm surge to be calming down. Thats when the winds will ramp up 150 miles plus. That is going to be the next hour or so and will impact u. S. Tree into what you expect as far as water . Key west in the eye of this. The wind will pick up, i presume you are Holding Onto Something here. Mobile to do that longer. The water is a big concern, especially key west. And so we do expect that to come piling up the water. Northeast winds here, also a search on the. I can see on the road and homes will be inundated all over the island. If he did hold out and youre still here, hunkered down. It will be worse about 7 00 a. M. Abby i can imagine anyone else. You are very well trained for this, reed. At what point does it become too dangerous, the winds up to 100 Miles Per Hour come is that too dangerous as well to be doing this . S. , definitely. I will seek shelter in the concrete and that is when we will go up on the second or third floor. Abby that is where we connect it to surge as weve been hearing about, 10 to 15 feet of water . Gap in the maybe five to 10 feet of naples as well, ive are great the storm surge. Im glad you got a place to shelter in. Looks like we lost him. In the name of understanding these events, eventually provide the information. Pretty incredible stuff. Jon hurricane hugo was my first hurricane that hit charleston in 1989, category four. I am not awed by the power of this hurricane. I got out of my car in somebodys backyard shed blood and pieces of sheet metal go flying through the air. Thats when you know youve got to stay safe. Abby that was what was bryan llenas was saying. People didnt evacuate they can get very hurt. Julianne neeley, maybe calmer where you are, but not in the next few hours to come. Thats when everybody is expecting things to get tough. Image is a couple minutes ago where they have their eyes glued because they are wanting to see what is coming, right now we are right along bayshore boulevard here in tampa at the edge of tampa bay. Definitely raining out here, when its getting stronger the last time we checked in with you guys on fox and friends. An hour 20 minutes ago we saw a man out here walking his dog who is saying. This area floods pretty routinely conceding you are so close to the bay. You see waves crashing up over the wall. Considering the storm surge everybodys expecting with this hurricane, this is completely underwater. People are definitely afraid. The mayor says they are prepared. Obviously, we didnt have the runup in anticipation like the east coast it. Folks are pretty responsive. We live in florida and we know about these storms. We are doing what we can to get people to higher ground. The governor in the state of been great, reporter the majority of people have skipped town i will tell you that. People say we are happy we had days to prepare for this silly to get supplies if we are staying. The last plate blew out yesterday. At this point a finger at the point of no return if you are still here. You are staying here, hunkering down. We have seen a few people out and about. That is going to change and its going to be inside. Abby that is going to have pain. I did speak to somebody last night who went to one of the shelters. Where do they go . That is the problem. Not everyone evacuated when they should have. My grandma is right in the tampa area on oxygen. She cant get many places. A number of pets at home. Where you couldnt take those animals . Every situation is different. Harder than it often found to get out. Trained in the same mayor of tampa last night in americas news headquarters said everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. We are about to get punched in the face and well see what happens. Shelters are closed, people hunkering down. Nobody wants these things to happen. Those are unleashed when Mother Nature barrels forward. Abby absolutely. Time has run out for anyone looking to fly out of florida. Airports now completely shut down. Nearly 10,000 flights from around the country also canceled or delayed until after the storm moves through. That is exactly what needs to happen. You dont want any flights in and out of florida in the next couple days. The mayor of st. Petersburg, florida, rick price. Thank you for being with us. St. Petersburg ratepayer near tampa. Beautiful part of florida. Bill nelson yesterday said it might eat a scenario. What are you hearing . We are seeing this storm, right over us. We are concerned about the wind and the storm surge. We dont know how its going to impact us. Weve got a lot of areas that are lowlying and we are concerned about the storm surge. Pete weve heard some stories about shelters. What is your shelter situation . Do you think they would escape in a storm surge . Are they full . Have you turned anyone away . Weve got a little over 6000 people in st. Petersburg in our shelters right now. We still have people coming into our shelters countywide with the storeroom, we are just hoping for the past. If you havent gotten into a shelter, getting now. A couple days this term is basically forecast in the east coast of florida. Now you might read in the bullseye. People rethinking their plans, not too late for them to get out. It is not. If you havent gotten into a shelter, you need to take every opportunity to make it as safe as possible in your home. If you are dealing with the interior room, find as much soft material as you can put around it so you dont get hit by things that might be flying. Make yourself as safe as possible. We want our people to be safe. Abby paso weve been hearing from Governor Scott as well. Where christman, you were at our prayers. Thank you so much. Pete is hurricane karma continues to move towards the United States, every aspect we are tracking. Supposed to make landfall in less than an hour. Fox news channel fox news weekend. Dont go anywhere. Been trying to prepare for this day. And im still not ready. The reason im telling you this is that there will be moments in your life that. Youll never be ready for. Your little girl getting married being one of them. We are now hunkered down to wait out this historic hurricane. True to the florida keys to see the eye of the storm within a few hours. Right now to bryan llenas in downtown miami. You are falling over earlier. Tell us how things would be right now. We always had a safe corner here by three sides, we are not hated by wind right now. Well come for safety and now is the most important thing. The bottom line is south florida is very much getting hurricane gusts. Most people hear the authorities are saying dont look at the track. Dont look at anything. We will have 24 hours of what we are seeing, which is a ton of rain, a ton of wind that could cause flooding, it take down power lines. Souther radians get a sense of flight okay, you look at the column, this. Three or four. You get the sense you can go into the store because youve been there and done that. Thats just not the way people think at all. Authorities telling people this is a powerful form. No matter which way it goes, we are still feeling that. We want people to stay inside and heed the warnings because thats the bottom line. We are falling off to the metro with tornado. I think it is really important that people in south florida continue to act as though to stay indoors frankly because i dont want people to come out. People go into the beach and taking photos in that puts you in other people in a bad situation. You cannot go out on the road of the winds are 45 Miles Per Hour. No one is going to come out there. You shouldnt be driving in wins about that. We are seeing gusts in miami that are stronger than weve ever felt. I think its important people realize yes, its such a large storm and frankly going up the coast, the entire state with a bunch of what weve seen in downtown. We are still very close to biscayne bay. You dont know how much the storm surge in terms of what we will see here. This was a mandatory evacuation because there is the bay right there and people have sandbags and what people wanted winter storms came in was to be stuck inside the building with the floor of the lobby completely flooded. Which is why the curfew was put in place in miami beach in Broward County beginning at 4 00. They dont want people to feel like they can let their guard down because you simply cannot. This is an extremely dangerous storm no matter how far away from that you are. We need to just look at the sheer size of the storm. It is extremely dangerous. Tree into bryan llenas down on the ground. Transfer also very close on the causeway. Joining us now, miami herald reporter, its our understanding you are the keys right now. Where are you . I am in the heart of key west. Jon you are about to take a pounding. Yes, we are prepared for it as best we can. We have all of our plans in place about 8 00 p. M. Last night and we are just sort of hunkered down. We made plans. We at least figured some point, once it starts hitting us that we are going to get all the windows smashed out. We will end up moving to the stairwell, which is the most protected part of the building. Abby david, can you give a sense of what it looks like right now . You are inside looking out the window of your building. Actually its pretty quiet relatively speaking. Of course the wind is coming and all night. Right now it is kind of scary calm before the storm because we all know what is coming. If you look at the window, we only have one small window we can look at. The winds are bad. Palms everywhere. The house right across from us still standing. It is kind of like you are just waiting for big Freight Train to run over you. Tree into why are you there . And if the others are with you, why did they decide to say . I am here to cover the storm. I am from miami and i came down to write it out and cover the aftermath in the runup to the storm. A lot of people here are very connected to key west. They want to be by their businesses. They want to be by their homes and they dont want to leave. They are sorted independent minded and they thought they could ride it out. The important thing is a lot of people above ground pool be really bad. Im the first floor when the water comes. A lot of people, the shelter of last resort, remember a couple days ago they were going right up into the port of miami, which was very key west. It didnt catch everyone by surprise, but i think it would be a little cavalier about things at times. They escaped so many stories over the years and this time they really got the warning. There are still some stragglers out they are, but not many. Pete you said it well. A lot of independent types and they typically dont like to get out for these storms. So now that its headed and again it looks like, we will get with Rick Reichmuth in a minute, maybe 30 to 50 miles away from ts right now. You are going to be in the bullseye. Are those people regretting staying . I havent spoken to a Single Person regards to spain. Abby the wind speed and the surge is come a lot of these homes you think about in that area all around florida are not necessarily built for this. You have windows shattered, roots coming off. That is what is concerning is that you go home to surviving the storm, see what is left of your house. Yap, you say that because a lot of people want to be here so they can start rebuilding in helping their neighbors right away. The last one to see how. Another one we are with here get most of their employees couldnt get out, so they decided to stay updated and shut down all the employees. A lot of people want closer to home. Pete you mentioned the shelter of last resort. How many shelters or on key west and what kind of structures are these . Are they truly secure . A nightmare scenario could be a shelter that isnt high up above sea level. Are there any concerns about the shelters and how many people are in them . There were four shelters in the florida keys. Only one im key west and its built like a tank. It is built specifically to withstand category five. The officials really believe this is the best place for people. There were people there, hundreds just yesterday morning. Elderly people, a lot of dogs. A lot of people didnt want to leave their homes. And so dogs are left in the shelter. Remember, they dont have the provision you give people. A lot of people there had water, snacks and inflatable beds, yoga mats and everything else. Abby its really tough to take animals a lot of places. Thank you for being with us. Please stay safe out there. We now want to bring in Rick Reichmuth to give us a sense of where its going in at this hour. You heard from david that he talked to no one who regret staying in parts of key west. What would they say in 24 hours . Thats the question. If you havent had the eye of the storm come pasties yet. On another channel yesterday, someone in turks and caicos said it was the worst experience of my life. Last night was the worst being inside the center of the storm. Keep in mind we cover hurricanes a lot. This hurricane was out over 180 miles an hour sustained winds for three days. Longer than any weve seen at that strange. This isnt just any old hurricane. By the way, todays peak of Hurricane Season today, september 10th. Here is a storm. If you guys ever played with tops when you were a kid, the top spins, but then it starts to move like this. That is what these large storms do and not what its doing right now. Before it gets to the keys its made a waffle back to the right. Thats the other side of the storm, with the exact same kinds of winds. Coming from the opposite direction, speaking of storm surge, take a look at this video in the bahamas. Amazing thing ive never seen anything like this when i saw the video, ill. I think we have this coming. Im not sure. Do you know what im talking about . Here you go. That was the opening. This looks like saddam is. All the water pulls away from the coast before it comes back in. These guys are walking upon the ocean floor because the wind is so strong that it pulls all of the water out of the ocean. Abby what is the wind speed for it to do that . The bahamas at 160 Miles Per Hour. Thats enough energy to pulled the ocean out from the land. The water eventually thats how strong this when sorry. All of that storm surge water has come from somewhere. From someplace. Exactly. With all due respect to bryan llenas, you are sitting there saying we dodged the bullet and then it comes in. It lists away down all of that for a day. 24 hours from now we can decide to dodged a bullet, who didnt dodge a bullet, who caught it, who didnt get it the same keep the exact track of the storm. Gigantic storms. A looks a little bit like the idea of smaller. This can be a little bit this evening. It does expand and shrink. It gets a little bit clouded over. That is seen the satellite image coming down. This term is very well organized. Right now this image right here first ball lightning going on right around the center usually indicative that is stored is strengthening, not weakening. Abby near the eye of the storm. What you see right here is the eye wall moving writer. Todays lover communities. Key west is right here. They are just about. You probably know this is a crude joke he . They are getting hammered. The storm surge coming right now. This is the worst of it. When we are attacked a train taking measurements of winds come a lot of those get knocked down. What those winds are, eventually some of them come down to reports. All of this lightning happening right here is really concerning to me. Water is incredibly warm. The forecast does strengthen us a little bit. The strengthening storm has more pull in the up motion which creates more pushed down to where we experience those. Treat for you been saying this for weeks now. It is no joke. The eye at this time is now beginning to touch key west, getting very real. The worst theyve ever seen as weve heard from many people. We will be back with the break right after this. From feeling good out there. Get a free sample at depend. Com. Whats going on . Oh hey thats it . Yeah. Everybody two seconds dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance. Through the Tuition Assistance program, every day mcdonalds helps more people go to college. Its part of our commitment to being americas best first job. Love you. Love you too, dad. I will love you in the morning when the dew is on the ground will love you. Man hey, good luck dad, dad, your tie when the sun is rising pete welcome back to fox and friends this morning as we track minute by minute the path of Hurricane Irma. Some live shots from miami, florida. Bryan llenas with us all morning. Hes emphasized this from the beginning. Because the eye of the storm as it going up the east coast, instead just now hitting key west and going further to the west side. Does that mean florida is in effect the . We now want to bring in the share for polk county, florida, grady judd in winter haven. Central florida. What is your message this morning seeing where the storm is and what we can expect in the coming day or two . Im a native floridian lab then threw storms before. I can tell you this is the real deal out of storm. It is big and it is bad. You have to listen to your experts, to your Emergency Operations people because our goal is to keep everyone safe. When the storm is tracking like it is, for those of you in that area, they said yes if ms. In fits and spells, but i can remember charlie back in 2004 they told us was going into tampa. Like in a microsecond, they said its going to Port Charlotte incoming data across your county. We saw her with it damage on the east side of the county and we were prepping on the left side. You can never, ever say you are safe until the storm is all the weight on. Trailing train for this will start a key west, mark all the way up to state that the buzz saw, every one of florida touched by this. They absolutely are. The storm surge very important to remember because water kills. One of our local meteorologists said you hide from the wind, you run from the water. That is what we are trying to tell folks at the same, we are not asking you to leave these flood prone areas because we want to inconvenience you. We are asking you to leave because we want to save your life. We are doing everything we can to protect everyone. Trade you for the mayors are spoken to, we still see independent minded floridians that say we are going to hunker down, shelter in place. Weve been through things like this before. Do you have any advice for people who could go to a county shelter or stay where they are . They could not individual choice is a bad idea. Certainly theres plenty of shelter space and we encourage even at this time to go to a shelter if you can get out. I can tell you this. There are a lot of people that will hunker down and weather this storm and they will. Some will hunker down and weathered the storm and die. Its a personal decision you have to make. All we can do is warn you and give you the best advice and alternative so you can stay alive and safe. That is what our governor and Emergency Operations people have done for the last week. It is worth the extra effort just to make sure you are not on the edge. What if they have a huge operation . What is your office doing to take care of them . All throughout the state of florida we do have a large retirement population and we have made sure theyve gotten the message. We have special needs, so if you are a physician where you have to be on oxygen or have to have medical care. We have seen hospitals take people into the hospitals and give them more or less nursing home care rather than hospital care. Everyone is on board. You could look across the state from the hospital to private businesses to neighbors. You will see neighbor helping neighbor. That is what makes this sustainable because no one is than the sum of. We are all in this together. As the community of wonderful people, we will get through it. Abby that is when it matters. When the storm passes you wake up and see the damage done and you rely on the local community they are coming to neighbors. We saw that most recently with Hurricane Harvey in the state of texas. We love florida and its just as resilient to come together to rebuild and thats what theyll do after the storm. Youve seen that yourself. Absolutely. Its unfortunate we have as much experience as we do with storms and hurricanes. We have had three of them come through this county alone come in the eye of three of them in seven or nine weeks in 2004. We will never forget that. The storms they dont come here, we go to help others recover. Weve seen devastation from katrina all the way down through the south in upper South Carolina and North Carolina over the years. Its all about us working together. It is the biggest Small Community in the entire world and will always help each other. That is what is so special in the United States. Pete great message this morning. You can choose to stay, but that could also cost you your own life. Stay safe, sir. Thank you very much. Jon he brings up a good point. 2004 was the worst Hurricane Season ever in florida. Five major storms. With that state apart. No one is thinking about that because its all been rebuilt. You can rebuild a home, replace your couch or car. Abby i think you mentioned the photo of the Florida Service evacuating many of the elderly. You brought this up because its so important in the state of florida do you think of the Elderly Population mayor. Ive got a grandmother living by herself. Its not as easy as it sounds to evacuate quickly and this is when you see people helping out, homeport and that is. It also shows you what an all hands on deck operation misses. Im pretty sure it isnt to evacuate the elderly. They work in the wilderness and wild. In this particular case we dont need you doing that right now. We need to helping to evacuate citizens of florida. You understand this is something weve got to get done in realtime. Your new job is to help these. Jon Griff Jenkins is on floridas west coast. The sun is starting to come up there. How is it looking . Good morning. It is really not that bad and we are getting the first bands coming through 20, 25 come in maybe. The whitecaps behind me starting to get a little bit of light. As the sheriff was telling you, water kills in what Officials Say here is the worstCase Scenario is coming. Wind, water, flooding, as we saw in harvey, at least half were more does occur when people drove into water. In this case in naples, we are hours away from what is pounding the keys right now coming here perhaps more likely in the afternoon. High tide was about 3 00 a. M. Here. Coming back at 3 00 p. M. About the time the brunt of mobile start approaching and the storm surge is a grave threat because as they go out, they will bring it in. Storm surge happens first, flooding happens later. The folks know that from hurricane wilma that created a lot of flooding in 2005. It is still rife in angry back here. We will obviously be moving well before that happens. Earlier this morning, the Communications Director for Collier County top about the real threat, which is the storm surge in addition to the winds. Take a listen. We have gone through and made sure all of our storms range and everything we can to get the water to come in as best we can. They just had about two weeks ago some flooding for rain here. Is a day of hot a lot of rainfall, expect and 14, 15 according to meteorologist on top of the storm surge. Certainly flooding and Power Outages. It is pretty much empty as they wait for everything. I got an email a few minutes ago from the mayor here, bill barnett in his hunkering down and its too late. Officials say the 27 shelters in naples are full. You need to seek higher ground, stay away from windows if you decide to stay along the coast. Train to thank you so much. We will check back in shortly. This fox news alert at 7 00. Hurricane irma right now Just Moments Away from it making landfall and heading straight at the gold coast. Hundreds of thousands of people without power as the entire state braces for the worst of the storm that is 30 killed at least 25 people in the caribbean. Time now for evacuation pretty much over. Do not put yourself or your familys life at risk. Weve been very aggressive in our preparation for the storm and now it is upon us. Abby winds could top 130 Miles Per Hour flight threatening storm surges threatening to reach 15 feet in some spaces while millions have made their way and others are now forced to stay behind. Coverage this morning to those in miami. What are conditions like right now . They continue to come. They come, go, but they are driving rain. A howling night in miami dade, broward and Palm Beach County as the outer bands of hurricane come 130 miles an hour. The eye wall of irma is about to slam into the key west of the lower keys sometime this hour. It will be devastating without a doubt. No Emergency Services for now the second straight day. Once it gets through the keys, it is marching northbound to naples, sarasota, tampa bay. This would be a long day if not two or three days of driving, pounding rain and heavy, heavy winds causing a lot of damage. 6 million floridians directly affected by this. What does 77,000 people in shelters all around us they and Power Outages a major concern growing by the hour because we saw at least four or five transponders blow up in the sky. All of the keys pretty much a nun as well. Thats a major problem. Duke energy, one of utilities for florida could affect 6 Million People without electricity for days. Thats the thing. The storm is not going to pass through and go away and all of a sudden something comes out and everything is roses. Extreme amounts of damage, power out for weeks for a lot of these people. Its like a war zone. Julia neeley posted on social media power tracks down that direction. Not just going to be power lines. The power station leads to folks prepared sufficiently and theres a lot of folks in florida. Lets bring in now jeff flock north of naples, just south of tampa. What is it like where you are . You are hit hard as the day goes on. Charlotte harbor, you dont have to tell people in punta gorda to evacuate. They have been through this big time. This is the only Public Parking garage in food to board. There is not a space left. Everyone has put their cards in here because they lost then and hurricane charley lost their homes, too. This hit back in 2004 hurricane charley and that is a lesson for all of us. The top four hurricane that was not supposed to come to punta gorda. It was supposed to be much weaker. Maybe going into tampa. They took a turn, came through here. People were unprepared in mobile homes, left in their homes in this town was decimated. It is largely bad rebuilt. Maybe you can see the postal garage over there come the deal is part of delivering mail. It wont go through today. This is surrounded by water. Subject to tremendous storm surge, which is why we have a garage filled with cars. People got smart and that is what they are doing. If you have been through a storm, you generally decide not to stick it out again. It was a terrible tragedy in 2004. 16 billion in damage still in the top 1013 years later. Parking garage packed. Always a good place to go in a hurricane because its fairly solid. They hold a lot of cars with no power or water he might be sorry you stayed. Jon and frequently no gas because the gas station at the power to run their palms and a lot of them dont have generators. Reporter thats exactly right. You are going to be sitting here for a long period of time if you decided to stay. Thats where you want to be. Thank you so much. The hardest job you guys have is meteorologist is tracking because its so hard to predict. How do we get the right message out . People want to focus. It has big implications, but the impacts are widespread. But yes, very difficult to say exactly where the center goes. Windmill all along he would be hard to say exactly what the senate would go on the storm until yesterday when it would make that return. I had people messaging me saying i dont and its going to make its return. But where exactly does that happen . Right now it happened in the latest image right here going right over the keys right now. 130 miles an hour. Sustained winds going on right here. We also cant get pictures to you. A lot of our stations are knocked down, so we cant get that stuff to you. As i was saying, looks like key west to be on the west side of this. The winds coming from the north and the other side. There is a ton of wave energy being spread up towards the miami area. A lot of the energy will pull up over the next couple of hours. Tons to go right here. This is a capital for cat four. This is going to be a really big deal hitting florida in a storm that has been strong for a long time that is accumulated a lot of energy in and about 12 to 18 hours, there would be some wind that will break it down. That is great news, but we have a long ways to go in the areas will do it. Micro climate issues with the direction of the wind, and allegations of us assembled this torrent search did different times. Because the storm is writing up a good coast. Straight into the coast to be a much easier forecast. It is a much more difficult thing to see exactly where the storm surge is going to be. Because its not just a single point, all the way up the coast and because of this location, all of the wind on the east coast of florida coming on shore. We have storm surge warnings up and down the Florida East Coast and watch some warnings across South Carolina. A lot of energy coming in here and eventually a lot of rain coming in towards georgia and alabama. Above we have towards Central Georgia with waynes double topple a lot of trees with Power Outages here tomorrow night. Abby how important is it not to downplay the storm . Theres always people that it will not be as bad as you think. People have cap one, cat two it isnt that bad or they see it make a lastminute diversion. There will be some spot that werent as bad. But that doesnt mean anything. We wont know what those spot are for a while. Let me just tell you, everybody here is getting Hurricane Force winds at some point. Because its marching up the west coast, its actually pulling water away. Once the storm passes, that is when the storm surge will comment and catch a lot of people. The opposite of what we think come straight into some team, this is going to be different. Tampa bay, although bloggers and their moves from one side of the bay all to the others. Trade to the water has to go somewhere. Fox and friends updated by with what is happening across the state as we see right now hurricane burma has made landfall in the florida keys. Right now we are going to bryan llenas in miami beach. They are keeping a. How you doing . We are doing alright. These are the most serious winds we are seeing. Thats what makes them sustain. I would say around 20, 30 miles an hour. With you guys around 6 00, especially it just stays this way. Really fully showing just how powerful this is. They be 130 miles southwest of miami with sustained winds here. Documents over. For our friends in key west on their codes were just incredible pounding right now because we are so far away from key west and yet feelings so much of the storm and that is what will happen as it continues to move out. Guys, you can show the rest of this downtown miami. Biscayne boulevard with the flooding we talked about before actually moving a little further out. More flooding over here and starting to see more water pulled in by biscayne bay pulled in because its been really coming from the bay. Miami downtown surrounded. The water spraying in more than when we first got here. Pieces have been following, a stop sign paula. This is the gist. Downtown miami. The southeast part in south florida along Fort Lauderdale beach in hollywood in miami beach. This kind of wind and rain, downed trees, drowned signs, more and more people losing power. These conditions will be like this for a long time. Hurricane wilma back in 2005 when i was with my family, we lost power and was surprised how long we were without power. It was a category three, but that matters how long these winds and rain are in place. With these kinds of conditions, i am standing because we are protect it on both sides. These guys are pulling in in the trees, you can see it is remarkable, really here in downtown miami. Again, i think there was people letting their guard down a little bit. This is exactly what break and janice have been saying to hit florida. No matter how far away, you can see it here in downtown miami. Trade to work just kind of walked us through storm surge and why that could still be relevant on your side, on the east coast side of florida appeared where you are standing, while that area specifically be acceptable, how far it is going in. We are watching. I can give you the latest forecast, but initially they were talking upwards of five, six feet and frankly when you look at the forecast, weve been watching biscayne bay to see how much flooding is actually from the storm surge. This is a mandatory evacuated area in all of downtown. They expect it to come in here incompletely inundate this road. Weve been keeping an eye on it. We have a bailout plan. Right now more of the water blowing in from biscayne bay which is no more than 500 feet away from a on either side. Both tied up on the other side. You can no longer see because of the rain. The wind is coming from outside from the miami beach side and also miami just pushing this way. Theyve been really trusting those wins exactly that area. Keeping an eye on the storm surge. Up and down u. S. One, which is a state highway. Theyve evacuated so many people. So many homes talking about a storm surge that could come in miles. Once the storm comes then, another one we are not just talking about three or four feet from sea level. It is for your four feet of you standing on ground and in some cases five to 10 feet. Thats why its so important people heed those evacuation orders. I miami beach they were talking about miami beach being inundated. They said please leave miami beach because we will not get you. It is not dying out anytime soon. That is a completely dangerous situation. Weve been in a hotel with the plan to move down for the thirdfloor Conference Room. So we are sure that those people are now in the Conference Room no doubt if they heeded the warnings as to what the hotel was going to do in the Conference Room right now because weve got cranes all around, 25 cranes. They can take 145mile per hour wind. It is a scary situation when you see it they are supposed to move in the wind, still scary to see that. A dangerous situation with highrises here. Abby we want to make sure you stay safe out there. The mayor of tampa, bob alcorn in the heart of the storm in a matter of hours. Our thoughts are with you today in days to come. You were just listening to brian about the surge is in many cases talking about six to 10 to 15 feet higher than people in your area. What is your biggest concern . That is exactly right. They will sustain saturated here. It is the most concern. It will be a bad guy. My family has about you waited in the people who live in the flood zone. Although we havent been hit in over 90 years, we have trained for years to be ready for this day. But Bruce Springsteen said, there is no retreat no surrender at this point. We are going in after it, going hard. A lot people thought is stored wasnt coming in on this side and may have stayed behind when they shouldve evacuated. Are you aware of a lot of people in a position where do you think most people did get out . You are absolutely right. This is the storm projected to hit the east coast. We were ready to help our friends on the east coast and focus on what is about to occur to us. There will be people that try to hunker down. A lot of people in the last 24 hours relates how serious this is. As i drive by the city, they are empty and is completely empty. People have gotten to a place where they are on high ground. Here is that people need to know if they havent gotten out yet. You dont have to go to georgia. All you have to do is go to a different flood zone. It could be up the street. You just need to go to higher ground. Shelters are still located although it is sporadic. Find a friend, hunker down. When this is over, we will be there, but more importantly i need you to be there for a friend to neighbors. Abby this is the stance of tampa general hospital, one of the biggest hospitals in the area. Many of the elderly werent able to get out of their homes. People need assistance during the storm hit but after that. What preparations are being done to help people . The hospital is open. My wife is in ob gyn. A decade ago really hard and its with all the Critical Infrastructure up above new windows, basically a new structure that will allow it to continue to operate in this situation. They are roping. I need them to be functioning. The patients are getting great care during the storm. Obviously if you had to do it all over again, you wouldnt build a hospital on an island. Theres nothing we can do to undo that. Abby of people are in danger and need to get to the hospital, what is your advice this morning . If you have to go, go now. There is a bridge that leads to the hospital currently open. I cant tell you that it will remain open during the storm. I cant tell you the impacts. If you face a critical need, you need to go now, just like you need to evacuate the flood zone if you can get away. Pete you mentioned being punched in the face and read a quote that its a famous mike tyson quote. I wont have to plan until they get punched in the face. What is your worstCase Scenario . Whoever thought we would be quoting mike tyson. The most likely scenario is i think i have the wind occurrence. A lot of rain. A storm surge of five to eight feet. What would be critical for us is whether we stay on the good side of the storm of the bad side of the storm. If we are on the good side of the storm, we are a much better shape than if we were on the bad side. The push a lot of water into tampa bay and unfortunately will come inside, which would be tomorrow morning. That will be the level of the surge. That is what i hope happens. If we are on the bad side, i hope everyone will go to visit florida. Transfer your thoughts and prayers are with you in the coming days and weeks to come. Florida governor rick scott has done an amazing job preparing his state for what is to come and it is starting to hit florida right now. Governor scott, give us your assessment of how the yanks have gone to this point. Sure, and just had a couple minutes. As you know, our state is being hit right now. A friend in key west right now in the middle of being hit. Worried about the storm surge will hit my home town of naples florida but 10 to 15 feet above ground level will go over the coast all along the west coast with storm surge which is a real concern. The wind weve done before. We will lose power, have a lot of problems. The storm surge is absolutely deadly. We have prepared and theres never enough. We will do everything we can to keep you safe. My job is to help everyone. Will not spare any expense to keep you safe. Trade to any concerns or shelters . Concerns of some being full on the gold coast and we want to make a lastminute move. It is tough now. Winds are coming in. We have over 400 shelters open now. We worked all night making sure they had food and water. A lot of shelters in the last 24 hours because the track and going a little bit west. So i think right now it is tough to get on the road. All the traffic cams around the state. Most people off the road to hunker down. If youre getting close to the storm surge, i am really concerned for you. The big thing now is we need everyones prayer. If you want to donate, you can go to disaster at 202222 to do a 10dollar donation. Any volunteers for shelters, we will need to help distribute food and water. We will need volunteers to help us to claim that here this is a devastating storm for a stay. We will do everything we can to take care of everybody in our state. We know you are the busiest men in the country right now. In terms of medical assistant, theres a lot of elderly in the state of florida that need that help. Can they get that at the shelters . What is your advice on where they can go to get the help they need . We set up special needs shelters all over the state. We have been asking for nurses. We need more nurses to volunteer. You can go to help us sell to volunteer. We need more nurses to volunteer. People are volunteering more. Weve set up all the shelters. We have special needs shelters all around the state on call every day with nursing homes, assisted living to make sure they get all the services they need to help them evacuate. What is going on last night, we were on for getting evacuations done, getting resources, helping make sure we take care of everyone of those president s. Trade to hunker down as the storm moves through. What is your trigger point for search and rescue her followthrough . How quickly can folks reach out through 911 or other means to say i need help here . You could be reaching out. The problem is the First Responders cant get out in the rain and the storm surge. Not the rain, but the wind more than anything else did the storm surge cant do anything about that. If it is about certain wind, they cant get out. If you call them, they will figure out what they can do and how fast they can get there. In no place in the state will any expense be spared. Great First Responders called at 7000 National Guard members. I talked to President Trump almost everyday. He will provide every resource. Hes completely committed. We will do everything we can as this passes. The problem we have is this impacting both code so its made it work difficult to preposition nonsense. They are bringing in 23,000 individuals to help them preposition food and water around the state. We will do everything we can to rescue anybody that needs to be rescued. Train through it i have to go, but is your message to them most importantly you need to wait for the storm to pass to really handle that situation . Absolutely. If you cant get the utility trucks out of the wind and weather, i know the utilities are working hard. Im doing a daily call with all the utilities and since the storm hits will do twice a day calls so weak it as many assets in here as fast as possible. I know the power is important to people. I know fuel is important. Weve worked with the oil companies, gas distributors as fast as we can. Weve got to get people back to normal. The first thing weve got to do, survived the storm. Rescue everybody that needs to be rescued and start putting my respect together. Governor rick scott of florida, thank you. Hurricane andrew in florida all you have to do is go to the next county. Broward county, Palm Beach County. Electricity and air conditioning. This one will impact every single county in florida and its going to be a long time. Trade to every county is an island. Basically same hunker down, take control of your own situation at this point. It gives you a sense on the west side of florida, every part of the state of florida will be had. What are you seeing right now . This is downtown miami. Not miami beach. We are seeing the southwest moved coming from the southwest where the storm is in relation to florida. The wind is coming in through biscayne bay on my right, spinning around and on my last is sometimes feel like from over there it must be because of the building like the wind is bouncing off the building. You can just see. Weve got the stop sign behind me, which hasnt moved her i wouldnt be standing here right now. The wind is right there in flooding has actually gotten worse. What we are starting to see is initially the metro area right there. Now we see the wind pulling the water from this skein bag is bringing more water and. That means the flood on this side. It seems like the flooding will obviously extend out to biscayne bay, biscayne boulevard. It is a big roll of hard down here. You can no longer see because of the rain. I dont know if you can see this, but you see the down over there. Can you see that . Now the wind is really starting to pick up again. This is what we see throughout south florida. The type of wind that can tear down certain trees. A area with tons of trees, already down there. Power lines down. This has been a sustained way now for about that bad. Intermittent but not like this at all. About our in house ever since we started the show with you guys. Pete how much additional come in . It is starting to move more. I can just tell you. Hold on, one second. We are surrounded by buildings on purpose that we can make sure we are not the united many ways. I would say that right now we are about to see not just a little portion right here, but about 400 feet that way. I cant see much beyond that, but it doesnt look like the road goes all the way that far on that end. This is just a small portion of downtown miami. I can only imagine what they are feeling right now. A very big concern to make sure everyone got out of miami beach. With all those bridges to get to miami beach in downtown miami. They were expecting five to sixfoot storm surge. So yeah, it is just getting worse out here, not getting fatter. What we are seeing for the next 20, 24 hours. You were showing us to pieces on the ground. Also, have you seen in a shattered windows . You are in a popular area of downtown miami. You know, you cant see it right now, but probably rate air, the windows seemed to blow out. We havent seen anything else from this end. You can see the metro rail here. This is the metro rail that most people in and around downtown. They are doing it a lot more with the roof. We have been seeing the metro mover underneath. When i showed you that, it is the underlying that was coming down. These are pieces of plastic. It may not seem like a big deal, but when you come up, you realize how hard it is. Anyone can go out there and decide during a lull because we have been seeing gusts coming in before hand that some people come outside and decide a tree branch. This stuff is being thrown around. Pete we will go to great here in just a second. Be safe out there indeed. We are looking at it. You are in it. Is it cold, warm rain . What does it feel like there . Is absolutely cold because we are wed out here. Miami this time of year is humid. It is so humid you walk outside and you would sweat in a 10 minute walk. Its something youve got to get used to. You never get used to it. It is cold. It is freezing. The visibility has dropped by a lot. If you look down there, you will see the trees. You used to be able to see the condos all the way in the back up there. You can barely see them from the rain. Now it is really becoming rain in the last hour. Pete brian, please take care of yourself out there. The winds are picking up so quickly. Ime beach not too far away from where affiliates. Im sorry, phil keating is an miami beach right now. What does it look like . Reporter well, another kick of wind and rain pounding. The images of rain have fallen. More than four inches in the city of miami. I was like two or three hours ago and it hasnt stopped raining since. All day long for miami dade, broward, Palm Beach County cant even worse in the keys in it to west coast florida. The gulf of mexico side. The key west authority bed by the eye of the hurricane. No reports of an immediate storm surge. As the outer band swing around and goes up to the west side of the statement of the statement you said that the state will get a lot of storm surge anywhere from three to six feet. Certain roadways should be flooded. Not a day to be out and about. Curfew just expired miami and miamidade. No one bombed the street. Driving is very treacherous, very dangerous. Just driving and from the hotel, we thought at least three transformers blow up in the sky but the electorate blueeyed. One third of all of its customers have no power. They lost electricity. More than 400,000 households in duke energy also serves by the end of it, when its all said and done, 6 million floridians no, 1 million floridians wont have power. The storm impact them and threatening six floridians as the beat. This is not just a twoday event. This will be a multiple day event. The rain and wind first started hitting miami beach yesterday at around 4 00 in the afternoon and was a very howling and rain dripping night. It will be like this all day. Storm surge could come later today as well. Flash flooding is a major concern and tornado watches and warnings up all over the state. There was actually confirmed tornado last night at the Homestead International raceway in Broward County as well. This is a multifaceted weather event. None of it very pleasant at all. Back to you. Jon where you are standing will be underwater in all likelihood if that comes to sure the way they are predicting. Yeah, it all depends exactly how many. The bottom of the range or top of the range makes a big difference for not only this arena, that neighborhood in the windy city. Trade to thank you very much. Stay safe with everyone. Punta gorda in Central Florida south of tampa. We were with you earlier. It looks like the winds have already picked up. Yeah, we are down to ground level now. We just checked the radar. If you look at it, even though the most connection comes near the eye wall, there were others invented within this then you get a little bit of one now. The storm is nowhere near us yet. This is on the trail and that is the way it goes. I talked to you earlier about punta gorda having been through charlie and the tremendous preparation they make. Look at these sophisticated flood barriers. This is a steel barrier that keeps the water out and theyve even got gaskets. These are gaskets to seal against the water. When youve been through a cat four storm, ill tell you, you say im going to be prepared for the next one. Its really coming down right now. They are patrolling the streets, but you dont see activity. Another Police Vehicle up there. Most of this is fair to say has pretty well evacuated and its a good team because we are going to get a whole lot of water. This town is surrounded by water. Next hour perhaps we will go to the bridge in Port Charlotte, which yesterday was dead ground zero on the wind coming through. They tell you not to focus on the line, but you are in the line you might focus. It is now shifted a bit west, but that means we get the more intense at kennedy but more people still out. Theres a few, but like i said, they are heading to 75. This is a road towards 75. I wonder if theres some people that said i was going to stay. Maybe im going to rethink this. 75 is so thin. It surprises me to see how many are still on behind jeff flock. The power lines are not going to last in the other thing that happened is the stoplights. Stoplights are often the first thing to go down if they dont have power or if they do have power they are often not done anyway. We try to get back on the roads all across florida in the next couple days. That is never frustrating, right . Abby that may be the least of their problems. We now want to bring in Griff Jenkins whos been in naples all morning long. How are things picked up there . Is picking a. Hundreds of miles away by wind gusts. We actually saw a couple people walking on the beach and thats very concerning. Collier county has now officially declared an emergency and instructed residents to shelter in place because conditions have become such that you should not be traveling and we heard repeatedly hear that the shelter, 27 of them reaching capacity. If you decided to stay in hunker down, you need to do things to get you safe, which is to get the high ground if you get away from windows and make sure you are not in a structure that could collapse on you because the devastation the storm could bring to this area but they direct it will be catastrophic. Catastrophic on three levels. The wind, storm surge and flooding. The governor was talking to you guys if you days ago. Upwards of 10 to 15 inches. Vo should get a new lover behind me. Five feet 10. 15 feet away over twice my head going into all the buildings in 2005, hurricane wilma backe are flooded back in. As we saw in Hurricane Harvey in houston, the most dangerous part of flooding is getting in your car. You get quickly to floodwaters. You are trapped in going to die. Do people the two people on the beach, hopefully Emergency Management. I couldnt tell. They were a ways away. While it is windy, it is certainly rainy and will get significantly worse throughout the day 24 hours from now. Could be one of the most catastrophic event in quite some time, guys. What a powerful visual c. The low tide is out if you are talking five to 15 feet, two to three times over your hard at that point. Much higher than many peoples homes. The waters going to go straight over many homes. Thanks a lot, appreciate it. Rick is tracking the latest location. Much of the storm hitting south florida. Reporter the keys, which is a tiny island chain not there. I will do absolutely nothing to it. This afternoon it does weaken a little bit. The storms will move in and help a little bit, at least not florida but we still have Hurricane Force wind. A lot of energy on the east side of the storm. Waves also have a big difference based on the ocean shelf. You dont get as high a ways in the golf because it is just that very flat fee that you can walk out in a very different thing. That energy is pulling him towards the miami area and will be very concerning for us. We will see the storm surge moving in in the center of the storm just crossing the keys right here getting pummeled with this. The line of red right there is the strongest we have of all of the winds. Anywhere from key west, and that is where we see the worst of the storm surge. We talk about the past and everybody focuses on that. The forecast calling. This rate they are her wins at major hurricane strength. Tropical storm force winds. Watch what happens throughout the day today. This is why this is so concerning. The major Hurricane Force winds potentially all the way up towards cedar key. The storm continuing to pull up towards the northwest. This is just the very beginning of a very long event. We will see this wouldve been to georgia, alabama, South Carolina, Power Outages. Abby whistle click would talk about places like naples in tampa as the days go on. Reporter naples as per your four hours before 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 passe. 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 ive 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 youre 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 gusts of wind and its calm down a little bit. We are and to see the rain picking up throughout the day, the next couple of hours. I want to tell you where the conversation about 5 00 this morning with a man walking his dog across street. He said its been so chaotic because as you know the storm was initially projected on the east coast and then shifted west to know everyone here is that to get ready. He saw neighbors fighting, it was so out a nervous. About four minutes ago a man was walking two dogs down the street. We said are you staying and he said yeah, i just had my home hurricane proofed 18 months ago. He was literally right here across the street from the bay and area that regularly floods. Not that it will flood on the 15th floor. I said are you comfortable staying there . He said yeah, we have food. We are ready to go. Obviously not a good idea to stay in the storms especially that close to the water. People have told us they will be worried about the winds. They said look, you get what its like when you have pigs flying, methodist and projectile. People in the area are scared as they brace for the worst. For those who decide to stay behind in the area, if they change their mind as theres still time to get somewhere . What are you hearing about shelters . Yes, in this area this is a mandatory evacuation zone. I will tell you we went to a shelter last night. I want to bring this on my phone to show you. The website has a list of shelters right now and on the website you can see it tells you which are still open, which will take pets still at this point, which are capable for those with special needs. The bottom you scroll down a ton of fun. We went to a shelter last night that was taking pets. It was completely full. We said can we talk to a couple people can see how people are feeling and they were so busy with the crisis they said right now we cant. What happened is that someone coming into with special needs are they couldnt accommodate them. Trying to figure out where to send them. There are still places. Utilize websites. By for us in tampa. We will catch up with you soon. Trade to disarm is obviously followed a long pass, part of what went through the caribbean. Were talking about the power of that path and water. It will flood in one place, leaves another. All the water that piles and come and that means theres water someplace else that isnt there. The video that came out as one of the most striking videos ive ever seen of the sea completely gone people walking on the ground underneath what was the ocean. Take a look at this. This is long island in the bahamas. Im not sure which island. You probably know that and i dont. That is the seafloor. There was ocean water they are. And now you see this guy walking around. The mornings holding votes that wouldve been there. All of that wind if you have 180 Miles Per Hour wind pushing in one direction, also pushing it in the other direction. They were walking out and not on the ocean floor, completely void of any water they are because of the energy of this wind pushing back away. Pete do we see that anywhere in the United States are the coast of cuba not just income about . Ive never seen that happen anywhere. Its hard to imagine. Googles coast of florida is a shallow sea. Pushing away from the coast of the water before it comes back in. Other low spot on my patio. I take a broom and sweep it off. That is what happens in these hurricanes. The wind takes all the water and piles it up against the shoreline. Thats exactly what it is. The worst of the storm surges are a parent vi. It is from wind pushing the water in piling it up. As you end up in some cases a 30foot storm surge. But also by the way depends on the ocean floor and exactly how that piles up. Thats exactly what this is. Train to this is something ive never seen before. I actually looked a little bit to be like mib income to your. It seems completely unreal. Abby thank you so much. Well be right back. Michael brennan, chief at the National Hurricane center. Thank you for being with us. What is most concerning as you have a better sense of where the storm is headed when it comes to florida . With the florida keys actually right in the eye wall right now with peak 130mile per hour winds. Wind gusts of 90 miles an hour here at the Weather Service just outside the core of the eye wall. Conditions are much, much worse further reused up to mile marker 40 on u. S. One. The worst of the storm surge will be happening right there on the eastside of the icon with the icon of the strong winds driving the ocean water into the lower keys. Five to 10 feet of storm surge above ground level. Lifethreatening surge where people were asked to leave the keys. Anyone who left there needs to take shelter from the winds but be aware the water is coming up and will stay up for quite some time. 10 to 15 feet is a pretty sizable variance. What makes the difference between five which may not be deadly in five to 15. Type can be deadly. You dont want to be floating around in water up to your shoulders. In the southwest part of florida between captiva in senate bill island, the gulf of mexico is really Shallow Water so that piles up in these regions. As irma goes by on the westside, the winds are coming from the northwest to push the gulf of mexico onto the land here and pile the water up in at the very for storm surge. You can see out the warning goes to fort myers in cape coral. That is where we can see the peak surge. In the tampa bay we can look at five to eight feet and theres millions of people that live in the tampa bay area along the oceanfront. Everyone here a little further north has time to prepare and get out before the Tropical Storm winds earlier today. Trade for National Hurricane Weather Center. Busy day. Thank you. We will bring in phil keating in miami beach is the winds pick up they are. Still. Reporter john, these are really moving if you are standing around and you shouldnt even be outside today at all. Its very dangerous. The wind is very strong. By jimmy dade county bordering on the 60s and 70s. So far reported in the storm in Miamidade County 70 miles an hour. Also Fort Lauderdale yesterday. Seven minutes ago. A Tornado Warning has been issued in Miamidade County for a patch of land in neighborhoods they go from miami beach to miami guard in pembroke pines. Right now there have been numerous counties put on warnings and watches as this all began in earnest late last night around 8 00 with the first will have the wind and rain weve been through miami and Broward County. There was a tornado blasts that is a mall crowds were spinning and broward. That will be a day long if not today long concern. All of the tornado the swirling brain bands and wind bands category four, category three in Hurricane Irma as we speak as she marches up. The bottom of the eye wall has crashed over as the center of the storm had the western part of the state of florida. Millions of people in the past. 6 Million People estimated to be totally impacted and threatened by this storm. Up to a million household will lose electricity over the next couple days. At least 400,000. Households have heard he lost. Florida power light, already says one out of every three of its customers had lost electricity already. Abby phil keating in miami beach, florida. And its just beginning from what we hear. Bryan llenas and downtown miami beginning by some of these winds. Our things right now . It is still going. A little less right now. You can see them right there. The winds blowing 350,000 people at last check in Miamidade County without power. That number increasing dramatically over the last two or three hours since we started seeing guys at 70 miles an hour in miamidade with winds of 45 miles an hour. You are really feeling it out there all morning. A sense of where were standing right now waiting out there in this windy. Underneath the awning that is just built. We are actually above ground, too. We have a bailout plan out here being reckless. We have been seeing this. The roof on the metro a little bit. Weve seen the water coming in. This has been flooding and we keep seeing the wind coming in. We can see this game day and we havent seen the water over it all. We have just seen over here, right over there that is the water. We havent seen that kind of come over. Weve seen it blowing in and all of the flooding. You can see the flooding there, but we have seen some waves right now. That is how close we are to debate. With their crashing a little bit, blowing in. That is the first time weve been able to see that shot because weve been out there all night. Starting to get a little more to as to what is out there. Back to you guys. This is what is we are experiencing in Miamidade County for hours. That is why this is such a powerful dangerous storm regardless how far away you are. Downtown miami all morning long. Jon we are bring you pictures of places that havent been so badly hit. Abby not many people are there lesser storm chaser. Transfer would be hard to get a signal on in those kind of conditions. Somebody there earlier in key west. We cant get the signal out. You cant get that information. Tornado watch in effect. A couple of warnings. One north of miami to the east of tampa. That will be the ongoing story here. Keep in mind we have hurricane warnings in effect throughout the entire state of florida. Anywhere from the south, anywhere you have the bad goes all the way up towards albany, georgia up to tip in. Just to the west of apalachicola where we dont have that. Take a look at the Tropical Storm warnings all the way towards the atlanta area. Pete u. S. A. Pollster the key county are the key thing they are looking at. What would be the key ingredient the american computer model that is one of our more like models. It is still intensifying the storm. Not bigger, that could be getting stronger. It could necessarily get any bigger, but the water is still pretty warm. Wont happen, so we have time to strengthen. A cat four storm on the westside and hitting so many cities. It would be better if it was a straight shot with a lot of damage. This will cause a lot of damage to a lot of people. Abby by the time it hits tampa, still a terrible situation. You have been on this for days now. Thank you for your abby thank you for staying with us, were going to keep it here on fox news. Peter our own Shepard Smith has continuing coverage all day long. Do not leave the Fox News Channel. Shepard its 8 a. M. In south florida, im Shepard Smith in new york. Its time for an update from the National Hurricane center. More than 850,000 people are without power in the keys, in the miamidade area, Fort Lauderdale and Broward County k. Now lets get that update. Good with morning, everybody, this is mike brennan with your 8 a. M. Update on Hurricane Irma. You can see on radar the eye is about to make landfall in the lower florida keys. The lower florida keys from key west all the way through big pine key have been experiencing the northern eye wall for the last hour or so. Just outside of the western end of the strongest part of the eye wall. Were starting to see winds pick up across the upper keys, mainland south florida, gusts of 7580 Miles Per Hour in the miami metro area. Storm surge is going tock strongest going to be strongest in the keys right on the east side of the eye. During the day today we expect the center to move across the keys and near the southwest coast of florida, producing a very dangerous storm surge here, and then the center of irma should move up near the tampa bay area by overnight tonight and early monday morning and inland across the big bend of florida and into eastern alabama and western georgia as a strong Tropical Storm on monday night and tuesday, and then they expect remnants to move up into the tennessee and ohio valleys by midweek and become a rainfall threat. The big threat today to is going to be storm surge. This area from cape coral to cape sable has a risk of seeing 510 feet of storm surge as the winds from irma pile water into this very sensitive area along the southwest coast of florida. We could see 58 feet of storm surge inundation farther north, in the tampa bay area. Everybody along the west coast of florida should be evacuating if youve been told to do so by your local officials. Once you get north of lake okeechobee, you still have some time today up here in the west central part of the florida coast to evacuate if you have not yet done so. Please heed any advice you get from your very dangerous day ung for the florida keys, florida, the west coast of florida. So everybody, please, Pay Attention to updates on Hurricane Irma throughout the day. This is mike brennan at the National Hurricane center. Shepard thats live and the latest from the National Hurricane center. They do updates every three hours during hurricanes, and thats your 8 a. M. Update. Im going to give you a little idea about where we are now. The eye of the storm has come ashore right in the middle of the keys. Heres miami, heres naples, heres the whole key chain. This is key west, and the storm is east northeast of key west. So theyre on the back side. So key west is getting winds coming in this way where big pine key, marathon are getting onshore. We dont have a lot of resources down there. The national Weather Service has a monitoring station at Sugar Loaf Key which is right here. So just, you know, a few miles up from key west. And that is down now. Not a lot of reports coming out of key west at the moment, though we know this entire county, threequarters of this county is without electricity. Miamidade, generally speaking, in the miami area more than a half Million People without. The thinking is that this storm is going to keep skirting up the shore. You saw what he was saying about the eye remaining just offshore. Past fort myers with heavy onshore flow, lots of storm surge here, and then eventually making landfall, they now believe, somewhere in the tampa st. Pete area, but they really dont know for sure because a 20mile wobble one way or the other would be the norm. That wouldnt be unusual. And when you move 20 miles one way or the other, that could change the world. If this storm comes into the south of tampa and ends up putting tampa on the dry side of the storm, you have one thing. But if the storm comes in here and straight up into tampa bay, these lowlying areas in Hillsborough County around st. Pete, around the salvadore dally museum which, by the way, supposedly can withstand a category five storm, this areas all very vulnerable and, frankly, this entire coast. Their getting it concern theyre getting it pretty bad in miami. I just got a notice of the highest water ever recorded in biscayne bay. In miami beach, of course, let me move over to this other map. Biscayne bay right here and the highest water level recorded in any hurricane ever just happened. Unofficially, they say, from the national Weather Service. Unofficially right about here. Phil keating is on miami beach. Exactly where is phil . Hes on the 7 9th street causeway. Heres south beach for those of you familiar. Surf side. This is the city of miami proper. 79 9th street, hes on the miami side of the 7 9th street causeway. This is where our local television station is. The level above sea level, theyre at zero. So no feet above sea level. This will flood, and theres our television station right there on the water x well check in with them later. Lets go to phil keeling whos right about there. Phil, hows it looking . Reporter well, its dreary, its miserable, its a terrible morning to be outside. Everybody should stay inside, absolutely. Definitely stay off the roads. Driving tease pretty treacherous drivings pretty treacherous. This is the biscayne bay, of course, Pelican Harbor marina, and so far the boats are rocking, but we really havent seen any of them sink here, but they have sunk elsewhere overnight. The real heavy rain and wind bands first started impacting miamidade and broward last night during the 8 00 hour, and all night overnight it was a howling night. Howling night of winds and driving, pounding rains. Take a look at the trees. You know how these outer rain bands of a hurricane go, they come and they go. Youll be in a deluge, being punished and pummeled for a while, and here comes another one. More strong winds coming right now. The power is the big concern among most residents here. Aside from trees falling on the rooftops which is certainly possible when youve got winds in the 60s ooh 70 60s and 70s. So far the highest weve seen recorded in miamidade is 70 mileanhour one and at Hollywood International airport as well. Its going to be a very long day. Duke Energy Projects possibly up to a Million People before it was all said and done would lose power. Florida power and light, which handles much of the south part of the state, theyve already said one out of every three customers has lost electricity. We saw transformers blowing up, lighting up the sky this morning as we drove over to this position. Its going to be a very long day for miami beach. The storm surge is going to hit the beach in the next several hours up to 35 feet. Thats going to flood streets, and thats going to bring in a very real danger since overnight 8 inches plus of rain have fallen on key biscayne alone, more than 4 inches have fallen on miami, the city of. So this is going to to be a daylong rain event, a lot of damage. Nobody is supposed to be leaving theirous house. The cur tier few went from roughly 7 and 8 p. M. Last night to 7 this morning. Thats now expired, but consider out still in effect, because nobodys leaving. No ones going out in this. Its absolutely treacherous and very, very dangerous. And its going to be a very long day here. And, of course, theres actually a Tornado Warning in effect right now for miami beach up to hialeah, miami garden, out to pembroke pines. Be there were several possible toappeds spotted last night, one confirmed at the Homestead International raceway down in south Miamidade County. And these are going to be happening all day long. Those tornadoes get spawned by the outer rings of the hurricane. And this irma, she is a monster, very big. At least three times the width of the peninsula of florida itself, maybe four times. And its going to be a long march north all the way up the coast and the state, shep. Shepard phil keating, just up the beach, hollywood, florida, and our local station with a live report out of there right now. Lets listen in. Bad, really bad. All right, scott, lets show em what were looking at. Were looking east on garfield street in hollywood off of a1a. Its blowing pretty good here. You know, its funny, but news managers and directors have told me over the years you sports guys are pretty good at doing news, at doing hurricanes, and thats because all we do is we describe what we see. We describe the action, and there is plenty of action out here to describe. Not only you all right . You okay . Not only are we seeing trees blowing, but we are feeling the winds, and more than that we are feeling the sand coming off the a beach. Finish we must be 100 yards back, maybe 203 yards back. Were getting pelted with sand, it feels like little needles just keep pelting us in the face, in our eyes. My face is full of sand now, my hands are full of sand. Its awful. We can also hear, besides the wind, besides the wind, we can hear the movement of trees. Craig, youll know this from being up north. When you put a piece of dry wood in a fireplace, you hear that pop, you hear that crack . These trees, of course, are wet, but when they bend, you still hear that same crack. You can hear wood cracking in these palm trees. Oh, man. You know what im going to do . Im just going to hold this microphone out. Tell me if you can hear this. You know what, i talked earlier when i was on ft. Lauderdale, and i had a wind gauge at the time [audio difficulty] it just kept going. I cant imagine what this wind is like. I cant accurately count how many hurricanes ive covered. Its got to be six, eight hurricanes. This is about as bad as ive been in. Oh, man theyve got stuff blowing around. Maybe well try to get back into, into the garage here, scott. Its blowing pretty good. The only thing is when we go inside into these garages, sometimes in the garages the wind tunnel that it creates inside the garage is actually greater than the wind outside. Shepard thats live from hollywood, florida, through the facilities of wsvn7, the news station in south florida which has been on the air for days with constant coverage, and we certainly thank them. For those of you watching on Fox Television stations across america, well have continuing coverage throughout the day, into the evening, night and first thing tomorrow on Fox News Channel on satellite and cable. We want to return you who are watching on your local stations to your local programming. Im Shepard Smith, fox news, new york. And now continuing on Fox News Channel on satellite and cable, lets go back to hollywood where weve got this live report coming in. Again, this is Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International airport. Thats where this is. Its very near the miamidade and Broward County line, and i believe Craig Stephens is anchoring from wsvn7 in south florida. Not just from the wind. Did you lose the audio . No, youre there. All right. Not just from the wind. Im talking about walking against the wind. Not just from the wind, but were walking into flying debris, and were walking into sand, and were walking into rain. So you cant see, so its not just the 60 miles an hour of sustained wind or the 86 mileanhour gust. You can see what this is blowing like, this is from the beach west in hollywood. But its also you know, what your eyes can focus on shepard yep, a difficult thing to do especially in that blowing wind and rain. I want to show you where this thing is. Were going to get to Rick Reichmuth in just a moment. This storm is going to sit offshore, fort myers, cape coral, naples down to the south and then head north and inland. Rick reichmuth live from the extreme Weather Center, thats next. Marie callender knows that a homemade turkey dinner can make anyone slow down and pull up a seat to the table. Thats why she takes the time to season her turkey to perfection, and make stuffing from scratch. So that you can spend time on what really matters. Marie callenders. Its time to savor. But can also loweresterol, your bodys natural coq10. Qunol helps restore this hearthealthy nutrient with 3x better absorption. Qunol has the 1 cardiologist recommended form of coq10 qunol, the better coq10. Choicehotels. Com. Badda book. Thats it . He means book direct at choicehotels. 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Dont drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. Those whove had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. With less pain, i can do more with my family. Talk to your doctor today. See if lyrica can help. Shepard Hurricane Irma, continuing coverage on Fox News Channel. Live here in the city of miami. Driving around, this is northeast Miamidade County, im told, or northeast miami, i should say. It is a howler of a day there, and consider that this storm is off the other coast. Its coming up the west coast of florida, and it has already hit the florida keys. The Forward Motion is so slow that its just going to sit and spin as they say in the Weather Center and could deliver hurricaneforce winds for as long as 12 hours, Tropical Stormforce winds longer than that. Carol stroud are is riding out this storm in key west and is live on the line with us. Carol, what can you tell us . How are things there . Things are pretty rough. Its rainy and scary. Shepard where are you . Be im in the Senior Citizens building on kennedy drive, and its safe, you know, were safe here. But i feel for other people out there. Shepard do you have electricity . Yes, we have generators, uhhuh. Shepard have you lived in key west for a while . Ive lived in key west all my life, born and raised. Shepard compare this to others that youve experienced. Its no comparison. This is the most extreme storm ive ever seen. Shepard you know, i always get concerned with conchs because theyre close to their boats and the lifestyle, and often they wont leave. Many residents have stayed behind sometimes with their boats. Do you know people like that, and how much concern do you have . I know a lot of people have stayed. My family, you know, i have four uncles and an aunt that are down on [inaudible] hopefully theyre okay. But, you know, ive got two sick uncles in there, but theyre being taken care of and, hopefully, theyre okay. We dont like to leave. Shepard i dont blame you. Why did you decide to stay . Well, my dog is one of my reasons, because hes never traveled in a vehicle. And the traffic and the gas situation on the road, and i e really dont like getting on the road. Id rather be stuck here than on the road. Shepard well, carol, our local station, wsvn7, is driving along the causeway that connects miami to miami beach right at 79th street. These are live pictures. Its not as bad up in miami as weve heard it is down there. What have the winds and rain been like for you, carol . The wind, it was really blowing. I took some videos. Its on my Facebook Page if anyone wants the check it out. And its crazy. Crazy out there, thats all i know. [inaudible] shepard we dont want you to go outside and put yourself in any danger. If you have looked out already, what did you see out there . Were getting a lot of water on the roads, a lot of trees are down, big trees. Over in does over in the Housing Authority area, theres trees down, and i cant really see because the rain is so thick. I cant see past the school. Shepard this is video, for our viewers, this is video that carol shot for us that actually is on her facebook. Carol, it looks when was this taken . This was taken this morning. The latest one was taken this morning. Shepard how much damage do you think around there . I think its going to be devastating really. You hear the rooster . Hes crowing. Shepard carol stroud with us from a Senior Citizens center. Youre in key largo or key west . Youre in key west. I want to get to key largo now. Our own Adam Houseley is live for us this morning. Good grief. Morning, adam. Reporter yeah, shepard. The rage of the storm has hit key largo. It started with 30 mileanhour sustained winds yesterday morning at around 10 a. M. , and it continued to get worse, we were up until about 3 30 on fox news, and that at that point its sustained winds of 5060. Now, were in a protected area, were in a cat fiverated, threestory hotel, so were kind of off the wind, if you want to take a call at that for a little bit. Just look beyond us. Even five feet beyond where im standing, you can see trees snapped. Theres one tree thats got to be about four feet around and about 15 feet up, it is snapped absolutely in half. You can see the power of irma as she comes ashore. Also, again, after being battered since 10 a. M. Yesterday morning, the wind meter i have shows gusts of 7580 miles an hour when i put it out, and the rain just blows significantly. We know also about midnight yesterday we went across the island. Key largo, its about a mile wide at the area where were located. On the ocean side is where we were yesterday. We went over there around midnight last night, it was already under 3 feet of storm surge, and that was way before the rage of this storm has come through. Were on the bay side is right now. The bay water hasnt come up yet, but were still getting it from the easterly direction, shepard. Shepard how many hours of in this kind of thing are you guys expecting, adam . Reporter theyre telling us we could have another 12 hours, and we havent had power for, gosh, well, 10 30 yesterday morning it went out for us. And it has just been nonstop wind. Weve been in other hurricanes before, you have as well. You dont usually have it for this long unless the hurricanes stalling off the coast. In this case, the hurricane is just absolutely blasting the keys. You saw a couple people here at the hotel. There are a few folks that could not get out, could not get a flight. And ill tell you, what they decided to do was find a category fiverated hotel x this owner decided to stay open and help those people. Other hotels did not do that for the liability purposes and also the unknown. At one point key largo was where the eye was supposed to cross. We havent seen reports in the last hour, but were going to be close enough, obviously, to get horrific conditions, shepard. Shepard Adam Houseley live wuss, i want to show with us, i want to show our viewers where you are, we believe this storm is just to the east northeast of key west. Its traveling at about 8 miles an hour, and in the general direction north northwest. So headed, generally speaking, in this way. This is naping, everglade city, sort of the southern Collier County. Completely evacuated, im told. Our understanding is theres not a human being in everglade city. Marco island is just up from that. Lots of highrise condominiums and hotels along the beach. It has been a victim before. Then up to the naples area, pelican bay, north naples, bonita springs, cape coral, sanibel island, captiva island, its on the way. Michael brennan with the National Hurricane center this miami. Exactly where is this eye now . Right now its just to the east of key west in the vicinity of big pine key. You can see the northern eye yall right here wall right here. Thats where those peak winds are, and the eye is just is about to to make landfall probably in the next hour or two as it wobbles across the keys here. And, you know, thats where theyve seen those peak winds. And this storm surge is going to be greatest right on the east side of that eye where its pushing that water up over the keys. Thats where were going to see that 510 feet of surge above ground level. And on the west side of the eye, key west is going the see the strongest storm sungar from the gulf side surge from the gulf side. Its going to be a rough day. The upper keys are in this big rain band, i wouldnt be surprised if it contains sustained Hurricane Force winds beginning to impersonalimpinge e southern part of florida now. Shepard whats the science on the track . Whats ahead for us . Were moving north northwest and expecting that motion to continue but pick up its forward speed as this is a dip in the jet stream thats going to sort of pick irma up and pull it up here. Because its moving parallel to the coast, our forecast would have it moving somewhere in the vicinity of the tampa bay area, but if it moves a little to the right, it could make landfall near cape coral, if it moves a little to the left, it could be all the way up here into big bend, so hundreds of miles of difference with just a slight shift in the track. Everybody in this hurricane warning area needs to be prepared for the possibility of the core of the hurricane moving over them today into tomorrow. Shepard i remember back in 05 when wilma hit as a cat three and then the year before as a cat four, the tracks were not similar, but you had a better idea of where they were going. With this one, a little east of fort myers is one thing, a little west is another. Same with tampa. Yeah. This area, as you know, is very sensitive to storm surge, especially from captiva all the way down to cape sable where we could see 1015 feet of surge, and thats why they had those big evacuations in collier and lee counties. We could also see surge of 58 feet up here in the tampa bay area and even 46 feet all the a way up into big bend. A big risk for storm surge, and the wind threat is going to encompass, most of the state of florida is going to see wind gusts up to Hurricane Force and sustain Hurricane Force winds along the west coast and even just inland. Theres going to be a lot of wind damage that everybodys going to have to contend with after irma goes by. Shepard before we let you get back to it, michael, as it heads north, well, now north northwest s is the thinking before it makes landfall next,9 it remains about the same, gets stronger, gets weaker . Why . Were expecting it to remain about the same. The sheer is going to begin to increase, the upper level winds, so that should cause it to slowly weaken, and once it makes landfall, itll weaken more quickly, but were still expecting it to be a hurricane near the georgia border. There are actually Tropical Storm watches and warnings across much of georgia, alabama, even parts of tennessee. Wind and rain hazards from irma moving inland late her the week. Shepard Michael Brennan from the hurricane center, certainly do appreciable you and your appreciate you and your colleagues. I want to show how viewers where this is. These strengths over here, you cant pay that much attention to them because we dont know exactly where the storm is going to make landfall. Everybody knows the storm uses the fuel, this really hot water and its very hot in the gulf off southwest florida. It will either come in somewhere around fort myers, captiva, somewhere up north of there in the tampa bay area, but wherever it is, its many, many hours away. And the worst with side of the storm yet, a round storm, that Northeast Quadrant is always the worst part of the storm, every storm. Or to the upper north and right, whichever way its moving. In this case it would be northeast. So that whole coast is going to be battered from sunrise the sundown tonight. And the question is where does it go ashore, because thats where the worst of the winds are. Two big storms in 2004 and 2005 in southwest florida, there hasnt been a major hurricane to hit the tampa bay area since 1921. And before that was back in the 1800s. When the last storm hit in the tampa bay area, they called it the tar pin springs Tarpon Springs storm. This were 10,000 People Living in the tampa bay area. Thats the last major storm. Three million live there today. Since 1921 theyve gone from 10,000 people to three Million People. This entire coast is heavily populated now. There was a time when between naples and fort myers you had these open stretches of roadway along i75 or along highway 41. No more. Its all grown together from naples to fort myers and all the way up the coast. And what this day will bring really remains to be seen. Our coverage continues in just a moment. A quick commercial break on Fox News Channel. Marie callender knows that a homemade turkey dinner can make anyone slow down and pull up a seat to the table. Thats why she takes the time to season her turkey to perfection, and make stuffing from scratch. So that you can spend time on what really matters. Marie callenders. Its time to savor. Ostriches dont really stick their heads in the sand. A peanut is not a nut. And a real john deere. Is actually real affordable. You learn something new every day. The surprisingly affordable john deere e series tractors. Now you can own americas tractor for just 99 a month. Learn more at your john deere dealer. Ditching the coverup for good . Thats cool. Showing off my arms . Thats cool. Being comfortable without a shirt . Thats cool. Getting the body you want without surgery, needles, or downtime . Thats coolsculpting. Coolsculpting is the only fdacleared noninvasive treatment that targets and freezes away stubborn fat cells. Visit coolsculpting. Com today and register for a chance to win a free treatment. Shepard continuing coverage of Hurricane Irma, and look at this in south florida. This is miami from instagram. See that crane there in the center spinning around and around . They werent able to take all the big construction cranes down in miami. Theyre in the middle of a huge construction boomment some of them take up to two weeks to fold them up and store them away, and though they had a lot of notice on this storm, they didnt have two weeks of notice, so they just did what they could to tie them down and told people who live around them to get out. And that looks like that was probably a good idea as this storm is whipping at least one of those cranes around right now. We just got a dispatch from key west where the national Weather Service is now warning people if it gets quiet along the keys, which is happening especially like big pine key that they may very well be in the eye of the storm, and theyre warning people do not go outside because just as the eye passes, you get hit by another part of that wall, and the winds are so strong, the strongest of all would be right around that eye center. And that, if youre outside in it, it can just come up just like that. And its not a wall of water thats moving. You look down at your ankles, then in a few minutes its your knees, and then its up to your neck. In a matter of minutes, everything can change as it will over the next few hours in naples, florida. The lower lefthand corner is the everglades, very bottom. Just up from that is the naples and marco island area. Naples, a city of about 20,000, 21,000 people, that region that they call southwest florida, about 330,000 people. And naples is the heart of northeastern getaways, and our grif jenkins is live there south of fort myers and naples. Grif, hows it looking . Reporter well, theyre just feeling the tropical winds [audio difficulty] shepard well, it happens, microphones tend not to work perfectly. Sounds like his is working again now, lets listen. Go ahead, grif. Reporter hey, shep, sorry if you couldnt hear me. The tropical winds are setting in, Emergency Management telling people to shelter in place because its going to be a very long day, letting people know that First Responders are starting to pull off the roads. And as you were just talking about, the storm surge is what the golf and the mayor the governor and the mayor have talked about. The Northeast Quadrant of the storm possibly hitting us later this afternoon. This is the low tide here now behind me. Im on naples at gulf shore drive and vanderbilt beached radio. Normally, this would be an absolutely packed area. Maybe as high as 810 feet, shep. Im 510, thats almost twice me or more x if you have stayed behind, and it is far too late and you cannot run. You have to get high, shelter and hunker down, and thats a worst Case Scenario. Strangely, i saw three people, one guy walk out in the water. As we have heard time and time again, this is not something to take lightly. This is very, very serious. The folks here in napless [audio difficulty] shepard well, his mic is cutting in and out. Theyre using Wireless Technology that allows him to be down by the beach. Griff, thank you for that. The question on names is not whether, but when. They dont think the storm is going to come in before naples, so it would be on the wettest side. So naples and marco island and bo knee that springs bonita bay, the islands of sanibel and captiva. Northern captiva got a direct hit from hurricane charley back in 2004 as a category four storm. Did a lot of damage especially to the northern part of that. This is a look live in key largo, florida. So the storm is west of this. Its in the lower keys right around big pine key. And if you were to go due north from big pine key, thats Everglades City. And youd have to go west from there to get to names. So where exactly are we expecting the worst of it all over the next few hours . Rick reichmuth is live in the extreme Weather Center. What are you thinking, rick . Reporter everybodys getting something over the next few hours. Fort pierce has looked like its picked up about 8 inches of rain. We have had flooding going on way up here in fort pierce already and maybe 8 inches of rain, and thats way far away from the center of the storm. The center now crossing over the keys right here. In fact, were probably going to have people in the lower keys have that moment where they can go out, look up and see completely calm conditions in the center of this. Not the case at key west. Theyre on the opposite side of it, marathon key over towards key largo coming in towards the south, but were about to have this complete clearing. Tornadoes are going to continue going onful weve had tornado watches all up and down the eastern seaboard here, and is you just notice the direction of this rain coming in. That is continuing to put water up into there. Storm surge warnings all up and down the eastern seaboard of florida and across parts of georgia and South Carolina. All right, everybody assesses with this track, and it is important for the localized impacts of this. Take a look, this is sustained Hurricane Force winds. Obviously, a lot of these gusting up towards maybe 130 miles an hour. This right here are hurricane gusts, and thats Tropical Storm gusts. Theres your track. You get the idea that the extent of this goes a very long way. By tonight, so were talking about 18 hours from now, Hurricane Force winds gusting out towards titusville, cape canaveral, sustained winds in around the tampa area. And the storm surge is different in this case. When we have a storm directly towards the shore, you get that storm surge in the rightfront quadrant. Because its running parallel to the coastline and exactly where this makes landfall, a lot of the storm surge for some of these areas are going to come afterwards with the wraparound winds. So you might make it true the storm initially true the storm initially, but then the waters going to come in afterwards back at you. Thatll likely be the case, could be the case in naples where at first, right now theyve got the wind pushing the water away from shore. Eventually, it will change that direction and come onshore. Hurricane warnings though, shep, take a hook at this. Extending into georgia. Albany, tipton under hurricane warnings that far inland from a storm thats that far south. Tropical storm warningsing as well, so were going to have that wind for a long time. Were talking tomorrow evening before the storm has run up here. Shepard look at this video from naval station key west. This is video they took there on site. Key west, as it turned out, as far as landfall goes, key west was on the the storm came ashore east of it, so around big pine, right . Reporter yeah. I mean, theyre getting in just right at the edge of the eye wall on the left side of it. So instead of getting that storm surge coming in on the right side, theyre getting storm surge coming from the other side of it, coming in from the north. Is theyre getting it there still. That storm surge, that kind of rightfront storm surge that we think of is on the other side of to it. But that doesnt mean theyre not getting that surge coming in from the north there, and those pictures are scary. Im sure exactly where, like, big pine and up towards cujo key, theyre seeing even worse than this. Shepard yeah, im guessing they are. Rick, what do you think . Key west gets battered like that for the next three, four, five, six hours . Reporter probably about six hours. Were going to have winds in that range, in that 100 mileanhour range. And probably some a little bit longer than that as well. Here you go, theres that video. If you pop back maybe half screen with my map, i can show you exactly those winds. Key west, this was this morning, 145 in marathon key, go towards noon, still 107, now were up towards 115 gusting in naples. Go towards tonight, still 110. Key west, still 75. Miami still at 62. And thats about, what, eight, nine hours from now. Shepard never seen anything like this. The whole peninsula. Certainly not since the population was a fifth of what it is now. Reporter yeah, you said it. Hurricane charley, for example, was a way smaller storm, so it was really impactful up around Port Charlotte, but it was a storm. This is a really big storm. Its had a long time to grow into this big size. Shepard typical palm fronds down well, they just came off that shot. Thats Craig Stephens who will be an authoring from our south florida station. Our station in m tampa is also on the air constantly, and were so thankful. This is video from miami, these are live pictures that are coming in to us as a car drives along in the city. Hard to see the street there with all the stuff on the screen, but you get the idea. Thisll be going on for hours. When you go to when we go to bed tonight, florida will still be getting pounded, and when we wake up tomorrow morning, florida will still be getting pounded. And by tuesday, this is a memphis system if the forecasts hold. Stay with us. When you brush or floss you may have gum problems and could be on the journey to much worse. 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The national Weather Service has just warned that highrises in miami, highrises in miami could now be experiencing 100 mileanhour gusts. Thats in the city of miami itself. And this storm is a long way away from miami. And the city of miami warning people use flashlight, not candles. Very worried about fire hazards in this storm. Weve just gotten word that three people have been killed as a result of irmas strength, three different car crashes and all of those deaths attributed to irma. The naples mayor says citizens have been evacuating since early in the week, and they finally took the storm seriously. Their town is like a ghost town, says the mayor there. And weve been getting a lot of video in from key west, a surprising amount has been coming in, but nothing that shows us any damage or severe flooding, though we know its there. Key west on what they call the dry side of the storm, the middle chis and up to key largo getting some of the worst of it, and well go live there in just a minute. The city of miami is under a tornado watch until 2 00 this afternoon. Its 8 48. A tornado watch for many, many hours to come. Our bryan llenas is along miami beach. Bryan, hows it looking out there. Reporter hey, shep. Were in downtown miami along biscayne boulevard. For the last three hours, weve been getting these gusts of plus 50 miles an hour. Weve been out here since 11 00. You see the water right there, thats flooding thats been there all night, and its only gotten worse, actually extending over to the south. If you see the top of the metro mover, thats the metro mover in downtown miami that moves people around the area here. You can see it coming off with the gusts, its been getting worse and worse over the last two hours. Youve also seen plastic parts of the metro rail come down. And then see that window, that door open . Thats exactly what the national Weather Service was just warning about with these highrise buildings about how the winds up there as you keep getting higher, obviously, get higher as well, to 100 miles an hour. And unfortunately, looks like that door, definitely, that window has completely come unhinged, and that just allows the elements into that building. And its only gotten worse here. If you take a look over here, this is bay front park, and bay side, and its right over there about 500 feet to the guy, to guys right is biscayne bay. And weve seen some waves crashing. We havent seen that storm surge go over wall. Mostly what weve seen here from what we can understand of the flooding has been water thats just been blown in and, obviously, the rain. Our friends over here just getting here as well. Theyve been covering this storm 24 7 here, just wonderful. Different types of debris mostly from the palm tree fronds, but we also see over here, guy, if you take a look at that, thats a stop sign that we saw actually completely snap. We were seeing it upright and then slowly but surely just going back, and we were out here and it was like 20, 30 miles an hour about 3 00 in the morning, and at 4 00 it got a little worse, the gusts would last longer as the squalls came in. And then all of a sudden the gusts just continued, and its been like this now since six a. M. , shep. Shepard thanks very much. Live there in downtown miami right across from bay front mark, bryan llenas. If you were to go to key largo, florida, go down a couple oh, actually, we lost that report. Lets listen in to wsvn where they were getting a live report from some residents in the upper keys. Another reason why they say when its time to get out, get out. Its also great that theres a few people that did stay on the island, and they all know who they are, and theyve been in contact, and thats going to be so, so helpful when all this is said and done, that they can all help each other out. The importance of community. We certainly saw that a lot after hurricane andrew, how we lean on each other shepard Craig Stephens on the news station in south florida and a live look along there. Senator marco rubio of florida is live, is live from miami, his home on the phone with us. Senator, how are they faring down there . You know, its bad, its nasty here. From your time in miami, you or werent here for andrew, were you here in 9 2 . Shp shp i was in fort myers. And were not even getting the direct hit. If its nasty here, if youre in sarasota, fort myers, naples, anything along the southwest coast of florida, if were getting it bad, its going to be bad for you. At this point, people hopefully have finalized their prep. Were getting wind gusts up to hurricane, strong Tropical Storm, a lot of rain. Worried about the storm surge. But all in all, despite how nasty it is here, were fortunate compared to what really is the worst Case Scenario in southwest florida. Shepard it really is. This is going to be a florida storm for at least the next 4 hours. Senator 24 hours. Senator, when its all hover, its going to require many, many billions of dollars on the heels of what happened to our friends in texas. How in the world is the federal government going to come together . Well, i think its one of those times you just are grateful that we have the resources to help our fellow americans and to do it quickly and in a way thats responsible. Itll be a lot of emergency funding and, you know, we cant calculate what that is. A direct hit on tampa bay from a category three storm coming from the south or the east of the west is one of the worst Case Scenarios you can imagine in terms of storm surge and the like not just in property damage, but threat to life. And the other concern, of course, is a lot of the port material thats supposed to come here, fema, trucks with support, theyre all up in georgia, South Carolina, theyre kind of in the path of the storm, so they cant start moving until this thing goes through. Theres a lot to be concerned about, but the most important thing is we can save lives and keep people out of areas where theyre going to need to be rescued. That is going to make it easier to kind of get the restoration work going. Shepard i know some people who evacuated from the Fort Lauderdale hollywood area up to fort walton beach, and now it looks like a slight jog 20 mile toss the west, and this is their storm. Yeah, shep, this is one of those things youve got to think about. You have all these people kind of leaving an area thinking theyre fleeing from the storm, and then they wind up kind of moving to a part of the state thats in the eye of the some. So now youre not just far from home, youre also trapped in a community thats not your home, maybe in a hotel. At this point one of my warnings was this was no time to dodge a storm. Maybe its the time to drive down. Youre going to drive down i95 in a Tropical Storm . Its very dangerous. I hope people are in a mace thats safe from wind and safe from water. I had a close friend yesterday in an evacuation zone in tampa that didnt want to leave because he lives on the second or third floor. First of all, what are you going to do . Youre going to be stuck for days, and people respect going to come to you. Hopefully, people have heed those warnings, but it is concerning. I dont know how many people, but a lot of people, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands who have evacuated to another part of the state and now find themselves kind of being targeted by the storm. So that poses an additional challenge for traffic and the like once this thing passes. Shepard senator, i know were all be together afterwards and during, cant thank you enough. Appreciate the time. Thank you. Thanks for bringing me on. Shepard senator marco rubio live with us from his home down in south florida. Look at the live picture toes on wsvn7. This i of this, the storm has maximum sustained winds 130 Miles Per Hour, headed to the west northwest at 6 miles an hour. Of so it will batter the western coast of florida all day long. Look at live wtvt in tampa along clearwater beach. Their reporter is there. The storm is many, many hours away from them, but that could be a target. Lets listen. Crazy to see how bare one of the most popular beaches here in Pinellas County. There is not a soul until sight. I know we were on Indian Rocks Beach a little earlier and did see a couple of people out there picking up seashells, but nothing of that nature out here. Were near pier 60 out here on clearwater beach, not a soul to be seen except, like i said, one guy whos riding it out and a couple whos on their way to safety. Only here in Pinellas County evacuation zones a and b shepard so thats st. Petersburg, clearwater, Tarpon Springs, that whole area just to the west of tampa, eventually, that will get the brunt of this storm as well. Our live coverage continues, top of the hour headlines are next on Fox News Channel. R its the only leading brand clinically proven to soothe, moisturize, and freshen breath. Try biotene®. Grandmas. Aunt stacys. What are the reasons you care for your heart . Qunol coq10 with 3x better absorption has the 1 cardiologist recommended form of coq10. How do we say that this fall, our guests can earn a free night when they book at choicehotels. Com and stay with us just two times . Fall time. Badda book. Badda boom. Pumpkin spice cookie . Im good. Book now at choicehotels. Com can make anyone slow downt and pull up a seat to the table. Thats why she takes the time to season her turkey to perfection, and make stuffing from scratch. So that you can spend time on what really matters. Marie callenders. Its time to savor. Its 9 00 a. M. In south florida this is Fox News Channel s continuing coverage of Hurricane Irma. Right now maximum sustained winds of the storm are at 130 miles an hour. Its just northeast of key west, the eye of that storm. The eye of which at one point was as far across as 45 miles, has shrunk to about half that but the winds surrounding that, 130 miles an hour, its made landfall in the keys, just north and east of key west and now its expected to eventually make landfall somewhere in the southwest florida area or in the tampa bay area. A slight shift to the left or right would not be unusual, almost impossible to predict but the thinking is this storm keeps moving at about this same speed, six, seven, eight miles an hour and continues to lash that southern coast. This down here is mostly Everglades National park, so that will take a lot of this and then you get up to marko island and naples up to bonita springs, fort myers, cape coral, north in Port Charlotte and punta gorda, up into the hill county area and tampa bay area that whole coast is beaten by the storm all day long. This entire southern tip of florida is under a tornado watch were now told more than 850,000 people officially in the florida keys plus miamidade, broward and the palm beaches are without power. Three stormrelated deaths have been reported all of those on the roadways. The city of naples, florida said to be like a ghost town and a short time ago we got a report out of one of the upper keys, is la marada i believe it was where a local resident talking to a local station said it looked like a tsunami had come in as the water came rushing up boats sitting up on their keel and a scene of widespread destruction in the upper keys. Remember it came ashore just to the right of key west and in the lower part of the keys, and now is expected to skirt up this coast and all along the way bringing so much wind and water into the southwest florida coast rick richmuth is our chief meteorologist and live in the fox extreme Weather Center with what were seeing in the way of buoy wave heights, big waves, ha really big waves so the ocean floor affects waves. Its basically the shape of the ocean floor and if you have ever been into this gulf coast thats why the waves are really really low because you can walk out forever in this and the ocean floor doesnt really drop but out here across the Eastern Shores theres a much steeper incline so that water goes in and forces it to break so you have a lot more waves out here. This is a lot of wave energy that continues to get piled up in towards biscayne bay and towards miami and across parts of the eastern shore. Thats why were still so concerned about the east shore with storm surge and the west shore with storm surge. Not just kind of the one side from this but youre right moving over the eye wall rick 34foot waves in the lower keys . Out to the sea is what weve got. Youve got the storm surge and the waves on top of that and you said it right here. Its that thing of being in the eye of the hurricane. Ive never done it or experienced it but these guys right here in kugo key are having that going on right now which is a pretty spectacular thing after the fright you had there and the fright about to come back over here. Thats an incredible map. Right there in the middle of it, but yeah, headed right up here all across the eastern seaboard not out of the question it cuts a little farther towards the west and eventually makes landfall somewhere around to the points east of maybe somewhere onshore here we really cant tell you storm surge is a localized thing that will pull offshore in some areas and eventually on the back side of it pull on in as the wind direction shifts because we have the storm moving parallel to the coast a little bit different than some of these hurricanes that you see that move directly onshore and cause that storm surgeon that right front quadrant so its going to be a little bit of a different thing here in some of these areas our storm surge modeling shows the storm surge going miles inland because the coast is just so flat and think about it if you got a 15foot storm surge but i live that 14 feet above see level men maybe i have a foot but if i live at 10 feet then ive got four feet so all of those things are localized based off where your house or neighborhood is and thats the big big differences here but such a spectacular storm to have tracked all this time, meteorologically speaking frightening because of all of the damage it can do as well, sh ep. Do you have that kujo key frame again where the eye is going ashore because i ask because the eye of the storm is to the west of marathon and this whole center here, rick, its quiet on that key right now for a few minutes. Completely quiet if theres anybody there, there are probably a few people there they can walk up look up at the sky and see blue sky, have kind of no wind at all right now, after theyve gone through 130mile an hour wind gusts so thats what theyve got going on right here. By the way these islands dont do anything to disrupt that eye at all. That will happen once it makes landfall towards the north. Theres a little sheer eventually later today shep, that will start breaking the storm apart a little bit which will be good news but in the shortterm thats not the case. The water is still warm models indicating more strengthening as it pulls up towards the north but there you go. Such an amazing picture when you see that just exactly where that storm is right now. Just to the right of kujo key would be big pine key and big pine key has a really strong eye wall all the way up to marathon. You wonter how that highway will holdup there, rick. Its scary. It hasnt gone through anything like this maybe not in a very long time. Hurricane donna was a similar thing but it didnt have the history of this storm. You know, this storm was the longest strongest storm anywhere on the planet in our at least in satellite since the 60s and places like the philly philippines, taiwan, they get typhoons the exact same thing but this is just like that that means theres a lot of water pushed in with that. If you have a hurricane that pop s up to be a hurricane that goes back down that doesnt have a chance to pileup that much water this one has been piling up water for better part of a week. Rick richmuth in the extreme Weather Center back to him as news warrants lets get to key l argo, Adam Houseley in it, man, adam how goes it . You talk about the interstate highway now with rick and we checked on that last night because he knows the keys real well and some places the highway goes over the water and last night at key largo, about midnight the water was put in within a block of interstate highway about three feet deep on the ocean side but here on the bay side, the water hasnt come up much. Its all been about wind and rain and ill step away and give you an idea look at the trees getting gusts of over 100 miles an hour here shepherd and we are still a good distance from that eye wall so the way were told were about 45 miles from the eye wall to maybe 60 miles from the eye wallace it comes up towards the mainland but as you can tell right now the wind, the rain, water is just blowing across nothing is stopping it, its snapping trees in half. Weve seen large branches just blow by without any issue whatsoever, im like a piece of grass blowing in the wind. I see nobody out this is the first hurricane in how many years and i havent seen anybody out and about walking. Here at our secure location people might get and take a look for a second or two but for the most part theyre all staying inside. When we talked with the sheriff of Monroe County yesterday the sargent in charge of this area was telling us hes very pleased about how many people took the warnings and got out. They hope nobody is trying to ride this out in a wooden house or mobile home or even sea level s, if they didnt stay they hope they found a location like this but you can see and look how im standing here were partially blocked in a location and its coming down and blowing through here with really nothing at all stopping it. This storm has serious rage, shepherd its been going on here for nearly 24 hours, so the winds really trying to pick up yesterday at 10 in the morning, we lost power by 10 30 and its been non stop ever since shepherd. Ive been watching our local station talking about the wind gusts well over a hundred miles an hour and that should continue for many hours. Absolutely and you know, what makes it even worse is the size of his hurricane the fact the winds have been coming yesterday at like 2 or 3 it was sustained at 20 to 30 and gradually built up of course through the night and when you have buildings and people and cars and large trees that have been taking that kind of stress for that length of time and now you bring these 10n top of it, its going to be brutal here shepherd. We saw a lot of damage yesterday well before anything like this came down. Adam housley, do you guys got a plan if things go south . What do you do . Yeah, we saw the plan that you guys gave us and we all started in this business and that is to find something that will be rated cat 5 hurricane winds of 180 miles an hour we found a phenomenal location, only windows on one side with built in storm shutters that are metal that i have to latch down myself, so were safe and secure the last thing we want to do is become part of the storm but when it gets too bad well go inside and shut our doors and hu nker down and ride this out shepherd. Adam housley, thank you for the pictures and to your crew as well. The 9 00 a. M. Update from the National Hurricane center for wind speeds maximum of 130 miles an hour the central pressure is at 929 millibars which is up a little bit which is good news on some level, and the forward progress of this storm now eight miles an hour moving to the north northwest at eight miles an hour. Thats the latest that we have from the National Hurricane center. I want to show you where this eye is. This is south florida. The storm obviously covers this entire region but the eye itself here is miami, here is naples, here is the florida keys. This is key west. Cudjoe key and big pine key, Middle Torch Key there as well i want to show you exactly where this eye is. This is cudjoe key up to big pine key so somewhere in this area this is where the eye of the storm is right about now, so the outer bands of this storm, the worst of it all is always in this area. Big pine key has already gotten that and then you go up toward marathon, duck key, and all the way up to isla marada, plantation and far up to key lar go, all is being battered so just above it the land mass at the bottom of the state is Everglades National park. Big cry press reserve is down there as well and next you get to Everglades City switch over to the other map this is highway 41 alligator alley coming across 75 is alligator alley highway 41 coming through miami through ever grade city up into marco island and the naples area , all of this, the National Estuary Research Center area here, naples, north naples, boni ta springs up into fort myers and cape coral, all of that all of that going to be pounded for many hours to come. The Fox News Network jeff flock is just up the coast from here we go north into Charlotte County the town of punta gorda which is 25 miles north of fort myers how is it there so far . Reporter just starting here and of course this town and by the way, thats 41. Thats the last route out to 75, punta gorda knows hurricanes and knows nobody should be surprised by this hurricane but they were surprised by charlie back in 2004 when it was supposed to go to tampa. I think bob is up on top of the parking garage to give you a good picture. Were surrounded by water here, so youve got to really worry about storm surge out here. The other thing is when youve been through charlie, bob maybe a few spins around up from where he is, hes in a parking garage the only Public Parking garage in punta gorda, and it is packed everybody has put their car in there, you cant get in the parking garage and has gotten out of town a lot of people most everybody because once youve been through a cat 4 which is what they were through in 2004 thats pretty nasty and you think about staying again. Thinking no. Hurricane center says that it will get progressively worse there for the next 12 solid hours. Reporter well we will try to stay out ahead of it and jump in the car and go up 75 and just chase it up the way there. Jeff flock from the Fox Business Network with a great look, continuing coverage coming , jeff flock is there and we have correspondents all up and down the coast and affiliated stations all the way this is the miami area. The worst of it all right now the middle keys, middle to lower keys, we do not know what its like outside. We dont know the status of the overseas highway. We dont know whats happened to the businesses that are along there. It is a Marine Community that relies on fishing and tourism and there wont be a lot of either of those for a long time to come. Its an area of the country that will need all of our help very soon. And for a very long time. Ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you the whole country booking on Choice Hotels. Com. Four words, badda book. Badda boom. Let it sink in. Shouldnt we say we have the lowest price . Nope, badda book. 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Common side effects dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain, swelling of hands, legs and feet. Dont drink alcohol while taking lyrica. Dont drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. Those whove had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. With less pain, i can do more with my family. Talk to your doctor today. See if lyrica can help. Shep Hurricane Irma has made its first landfall and did so an hour and a half ago in the lower keys, in south florida. Maximum wind gusts just recorded a short time ago at big pine key , the eye of the storm just to the west of there now, maximum wind gusts there 106 miles an hour on big pine key. Thats the keys thats key largo the upper keys on the lefthand side of your screen. Earlier this morning the miami herald reporting the editor of keynoter and editor of the florida keys news. Com is in a shelter of last resort down there with about 50 other people in Marathon High School and he says quoting to the miami harold everything is under water, i mean everything and to make matters worse the times, i mean the miami harold adds that one man died in that shelter overnight as it turns out of Natural Causes but just a horrible set of circumstances there in marathon. Marathon key in the florida keys eventually this will become a storm for southwest florida as we mentioned and then for the tampa bay, sarasota area and orlando will feel a lot of this as well. Our man is in orlando this morning bill disney closed down you know its big news when disney is done. Youre right very few times theyve ever done that in the history of the state of florida and good morning from orlando it is calm here. We await the arrival of irma. Weve been here three days now between orlando, tampa and back and forth again and its a stunning thing shepherd. You used to live and work in this state to see the southern half of florida just frozen in place and the highways are empty , yeah some cars but mostly empty the hotels are jammed, downtown tampa last night was empty on a saturday afternoon saturday evening in september thats just something thats a sight you do not see. What is amazing to us so far is the level of patience we have seen on be half of so many who picked up their belongings and came from the southeastern part of the state in miami and came to orlando thinking they were out of harms way. Some of them went further to tampa, crossing the states to tampa thinking they would escape the wrath of irma and now theyre on the run yet again so this is anybodys guess right now as to where the impactful it arrives after the florida keys. Is it naples on the southwest, is it fort myers up to sarasota, st. Pete or tampa . Were all waiting to see and frankly guessing to see what happens then. We have been watching and talking to a lot of people too and just to get their reactions so far, it strikes me that right now, you see this level of patience and you wonder how long it will hold out. The shelters now are jammed more than 400 have opened across the state. 120,000 floridians have taken advantage of that and for good reason. The Florida Governor rick spot started putting up warnings a week ago and so many have heeded those warnings for the possibility of their own lives but those shelters challenged and they need nurses and volunteers by the thousands to make sure those reporting there get the help they need and they get it on time and possibly for days to come. Never before, shepherd in the history of recorded storms have we had two cat fours make impact on the u. S. Mainland in the same season yet its happening now as we stand here today with the arrival or irma. 1992 andrew left its mark on this state for a very long time. More than 40 dead, 25 billion in damage, 25 years ago. Irmas going to leave a mark but were still waiting to see where exactly that is and how deep that scar lasts in the state of florida and beyond. Shepherd back to you. Shep bill hemmer in orlando and i want to tell you a tornado just touched down according to local authorities in polk county , florida thats where lakeland, and winter haven are. The tornado itself i want to give you specifics of where it touched down. The southwestern part of that county so somewhere just north of Bowling Green i suppose, south and west of lake wales, at any rate thankfully this touched down within an un populated area. They dont speak of damages except to the trees and such but tornadoes are at enormous risk and theres a tornado. Was in effect for most of south florida for the next eight hours or so. Weve just gotten word from Fort Lauderdale fire and rescue. Miami and miamidade no longer responding to complaints, 911 calls or requests for service. Now Fort Lauderdale police are not i should say Fort Lauderdale fire and rescue are not either. Fort lauderdale fire and rescue just notified us that regret fully theyve suspended response due to wind, Strong Enough to flip over a truck. Thats how high the wind gusts are in Fort Lauderdale. A new Storm Tracker weather update coming to us from our station wsvn7 in south florida. Lets listen in. That could cause extensive damage to structures, locations in the path of these strong gusty winds, miami, miami beach, homestead, coral gables, key biscayne, south miami, homestead speedway, black point marina, homestead general area, turkey point, virginia key, kendall, do ral, pinecrest, miami springs, sweetwater, florida city, west miami and westchester. This is definitely a strong wind gust, feeder band coming through and were going to take the opportunity right now to go to the National Hurricane center dr. Michael brennan, a specialist there. Michael, there is a big feeder band now starting to move across the area with wind speeds of 80 to 100 Miles Per Hour that will stick around for a while. Yeah, this is a really dangerous situation thats now developing here across the miami metropolitan area. We were sort of eyeing this feeder band earlier. We can see in the radar very strong winds aloft in it and those will mix down to the surface and we could see widespread wind gusts in that 80 100mile per hour range that could cause a lot of power outage, the structural damage at those wind speeds, trees to fall down so everybody is going to want to stay safe in their safe location throughout the day today and well into the evening before the winds are going to calm down. The other thing this band is going to do is push even more storm surge up along the southeast coast, the tide station at virginia key is already reporting about storm surge of about three feet of normal tide levels now and coming out of low tide soon so us this next high tide well probably see our peak values here along biscayne bay, the Miamidade County coastline. Now across miamidade and broward counties the keys, i guess your statement that came out said that if the hurricane had mate landfall but cudjoe, is that correct . 106 Miles Per Hour . Yes, cudjoe key at 9 0010 a. M. In the lower keys and there was a report big pine key had wind gusts of 106 Miles Per Hour around 8 30 or 8 40 this morning one of the higher wind gusts weve seen and the eye is actually become a little better more distinct looking on the key west radar now so that northern eye wall is now wobbl ing off to the north of the keys and there is a little bit of an eastern eye wall starting to touch the middle keys now so its still going to be a rough few hours in the keys. That storm surge, that strong southerly flow pushing water up into the keys and now the north early flow on the back side pushing water into places like key west, so a very very dangerous few hours unfolding for many people in south florida we want to urge anyone shep thats the latest from south florida big pine key after 9 00 this morning eastern time. I want to go to the phones now, roman gastessi is with us the county administrator of Monroe County which is the florida keys riding out the storm there. Roman how are you and what are you seeing . Were doing fine. Were in the very upper part of the keys in the northern part of key largo. Were in a safe house and huge very strong building so were doing fine and we also heard from our colleagues in key west and marathon. Shep what have you heard from your colleagues down there where the storm is hitting in earnest . We were on the phone we have a Conference Call every couple hours with key west about 20 minutes ago or so and they were doing fine. Their spirits were up they were getting beat up pretty bad but they error doing fine. We were able to talk to them so good news. Shep a lot of concern about big pine and the middle keys there. Do you have an idea for how many stayed behind . We dont. Theres all kinds of talks that i could tell you i was driving up and down the keys the last couple of days and didnt see many people, especially after i went by the data two nights ago when it looks like it was staying south there was a steady flow of people last minute folks leaving so thats good news, so its hard to estimate but there were a lot of people that left. Shep what about power . My understanding is about three fourths of the keys are without power now . Yes, be surprised if its even that. Were in the upper area and we dont have any power so from here south i doubt anybody has any power so id be surprised if anybody has any power in the keys but you never know. Shep official landfall has been made in cudjoe key. Tell us about that small key. Its a beautiful area of cud joe key, very nice Beautiful Homes on canals. There is all kinds of folks that live there. Its just good news, i dont know if they will listen, but the good news is its not as populated as some of the other areas. For example, down in key west we have 25,000 People Living in marathon about 10,000 and in that area its probably just a couple thousand spread out over a wide area, so if anything is a Silver Lining that its an area that doesnt have a highly populated folks there. Shep Middle Torch Key, big pine thats all down there. No name key is another. My understanding was these keys except for heavy boats around them that they dont want to leave are mostly evacuated. I think so. I think those folks evacuated, again when i was driving by i didnt see much activity there and the ones that stayed there are some very well built homes, people that build them high 10 12 feet high and concrete structures so some of those folks might have stayed behind and im sure theyre doing fine, getting a beating but probably will stay behind as well so were worried about the folks that stayed and homes that cant handle Something Like this and of course the water. You cant run from the water. So its going to be interesting. We are up in key largo just jumping out of our skin trying to get out of here so we can go help out and weve got the helicopters ready to take us and weve got equipment staged all through the and prepositioned all through the keys heavy equipment so they can begin clearing the roads as soon as possible and get the airport runways open. Shep its going to be a while for sure with this west northwest movement at eight miles an hour you could have 12 more hours of no way to get out. Yeah, i dont know if i can keep all these First Responders sitting for 12 more hours. These guys want to get out and help out, so weve got a bunch of really dedicated folks all through the keys and they want to get out and see what the damage is and help our fellow co nchs like we call ourselves down here. Shep indeed well be thinking about all of you down there for the next many hours and wait to see what the storm left behind. Its great to talk to you all the best to you and thanks not First Responders who are at the ready. They are ready thank you for the coverage. Shep totally live look wsvn 7 North Bay Village coming up here thats the center 79th street in miami right along biscayne bay and a live look from wsvn7 in south florida. Irma has made landfall in the florida keys, its official. When you look at this in wikipedia in a year, youll see that this storm made first landfall in the United States at cudjoe key just to the west of i slamorada just after 9 00 in the morning and it will be a very long day and into the night were not expecting there will be a second landfall according to the meteorologist if its in southwest florida along the naples Collier County, lee county Charlotte County line which is the lower left of your screen there if its there it will be in six, seven, eight hours and if it goes higher it could be nightfall around tampa and if it continues over the gulf of mexico, potential for strengthening is there and this could eventually become a storm that goes even farther up the coast. The truth is the meteorologists do not know these storms wobble and move left and right as they go forward, and exactly where those wobbles will happen which would create landfall is unknown and the reason that matters so much is because the strongest most powerful winds of all are wrapped around that tight center the center of that eye just all along the walls of that eye. Thats where the worst of the winds are with the most destructive winds and certainly the storm surge is going to be a problem for a very long time. Our coverage continues in just a moment. Statins lower cholesterol, but can also lower your bodys natural coq10. Qunol helps restore this hearthealthy nutrient with 3x better absorption. Qunol has the 1 cardiologist recommended form of coq10 qunol, the better coq10. Copdso to breathe better,athe. I go with anoro. Go your own way copd tries to say, go this way. I say, ill go my own way with anoro. 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Now going to get hit on the back side again with some very strong gusty winds and then a surge from the opposite direction coming now in from the gulf of mexico. That heavy rain continues all the way through the keys and theres really no letup by the way through the middle upper keys, u. S. 1 through islamorada, key largo, duck key we have seen this persistent rain and by the way these are no longer feeder bands. This is just part of the central rain shield that surrounds the system and were looking at a big band of strong thunderstorms making their way from biscayne bay through cutler bay, homestead, country walk in through coral gables and key biscayne. That is that area of strong thunderstorms that are going to stick around between 10 a. M. And noon, basically from homestead, the redland area all the way north in through downtown miami. I believe i may still look at the information here, the locations that will be impacted by this shep a long list in southeast florida. I want to take you to sunrise florida west of Fort Lauderdale this is power lines going down this morning. Sunrise just west of the florida turnpike north of interstate 595 right on the border of the everglades and look at this. [wind and rain hitting the window ] shep there are 1. 1 million power customers in Miamidade County. Hall of them are without power now more than a million floridians without power and that number will most likely rise. Lets turn to Michael Brennan, the chief hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane center. We saw official landfall in cudjoe. Right, 9 0010 a. M. In cudjoe key in the lower florida keys and the eye is about to move off the lower florida keys into the florida bay south of the southwest coast but still very strong winds strong bands now moving into the middle and upper keys and were very concerned about this particular band here thats moving in from the upper keys into Miamidade County in the next couple hours we could see wind gusts of 80100 Miles Per Hour across most of the metropolitan area between 10 a. M. And noon as this band moves northeastward so that could cause a lot of trouble in this part of the state. Shep where is this thing headed generally speaking michael in the next hour or two . Well its going to continue wobbling off to the north northwest. We forecast the track sort of in a Straight Line but the eye wobbles back and forth but the overall motion we expect is north northwest near the southwest coast of florida and up towards the west Central Coast near tampa bay overnight tonight and then up into the big bend region on monday afternoon. Shep whats going to be happening in the next few hours in say marco island, naples and farther north into fort myers . Well yeah the conditions are already bad there they will see the winds gradually continue to increase as the core of the hurricane nears them anybody that gets into this eye wall is going to see those category 4 winds and then the other thing were concerned about is right now, the winds are blowing out of the southeast but as irmas eye goes past the winds are going to turn out of the west and northwest and push water up against the west coast of the florida peninsula and cause that big 1015foot storm surge of above ground level in this area from captiva down to cape sable. Were very concerned about these areas in collier and lee county where theyve evacuated people to get people out of the storm surge zone and up in the tampa bay area we see five to eight feet of storm surge as irma goes by tonight into tomorrow. Shep Pinellas County, clear water i know theres real low lying areas there the locals are always concerned about, palm acres places like that. That area is especially sensitive one of the most sensitive areas to storm surge in the whole United States is the tampa bay area and they havent had a major hurricane landfall there since 1921 so its been a long long time since theyve seen a threat of major hurricane making landfall moving over that region. Shep michael cant thank you enough. Well check back periodically. You mentioned that storm back in 1921. Think of it southwest florida has been hit over and over again by a major storm but not in the tampa bay area. The 1921 storm was the tarpin springs storm they got 11 feet e have some pictures, john glenn do you have those pictures . The last time a major storm hit the tampa bay area was Tarpon Springs storm in 1921. John . Yeah, pictures are up. Shep all right good. These are pictures from 1921 when tampa bay area had 10,000 residents. There are now 3 million residents and somehow, between 1921 and 2017, not a single major storm had hit tampa, not one. Thats a long drought if you will for the tampa bay area. The growth has been spectacular there and their ability to handle i mean would you look at that . Were told boats up on their kee l down in the florida keys and the worst for the tampa bay area is many hours away. Its going to be nightfall before it gets really bad but these are the pictures from the last one, 1921. Lets get to st. Pete beach now, thats in hillsboro county, matt is there on st. Pete beach. Not too much just yet, matt . No, the wind and the rain is picking up. This is gulf boulevard behind us kind of the drag of st. Pete where the restaurants and hotels are and as you can see it is a complete ghost town. No humans in sight except for a random person here and there on a sidewalk or some Business Owners who decided to stay. You know, theres been devastating and very saddening news for the tampa bay area in the past day because originally irma was expected to land on the southern portion of florida and then perhaps go east up the east coast so a lot of attention paid to the east coast but now it is headed west as weve been reporting, the governor here is saying there could be a storm surge of 13 feet tampa bays own fire chief telling us that this is the strongest storm to hit this area in a generation and it really could be catastrophic. We ran into this gentleman here, his name is keith and hes the president of the trade winds resort. Hes deciding to stick it out. Keith you have enough food, water and generators, whats the next 24 hours look like for you . Well were worried. Weve spent three days getting ready. Were the largest on the west coast of florida with about 35 acres of real estate so its taken a lot to get the properties buttoned down and weve never seen a storm like this so who knows if its going to work or fail, but weve got about 50 crew members here staying here. We were expecting about 700 line men today. My guess is with the weather the way it is they probably wont make it until after the storm so hopefully they will get here and as things get rolling when the storm passes we can get back up and hopefully running well see. This entire area is basically a ghost town. When did you start seeing people evacuate . The mandatory evacuation has been going on now for a couple of days and i would say it was probably half full yesterday and today, ive been able to count maybe 15 or 20 cars on the road and we havent seen any residents in the area. They may be in their houses but certainly not out and about. Thank you, keith we wish you well. My pleasure. Shepherd back to you. Shep thats st. Pete beach lets go across the way into hollywood, florida and a live drive along wsvn7 live pictures coming into us now. When all this is said and done, you know, if you can stay where you are stay where you are so those crews can get out there and make it okay to clean all of this business up so that we can get back to business in south florida. The good thing the roads are passible. We arent dealing with an andrew situation where those street lights were down on the highway. The highway signs were down on the highway. When the weather does clear finally the streets are packed but at least the main ones those that are landscaping trees and so on will probably need clear ing, but thats one headache that looks like we wont have at least in the metro area. Shep they wont have it in miami as they explain to their viewers there but they will certainly have it on the west coast. Naples, fort meyer, punta gorda, all over Charlotte County up into hillsboro county and the tampa bay area itself and really all the way up the coast. Gainsville and ocala, orlando, everyone will be affected by this in the state of florida before all is said and done. Our live coverage continues after this. [car] screech Martin Truex Jr hey bill, watch the car for me . bill dance sure screech hmm. 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I was fascinated by that when i first saw it the lizard just hanging on in this storm and again it was something that i wondered about is what do the animals do in this situation that are out there and this lizard is riding out the storm on a tree branch and hoping for the best and i hope this branch does not fall off throughout this storm, but were having some issues hearing but im going to send it back to you guys here from midtown. All right thanks for that and just to be clear if im not mistaking and i could be wrong, i believe those cranes are a, built to sustain up to category 4 winds and b, theyre supposed to spin around because thats what keeps them from just toppl ing over. Theyre doing what they are supposed to do. And for the folks who ask because a lot of folks did ask and we did this story not long ago were continuing our trip down 95 here by the way. It takes a couple weeks to dismantle these cranes. They cant just go in and take them down so the more likely option is to secure them and to make sure theyre functioning properly so in this situation, theyre designed to take a cat 4 we arent in a cat 4. We arent in the center of this storm. Were getting hurricane shep areas are and i want to show you where we are down in cudjoe key. We talked about this eye moving over land at cudjoe key and big pine key. This is live weather radar and it looks like cudjoe and big pine are still under in the eye of the storm, so you should not do this if youre there but were you to walk outside right now, it would be a sunny, not windy at all day in the middle of the eye of that storm. Cudjoe key and big pine key is hard to see what this is but this is key west and it goes up along the overlay is kind of not opaque at all so you cant see through it but there is key west so the eye is still moving over the land think about it its only moving at eight miles an hour so the eye of the storm itself is about half what it was yesterday. Somewhere around 25 miles wide. It doesnt stay that you can see it wobbles and changes a little but generally speaking about 25 miles wide, so it could take, you could if you were in the right spot in the heart of that you could be outside on a sunny day for a couple of hours as the eye of the storm moves by and then after it passes by, the winds shift and come out of the other direction and give them real problems. Adam housley is in the upper keys where a bad band of storms was just coming through adam how was that . Reporter it was pretty bad, we had the gusts over a hundred miles an hour and those were definitely significantly higher than that. I dont know im not a meteorologist but im going to guess 120130 it was very very strong gusts still coming down pretty good and a tree is actually down i want to inch over here this railing holds us up and there is actually a tree down a large large tree down into a building over here but as you can tell the winds picked up from when i spoke to you about half an hour ago they picked up significantly since that point, shepherd rains still coming down in sheets. I did have a chance to go down to the end of our building and look out at the bay side so water on the bay side which is just down to the end of this hotel has not come up at all here so we have no storm surge yet in key largo on the bay side the same cannot be said for the ocean side. They do have storm surge over there. We saw it with our own eyes last night. The other thing ive noticed here shepherd ive seen nobody. Look at these trees. Thats the power of the storm shepherd and we are not in the eye. Were not even in the eye wall. This has been going on the battering has been going on for more than 24 hours. Sustained winds for at least 30 miles an hour yesterday all day into the night and gradually got worse as you can see now the sustained winds are in the 60, 70, 80 range and gusts over a hundred are battering this island blowing across key largo nothing is stopping it whatsoever. The darkness in the sky ive noticed this well in the last half an hour where you cant see the communication towers are no longer visible. The buildings that are a block or two away are barely visible and this thing is continuing to get worse and will only get worse as the eye continues to move north towards the mainland, shepherd . Shep as it does move north your winds will shift into another direction and like hitting you from behind. Reporter exactly so for viewers at home right now the winds are coming this way so theyre coming from the ocean side and blowing this way you can see the palm trees bend towards me that will eventually shift exactly about storm surge is coming that way too. Eventual eventually thats going to shift so the wind goes back now the other direction so exactly opposite of where im standing now it will blow the other way from my left to my right, so i believe thats screen right to screen left at home so basically thats the way it will go it comes this way once that storm moves forward so for hours, its coming this way and all of a sudden it will shift right back the other direction and think about a paper clip, bending it back and forth and what that might do to not only trees but buildings and other things trying to sustain through this storm. Shep adam housley, key largo be safe. Just in from the national Weather Service, a Tornado Warning is now in effect that means a tornado has been spotted by a trained weather spotter or theyve noticed the rotation on the satellite. Tornado warning now for west palm beach, jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, florida for the next eight to nine minutes that means there is a tornado that has been spotted it has not touched down as far as we know. Tornado warning for the next eight or nine minutes west palm beach, jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens if youre in any of those places get to a secure Location Center of the house if possible the place that youve designated as your safe place it is time to go there now and for the next eight minutes west palm , jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens until 10 eastern daylight time. Randy with us riding out the storm in taverneer in the florida keys. From what i see on this map youre getting it bad. Shepherd we are. Its been blowing for the last five or six hours. Im sure with gusts way over a hundred miles an hour but weve been pretty well and heard a lot of trees breaking a lot of things hitting the house, were boarded up pretty well where we cant really see outside but we can hear the noise and sounds like were getting a lot of tree damage. We hear that and ive gotten some phone calls and Text Messages from friends of mine that are on the other side. Im on the bay side theyre on the ocean side and theyre dealing with high water right now. Shep any idea how many people just off the top of your head remain behind . Well, i know when the islamor ada, upper keys area there was about 400 of us because we had a Facebook Page riding it out in the upper keys and i know there were quite a few people that signed up for that. Everybody that ive been talking to has fared very well. I havent heard of anybody with any issues. The bay side has been pretty safe right now. The ocean side is just dealing with the surge and the water coming in which is to be expected. Shep the eye of the storm i guess, the eye walls, the eye wall thats closest to you is probably about 50 miles to the west southwest of you right now, so your winds are going to shift a lot in the next few hours. Yeah, we are going to have once this gets in to the florida bay and the gulf area starts heading up the west coast what we will get is the opposite effect. Right now florida bay is dry. Theres no water in florida bay. The canals are sucked dry. Its kind of an opposite effect where it rises on the ocean and flows out the bay. Once that storm gets back there going to the north its going to push that water back in and were going to have some serious high water this afternoon. Shep are you ready to ride this thing out a lot of hours ahead. Oh, yeah. Were in a safe house, very well built high ground, so were all for riding it out and i think the worst of it as far as the winds and stuff are going to be right now Getting Better and well just have to deal with the water when that comes this afternoon. Shep randy is riding out the storm in the upper keys, all the best to you and all of the everyone left behind hope youre well. Thanks, shepherd. Shep we just got a notice from the Martin County sheriff, Martin County if you were looking at the state of florida youll see that big lake in the middle of it just to the right right right of lake oak, jupiter inland, that area they are out rescuing people who decided to stay on their boats so thats way up the coast to the east of the lake, folks are not in miami and not in Fort Lauderdale, all of the miami fire rescue theyre keeping their First Responders in because its too dangerous. We just seconds ago got a report from the miami International Airport. 100mile an hour winds in the miami International Airport and think how far away the miami International Airport is from the eye of the storm. Id say at least 90 to 100 miles away. You can see the loop there and its a long way out but it would be to the north and east of the storm which is where the most windy and worst of the conditions are to the north and east of the eye of the storm. That would be miami International Airport right in the city of miami hundred mile an hour winds there right now. So, weve just gotten a new power outage update. More than 1. 1 million floridians without power and its only going to get worse. Top of the hour headlines, next on foxte news. Ums. If you spit blood when you brush or floss you may have gum problems and could be on the journey to much worse. Help stop the journey of gum disease. Try parodontax toothpaste. Can make anyone slow downt and pull up a seat to the table. Thats why she takes the time to season her turkey to perfection, and make stuffing from scratch. So that you can spend time on what really matters. Marie callenders. Its time to savor. Shep its 10 in south florida im shepherd smith and this is Fox News Channel continuing coverage of landfall of Hurricane Irma. The storm made landfall in a tiny cudjoe key in the lower key , the florida keys chain just after 9 00 eastern time this morning, packing winds of 130 miles an hour. Right now weve just gotten a new update from the National Hurricane center in miami as of 30 seconds ago here are the new coordinates its at 24. 8 north and 81. 5 west, moving at north northwest at eight miles an hour , maximum sustained winds 130 miles an hour so that makes this a very strong very powerful very dangerous category 4 storm with minimum pressure