Many time, ive also done hurricane prep stories in that area. A lot of homes are built to strong hurricane standards. You can take a baseball bat and you can pound that glass and just keep pounding it forever and it doesnt crack and it doesnt break. But that house, one story or two stories tall, doesnt give you the owe, thats nice. Doesnt give you protection from that 15 foot storm surge as it pushes that wall of water in, brian. All right, sam champion, thank you for that. It appears youre in as safe a spot as youre going to get in miami. Theyre getting all the storm they can handle. Just to emphasize to our viewers, sams location is, again, across the state, which is, what, 140 miles at its widest point. 90 from the center of the storm. But 90 from the center of the storm. And yet you see what its doing to sam. Lets see what its doing where Maria Mariana intenso is doing. Mariana, how have conditions deteriorated there . Brian, im at a point in the beach thats the southern most part of miami beach, the southern most cone of miami beach. This is where the big condos are. I want you to look at the scene behind me. Thats how big things are. I have never seen the big palm tree, which are new, and they actually had reinforcements installed to avoid this from happening. They just completely gave way. Because conditions are worsening by the minute. I dont know if you can appreciate how these palm trees were yanked from the earth right here. These are some pretty big palm trees right here. This is the scene that the residents here are going to have to grapple with tomorrow. I also want to show you right over here these lamp posts that have completely came out of the ground. Extremely dangerous. Because all of us around here, this is glass im stepping on right here. So again its such a volatile situation because you have all this debris, lamp posts, these ba big palm trees. If people start walking around, which are authorities are themming ththem i telling them not to do, it can prove deadly. Ive been reporting from the beach since 5 00 in the morning today. I think this is our last live shot from the beach right now. Were looking downtown and also update you on the situation with those cranes going on downtown. The situation on the beach, it just kept deteriorating. We moved to the southern most point. I wasnt expecting to see this. But this is the situation. And were still hours away from this ending right here, brian. All right, maur yawn that, thank you for taking the words right out of my mouth, thank you for your live reporting. And please seek shelter. Again, if all those things can fall down around you, they can fall on top of you, god forbid, a thousand times. Bill barnett, a very busy man, has taken time to join us on the phone. He is the mayor of naples, florida. Mr. Mayor, i know the entire state of florida has been watching the progression of this storm. Youve got this late in the game. You have done your utmost to prepare for it. What kind of shape are you in with the eye to your south . Well, thank you, brian. We are definitely watching the brunt of this coming our way. It is the conditions are worsening as we speak. As you said, we have prepared and now we have to get through this. Your police department, your Fire Department, im guessing, can no longer respond to 911 and at this point its kind of in the hands of the gods. Youve got to hope your evacuation was as close to 100 as you can get it. And youve also got to hope that people understand the surge comes after the storm. You may very well see the eye and the beautiful weather in the middle of the eye, but sadly, for a place like naples, the worst is yet to come. Yes. You are correct. That has been our biggest concern. Not so much the eye. And i think weve told enough people that all of a sudden if it comes down and the weather turns beautiful, do not go out and ride around to see what kind of damage has been done. Because its not done. And as far as evacuation goes, people have been heeding this from the very beginning when we first said, hey, this storm could be the real thing. I think that that was a definite wakeup call. There was no complacency from people when this storm started coming our way. Mayor, lets be honest, you also got some refugees from miami. You got some folks initially early on who were fleeing to naples, the relative serenity of naples, from the east coast, when we thought this storm was going to be a miami centered event. That is correct, but, you know, brian, they went elsewhere as well, toward orlando and a few people i know went to tampa for refuge. You are correct. But the plan all along, and we said it from the beginning, look, no matter what you do, you have to have a plan and you better stick with it, you know. Its a judgment call if youre going to stay, and we dont recommend that, that youre in a secure place, and thats been the motto since it begins. It seems like no matter where anyone went, theyre going to get hit by this. All right, mayor bill barnett, thank you so much. Look, mayor, well be thinking of you as we as we track this storm. Sadly, what looks like right up over the top of naples. And we can only hope that all your preparations are going to pay off. Bill barnett, the mayor of naple, florida. Jacob soberoff is elsewhere in naples, florida. Jacob, it looks like youve got the protection of a balcony there. We can see the storm playing out behind you. Yes, its pretty incredible, brian, were up on the sixth floor now, on the balcony. Were starting to see stuff literally picked up off the ground and kind of swirl up in the air about our eye level. Those gusts weve been talking about are reaching the highest level also ive seen since weve been out here. Now were protected by a concrete wall. Were not far from where chris heino heinz is. About four miles that way is the gulf line, marcos island, not much further than that. They have their own municipal Fire Department. Then the greater naples fire rescue. The chief of that department was telling me hes got a home out there on marco island. He expects it to be devastated, to be leveled. As weve been talking about, he likely will not be able to get a chance to go out there and see it, at least for 24 hour, if not 48 hours. The Fire Department has hunkered do down. Nobody is going anywhere until this storm passes. We have hours still until we see the worst of it here in naples. The most incredible thing to see. Ive going to step down and see if you can see what im seeing right now. Its just the way these palm trees are being tossed around by gusts of wind. From right to left, essentially horizontal rain coming in here now. Again, now, were getting another huge gust of wind as these palm trees start to woo, as these palm trees start to go back and forth. We even occasionally see, i dont know if you can see it, but all the debris from the ground is starting to be picked up into the sky and sort of twirled around in the air. Hopefully everybody is off the streets. Where i last joined you from is not too far. I can virtually see it from where were standing right now. And the roads at this point are impassable with all of the palm fronds, the trees down. Hopefully not power lines. That is a very big danger with the above ground power lines. The expression you aint seen nothing yet, sadly, it coming your way. Bill karins is with us at the desk. This storm is asking like someone who has done wrong to the gulf coast of florida. Im watching every little twitch and movement in that eye and it appears designed to wreak the ultimate havoc on mar koco isla and naples. This is just the last chapter. We havent even begun to see what this cat 5 landfall in cuba did for 24 hours, and weve only begun to kind of sample pictures from the islands, the caribbeans. I havent had time to see how bad turks and caicos was and that went through the northern eye of it. Well do this chapter now, and this chapter is us, and time is up. Its time for everyone in southwest to go to your safe rooms. If youre in naple, if youre in the ft. Myers area, anywhere in between, the eye is less than an hour away. The wording from the Weather Service is pretty much what i was saying before, get under a table, sturdy furniture, use mattresses and pillows to cover your head and your familys bodies. Remain in place through the passage of these life threatening conditions. Thats pretty much it. Naples. Marco island. Golden gate estates. Everglade city. That message will be extended northward as we track the eye right up the coast. Our friends at the Weather Channel are talking about naple, florida, one of their meteorologists is outside. Were talking about these palm trees. Palm trees bill, have a kind of famously and bad for their structure compact root ball on them. You could see that when we had the live shot from miami beach. And they often go right over. But these fronds will take you out if youre hit by one of them, rain soaked, say nothing of the coconuts. This is the hotel in naples where a number of our different reporters and meteorologists are stationed because of its construction and its location. You do not want to look up and see one of those swaying in your direction. Every single one of these live crews is out there and the first thing they do is they look up and they look in the general direction where they know the strongest winds are coming from. They do not want projectiles coming at them from that direction. Im watching the full screen radar behind you on the big board. To our viewer, its starting to break up a little bit. We have a couple frames of blank. Thats because, bill, i assume thats rain fade at its either rain fade or just Data Transmission glitches that were having out of there. This information is all out of the miami radar, by the way. We lost our key west radar earlier today when the eye went through that region. And, you know, lets just give you the latest track. We can zoom right in there. This is southwest collier county. This is where alligator alley connects with 75 and heads northwards here. This is marco island. This is the clear eye coming down here. This is why we told everyone to get to their safe shelter. When you go through this, this is when youre going to have the chance of an 115, 125mileperhour gust. Marco island, ill draw your line, you are from the peak of the eye 18 miles away but from the leading edge of it youre now only about 12 or 13. I can do the same thing for our friends up here in naples. The reason we care about this is obviously the winds, you know, can cause significant structural damage and loss of life. Also it kind of just gives you an idea that after the eye goes through, thats when the storm surge is going to come. Were 30 miles now from naples. Weve focused on the southern portion of the state. A lot of people say how about us further up the coast. Theres ft. Myers. Since the storms moving at a predictable pace, about 10 Miles Per Hour, should increase a little bit. Ft. Myers, you are about 60 miles from the eye. Youre about six hours away. So this is a daylight event for marco island, naples area. And as the sun is setting, the worst of the storm will be right in this region here between ft. Myers and down there to the south. Benita springs, as we head over towards beautiful captiva, thats when the suns going to be setting. It just gets a little scarier, brian. Thats a bad thing because the only thing worse than a storm like this is the loss of power and the noises that seem to be amplified because its nighttime. Theres the eye. This look, its purple. That just popped in there. This is not showing any signs of weakening. This area right in here, if we had still category 4 winds, its in this. You dont want to be in that. That area right there were looking at, if we project the eye which is going pretty much west of due north. So that is let me go to a different one here. This is the western eye. This would be the eastern eye. And that would put this, which is the strongest winds that youre going to get with this storm, right over the top of marco island, right over the top of naples. What we wouldnt give for one degree to west, i mean yeah, we were hoping to avoid that shift. Thats why weve been saying, you know, this is worse case for the west coast. Obviously worst case would be if it was a cat 5. This is a category 4 storm. Its been a while since we mentioned about the storm surge. Storm surge really doesnt care what category you are. Storm surge has to do with how big of a storm is, how large the wind is. This storm is huge. Even if you hear, later on today i expect well go down to category 3, that doesnt change the storm surge predictions. Theyre going to remain just as high, just as deadly. The 10 to 15 feet. Tampa, were still thinking possibly up to 8 feet. Thats two hours after the eye passes. I cant express how long of an afternoon and evening. This storm will be over the top of tampa at about 2 00 a. M. 12 hours from now. Can i ask a favor, because weve got the mayor of bo nita springs on the phone. Can you go back and call up Bonita Springs . Id like to as best we can give him an idea of timing and distance to the north eye wall. Peter simmons is his name. Mr. Mayor, i assume this is the time where we get to say youve done all you can and this is where we hope for best. Good afternoon, brian, absolutely, we are obviously hunkered down. We have over 30,000 residents and Evacuation Centers just as we spoke, the lights flickered heard where i am at the Emergency Operations center in Bonita Springs. We suspended any vehicles or First Responders from being on the road as of 9 15 this morning when winds were sustained over 40 mile always hour. Right now, we have got up to 65 miles an hour. But as we know and as we fear, its going to get a whole lot worse. Bill karins. What percentage of your population, mayor, do you believe that you still have in town . You know, weve had a lot of people evacuate. My family included. We have a lot of folks still up north. But there is a substantial amount of our population that is here and is hunkered down and riding out the storm. Weve been talking about evacuation now for over a week. We have localized flooding last week. Governor rick scott was here. And we have been in constant communication with the governors office. Hes been very hands on. And now, now its up to god. Did you evacuate all zones or just the zones you are most concerned with the storm surge . Yes, no, weve had mandatory evacuations citywide and moving people into Evacuation Centers. We responded to all the calls that we could this morning. Prior to the 9 15 suspension of First Responders. Were gearing up as that map shows you. Mayor, whats your eyest elevation in Bonita Springs . Very low. Its certainly not 10 and 15 feet like this storm surge is telling us. So if that storm surge is accurate, there is a lot going on here. Im looking at and our highest elevation is 13 feet. So no matter what happens, 15 feet of storm surge is going to cause a lot of damage. Im looking at a graph take bill karins has just put together showing 38 miles between you, probably more like 37 or 36 by now. I dont know how good you are at math. But moving north at 9 miles an hour. So its within a 3 to 4 hour window of you. Yes, and thats been consistent, brian, with what weve heard. And you know were gearing up for 100mileanhour winds between 8 and 10 hours. And were hoping for anything but that northeast eye wall that were looking at here on radar, bill. Mayor, do you have any you cant make everyone leave. Do you have any areas of mobile homes or trailer parks that youre especially concerned with and you had deputies trying to get people out of that are still remaining . Yes, absolutely, we have. We have moved as many folks as we possibly can into Evacuation Centers. And we have folks that have heeded that advice but, lets face it, this is america and we have people that have dug in and demanded to stay. So we are we are doing everything that we can do up to this point. And now, now its time to ride it out. And we will be back out in the Community Just as as soon as as it is safe to get back into the community. And we do have roughly seven trailer parks and mobile home parks in the city of Bonita Springs. Yeah, this storm does not like mobile homes. Thats scary for the loss of life, mayor if you know you have people in those mobile homes, disheartening. First to go. Mayor, well pray for you. Good luck to you. Good luck to all the people in your town. Lets hope all the right preparations are going to pay off. That has been peter simmen, the mayor of Bonita Springs. You were just talking about how it is kind of next up after naples in the path. Yeah, and just the people that, you know, the loss of life thats going to occur for people that stayed in one story he said 13 feet is their highest elevation. So 10 to 15 foot storm surge, wave action, objects in the water sloshing around, destroying property. The thought we are six to eight hours away from people being in these structures with that water rising around them and them fearing for their lives is what can you say . This is still a 4. Meaning whats the highest gust they are likely to get three, four hours from now . When we went to the key, a lot of observation stations were between 100 to 120. It hasnt weakened ever since it went through the keys. Yeah, the Bonita Springs area, marcos. The Weather Service doesnt have it weakening that much from now until it gets to tampa at 2 00 a. M. In the morning. So this extreme wind warn, which is the equivalent of a lower end tornado, thats 40 miles wide, is going to come up the west coast of florida. Dont expect pictures. This is important. Storm surge comes in. Is horrendous. Will kill people. Will destroy everything. Then it will slowly recede and go out. By the time we get to morning, were not going to have people on rooftops like harvey and katrina waving and looking for help. Theyll either be a live or theyll be dead and theyll need medical assistance but the water will be gone. Well that gets your attention, as it is designed to. As it should. Cal perry what do you have . Marco island. From the air. From the tourism board. This gives you an idea of what were talking about when we say low lying areas. Beautiful place, right . Thats what were worried about with that storm surge, its going to come right up here. Thats great, cal, that just tells the story. This is why people move there, right . That is the tip of the spear that is going to be the first ground contact of this storm. The top of those hotels are the only spot that is higher than 10 to 15 feet. I mean right. As you know, a highrise building can actually change a category in a storm. Because youve got higher wind effects. Youre safe in the high rises in interior rooms but yeah, the winds will be higher. To the other coast now. This was something you mentioned. This was that power line explosion in boca raton. These are going to happen all day today too. Watch this. There you just saw it, its still a live power line right here in boca. Firefighters need to protect all day were going to be seeing that. This is also when we tell people, listen, dont go walking into water. You dont know whats in the water. Our crews take a lot of safety precautions to do that. Last thing i want to show you, again, just chasing back from tampa. After we did our live shot, bill. People out there taking selfies. Its not we dont want people driving around because we dont want people getting into accidents and we dont want Emergency Services to have to deal with stuff like that. These people, hopefully they just lived right next to the area, they can get out there, get pictures and get inside. The storm surge is predicted about eight hours away. Its hard to avoid it. Any Police Officer will tell you please dont cause more problems for us right now. Yeah. Im a little bit we look at when this thing is going to make landfall. Let me know what you think. Its going to happen at night, right . So people are not going to be able to see that water. If we get the landfall. Im not going to focus so much on the landfall. Landfall is honestly its a headline. We have landfall. It doesnt change anything. Its more for the historical record, did we get the landfall or not. What i care about is when we showed you the purple open the map, the northeast eye wall, who goes through that. Because thats whats going to cause the most wind damage and potential to kill people. Thats what matters to me. Can i impose on you to show us minutes until naples, because we are looking at this shot of naples which is just getting buffeted by these squaw lines. And they appear to be on the front end of another band. Yes, theyre on this right here, brian. If you see this this band is the one that extends all the way back here to homestead. This band has been sitting over homestead for a while now. What were looking at here is we have this feeder band and then, you know, you have other feeder bands that have been north of there which we saw with kerry earlier. Looks like we have another one on the northern edge. Then we have the eye itself. So you get these little moets well call them or little breaks in between and then it really ramps up and then it will just get crazy and then maybe you go through the eye. We do not have reporters or crews on marco island. It was thought for good reason. Yeah, it was just thought that it would not be a smart decision by us. Look, were going to take another quick break. We have hours to go here and sadly we are entering the desperate hours for places like marco island and parts of naple, florida. Our live coverage of irma continues right after this. Just as an extra step of precaution, were using a tow line here to secure myself to a pillar. Its just an added layer of security. For years, at t has been promising fast internet to small businesses. But for many businesses, its out of reach. Why promise something you cant deliver . Comcast business is different. We deliver superfast internet with speeds of 150 megabits per second across our entire network, to more companies, in more locations, than at t. We do business where you do business. Theyre hope iing this is attached to a generator. Its connected to the sewer. Theyre hoping it kicks it back into the ocean, avoid some of the flooding. Mariana intenso earlier from miami beach. People of a certain age, especially floridians who survived hurricane andrew, know Bryan Norcross as one of the heroes of that storm because he stayed on the air and his work is credited with having saved lives in hurricane andrew. An entirely different animal than were seeing with Hurricane Irma. From the Weather Channel, were so happy to be joined by Bryan Norcross. Bryan, our thoughts and prayers are with the folks on marco island. And naples. I dont suppose you have any good news for us as far as how theyre going to fare . No, its all bad news today. This thing is the core of the hurricane right here, which is the real business part of the hurricane that we normally concentrate on, brian, is coming up to marco, naples. Going up the developed corridor of southwest florida. Its the last time one of the giant storms went there. In 1960 there was really very little there compared to whats there today. So this part of florida has never experienced any kind of hurricane even remotely like this. This hurricane is exceptional in every kind of way you can imagine. Including the fact we had 1 120mileanhour winds through the keys this morning. The winds affecting this area, 109mileanhour winds, so this is not where all the damage is going to be done. Its going to extend, as you saw, the pictures coming out of southeast florida here, even all the way across the state. And all the way north. Heres the thing thats just been issued. The extreme wind warning for collier county, naples. National Weather Service saying winds of 125 Miles Per Hour are imminent there. Theyre still a few hours away but they want everybody hunkered down ready for that thats coming in. Look at the size of this. We got a Tornado Warning all the way up here. This is all going to shift north. This other thing i want to point out is the tail that goes to the caribbean. That tail is going to remain on east coast. So this is not a case that once the eye goes by to the north, that in miami, the weathers going to get really good for example. But this is a long, Long Duration event. So this is something i never see. I said this on the Weather Channel yesterday, brian. I never imagine such a thing that from tallahassee to miami and the keys you have hurricane warnings in the state of florida. Just unbelievable. Here in atlanta we have Tropical Storm warnings. And all of these areas are likely to have significant widespread Power Outages. This just shows the scope. You talked about hurricane andrew. Andrew was a little corridor. Just below miami. Right there. That was the hurricane andrew damage corridor. This damage corridor, follow the red. Thats the Hurricane Force winds. It goes up west coast. These are the Hurricane Force gusts. The entire state of florida is going to get Hurricane Force gust. We have two stages. The first one, heres the eye of the storm. Theres naples. As you know, youve been reporting im sure, the water is being pushed out in the gulf. So theres this large area, hundreds of yards going out where you dont have any water. Well, as soon as that eye goes by, these winds are coming in. And then were going to get the water shooting back in the other way. Thats the storm surge. So the fact were seeing the water go out is really telling us how vulnerable that coastline is to storm surge. Because if you didnt have that, you know, if it takes a relatively light wind to push the water out, a much stronger wind is going to push it back with much more vengeance and thats unsurvivable. Thats why that part of the coast has been evacuated. I could sense and i can tell you could sense around about yesterday when the path went more to the west there was a little hint of regret among some of the people who had evacuated. A little hint that maybe the eastern part of the state would be spared. And i, along with you, hope that everyone is paying attention to the buffeting the entire peninsula of florida is going through, as you put it, the entire peninsula is under a hurricane warning. Its really staggering. You know, you imagine these things. Ive studied florida, hurricanes here for decades. You could imagine how that could happen. But it never has happened in the record book, that weve had one come directly up the state. Theyve always kind of gone across the state. Hurricane donna in 1960 was sort of like this but it crossed the state, went all the way up the east coast and hit every state in the east coast. This one is bottled up in the south. Its not going to move terribly fast. Its going to affect these cities that have not had a lot of hurricane experience and have had zero hurricane experience in their Development Period here. Tampa, sarasota, ft. Myers, all the islands, down to captiva island, marco island, you know, these have exploded over the last several decades and they have not had hurricanes and certainly nothing of this scale has bothered the west coast. I went out and did a series of specials on americas most vulnerable hurricane cities. Two of the top five are tampa and ft. Myers. Two of the top three are tampa and for tt. Myers. So extremely vulnerable part of the state. The man to see about florida hurricanes has shared some of his air time with us. Bryan norcross, what a pleasure. Thank you very much. Well keep watching you on the whp chann Weather Channel as well. Mariana, the last we heard from you, you promised us you were going to be out of harms way. I delivered on that promise, ive moved from the beach to downtown miami. And i want to show you these images now because you were just talking about how the eastern part of florida wasnt going to get hit as badly. It is already happening here in downtown miami. In an area where the beach is a couple of miles to my right. Downtown miami behind me. This is sort of the cultural epcenter. You have the opera house behind me. This water is up to my knees. Its increasing just as we waited to have the conversation with you. When the water starts moving rapidly away, its going to just flood this entire street. You can see the debris. This is also this water is not really all that clear where you can really step. Were being very careful. Im seeing where im standing very clearly but for people walking around, coming by this area tomorrow, thats when it starts getting dangerous because of the debris and the things that can be underneath that water. I dont know if you can appreciate just how fast the waters going behind me. Again, its a torrent of water. Its just wind and as the water picks up, its going to create very dangerous flooding for downtown miami. This is what residents are going to have to deal with in the coming days, if not weeks. As Hurricane Irma has left us here in maur jana, youve watc come up in the time youve been there . Yes, we drove up, i was standing here, it was up to my ankles. Now, as you can see, its creeping up to my knees. Im not very tall. But you can its just coming in a very forceful way. You can see it behind me. Seawater, this is a road that im standing on right now, its unbelievable that this is the scene in downtown miami right now. My crew is signaling to me to get out. Im going to do that. Brian, back to you. Okay, that will make us very happy. For people with even a passing knowledge of miami, thats the 95 on ramp just behind her there. Certainly, this is the downtown district, as she said, part of the Cultural Center of miami. Mariana, thank you, do what you can to get out of swift advancing water. We have Gabe Gutierrez standing by in naples, florida. Gabe, what do you have . Hey there, brian. Just in the past few minutes, the wind and rain has picked up here quite a bit. This is as the eye makes its way near naples. Were seeing conditions deteriorate. Weve been driving around and decided now to hunker down in this hotel. And p whiwhich we have lost pow. But weve you get these wind gusts every few minutes. But you can see behind me, the trees are really blowing sideways here. Theres debris all over the roads. We keep hearing transformers blow. Thankfully everyones off the street now. Within the last hour, the reading at the naples municipal airport, 76mileanhour gusts. Authorities here say the shelters are completely at capacity. They want everybody to stay off the street. The big fear here, as youve been reporting, the storm surge. They fear that the worst of it will come in the hours after the eye passes by. They expect quite a bit of storm surge and the worry is what will happen to downtown naples, brian. Gabe gutierrez in naples, stay safe there. Bill karins join us. I see you were over at the wall looking at the leading edge of this eye wall. Its not weakening either. Its just as strong as it was. I dont see any reason why it wont have cat 4type gusts that are going to come on shore. Gabe just said 76 was the highest mile per hour gust weve seen. Kerry was elevated a little bit when we had him a couple hours ago when those gusts went through. Theyre going to end up with like 120. The wind itself is again, were focusing a lot right now on the wind. Because the wind is the life threatening thing thats happening now. About an hour or two after the eye goes north, even worse than the wind, is going to be the life threatening portion with the storm surge. Well talk about that as it begins. I got all our weather producers are monitoring all our tidal gauges. As soon as that comes up, i will let you know immediately. It has not yet. The northern eye, this is where the strongest winds are with this storm. Look at the purple in here, this thunderstorm right here. Thats intense. This is eight miles now from marco island. These images come in about every four to five minutes too. So well wait for that new image to refresh there. And the thing that we were pointing out, the thing that is disconcerting, as we go up the coast with this, its not moving due north. We dont think its going straight up over marco island. The way its been going, this way. Up like this. And that puts, you know, this intense thunderstorm here on the northern side, that puts this area right here, right over the top of marco island and naples. I want to you know, cal was so great, throwing this picture up before. Were throwing names out there. We want you to not only hear the name, but we want you to be able to see what it looks like. And think of all the people that live there, call that home. Thats where they work. They all hopefully, evacuated. Theyre wondering what their properties are going to look like. That is the before picture. Save that in your mind for the after pictures a couple days from now. That picture right there will have 10 to 15 feet of water covering. Thats very flat. It will cover the island. Theyll be wave action on top of it. Along with the fact that we are now heading towards the 3 00 to 4 00 high tide which will add another two feet to that water height. I mean, you want to talk about whatever analogy you want to say, ground zero, whatever you want, this area here is first. Theyre not going to be the last. Thats going to move up the coast. You know, the storm surge, brian, is just what i was talking about, how devastating its going to be to marco island. Before that even begin, theyre about to go through the winds of a cat 4 hurricane cane. Which just alone would cause significant infrastructure damage. Yeah, were talking about wetlands with high rises. With canals. Some of the buildup was built on fill originally. And many cases manmade lagoons. I mean, it looks beautiful though, doesnt it . Yes, it is. Kamcals with us. Show us. Ive got jacob texting me. He says show everybody cape coral. Thats just about 60 miles north of yeah. Marco island. So it looked pretty on those open houses. All those lagoons have been cut and look, they all have retaining walls. Yes they are thats true. We should point out. Florida is built to withstand hurricanes more than probably anywhere in the entire world. Yes. But are they, you know, to withstand a cat 4 . That is a different story. Yep. All right. Well fit in a quick break here. Much more to come as we follow the path of this storm. Marco island, the area of greatest concern most immediately but a whole lot of population ahead of us as it goes north. Just hunker down below this wall to get out of the way of these winds. Weve gotten closer and closer to the eye as it continues to move north. Welcome back. 1 47 p. M. Eastern time. Look at that scene on left as it gets darker. In naple, florida. Take the toughest thunderstorm, the toughest thunderstorm in the summer that you can remember, and multiply it by several factors. Thats what theyre about to be under. Naples florida just recorded a wind gust of 103 miles an hour. Naples is not built for 103 Miles Per Hour. Sam champion is across the state in miami. Remember, 90 miles to the east. Whatever were talking about, sams supposed to be on the lesser end of this storm. It doesnt look it from here, sam. Ill tell you, the wind field of this storm is so large. Delivering exactly what was forecast. The worst effects of this storm are going to be with the eye. And the eye is with the west coast. In naples and ft. Myers and beyond. But the bands that have been feeding this storm have been so large and so expansive. Pulling all the way from the caribbean across all day long today. This is the worst band weve had all day and was expected to be. And forecasted to be. And weve had wind gusts strongly in excess of 90 Miles Per Hour. I havent actually been able to get a reading on them. If you guys have that gust within the last 15 minute, id love to know what it is. This is what we prepared people in miami and on east coast. It will push from here a little bit toward ft. Lauderdale as we go on. Weve been in it for about 30 minutes now. This is the worst weather of the day. This is what we were telling people to stay inside for. This is the weather that the Power Outages will kick up now. From this kind of wind. Because it has been going like this for more than 30 minutes now. And until this thing comes in. Brian, again, i got to tell you, im completely blocked from the north. Nothing coming from the north. And this wind is hooking a little bit. Ive got have a Convention Center to the east. As this wind is making it up and over this Convention Center, so this is what we were telling people to hunger down for and get in. And if our reporters are on the beach earea, if they can hear m, get inside and brace for this wind now. Folks north, hollywood, ft. Lauderdale, this beach, this is the kind of wind you will be getting. The reason that we saw that flooding coming in from downtown miami is this wind if is taking that water and pushing it in. It is going into downtown miami, and that is why there is water in the streets calf high on this boulevard in downtown miami. We think well have a little longer. Once the guy questions a little past parallel with us. It wont be quite as bad as it is now. Sam champion, thank you very much. What a sight behind you. It looks like know or smoke going by. There is Kerry Sanders in naples, what do you have . Well, brian, im crouched down for a moment. The position i was in earlier, a doctor reached out to me said i dont like the way youre holding your arm. Im afraid youre going to break your arm, so i put myself in position in an open area again to remind viewers were in a parking garage. Im going to get my feet set here, were on the floor of an Apartment Building in naples. We had consistent wind now. I spoke to the south, and to the south those that decided to stay behind in marco island. It is now starting to coming. From the gulf of mexico, and it should be the stronger winds here for us if is closer to the eye. It also mean its will push the water. Maybe it will take about two or three hours before we see the actual storm surge. Meantime, to the north of me in f ft. Myers Community Hospital had space for 300 patients, they had 3,000 evacuees, they are packed, but everyone is weathering the storm, the police are telling us not only in naples, but also in marco island. No power, they lost the water down in marco. I spoke to the one man who was riding it in in his condo in the third floor. He told me he felt he made the right decision. Let me get down for that strong wind. The lower i get the more protected i am from the winds. I think what were probably going to see here, though, once the eye wall moves further north is a shift that happens and i think we will feel something that we have not really felt so far. You know, brian, i was in hurricane andrew, and so ask me to measure the distance. The winds were clocked at 234 miles in homestead, 234 Miles Per Hour, were not experiencing the winds that i felt during andrew, but i have a feeling we will see that here. Those who are inside shelters. Thats the kind of wind that could knock me down if i was standing. Those in shelters are hearing all of this. There are no windows, they dont know whats going on, and they lost their power. They cant even look on tv like the rest of the nation is watching what is irmas wrath right now. Kerry, listen to bill who is going to tell you what youre experiencing right now meteorologically. Youre in the second ban from the eye. The northern eye wall has just moved on to marco island. Youre in that band to the north of that. You will get a very brief break in between what youre in now and then in about an hour from now, you should be in the northern eye wall, and this wind is not andrew. Andrew was a category a this is a low end four, high end three. We expect a lot of wind damage, but houses will not be wiped from their damage like with andrew. The storm surge after the eye will kill the most people and destroy the most property. Bill, can i ask you if im following you correctly, the eye wall will come over us and we will be in the eye or is it still off shore . The eye is off shore. It will be extremely close, kerry. If you get into the eye, or if you sit in the northern eye, and then have to travel through the entire eastern eye. There is potential youre in the northern eye wall, and going to the eastern eye wall. Were trying to get a signal out. I have only been in the eye once. It is remarkable to see what it going on here. In the eye it is not only calm, but i have seen birds flying around before. You can never predict that you would be in the eye to actually see that, it just happens to you. I dont know well be fortunate to be in that position today. You would rather go through the eye because you get a break and the south side is not as strong. We have a split screen with you up and the radar, and this right front Northeast Quadrant right that now im projecting to come over the top of you. If you get into the a clearing area, it will be close, kerry. Right now by bet would be that you i dont think you will go through the center of the eye, unfortunately. I think you will have four to six hours of eye wall. Well, thats misery. Especially for everyone that lives here because were we have a position. We feel like were in a safe position for the people who are inside, the sounds scare you and for those of us who are doing our brief outside and returning back to a safe area, it is, its like youre on the elliptical for 14 hours. Its tiring. Our viewers can follow this. They can see you. You were just in this band here when we came to you on the coverage. The reason that kerry is not blowing around as much right now, he is in the light green between the bands. If we go back to kerry, this next band right here will be over him in about five minutes from now and there is another band developed just north of that. As it ramps up, each band will get progressively worse as it moves in. For our friends down here, the marco islands. The eye wall, the strongest winds are, that is now beginning to move on shore in is the first time by the way, we had landfall in cuba. This is the first time the eye wall has been over land since it left cuba. Peoplement to kn menment to e doing and how were doing this. The wind is at my back, it feels like a sandblaster, i will make my way here, you can see the wall to the side here beginning to pick up. I will take you into the parking garage here. Im making my way in, and were seeing the force of mother nature, joe is doing a great job keeping the camera dry there. Here i am in the parking garage now. You see all of the cars parked here. We can fall further down here. There is no wind at all. We know that the wind will come from this direction, shift around to this direction, we have a couple different places to go. For those who are, and i thank them, for those asking about our safety and saying why are you out there . Were trying to demonstrate what is going on but not put ourselves in a position for too long that puts us in too much risk. Im sitting here, my job is to look for good news. The eye appears to be getting more rag ged, but we industriala four. The northern half of the storm looks very healthy. The southern half, not as good. So the worst and heaviest rain and wind will be with the northern portion of the storm, and then it will fairly this is the problem, brian. The worst storm surge is after you get done. You get the worst rain and wind with the eye. And then the backside, it will stop raining in some cases. The winds will die down, that is when the storm surge will come in and that is what will kill people. We dont want people thinking theyre safe. Im going to see if i can get joe to take his camera off of the tripod, it will take a second. It will bounce around for a moment. Joe vasquez, a veteran, just came out of