than this storm is going to go once it intersects the u.s. and starts to make the dive to the south. so there should be no surprises. people that are evacuating, you are in the right areas to get out of there. get out of the way of this storm because it is a big one. it is powerful and it is large in size. 120-miles-per-hour winds, a category 3. that s a major wind. 150-miles-per-hour gusts. it could strengthen a little bit before making landfall, but we are expecting it to make landfall on friday as a category 3 with winds of 120 miles per hour. it is going to slow way down like we were talking about and just meander along the coast. that means more of the coast is going to be impacted because it is just going to shred that coastline. whether it goes a little bit on shore and moves to the south or it stays a little bit off-shore as some of the models have been suggesting and moving to the south, it is still going to be devastating for a lot of the north carolina coast and south caroli
which is really good news for anybody who is there and has property there or loved ones there because the faster the thing gets out of the way the better for everybody involved. this will continue up the coast. the thinking is that because it s on land now, it s not fully on land, it could continue to straddle the water and that would be really horrible. the hope once it s on land, it will stay on land to decrease strength. eventually it will happen. by tuesday morning, it s around birmingham by tuesday evening around memphis somewhere as a much weaker storm. probably low pressure center by the time it gets to birmingham. right now 120-miles-per-hour
island. so if that is what happens and that s what they think is going to happen, it would continue up the peninsula and could put tampa and st. pete on this side of the storm. that would be better for tampa and st. pete. you still have the storm surge that would come from the back but you wouldn t have the dirty side, the wet side of the storm as they re going to get here in the naples and and everglades city area, marco island specially. we are expecting full 120-miles-per-hour winds. the storm has diminished in strength. 130 miles an hour for the last six hours, now 120 miles an hour and moving more quickly. the quicker you get it away from you, the better. they expect that the progress would increase and it has, 12 miles an hour head today headed to marco island and continue to work its way up the state. one thing they are saying at hurricane national center, it
griff, the winds should be picking up there. that s right, shep, it s definitely picking up. the national hurricane center putting alert in 120-miles-per-hour sustained winds, the urgent message from the police is absolutely true. the live shot that we showed you a block off the beach, the we turned and got out of there because they ve been warning, the storm surge comes very quickly but our drive here which is 3.1 miles east of the beach on vanderbilt bridge drive was a debris mine field. i want to show you. very common to florida are the root rooftops, taracota roof tops. we are 3 miles inland east of the ocean, the winds from
i want to go to south florida now. it now appears that hurricane irma packing 120-miles-per-hour cat 3 winds is headed on a direct course to marco island. dave is riding out the storm in marco island, he says his home is 150 yards from the water. dave, how are you and who is with you? i m fine, thank you, and i m by myself. my wife and dog and mother-in-law evacuated yesterday. do you have electricity? actually i don t have electricity. i have a generator that powers the house. [inaudible] marco island has been in the cone of possibilities for this storm. it wasn t the most likely track and now that this appears this is a marco island event how concerned are you? well, obviously i m as concerned as everyone is. it s going to be a serious