you know, i didn t quite hear everything you said, brian. but i can tell you i can tell you that al and i were in the fort myer area yesterday. we finished the broadcast with a beautiful sunset and looked at each other it doesn t look like a hurricane is coming. we sat here on the river starting at about 5:30 this morning. and light sprinkles and barely a breeze for much of the day. and suddenly it s here. all day on the radar. so you know it s coming. but everything around you. it is here. and i don t think we re at hurricane-force winds, are we? i m sorry, say it again? hurricane-force winds yet? no, not yet. we re right now about a 55, 60-mile-per-hour winds, which still is tropical force. so, you know, we still have a ways to go. but the good news is one of the things when we talked with the mayor this morning, he said over the last couple years have removed 50 tons of debris in the drains, that we re looking at these drains here.
think they got the word out and were trying to get people into their respective shelters, or to try to get them to move out and head to higher ground. al, i ll let you go after this. a little bit of a concern tonight to your northeast is that orlando and given the valuable real estate there in just how much of the tourism business that florida needs and wants flows through that city. orlando is going to get more storm that they had banked on. well, look, we kept telling not to say to beat a drum here, but we kept saying this system, and i know you talked about it too, this system was so big that it was going to affect the entire state. that the state, about 150 miles wide. this system over 400 miles wide, that it was going to have an effect. and that tornadoes were going to be a factor. that there was a lot going on
when we thought it would break and go straight up the coast whom. would have thought that the winds in orlando would be worse than the winds in tampa? that s right. look, the best we can do is give you the probabilities. and we show you the cone of uncertainty and that line. but i think we keep trying to tell people don t focus on the exact path. don t focus on those spinning symbols with the numbers in them. look at this cone of uncertainty. and you re always best served with that and its borne itself out. al, i m your witness. i heard you say that all week long, especially in the days and hours leading up to this. do us a favor. thank your crew for standing throughout in this weather with you. we appreciate it. thank you for joining us
here. and in that aspect, i think it s lived up to it. the idea that maybe we weren t going to see the 15 feet of storm surge in naples. that s good news. i would rather be overprepared and have people make their way to shelters than to say not prepare people and then the worst happens. i think this has played out, i think pretty well. and when you look at it, there has been a tremendous amount of damage, especially down in the keys in southeastern florida, miami, broward counties. i think it s lived up to what we said it would do. al, it s bill here. i know you were in miami area and then you traveled all the way across the state. i m sure you talked to a lot of people on your journey. what were they thinking going into this storm? i m sure they were seeking to you for advice. well, i think everybody was asking, do you think this thing
chris hayes in naples. nights in a hurricane are no fun, whether the hurricane has kind of passed through there hours earlier or not. nights are no fun. and the people with battery operated headlamps usually rule the roost, as do batteries and generators. i want to read just this about power. florida power and light says 3.2 million of its 5 million customers are without power. that s about 65%. this is a state of about 20 million people. and remember, when we say customers, the number of people is far higher. customers is a power hookup and can mean families of multiples. al roquer er roker is standing in tampa, florida. al, we ve been watching you all day as well. tampa is one of the places this storm has been aiming at all day. and i can see in the picture of you, al, you re getting all the