shaken. you could see it. and they said this is a whole different deal. at that moment they decided to evacuate the monroe county jail on stock island that they thought could survive a category 5. it s one of the strongest structures in all of the keys. they said they felt pretty good about it. in fact, that s where their families are going to stay. instead, they had to frantically move bus with sheriff s deputy escorts 500 prisoners up u.s. 1 to find other places to put them until irma blows over here. they ve moved their emergency management operation from marathon to about 40 miles north of key west up here to key har go. for those expressing concern, we appreciate it here. we have after charting the storm decided to stay here tonight. this is the highest of the keys. we re in a very secure building. and we want to see what happens. we want to follow irma as she pounds ashore here. for everybody else out there, who has the means, please follow
plans. you certainly have a significant retirement community in your area as well if ft. meyers, florida. those people not necessarily having the resources that some people have, the younger folks have, people that are able drive themselves and their families out of the area. how are you handling those people? we are moving people around with public transportation and in our region, we have the lead tram. they have been running 24/7. obviously, they re not paying checking fares, we re in full emergency management operation. so we are providing transportation that way. there are numerous volunteers that are providing transportation and we are moving citizens in that way? mayor, if i can ask you quickly, is there anything in your initial assessment before this hurricane makes landfall that you and officials there in the county and the city feel that they need that they may not be getting? are you getting enough support right now? i know there was some concern last week because of h
throughout the southeast as well. north carolina, we understand, parts there bearing the brunt of the storm as they prepare for nearly a foot of snow today, more than 14,000 electrical outages there. already many of them in the charlotte area. polo sandoval is in raleigh with the latest. how have you seen things progress in the last couple hours. that s how long you have been standing there. reporter: yeah, christi, we have seen that rain turn to sleet and now a little snow and things are relatively quiet. stay on the issue or topic of cancellations, highly anticipated or anticipated formal official swearing in of governor roy cooper had to be moved indoors yesterday. today that inaugural parade was scheduled. that s not happening because of this. a thin layer of ice and winter mess coating some of the roads and highways in north carolina. governor roy cooper in office only seven days, already dealing with this large scale emergency
emergency how many people is that? i am not sure at this point. we have been moving pretty quickly trying to make sure we are keeping everybody safe. we have had about 23,000 homes, we don t know how many homes or businesses have been destroyed. we had cars and semis in the interstate that wshut down one f our main highways. you are seeing pictures of the area that is actually the area that i grew up in in shawnee. my family lived in that area. thank goodness they were all safe. i had one that lost her home lost everything. we were really sad for her. we have a lot of things going on in our state. we have a great emergency management operation we have headquarters and department of control and department of
with the atlantic on the other side. how are they fairing there so far? absolutely, thomas. so far so good, you can see out here the surf is kicking up and some waves four to five feet and i winctnessed out here this morning. beaches are still open and life guards on duty and one of the major concerns here not only today but in the coming days, rip currents. with hurricane danielle out here last weekend there were over 500 rescues along this very beach. and certainly the beach patrol is going to be very vigilant about watching people as they get into the water, even after earl passes, there is the potential for very strong deadly rip currents out there in the atlantic. as far as evacuations are concerned here in ocean city, none scheduled so far. no voluntary, no mandatory, no nothing. emergency management officials are meeting. they are considering putting together some sort of emergency management operation within the coming hours and they re going to be keeping a careful eye on