clear the roads. how safe is it at mt. sinai hospital? we think it s very safe. are there still patients there? it is not evacuated. they ve kept it open. it s a hardened building to withstand a hurricane. good luck to you folks in florida right now. this is an awful situation unfolding. phillip levine is mayor of miami beach. louie, this is a dire situation. i don t remember, and i ve covered a lot of hurricanes over the years, anything this close. this is a historic storm in terms of its intensity and its size, and another historic aspect of this is it s been predicted about a week in advance, both in track and intensity, and you see the connections that we have with the federal, state and local emergency management community. you re seeing consistent messaging and actions well in
advance of the storm. that s one thing that s really different from andrew is the preparations ahead of the storm and my hat s off to the emergency management community across the whole spectrum, because they re ready and taking it seriously. people should take the advice of the local officials. when they say get out, get out. it s not too late. there s still time to get out of this danger zone, and unfortunately it s a large danger zone. louie, we ll get back to you. along florida s coast right now, evacuation orders have been issued. shelters are open. more are opening up. next, an effort to get to safety before it s too late. plus, worries about what will happen when irma s category 4 hits the construction cranes across miami, and there are many of them. n know it. because it can hide in your body for years without symptoms,
paying attention who think, well, we can ride it out. and this is a life or death matter. the storm has increased size, so we really have a larger area that s going to be impacted by hurricane 4. the whole state even as it comes in. there are 20 mill dwrion peo there. louie, stay close. i ll get back to you. we re tracking a catastrophic storm. tracking hurricane irma. getting more information. stick around. you re in the situation room. your insurance company
surge. it cloetses in very rapidly. you won t have time to get away from it. it s going to come in very rapidly and leave very rapidly. we saw this a year ago when we had a hurricane up in the panhandle. the water comes in fast and goes out fast. it will be too late. if you re in an evacuation zone, go now. if they add more evacuation zones in your county, leave as soon as they happen, so be prepared right now to follow the directions of the local officials. important advice from the governor of florida rick scott. governor, good luck to you, good luck to all the people in florida right now. these are delicate and potentially very dangerous moments we re following. thanks very much for everything you re doing. thank you, wolf. joining us now, director of the national weather service, louie chellini. louie, thank you for joining us. a lot of erld earlderly people,