even though the body of the storm is beginning to pull on off, that wind is driving that water in this direction. and if we take a look at the st. johns river under this polygon right now, it pulls all that water to the north right into jacksonville. you combine that with the high tide, which was about 2:00, and, again, the estimates are that we could even get another two to three feet higher as you mentioned. will we do so? that remains a question mark. but even as it is, that is very dangerous right now with respect to the flooding conditions in jacksonville already beginning to rise. and for a little historical p s pers perspective, the last time we set a record for water level like that cresting was after hurricane dora in 1964. you heard that police chief say in all his time there, or may have been the mayor in all his time there and he s been there 50 years, he s never seen anything like this. it was probably because he was a
well. further south irma s wrath is becoming clear in the florida keys which took a direct hit. neighborhoods are flooded, buildings were damaged or destroyed. elsewhere, high winds knocked down trees and power lines. more than 6 million people are without power and could be for weeks. president trump says federal help is on the way. we re marshaling the full resources of the federal government to help our fellow americans in florida, alabama, georgia, texas, louisiana, tennessee and all of those wonderful places and states in harm s way. when americans are in need, americans pull together. and we are one country. and when we face hardship, we emerge closer, stronger and more determined than ever. we have got teams all over the region covering this storm. first though let s get the latest on the situation on the ground in jacksonville, florida
but then i chase it all the way up here, we went to atlanta, georgia, we were waiting for it to come, came down to gainesville, moved here to jacksonville, florida, and this level of destruction and this level of water i have not seen since i ve been covering this storm. and these waters are only going to continue to rise throughout the evening, worsening the problem here, katy. morgan, you said 4 to 6 feet. 6 feet would be above your head. are they expecting that amount of water in downtown jacksonville, or the neighborhoods right off the river? right. not only here downtown, but also we re right by the st. johns river so it s already crested over into the street. that s part of what you re seeing here. we also expect to see that exactly, in the low lying areas. i m 5 10 , where you see it now it s above my ankle, where i was standing back there it was at my knees. so we re already halfway there. morgan, stay safe out there. angel marquez is a jacksonville resident who chose
damage they can take, katy. nbc s morgan radford on the ground in jacksonville, florida. morgan, thank you very much. nbc s kerry sanders is in marco island, florida. kerry, marco island took a direct hit. i saw you standing outside in naples, which is close to there just getting blown around. talk to me about what it looks like there the morning after. you know, the morning after is kind of surprising. 3:35 p.m. the eye hit here, made it landfall right here on marco island, top winds of 130 miles an hour. as it moved up towards naples, which is just a short distance here, the top winds were 142 miles per hour. and those may be the strongest winds clocked at least on the west coast here. as you can take a look here, the tree tops were shorn off. the reason i m showing you that is because between the trees you can see some of the electrical equipment. the state is basically in the dark. most of the state has no power. the entire island here on marco island without any power at all.
north. dave, jacksonville s really getting pounded right now, especially in terms of that water level rising. we heard morgan talk about potentially four to six feet. yeah. so let s do this. first, i m going to ask our able-bodied cameraman to walk with me back in this direction because i want to tell you what is a little bit deceiving about a storm like this. we watched the radar picture. we watch as the storm pulls off. but, katy, as you mentioned, the issue is the wind. the wind and it s effects on the water. we often think of this as the hurricane. this is the only effect is people are battling against the elements and reporting live in that high wind and heavy downpour. but what we re seeing is after that hurricane begins to lose some strength, even as it pulls away, we still have that wind field. and we were talking about it for days leading up to this event that the wind field and the cloud shield was about 400 miles wide. now, look at these little arrows, each of these repres