Major highways are clogged with cars. You can see from the Helicopter Shot as evacuation orders are sending people inland and to the north in order to get out of irmas path. Local leaders say that people who chose to stay in the areas that are now under evacuation wont have any help later. We boarded up the house, and were hoping for the best. Thats all we can do right now. Its a mad house. I dont want to run out of gas on the road. If you stay, you think youre a tough guy, then youre on your own. We have Team Coverage this midday as the bay area already prepares to help as soon as irma hits. Lets start with meteorologist kerry hall. This storm track, is it still aim towards Floridas Atlantic coast. It is, and unfortunately we havent seen anymore shifts off towards the east, which would make it a lesser blow to florida that the point, but we are now seeing that major hurricane just to the north of hispaniola right now moving towards the turks and caicos and we have some more hurricane
Im michelle griego. We have Team Coverage of the storm from tracking the storm and bay area efforts to help. First meg oliver is in miami beach where people are evacuating. Reporter mandatory evacuations went into effect along miami beach here at 12 noon. Now crews are working to remove everything off this beach from lifeguard stands to trash cans. Puerto rico dodged a direct hit from irma. The storms eye passed just to the northeast. But its 180mileperhour winds toppled trees and power lines. Nearly a Million People are without electricity. This mans family rode out the storm in their hotel. I could only imagine what the little houses by the coast and the little villages must feel like right now. So our prayers and thoughts with all the families. Reporter officials are still trying to get a grip on the extent of the devastation across the caribbean. Most structures in barbuda are destroyed. In st. Martin winds damaged homes, hotels and tossed shipping containers. Irma is still days fr
Center is where you have storm force winds. This is a giant storm. Its going to take awhile for it to move over. It was standing in a tornado for a half hour. Thats the intensity of this. So still 175 mile an hour winds. Tomorrow its going to be passing coup pa. Its going to be passing the eastern most tip of cuba. Look at this. The cone barely goes over the mountains of cuba. Not enough to weaken it then its in the straits of florida. Right into the center of the cone over the tip of florida. Up florida, all the way through jacksonville at the category 4. And into georgia and downgrades to a category 1. This is probably going to be the most destructive path. More coming up in a few mngts. Thats the sound youll hear across miami. Homes and businesses boarding up windows preparing for the worst of wind and rain. E we sent tim furlong ahead of this storm. Hes following how people are bracing tonight. A beautiful evening and lots of people taking their e boats out here. We saw a yacht go
Structures are damaged. The entire country is decimated. I have never seen anything like this before. And now rick scott warns this could be worse than the worst hurricane to ever hit the state. The storm is bigger and faster and stronger than hurricane andrew. And evacuation is in place in low lying and coastal south florida. Everyone in the keys ordered out. If you are staying and being irresponsible. Dont expect us to risk the lives of our First Responders for your irresponsibility. And traffic is stretching for miles, lines for gas in places hours long with stations running out. Im very nervous, i am driving around for 30 minutes and my car is on e for the last hour. And more lines tore plywood and water, and the rush to get ready for the monstrous storm. The part of that people are busy today boarding up their homes, others plan to do so tomorrow when schools and businesses are be closed to give families time to prepare and evacuate. Live in new smyrna beach, florida. Channel 6 ac
Sara bloomquist is live at Philadelphia International airport where flights are pouring in from florida. But first lets go to cecily tynan with the latest on the storm and the possible intentions. Jim i cant stress enough what a large and powerful storm this is. About the size of texas and the staying power is phenomenal. Its interacting with the mountains of the Dominican Republic where storms typically go to die but the eye is north and it barely weakened at all. Its still a strong category five and lashing out at the turks and caicos islands. Getting swallowed up by the storm. Its moving at a fast clip 1 Miles Per Hour. Hurricane warnings extend through the bahamas. We have hurricane watches posted for south florida from West Palm Beach through miami and key west. That means hurricane conditions will be experienced there within the next 48 hours. And future tracker 6 shows us key largo experiencing wind gusts 114 Miles Per Hour and heading into sun morning, miami wind gusts 127 Mile