This is nbc nightly news with lester holt reporting tonight from miami beach. Good evening. From along the iconic miami beach on a late summer evening as florida braces for impact with Hurricane Irma. At this point a bit over 36 hours until the storms landfall here in the u. S. , a small westward shift in irmas track may make little difference at this point. The reality is florida has no place to hide. Heres why. The storm is far wider than this long, narrow state, so virtually everyone is likely to feel irmas punch albeit at varying intensities. And so it is also gut check time for those who have held off evacuating. Road traffic is heavy and flights out are canceled or booked solid. Every new image and casualty figure coming out of the battered caribbean underscores why this powerful storm is so feared. As we start to feel the first winds ahead of the approaching storm we want to get the latest from our team on the ground. Starting with kerry sanders. Kerry, good evening. Reporter le
A very good morning to you. Im richard lui at msnbc world headquarters. Were watching the latest on Hurricane Irma. Our special coverage of this category5 storm for you. Its roaring past cuba. The latest visuals, of course, the radar showing it moving through the northern sides. Here it is again. This as all of florida braces for what lies ahead the next 48 hours. Survivors in the caribbean survey the damage left behind. Okay, at this hour, Hurricane Irma pounding cuba as a cat5 storm with ferocious 160 mileperhour winds. The storm on track to go and go north toward florida, pummelling the keys there tonight and into sunday, before charting a path through western florida where it is expected to hit naples, orlando, ft. Myers, potentially tampa. The threat in those areas is higher than initially thought at least by the latest information that we got two hours ago from the National Hurricane center. This after the storm does take a turn westward. A little bit tacking farther to the left
Winds up to 160 miles an hour. The storm surge could rise up to 10 feet. Some areas are no longer habitable in the caribbean. Hurricane level winds could reach across the entire state tonight. Many are stranded. I dont want to stay for a whole week without electricity, internet, food, especially when you have a baby. Its harsh. Ten minutes before boarding time i they jaus canceled the flight without giving us any explanation whatsoever. They toll us, give yourself a shelter. We ended up having to pay 1,000 to go to dallas and then on to l. A. Its been awful. We knew as soon as we landed that we should never have gotten on the plane in england. You could hear officials asking us why youve got to florida. Why to come to florida and how to get out of florida. Those were the questions folks were addressing a the airport. Meanwhile, lets look at the path of the storm. Bonnie schneider is back with us. Ari, the storm center of irma, category five hurricane is interacting with the northern co
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