Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza, and lester holt, live from florida. Good morning, everybody, welcome back to this special edition of today on a sunday morning. Thats the scene in miami beach. Im Savannah Guthrie alongside matt lauer. Lester holt and al roker are in tampa, florida, this morning, and are also anchoring our coverage. Well get to them in just a moment. Were sitting here with our maps of florida in front of us, all the counties, trying to figure out whos going to come into impact or have impact with this storm next. Heres the latest on irma. Packing quite a punch as it slammed southern florida, a dangerous category 4 storm. Winds about 130 Miles Per Hour. The eye wall hit the florida keys around 7 30 eastern time this morning. The number of Power Outages has been steadily going up all morning. Three hours ago the total is about 200,000, but now more than 800,000 people are in the dark. By the way, the storm is massive. If you look at that satellite image, 350 to 400 miles from side to side. Its reach is remarkable. Of course southern florida is under hurricane warnings. Well, just a short time ago, a Tropical Storm warning was issued for atlanta, georgia. Thats some 600 miles to the north of where irma is right now. That will give you an idea of the reach. Our team of correspondents covering every angle of the storm. Lets start this half hour with nbcs Mariana Atencio, she is in miami beach this morning. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning, guys. So as this hurricane pounds south florida, youre already starting to see conditions worsen by the minute here in miami beach. I want to point our camera over to my left. That is where you have the beach and that is where that deadly storm surge is going to be coming in this way bringing in, they say, from 6 to 10 feet of storm surge over here to my left, the water coming in very quickly, flooding. In just a couple of hours, the streets here in collins avenue. Many trees have been toppled. Weve seen toppled power lines, street signs. Im just going to move over here so you can get this view. Im in the second floor of a parking structure here in miami beach. It turned very eerie just in the past couple of hours and you can already feel Tropical Storm winds in this area of miami beach. I just spoke to miami beach commissioner again and he said that more than 60 of miami beach power grid is down and now is when it becomes very dangerous for First Responders to be out here monitoring people. Weve seen debris flying around all morning long. Theyre urging residents to hunker down in their homes and to take shelter because the next couple of hours as this category 4 hurricane, the size of the florida peninsula, pounds our state over here, youre going to feel it everywhere. Just because it isnt a direct hit here in miami beach doesnt mean that it is not dangerous, if not deadly. So again, in these barrier islands, its really where a lot of the vulnerability will start happening in the next couple of hours. The wind and the gusts, rain picking up incredibly hard in the past couple of hours. Back to you guys. The city of palm beach putting out a tweet saying we cant respond. Its not safe for our First Responders to get out in the storm, so hunker down. Lets go down to florida city, which is south and a little bit inland of miami and thats where we find miguel almaguer. Miguel, good morning to you. Reporter hey, matt, good morning. The rains are certainly blinding, but the big issue here is the winds. They have been gusting in sheets and in waves coming at us relentlessly for the last 12 hours here. Im going to spin our camera around so you can see what the conditions look like if you face them head on. The rain pelting right into our lens, the wind blowing people in every direction. For the most part the streets are evacuated. Theres a power issue here. Weve seen transformers explode over the last several hours because the gusts of wind have been so powerful. The mayor told us he expects most of the city to lose power. We believe nearly everyone in this region is without power. There are some generators that are powering streetlights. For the most part the city is in the dark. The trees here are swaying side to side and power poles are beginning to come down here. We expect these winds, actually believe it or not, to intensify over the next several hours. First responders tell us they could face a catastrophic situation. They wont be going out in conditions like this if they receive emergency calls because it will simply be too dangerous for many of the First Responders. Matt, a precarious situation out here, one that will continue to get worse. Back to you. Thank you very much. We put Gadi Schwartz in a car. Hes made his way to cross key, which is the tip of the florida keys, getting battered this morning. Hi, gadi, what do you see . Reporter we are just across key on the southbound side of the u. S. 1, south dixie highway going south and we realized that the northbound lanes, i dont know if we have that video, but if we can play that, the northbound lane going north was completely impassable. So we were going down south dixie highway. We were unable to turn around because that would have exposed the side of our suv here to those Hurricane Force winds so we continued in. Were actually right now at the tip of key largo. So we are in key largo right now. If you take a look, basically what we did is this turnaround spot, instead of going through these winds, were going to take a little bit of a break here. Im going to the out and show you where were at because we found a decent spot of protection. But this is where our suv is here. Give me two seconds, im caught in some cords here. But this right here, this building is very sturdy. Weve got a brick building here. Over here you can see how hard the wind is blowing. Im just going to take a week right over here. Youve got some debris thats starting to come down. If you take a peek this way, this is what the wind is doing. Theres a tree that has broken over here. Theres another tree over here. Let me show you exactly where were at on the map. Thats us. Weve got a red band headed straight towards us so were going to shelter in place right here and wait until the eye of the hurricane makes its way further. Were not going to get any closer to the eye. In fact the eye will be moving farther away from us from here, so as soon as things calm down here, then were going to go back over to the mainland before the southbound lane becomes impassable, but thats the latest condition that weve got right now. Before we say goodbye, were going to put that video up one more time that you shot of the northbound lanes of u. S. 1 where there were white caps and waves on that side of the road. Nothing getting through there in the near future. Reporter thats right. And were worried about the southbound lanes. So the southbound lane is protected by about a threefoot barrier, which is good, because emergency crews will be able to go in and out of the southbound lanes unless thats breached. You can see the storm surge starting to come up. But for now the northbound lanes have been flooded out. They have debris on the roads and in fact we saw a kayak that had been pushed up onto the northbound lanes. So the northbound lane right now looks like its impassable. At some point when the storm passes, the hurricane passes, theyll bring backhoes i imagine in there and clear that out. Hopefully it doesnt get worse. Again, the hurricane is tracking westward so in about two, three hours we should see things start to calm down a little bit. Were just hoping that the storm surge does not continue to rise. We understand in other parts of the keys, the sturnl is starting to come up. Here weve only seen it come up at the road about two, three feet from where it was yesterday. We were checking on this road yesterday, but thats where the situation stands. Matt. Gadi, thanks very much. Get back to cover. Jo ling kent is in ft. Lauderdale. Jo, good morning. Reporter hey, matt, good morning again to you. What were seeing is the skies darkening, the winds picking up here in ft. Lauderdale. Take a look at these palm frons usually sustaining a lot of wind. They have come down and they are blocking the roads here in ft. Lauderdale where there is now a curfew, according to Broward County sheriff, until monday morning at 10 00 a. M. You can see the velocity of the wind there. We are not in the eye of the storm here in Broward County, but this county has been protecting itself since the beginning. They thought that they might be in the eye of the storm so they shut everything down. There was a curfew that went into place last night around 4 00 p. M. Ill show you what that means for folks here in ft. Lauderdale. That means there is not one person on the streets as the water continues to gather here. Weve seen some Emergency Responders coming in and out when the winds are down, but right now they have decided not to take emergency calls and respond to those because were seeing this wind velocity creep up. Even though we do have some power in the street lamps or in these stoplights right here, power in our area is mostly out. There have been exploding transformers as ft. Lauderdale bears down and folks are hunkering down in shelters. Matt, savannah. All right, jo, thank you very much. Lets go to floridas governor rick scott whos with us on the phone. Governor, as we say good morning to you, i assume that your information is even better than ours. I know youre up in tallahassee. What are the conditions reports that youre getting so far . How bad is it out there . I just talked to key west and they have significant waves, they have significant flooding. Theyre going to get 10 to 15 feet of storm surge. So you saw how bad it is in miami and just at the top of the keys. Just think about the west coast now as this comes up. Well have 10 feet above ground level of storm surge in my hometown of naples. Ft. Myers, maybe a little less in tampa. Still, i dont know how youre going to survive this rush of water coming in. Lets say its 10 feet. Its going to cover your whole house and then its going to go out. And so i can tell you people ask me what they can do. The most important thing is pray for us. I know people want to donate. You can make a 10 donation at text disaster at 20222 and i need more volunteers. Weve opened up over 400 shelters. We need more volunteers for our shelters. Well need volunteers to get food and water out. We need more nurses for our special needs patients. I just talked to the president , oh, probably 45 minutes ago. He said hes going to be praying for us. Everything ive asked out of the federal government, hes made sure he gave us. I spent a lot of time with brock long, the administrator at fema. But i can tell you what, were going to do everything we can to take care of every person in this state. Our First Responders as soon as this passes will be out there saving people. Ive called up 7,000 members of the National Guard. I care about every family in this state. I want every family to be safe. Can i just clarify something. I think you just said you need more volunteers to help staff the shelters. Youre not asking people down in the southern part of florida to go out on the roads to head to those shelters . Youre talking about people that have not been impacted . Yeah, we have over 400 shelters, weve opened a lot of shelters in the last two days especially as the track has turned west. But we need more people in our shelters up north and well need help afterwards, a lot of help afterwards. Were going to need a lot of help afterwards. I can tell you this is a tough state. Were going to come through this. People are taking care of each other. Right now in the southern part of the state, everybody is hunkering down and i pray that everybody survives this. Florida governor rick scott, were glad that youre getting the response from the federal government and you do have everyones prayers and hopefully also their efforts in the days to come when we deal with the aftermath. Thank you. Well check back in with you. Thanks, governor. Lets go over to lester now in tampa. As the governor said, were expecting the storm to head there. Guys, good morning. Good morning. Were following this thing on the radar and then were following it here in realtime as the rain bands become a bit morsteady here. Winds havent picked up here. Tampa is bracing for whats coming. Everyone is watching these images and realizing that the evacuation orders were a very, very smart idea. Right now the eye of the hurricane is at the lower keys. So it is 20 miles east of key west, florida, 130mileperhour winds, category 4 storm, moving northnorthwest at 8 Miles Per Hour. If youre watching on our nbc news app or nbc stations, you may see a wobble here or there but its pretty much on track. Key west, 100 to 125mileperhour winds. 5 to 10 foot storm surge right now. In the next several hours it makes its way toward naples but it will be affecting southeastern florida with 100mileperhour wind gusts, 3 to 5 feet storm surge and high tide is at 12 26. As it continues north, nape eldeld naples, ft. Myers, theyll see 100 to 125mileperhour winds, storm surges of 10 to 15 feet. Overnight tonight into the night hours, tampa bay will see a storm surge of 5 to 8 feet with winds of 75 to 100 Miles Per Hour. Up in jacksonville on the east side of the state, 50 to 75mileperhour winds. It will be 65mileperhour winds where the governor is right now in tallahassee. And this system will continue to push up. Weve had a big gust of 106 Miles Per Hour. As the day wears on, those strong winds will make their way into the midsection of the state as well and this is going to be a 24hour event. This system is going to take its sweet time getting through the state and then moving on into georgia and on into parts of the southeast. Storm surge, again, the big problem. We cannot stress enough about this storm surge. Were talking about storm surge warnings from the okeechobee river all the way down to key largo and on up into savannah and even into the carolinas where you could see a 4 to 6 foot storm surge. And we cannot also rule out tornados. There are tornado watches for the entire state. That will last right through this evening. Weve had several tornado warnings, so were going to continue to watch this. But its a very, very volatile situation. Now, as of last week there was a lot of attention on the east coast of florida, so a lot of folks in this area in the west didnt have the same level of concern. Then everything changed. We saw huge lines outside one of the shelters yesterday. Hopefully everyone is going to find a place to ride it out because certainly the western mainland of florida is next. And its going to continue to affect this entire state because of the size. We started talking about this last week. The diameter of the storm is much bigger, almost twice as wide as the state of florida itself. So everybody is going to be affected by this thing. Savannah and matt, well go back to you now. Lester, just one second. What you just said, the western coast of florida will feel the impact. Al, i want to put up do you have a monitor down there . Do you see this . Yeah. If i look at that track again that you just put up with that category 4 storm heading up the west coast, do you have a it already made landfall in the keys. Do you have an idea of where you think the second landfall is going to be . If i had to guess, i think maybe around sarasota, tampa bay, that area. This area that were in right now. I think we could see landfall between sarasota and tampa. So it stays off the coast up to that point. It parallels the coast, unless it takes more of a north to northwest path, then it might make landfall before that. But right now it seems like its on track. So we may be actually within the eye. But if it stays over the water, doesnt it maintain its strength . It will keep its strength up. Its not going to lose anything because the water, while not as warm as it is between the straits of florida, between florida and cuba, its still plenty warm. So tampa, st. Petersburg, these communities should be watchful as this comes north. Absolutely. All right guys, thank you. And it does maintain strength the more its over the water. Kristen dahlgren is in ft. Myers for us. Hi, kristen. Whats the situation there . Reporter this is really the worst weve seen it here. Weve got these real gusty winds coming through here and were just being pelted by rain. Still these outer bands, so the conditions expected to get much, much worse obviously as we go through the day today. So were worried about the wind and the rain. Take a look over here, i want to show you this and it may be a little ugly as we go under our shelter here of this hotel, but this is what were most worried about. The gulf of mexico right there. So not far from ft. Myers beach from where the buildings are. Storm surge, worst Case Scenarios, predicted to be maybe between 10 and 15 feet of storm surge coming ashore. You can imagine just what that will do to this Little Island community here. Hurricane donna came through to the south of here in 1960 on september 10th. 75 of the homes here on ft. Myers beach were damaged by that storm. Many of them were rebuilt, but think about it, back in the 60s there werent the building codes that they have today and so there are many older homes still on this island and many lowlying homes. So many people have evacuated, but we still do see a lot of people who have decided to ride out the storm. I talked to one guy who said he has five kayaks. His plan is to ride it out and then go out and try to rescue people. And he said, and i dont think he was trying to be dramatic, but he said he really hoped that he doesnt find anyone who lost their life who decided to stay and ride out this storm, and that is the fear that the storm surge could be catastrophic, guys. We hope hes good and sure that this event is over before he jumps into a kayak. Absolutely. Dont need any heroes just yet. The entire Florida National guard was mobilized ahead of this storm. Some 7,000 men and women. Brigadier general ralph revis is the joint Task Force Commander for the Florida National guard. General, good morning to you. I know that all these men and women of activated, theyre mobilized but theres not a lot they can do during the storm. Whats the first thing theyll do when