Of times over the course of the past hour. We lost power three times with the street lights have gone out and lights from the store fronts have gone out. Everything has been complete blackness. Thats when you feel most vulnerable and like something could come barrelling out of the darkness. Now we are starting to see some of that debrae. Palms, branches, other things that could be picked up and used as projectiles in these winds. Were told by our own Weather Center that they are expected to peak around 80 miles an hour. They are going to maintain 80 miles an hour perhaps gusting up to 100 Miles Per Hour. Thats down a little bit from the highest expectation, the highest forecast because the eye of irma is not expected now to pass over sarasota. Its expected to pass 20 or 30 miles to the east and with that is more good news for sarasota. The storm surge now expected to be around one to three feet. So were told by by the City Managers Office they are hoping to get emergency teams out before the dawn hours around 2 00 a. M. But theres a lot left in store for sarasota. The worst is yet to come. That would be very, very good news for sarasota. But just in terms of you have been covering this several hours. Its worse now than it was before. If you could reiterate what time you expect the worst of it to be, we have been told here in tampa for us it would really be starting around 11 00 or so. Obviously, several hours from now. Sarasota being 50 miles south, i think you said its going to be around 10 00. Is that right . Yeah, im having a hard time hearing you, but essentially what were expecting is the peak to get reached in the next hour. So from 9 00 to 10 00 eastern time, were expecting to get category 1 wind speeds. The speeds are expected to average around 80 miles an hour. They are expected to gust as high as possible. Kp it was expected to pass straight over us giving us that brief. Moment of calm we saw chris cuomo experience. We are not expected to see that now. The eye of irma expected to pass around 20 or 30 miles to the east, so our peak winds will last from 10 00 a. M. To 2 00 p. M. And taper off after that. The amount of rain coming down right here in tampa is ridiculous. Hes made the difficult decision. To pull officers off the streets. They are in staging areas. And they are going to go out as soon as this dies down. Probably in the Early Morning hours tomorrow. Or whenever in order to respond to whatever the most important 911 calls and emergency calls as they have received. Also to try to clear whatever roads need to be cleared. Certainly for tampa in the ahead. Two to three hours from now, if you could just stay there. I want to bring in tom sater. If you can for alex and everybody in this area, give us a sense of what is happening in sarasota. Whats happening along the west right now. Get ready for more rainfall. We have a pretty good band that its going to be making into your area of tampa. You can see where sarasota is, were looking at look the colors. But look at the orange on this close up radar. We continue to talk about the center, which really night now is 23 miles to the east northeast. We still continue to see tremendous activity and downpours in that front right quad ron. Its in the bright orange and red. But its fanning out to the north and off to the northwest. And then west. So these bands as the system continues to move north will continue to slide in your direction. So definitely flash tlooding. Fort meyers, 84 Miles Per Hour. Port charlotte, 79. Tampa, 60. But also more haven. The edge of the screen, they are in a pretty good rain pattern as well. They have picked up ten inches and they are going to add to that. They have had a wind gust of 89 Miles Per Hour. If youre quiet about lake okeechobee, the army corps of engineers says the levee should hol hold. Lets move on to the next radar. It is quite interesting of what were try ing ing to see here. First the severe weather, up south, they have picked up 14. 5 inches and are in a serious flood situation as a heavy band of thunderstorms like the boxcar of a train is not producing rainfall but severe weather. We have a thunderstorm cell producing a tornado moving in on the coast line. That was moving northwest at 74 Miles Per Hour. Its a little unheard of. Thats extremely fast. We hope that doesnt produce. We have a Tornado Warning southward in the melbourne area. Notice what we have going on south of our eye and up to the north. Im going to let this radar play in a little bit more. We have a giant dry slot that is starting to infiltrate the system. Dry air will break the system down, but its going to take awhile. This made landfall so wed like to see dry air, but all the activity from the eye is now northward, which by the way continues to move north. As we move along and were going to get a new track in a little while, look at the amount of color of red on this infrared imagery. We like to see the colors shrink. That means youre losing the cloud tops and they are more concentrated around the center of the storm. The eye has closed up. Its just the fuel line has been cut off. But its still trying to breathe. So as it takes a deep breath and trying to find moisture i would extend the Tropical Storm force winds and its still kicking out the bands of rain. Notice the bright colors off the northwestern flank makes its way offshore. Our winds coming up into the tampa area are going to become due west. Thats going to carry that water outward. Lets take a look at a few more things. From the National Hurricane center, what they have mentioned and we talked about a slight deviation to the east. Maybe away from tampa for the time being toward maybe lake county and orlando. They have made a statement saying they still believe that after the midnight hour, were looking at more of a north northwesterly track. That track seems to the west, but im going with the National Hurricane center until we get more information. They are the best in the world. This continues to have that cone directly half off the coastline and half on. But our center point has changed somewhat. Thats why its going to be critical to watch and see what happens when the new track comes out a little while. We still have about 159 counties up in georgia under a state of emergency. Significant rain bands will continue to feed in. That means a storm surge on the east coast will be significant. Concerned about st. Johns river in the jacksonville area and continue to have that wrap around surge below the storm. The system trying to breathe. Its been such a massive hurricane. Its going to take some time. The winds are Strong Enough to do major damage, roof damage and downed pour lines. So were not out of this yet. So because i cant see the radar track and what youre showing the viewers, but you talked about kind of an easterly move of this storm the last time we spoke. Im not clear. Is that still happening . I heard you also talk about a northwesterly track. Any time these systems make landfall, you never know where the center is going to approach. And we saw that right off our landfall. Were looking a at that storm system that was almost moving a little bit to the north and then to the east. But again, this system is trying to get its act together. As it makes its way east, it is supposed to make its way back according to the National Hurricane center toward 1 00 in the morning. I think its going to be off to the east. It doesnt mean youre not going to see significant gusts, but were not taking the center of the storm right over you at 1 00 or 2 00 in the morning. They are just saying overnight, expect it to move more northwesterly. Currently its moving due north, but the jog we had had in the last couple hours was a bit concerning. Sometimes we feel like were better forecasters ahead of the event. And were still trying to catch up with this system and get one or two steps in front of it. I appreciate that. The bottom line that i take away from that, if its moving northwest, even if the storm is to the east of tampa, its bringing misery and thats only going to increase in the hours ahead. When you get into 11 00, 12 00, 1 00 a. M. , for people to be worrying at 2 00 a. M. About storm surge, that adds insult to injury ob top of the things like the loss of power. To have that worry about storm surge even if it is in the sarasota area one to three feet, sounds like its potentially going to be lower than that here now. But at this point, theres still a lot of unknowns and variables. They were saying that if it was more than six feet, they were going to expect significant flooding. This is going to be a welcome bit of news. But this could do some damage. At the same time, there goes somebody that shouldnt be out here tonight. They are still expecting significant damage in the wake of this storm. They felt quite comfortable with their preparations for the storm. And we have seen people getting out of town. We have seen people going to shelters. We have seen people hunkering down. They are not worried about getting hurt tonight. Except for that one guy that just drove past. We have seen few people out here tonight. What they are worried about is what they are going to follow in the wake of this storm. With that surge, that means in all likelihood theres going to be less damage. But we could expect to see downed power lines and power out for days or weeks. The problem is theyen dont really know. Theyen cant monitor whats happening because this storm is happening in the middle of the night. They have been hoping the way the storm was going that it would actually happen during the day and pass and get to go out and start assessing. Now its happening in the middle of the night as we were talking about before. We are expecting the winds to start subsiding around 2 00 a. M. Around that time just before dawn, we are told they hope to start sending those emergency teams out there to start doing the post storm assessment. Alex, appreciate that. Be careful. Well check back with you shortly. Still bad conditions. It may not look like it, but we have dodged a bullet here, at least for now. The wind has really picked up. Were getting some gusts i think its a steady wind of 50 to 60. But the fact that the storm took that jog over to the west and east means we wont see the storm surge they were expecting. We have had fairly large power outage by the third of the area, third of the town is out of power. We did see a transformer that sign of a transformer blowing a short time ago. That also happened. It looks like for the moment this town has dodged a bullet. Back to you. That would be good news, but obviously when w that potential storm surge, because you have been seeing that water go out, you always dont want to predict what may happen with that. I think back to 2005 and folks in new orleans thought they had dodged a bullet and woke up with surges of water coming not to say that this storm for the area is going to be anything like that. But again, that phenomenon we have seen is just so surreal that you have been showing us all throughout the evening of the water receiving the same kind of thing we have been. Seeing on the river. But to see it in the marina that you were in earlier was so strange. I just want to show the water here, the rain on the water here just sweeping across. We have seen about three or four transformers light up the night sky over the last several hours. I assume First Responders are. Is it possible to move . Is there debris on the ground . There is some debro. The newer trees, a lot of them have been uprooted in town. The storm surge they were expecting here because the eye has moved so far to the east the wind is not going to come around and push a lot of that water back up. So it looks like it will fill in more slowly and wont have that rush of water, that wave of water coming back in. So that will help keep things clear and make it passable here. It will be another hour or so before we know how big the surge will be. We moved to Higher Ground just in the event it does come in higher. But the city itself truly seems to have be dealing with the storm quite well. The fact that charley came through here 13 years ago and destroyed much of the city, all those buildings that werent in great shape were gone after charley. Everything they built since is up to a better standard, better materials and certainly better construction. Thats good news about that storm surge. Thank you for that. I want to go to orlando. Conditions there are worsening. They are getting a lot worse. We are definitely getting high winds. Not so much to blow me over, but definitely high wind gusts. So much so we know the Orange CountyEmergency Services has suspended their services for the night into tomorrow. You can hear in my microphone the heavy wind gusts and i keep picking over to my right because when i talk to your left, i was talking about the globes that are around the lamp posts littering all of downtown orlando and one to my right is hanging by a thread. So im keeping an eye on that. I want to mention to you, as you were talking to tom, he mentioned the east coast having tornadic activity. I did confirm with the Brevard CountySheriffs Department they had two tornadoes touch down. Thats according to them. They have a lot of thodamage wi mobile home there is. So far, no injuries reported so thats good news. But they did have two tornadoes. It just kind of gives you the idea of how big this storm is because remember i was there earlier this week. Everyone there was preparing for the storm. Then they said, its not coming here. Its going to hit the west coast. We talked to a lot of people in orlando who then said, hey, im going to go home because were not going to get hit. And now they are geting hit with different activity caused by the storm. It may not be the rain, but certainly they are getting hit. Something just hit me in the head. Pim a little nervous about this light so back to you. Get out of that area and get sol shelter and well check in. A short break. More coverage from florida, well be right back. Discover card. Hey. What can you tell me about your new Social Security alerts . Oh well alert you if we find your Social Security number on any one of thousands of risky sites, so youll be in the know. Ooh. Sushi. Ugh. Being in the know is a good thing. Sign up online for free. Discover Social Security alerts. Maybellines fit me foundation. Fits skin tone and texture. Blurs pores. Controls shine. Our most diverse shades ever. Maybellines fit me matte and poreless. Make it happen. Maybelline new york welcome back. Our continuing coverage of irma. I cant get over that sweep of the water. The way this river has gone down so much throughout the day and still remains low despite the fact all this water pouring on it. The a of of storm surge is the variable. You heard the good news from miguel saying they are not expecting the storm surge in punta gorda, thats going to come back because they are not getting the winds coming back in. Its going to fill in more naturally and slowly. So thats good news there. They are saying in sarasota, they are expecting one to three feet of storm surge. So thats something to watch in the hours ahead. Well know more of that in the late hours this morning. Lets go to ryan young over in clearwater. But its still pretty bad where you are. The wind is sweeping you off your feet. If you have anything blocking you it changes the whole conversation. You dont hear as much as the wind. We have concrete surrounding us. And as soon as you get into the direction of the wind, its brow tall on you. The wind keeps shifting. We were moving in a certain direction. Now its blowing that direction there. We have seen some of these cars almost like they are inching closer and closer together depending on the gusts. The real conversation here is when you have as much saturation and then you have trees. Because thats a whole idea here. Sometimes its the days afterwards when the trees will fall. The lights are still on in this area. Whats dangerous is when people decide to come out outside and survey the damage what could happen then. Its best to wait until light. That was the benefit of what happened in miami because of the fact it was some sunshine outside. Right now with this darkness, you really have no idea sort of whats coming in your direction or whats going on around you. So maybe the surge is getting worse in some places. But this wind weve been dealing with, it has been not only powerful but unrelenting in terms of the power we have been feeling and the forces right on cue. The other thing you dont think about in a storm like this is just the coast. For anybody thats another one of those reasons that First Responders are thankfully off the streets. If youre out in this rain, if there are Homeless People out in the rain just over the hours, the accumulation of the rain hitting you its impossible not to just start shivering and not feel it seep into your bones. It gets just very, very cold out here. Thats the one thing that we felt the temperature drop. You talk about Homeless People. We saw a few people trying to walk and beat the storm earlier. Not sure their direction. This conversation, some people dont want to go to shelters. They would rather try to brave this themselves. But at the same time, people are making life or death decisions here. Sometimes they are hoping to pray on god and avoid some of these situations. Some people do not want to go to shelters. And i understand their thought process when it comes to that, but the idea of being out here stuck in the storm for several hours and having to deal with this, ien couldnt imagine that. Your heart goes out to those who make that decision. Im going to step out and get dry for a little bit. We have that availability. But for other people, they might not have that experience and thats what you think about. I can tell you its a long process to get your house back together and something you dont forget when you have hurricane damage. This is the kind of storm you forget about. You think about the storms in harvey. They are dealing with the aftereffects of the hurricane. You cover katrina so you know how this has a mental affect on people. There are some kids somewhere tonight hearing this wind hitting a house or maybe a tree hitting a house. They will never forget that sound. Its someth