While for the winds to catch up to the pressure drop. 125 miles per hour. I wouldnt be surprised to see up to 130. That will kick it back up to category 4 status. And we could even see it grow a little bit more. Weve got a lot of water to work with. Not just 90 miles. If you talk about the curvature, over towards ft. Myers, 125 miles. So its got time, its got fuel. And it still has spin and intensity. We had models to go down a little bit, but for the models to be even in central cuba, or staying off, its been running pretty much mediocre through the models. A tornado watch for the entire southern half of florida. That will continue to move northward in time and a warning in key west and the bands continue to move in and there will be times of complete downpour activity and then a couple of quiet times but we are going to see a gentle increase in the winds and bright red, heavy downpours and the storm surge is going to be significant, mainly in the everglades and miami, were watching them closely but the real significant increase of the storm surge and the wetlands. They can have that. And as it continues to march northward, well see more of a tornado outbreak possibility on the east coast. We have the surge, of course, continuing up the east coast. On the west coast, winds will be out of the north somewhat. Northeasterly. They will wrap around. And i think tampa is going to have a problem. Not so much, of course, well, yes. When the storm moves through, but dont let your guard down in tampa bay because most likely on the back edge of this, were going to find winds coming in from the northwest and due west. So that will shove the, of course, storm surge and the walls of water back into tampa bay which could be just as bad if not worse. I want to go a little bit further out though and talk about those in georgia, South Carolina into alabama and tennessee. As you see the track has been curving and weve been watching this, let me show you what some of the models look like, of course, after we talk about the winds. Because i want everybody to know, if you havent been in the southeast, you see the core of the winds go through florida hugging the west coast, moving northward. What you see in purple here are wind gusts in excess of 60, maybe even 70 miles per hour. This area of the southeastern u. S. Is pine country which means hearty pines. Weak root systems but very high. I mean, theyre massive. They fall in isolated thunderstorms. Knock out power, damage trees. We could easily see tens of thousands of trees destroyed through florida and through the southeast but watch what happens to these models. They move up with the force of wind. We carry it into northern, oh, we missed it. Into northern alabama. Ill show to you later. It starts to become a birds nest like harvey, which means a loss of steering currents from central tennessee to northern alabama. Heavy rainfall. Well break it down for you in the coming hours but again, its just beginning. Weve got a multiday event heading our direction. John . Tom seder, listening to every word of your forecast. 20 Million People in florida alone and then you start to talk about alabama and georgia. Millions more will be affected by this storm as the days continue. Millions already affected. So much damage in the caribbean. Key largo. And what are you seeing . Reporter weve moved locations. Now on the biscayne bay side. Higher ground and we have a caution, crocodiles in area sign as another reminder were in one of the most biodiverse in all the world. The one place to see gators and crocs together. We care about the human life facing this storm. We heard about devilmaycare, old time punk, never levers down here on thursday night who were sort of partying in advance of the storm. That tone definitely changed last night. Thats when they evacuated those 500 prisoners, moved the Emergency Operations center from marathon key about 40 miles north of key west to key largo here to be a little bit more out of harms way. We get word Power Outages hit about kudjo key. But the Keys Energy Service saying were not going to shut the power proactively. But let nature take its course. There are those who wont leave. Theres a dive captain whos been sailing most of his life. His name is tim jones. I had to ask him the obvious question. Let me channel everyone from the governor to my mom. Why are you still here . What is wrong with you . Our friend was here the other night. They ran and ran right into the storm. The question is, where is safe . The storm up until the last update, we had no idea where it was going to go. The whole state of florida going to get hit and theres no fuel. Once you get out, you cant get back. So we have 400 gallons of fuel that we could put in the car if we need to, a little scooter and gas for that from here. Why go anywhere else . Reporter thats the logic of a long time in the keys. Only can cross our fingers that all are spared by irma. We hope it goes well for him, but what the Authorities Say consistently is just get inland. You dont have to go all the way north. Just get to Higher Ground if you can because the storm surge is the major concern. Bill weir for us. Stay safe. Im in miami. This is a floridawide event. The storm taken a turn to the north and millions of people feeling the impact from Hurricane Irma. East coast where i am around to the west coast. Chris cuomo now i believe in naples. Reporter how are you . We left miami a few hours ago, made it about 125mileanhour trip here and the expectation it would be quiet and yet, belted with the same kind of bands. Theyre going to noaa and looking at the weather. You see these hotly colored reds, greens, purples of the bands and weve been getting pelted with them here. To the meteorologist, it means this storm is starting to take shape. Hurricane irma is starting to manifest. Were getting hit with it right now and still, very manageable. Here we are on the west coast, 125 plus miles away. This has about 19,000 people in the city proper here. Ed lavandera just spoke with the mayor. They got lucky here and heres why. People got out early, even before the storm track shifted, ed lavandera reports. So they made the move. They got out of here. The mayor believes theres only several thousand people still here. Thats still a lot, thats still a lot that decided to stay behind with just one place to eat, ed lavandera said he saw in the whole area driving around for hours. The gulf on one side and more water on the other. We were watching the storm track move above our heads but just like that, its totally closed out. The rain coming horizontal and vertical if you can tell and another unique part of naples. When the dollar amount goes up of what this costs, the houses here, the waterfront houses, there are many that are 10 million and above. Thats the least of our concerns. Were worried about people, not property, but the dollar amount is going to be high. This is one of the reasons why is a place like this. So from the pelting rain here, still over half a day away from when its supposed to hit. Its supposed to hit tomorrow afternoon and already, were seeing rain thats way out of the ordinary. Lets get to kyung lah at miami beach. Whats the latest there . Reporter were having an extremely calm lull. If you would have seen me 15 minutes before, the bands hammering this part of miami beach. The concern this is going to continue. Were just beginning to see this. What we hear from city officials is that two hours from now, the city has put in place a mandatory curfew, a curfew from 8 00 p. M. Local time to 7 00 a. M. The Miami Beach Police saying that if you are walking, you are subject to arrest. Why laying down the hammer . In part of where you are. All the news is everything going to the western side of the state that people may be overconfident. They think now is the time to come back to miami beach or safe to be here. But the city is saying it is absolutely not safe to be here. There are many sections of miami beach where it is a complete ghost town. They want it to stay that way. The fire department, in fact, took three of the stations and moved all the emergency vehicles off of miami beach. So even though this forecast is showing its pushing further west, they are on high alert on the east and they want to send that message out to everybody who lives here. Do not come back. Chris . Reporter good. Even though the path of the storm has shifted, that doesnt mean that going back is safe. I hope that message is resonating here in naples. This is a place thats now of increased concern. Thats why we moved here from miami to see the situation. The good news . The mandatory evacuation heeded and heeded early. The mayor told our ed lavandera he believes most of the people are out, probably several thousand remain. This is a mandatory evacuation place and it is a ghost town. That is good news. The bad news is the bands are already coming. The rain is heavier than expected. Thats where Miguel Marquez is. Do you have any of these squalls coming through . Reporter winds new york city ra , no rain yet. The storm is to the left. Port charlotte on the right of the storm, really the worst place. Punta gorda, just south of us. Thats a place that got levelled by charlie 13 years ago. So people here are very, very well aware of whats going on. This is kings way elementary. This has become a makeshift shelter, essentially. All of the shelters in Charlotte County are full at this point. They have 5 other shelters in Sarasota County that theyre moving people to. I want to give you a sense of the parking lot. People parked up on the grass here and moved everybody in. As many people as they could. They cleared up the cafeteria, got everybody in. Cleared it out again. Made more room. Moved people upstairs. They have brought in hundreds and hundreds of people into this shelter alone. 900 now in this one shelter. I want to introduce you to some of my friends out here. Wheres the family . Ten kids here. This is the mom right over here. Hello, hello. Ten kids she is managing here. Let me just ask you. How are you guys doing . Good. What do you expect . I dont know. I really dont. Are you nervous . Nope. Why not . Because i love rain. It is the best time to sleep. This is something people dont have a very good sense of. They dont get that this weather, it starts to rain, its not what theyre going to get when this hurricane hits. You have a very interesting story. Her family left homestead, which got hit by hurricane andrew in 2004. You came here because you thought it would be safe, but now youve had, whats happened . We came from homestead here because they told us to evacuate and then we actually ended up evacuating again to come here. Andrew came to homestead a few years ago and we kind of took that seriously, but were trying to make the best out of it and not just say negative things. Youve gone from the frying pan into the fire. Its too late for people to move now across the state. I have met a lot of people from miami in this area or that area of the state that came up this way to escape the storm there and now theyre regretting it, but its really too late to go back. Gas in this area . Nonexiste nonexistent. Station after station, cant find it. Others think there may be gas, but if theres a swarm of people that go to the gas station and everybody discovers theres none there. Its kind of a surreal bizarre situation. Very calm right now. Things get more hairy as the night goes on and into tomorrow. We will not certainly be able to stand out here in about 24 hours. Chris . Reporter miguel, ill tell you, what a difference. We are getting pummelled here. The one benefit, im using an umbrella right now and i will not be able to do that when these winds pick up. But dave, our photographer, take a look over my right shoulder. You see that crane . Even though its not windy here yet, its spun that baby sideways. The latest band turned the crane. Theyre supposed to turn, thats how they offset the energy thats being set against them by the wind. They distribute the force and rotate around. Its a safety mechanism. So its a good thing if you see them move in a bad situation. But this is just the beginning. And we are getting pummelled. And another thing you notice quickly is that this ground is spongy. It cannot take water. It starts to pool and puddle minutes into any type of heavy downpour and that is part of the ingredient structure that goes into a bad flooding situation. You dont have absorption to start with. All right, so thats where we are in naples. We were just with Miguel Marquez a little bit north in port charlotte, still okay. Both places share a common fate. Were in the line of the storm for now. What are the preparations . What are the expectations . We have people everywhere. We have renee marsh. She is in washington, dc at the fema headquarters. You just talked to the acting head of homeland security, elaine duke who took over for general john kelly the president s chief of staff. Whats the word on the homeland front . Reporter i can tell you, this operation is getting busier as the storm gets closer to the United States and joined live now with acting dhs secretary lane duke. Come on in. I know you just met with the head of fema. Kind of give me an update on what came out of that briefing. We are poised. We have the u. S. Virgin islands that we are going to start z search and rescue as soon as the weather permits and then florida, keys expected through the Early Morning hours and florida the rest of the day. Its going to be a catastrophic storm and were poised and ready. Reporter when we talk about this specific Hurricane Irma thats coming towards the United States, what is your greatest concern . Our greatest concern is that it is going to likely become a category 4 again. The winds are going to be powerful and sustained. Electrical outages will be extremely, extremely broad and probably longlived. It will take a long time to put the electrical grid back together and thats going to be a hard recovery for those survivors in florida. We were talking about millions of people, upwards of 5 Million People without power. No power also means no clean water and no waste management. How will the federal government respond to help millions of people who may not have power or even clean water in some areas . We are prepositioned to help Governor Scott in the state of florida in the surrounding areas. So things like generators, fuel. As Governor Scott sees the need for these, we are ready to come forward. I saw the president this morning. He is motivated to help the states as we go through these hurricanes, including the continued recovery in texas. Reporter what about the evacuation plans . Florida has tons of hospitals, elderly people. Are you confident in the evacuation plans pulled together by the federal government to make sure the most vulnerable are able to get out . We dont see people flooded out in Nursing Homes or hospitals because they just werent able to get out. I think the early evacuation orders will really help with that, so its not a last minute surge. We will have priority for hospitals, elderly facilities, those types after the storm. But orderly evacuation is very important. Reporter on the topic of evacuation, weve heard the heard of fema saying, get out. You have to go if youre in a low lying area, get out. Some people may be concerned they dont want to go because they are worried dhs may enforce immigration laws or things of that sort or enforce immigration issues if theyre not legal here. What do you have to say to the folks who are concerned because theyre afraid . Thank you for that question. Were doing no routine Immigration Enforcement. We are not doing Immigration Enforcement at the shelters. Everyone should be safe to go to a shell eshelter and seek the f safety, water they need. Reporter chris, well throw it back to you. Reporter good to know that government is helping. Preparation is a key part of that evacuatinevacuating. And hopefully people that needed to heed them did so. They have the shelters as best as they can. Whats the biggest variable . The opportunity. What is this storm going to bring . In naples, this was not the expectation a couple of days ago to see these heavy bands this quickly. Governor scott giving us the latest update right now. Tropical force winds and dangerous seas. Dangerous winds and continues to remain a catastrophic and lifethreatening major category 3 storm with winds of 125 miles per hour. The center is Getting Better organized and will intensify as it approaches florida. Will move across the keys and go across or stay on sunday. Northwest florida on monday. The keys to see the direct impact in the eye of the storm. There will be 18 to 15 inches of rain across the state and up to 25 inches in the keys. Tornadoes are possible in south florida this evening and Central Florida tomorrow. Hurricane conditions felt across the west coast including sunday morning. Tropical storm conditions will be felt across the warning area. Millions of floridians will begin to see impacts with lifethreatening winds tonight. This is a serious threat of significant storm surge in the west coast of florida and increased to 15 feet of impact aboveground level in southwest florida. Tampa will see a surge of 5 to 8 feet. The big will see 6 to 7 feet and flooding and rivers throughout the peninsula. This is clearly a lifethreatening situation. Remember, in southwest florida, the storm surge is after the strongest winds. Do not think the storm is over when the wind slows down. Local officials will let you know when it is safe. The storm surge will rush in and it could kill you. When it happens, the storm water just rushes in and rushes out. In the panhandle, be on high alert for Tropical Storm and Hurricane Force winds. Here in tallahassee, its likely well experience Hurricane Force winds and families must start preparing now. We saw what Hurricane Irma did last year and see more severe wind threats from irma. If you have been ordered to evacuate, you need to leave now. This is your last chance to make a good decision. Evacuations are in ar