about 115 miles per hour, that's a major hurricane, category three. we have confirmation that, from the naples airport that we did have maximum sustained winds of 112 miles per hour, with gusts as high as 135 miles per hour. at the present time, the max winds have come down a little bit. they're about 110 miles per hour, and the system now continues acceleration to the north at about 14 miles per hour. at the present time, the center of the system is just north of the naples area, and it's moving away from that region. we expect the system to continue up the coast of florida in the next couple of days crossing the tampa area later tonight and into early tomorrow. we're forecasting this to maintain hurricane intensity through the tampa area as most likely category one hurricane. so we'll be anticipating hurricane force gusts, sustained winds of tropical storm force possibly sustained of hurricane force, also storm surge up to 5-8 feet in that area and, again, very heavy rainfall with totals up to about 15 inches. what we've seen in terms of storm surge is that we were anticipating the values of 10-a 15 feet from the captiva area down to cape sable, and what we've seen so far is that the naples pier, we saw an observation of the water level, and it rose about 4 feet in about a half hour. and at that point we lost connection with the observation. so that anticipated, rapid rise of the water is actually occurring now as we speak. as we look at the, back to the radar. as we're getting that return flow pushing up into the naples area, we are seeing the water levels come up very, very quickly. so that's going to remain a very dangerous situation over the next several hours and into tomorrow. in the miami-dade, broward and palm beach area, we're gradually seeing the winds come down, but within the last hour we're still seeing sustained winds of tropical storm force in the miami-dade county area. so the winds are going to be very slow to subside in this area. we do expect them to come down in the next couple of hours, but that hasn't happened yet. so you need to be, remain or very cautious. it's not really time to go outside yet, and we're entering the nighttime hours, so there's a lot of debris, a lot of hazards. so recommendation is to really stay where you are until you get the all clear. with that, this concludes the 5 p.m. eastern daylight time briefing from the national hurricane center. shepard: let's get straight to steve harrigan who's live in naples. the storm is now about 5 miles north of naples, 30 miles south of fort myers. how you doing? >> reporter: shepard, we're doing fine here. it feels like the eye of the storm has just passed over naples and now is just ending. it was remarkably still here, no breeze at all, no rain, now a light drizzle is starting again. that could mean the eye has passed, and we could see some more bands of storm. and if you can take a look, you can see some of the damage here -- [audio difficulty] 130 mile-an-hour winds. you can see some down trees there. it's branches, full trees that were snapped off so far in this wind storm. more downed trees here, and everywhere you look really you see major trees downful but what you don't see when you look at the houses, you don't see major structural damage to houses. you see parts of the roof knocked off, but as far as buildings tossed aside or outer walls destroyed, we're not seeing that. the worrisome thing -- [audio difficulty] is a rise in floodwater. that high area where we were, we've just been able to walk one block during this calm eye of the storm. there's already a foot of water here where i'm standing, and it might go considerably deeper judging by the street signs. so the concern now with the first band passed, the first edge of that eye wall has passed, we're going to get more bad weather, but this could be the real concern at my feet, the danger of a possible surge from anywhere from 10-15 feet. trees down, buildings from our vantage point largely intact, but the looming danger is this floodwater. shepard, back to you. shepard: steve, you've moved your location, or is this the same spot you were in in the height of it all? >> reporter: we're a block away. we just came through this water. we've come around about a block to get a low vantage point at the damage. we could just see palm trees and branches down where we were, but when we're getting into a neighborhood here, we can see actual significant damage to trees, trees actually snapped in half and probably some power lines down as well. but a startling amount of flooding as well. probably three or four feet just in the distance with those down trees judging by the street signs, shepard. shep shp i wonder what the back of the eye's going to be like there. normally when the eye passes over and the back wall comes, it'll hit you like a hammer. >> reporter: right. we're going to -- it's starting to rain a little bit more now, so we're going to get the equipment back out of this rain and see what kind of a back end it has, shepard. shepard: all right. steve harrigan, get to safety. appreciate it. our senior meteorologist, janice dean, is live in the extreme weather center. >> reporter: and look at the wind gusts that we received, category four wind gusts in the naples area, 142 miles per hour. marco island where we had second landfall around 3:35 eastern time, big pine key, we're not done yet. let's take a look at those landfalls, key west, around the key west area, that's cudjoe key at 9 a.m. this morning around 130 mile-per-hour sustained winds. 3:35 at marco island and the potential for another landfall later on this evening, overnight tonight. and let's zoom in, and i'll show you exactly where steve steve hn is. there's marco island, there's naples. he's going to start to see the back side of this storm, shepard, in the next, you know, i would say 15-20 minutes. i also want to make mention that we're not getting in some of this radar reporting. so this is not filling in because the keys are not reporting. this is the radar from tampa, so you're not seeing the full scope of the radar and the potential for the back side of the storm to come in. this will give you an indication though of the back side move anything over the region that we just saw steve harrigan, i would say within the next 20-25 minutes he'll start to feel that. still the potential for storm surge up and down the west coast and the tornado risk. we have had a dozen reports of tornadoes on the east coast of florida. this remains a high risk for these spin-ups as these outer bands scrape across land, and this is a very wide system. 220 miles from the center of the storm is the tropical storm force winds and 80 miles from the center of the storm still hurricane force winds. we just got the latest update, winds at 110 miles per hour, that is a strong category two storm. but, again, i stress that this is a storm surge story for the west coast of florida, all very low-lying areas, so 5-10 to 15-foot storm surge is still going to put these areas at risk for a lot of water over the next several hours. shepard, still watching that. the storm surge will be the risk over the next 12-18 hours. the whole state of florida still under a hurricane warning, 18 million people, and that stretches into georgia as well. back to you. shepard: we've just gotten an indication, janice, of a 4-foot rise in the storm surge in the last about 38 minutes there in naples, and still rising. >> reporter: yep, absolutely. and this is going to be a really finish you know, that is the -- the national hurricane center has been telling us forecasters if there is the number one story that you have to get out there, it is the storm surgeriesing. the winds, of course, are going to be excessive, they're going to cause damage, the tornadoes are are going to cause a high risk especially across the east coast, but it's the storm surge. it's that water level rise. i've seen a lot of reports on twitter because the winds have been pushing the water out, right? and people are saying, oh, my gosh, the water has been pushed out of the bay, the problem is the water is going to come back with a venn since, and some people say it's -- vengeance, and some people say it's almost like a slow-moving tsunami with all of the water being pushed back into the bay from these counterclockwise winds. shepard: it has been quite a thing to watch. janice dean in the weather center, this is not over. if you're in the fort myers, lee county area or north of there, lehighing acres, there's more coming. fox 13 in tampa will tell you the storm is still headed in that direction. they've got live pictures and a live shot up from fox 13. excuse me, oh, my goodness, quite a thing to see. and this is steve harrigan's camera right there in naples. we know that we're kind of in the eye or had been on the back side of this storm, we've been watching the radar. there's a lot of rain, some heavy wind and some serious storm surge that's on the way. you can see palm fronds are down. that's pretty normal. we'll be interested to know how bad the damage is, especially down in marco island and then in naples through which it is now passing and then as it moves forward up to fort myers. from the current track, it looks like the eye of the storm may actually pass to the east of fort myers. so the storm, the land curves up and to the left, up and to the west and juttes out more into the water. and as the -- if the storm continues in a direct north movement, then we believe that the storm is going to move to thest to east of fort myers which, for fort myers, would be very good news because you're on the drier side of the storm, the storm surge would happen in an opposite direction at least for a short period of time. but that's not to say anyone is out of the woods yet. continue to heed the advice of local managers. stay inside, stay off the roads, do not go outside. this is their warning, this isn't me. this is from the emergency managers. they've asked us to remind all of our viewers in florida, stay inside, do not go out during the eye of a storm because the back side of that storm can really, really get you. eleven minutes past 5:00 on the southwest florida coast, and the rains are pounding. it just depends on where you are. jesse is riding out the storm in naples. is the, is the eye over you now, jesse, or is it still howling? >> it's still howling a little bit. we should be seeing the first signs of the eye any second, and as i'm saying that, the trees look like they're starting to stand back up a little bit straighter. it's been pretty scary here for a while. shepard: i'm guessing you're on the north side of naples. >> yep, about as far north as you can get. shepard: well, that makes perfect sense, because the identify the storm has left naples proper, and you're probably 6, 7 miles north of there, i guess, huh? >> yeah, just about that, yep. shepard: so what was the last 30 minutes like? >> the last 30 minutes was about as scary as it could have gotten. our pool cage has started to kind of deteriorate. what we could see before we were unable to see for about the last 20-30 minutes. the trees have been bent almost in half, and some of the trees are not standing. so it's been a little bit scary for a while. shepard: what about damage to property, have you had any? >> just so far the pool, the screen has started to come in, we've lost a little bit of the aluminum framing on the pool cage, but so far that's all we can see. we've not been anywhere where we can see major damage yet. unfortunately, we're not in our own home, so the unknown the is the most scary, not knowing what our own home is looking liker at this point. shepard: and generally speaking, where is that, jesse? >> it's exactly 5 miles south of where we are now. so they're definitely in the eye of the storm currently, i would guess. we live in a wood-frame house, and that's a little wit more intimidating to be in. so we came to a little bit of a safer place for a while. shepard: and i'm guessing you're really glad you did. do you have your family with you? >> i do. i actually have my in-laws with me now. my family is also in a much safer place. a little further south, but they are also in a very safe home, and we've been in good contact with them, very thankful to still have some cell service. shepard: i know that. jesse lithgow live from naples, they rode out the storm in a safer place than her wooden home. thanks so much for talking with us. for those of you in fort myers and up the coast in the tampa/st. pete area, the storm is on the way. has it weakened? it has. it's still a category two hurricane. maximum sustained winds, 110 miles per hour, capable of producing tornadoes and lightning and heavy downpours and far from resolved. this storm will weaken in the days ahead, will head in the general direction of alabama and then head generally speaking toward memphis where there'll be a hoe pressure system about birmingham sometime tomorrow amp, but there's a lot more to endure tonight. we'll watch as it heads into fort myers at fox news channel coverage continuese right after this. was for langoustine ravioli. a langoustine is a tiny kind of lobster. a slight shellfish allergy rules that out, plus my wife ordered the langoustine. i will have chicken tenders and tater tots. if you're a ref, you way over-explain things. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance you switch to geico. sir, we don't have tater tots. it's what you do. i will have nachos! ostriches don't really stick their heads in the sand. a peanut is not a nut. and a real john deere... is actually real affordable. you learn something new every day. the surprisingly affordable john deere e series tractors. now you can own america's tractor for just $99 a month. learn more at your john deere dealer. beneful grain free is so healthy... oh! farm-raised chicken! mmm...that's some really good chicken. i don't think i've ever tasted chicken like this. what!? 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(avo) new beneful grain free. out with the grain, in with the farm-raised chicken. healthful. flavorful. beneful. >> live in orlando, i'm bill hemmer as our coverage continues here on the fox news channel, tracking the path of hurricane irma. as we watch the eye move its way through naples, the storm only moments ago was downgraded to a category two. winds now dropping off a little bit, but the speed of the storm has picked up. earlier today at day break it was moving around 8 miles an hour, now it has increased substantially at 14 miles an hour. this monster of a storm will continue to move through the northern part of florida and affect places like are sarasota and st. petersburg and tampa, eventually here in orlando where the skies have darkened over the past hour alone and the bands of rain start to work their way into the metropolitan area here in orange county. as we await on that, john mixon is on the phone, retired lieutenant commander of the u.s. coast guard. he's live in jacksonville is, florida, by temperature, sir. you had -- by telephone, sir. you had evacuated to tampa, you worked your way to jacksonville, and what are you doing now? >> hey, good afternoon. yep, i live in hernando beach just north of tampa, and my family and i were in man story evacuation zone, concern mandatory evacuation zone, so we put the final toughs on the house early this morning and drove just south of jacksonville to stay with family. bill: you know, with the coast guard that's your life's to work. you think you made the right call to leave? >> oh, absolutely. there wasn't, there was no debate this time. some evacuations can be debatable for personal reasons, but in this case it was safety applies, there was no option due to the potential storm surge. bill: yeah. you think about the people who left miami and went to naples, and then they left naples and went to tampa or left miami and went to orlando, and then they were chased off to tampa as well, and you wonder about making that decision. how difficult was that for you and your family, sir? >> it was incredibly difficult up to a point, and then the decision became very easy. initially with the data so far out, we had to make the decision on a personal level as to whether to stay or go based on what our house could hand and what we could handle and what we were prepared for. so it was definitely an emotional decision. but -- bill: yeah, help us understand what was it that convinced you now's the time to leave? >> i made my final decision with my family and i yesterday morning early. we got the final update, saw that the westerly track was coming up, saw the storm surge predictions, and that was the final, that was the final one. i had some personal limits. we've been through hermine last year, so we knew kind of what our neighborhood could handle, and as soon as we got the prediction that more than that was headed to us, we started putting on the last boards and getting out. bill: how do you think the state's cone so far? >> it's -- done so far? >> it's fantastic. it's a great response. we had plenty of lead time in this one. some of the other hurricanes, especially gulf hurricanes, you don't have quite as much leeway time. this time we did, and i think the state, federal government, united states coast guard have all done an outstanding job preparing, and i think they're really postured for an outstanding response as tough as it's going to be. bill: bad luck to you, sir, and thank you for your time. my best to you and your family. >> thank you, appreciate it. bill: john mixon, retired u.s. coast guard waiting the storm out in jacksonville, florida, where the impact of this storm will be felt very soon. griff jenkins, meanwhile, standing by live in napeings, florida. we've been watching this now for about two hours. the eye of the storm came onshore in naples i want to say around 3:30 local time, so you've been in it, griff, for about two hours, and conditions now are what? >> reporter: you know, bill, we had about 30 minutes ago the harshest winds we've seen, and now they've calmed down much. i'm not sure if we have a bit of an eye center over the top of my position about three miles east of the shore in naples because it's slowed down. and we're finally getting to see for the first time in a couple of hours, because our vision was barely at about 50 feet if even that, we couldn't even see across the pond where we were sheltered in place and going out to see if we could see the damage, and literally i can tell you within the 3-400 yard radius of where we are, there isn't a spot where there aren't trees snapped in half ander the cotta shingles -- terra cotta shingles, those red clay shingles you see all over the houses in florida just shattered as if it were little pieces of plastic, but these are 5-8 pound shingles flying all of these roofs. you know, the other problem, of course, is the flooding not from that storm surge which is going to be the big legacy along that coastline once we're able to get out of this storm and see it, but the wind damage, the first part of the one-two punch that was dealt here. the wind damage has been catastrophic. it's just smashed everything in this area that we see and, oven, the flooding in -- of course, the flooding and the lakes rising, we have at least i would say a foot in the lake around us from rainfall. and having spent all that time just a week or so ago in houston in hurricane harvey, certainly nothing of those levels. but, of course, we're seeing standing water on the roads around me, and that is certainly going to compound the problem. bill? bill: yeah, griff, you're describing a wind storm there more than a rainstorm or a flooding issue. i saw your live picture about an hour ago rolling down the street. does that description based on what you'ving seen fit, more wind than water so far? >> reporter: absolutely. more wind, a wind event. more wind than water. however, in the earliest part as we began our coverage, we were on the beach, we were down there a block from where that storm surge was, and certainly the wind event that you saw me taking and driving down those roads was on the coast pushing that water out to sea and then bringing it right back as the eye came across. so really until anyone has eyes on it, we're just not going to know how huge that was. but assuming the officials had it correct that 10, even 15 feet on this area, it would have been looking back to my earlier live shots twice my height and then some coming in to all of those buildings and going a few blocks into homes. bill: griff, thanks, griff jenkins by phone in naples, florida. want to drop into wtvg and their corpsage. >> is where there will be the strongest winds, because this is the eye wall. just take my finger, we'll go right along here. really anywhere in manatee, sarasota, western polk, eastern sections of hillsborough, plant city, sun city center, fort meade, this is where you could have those gusts about 100-110 easily as what's left of the eye wall then eventually brooksville and inverness will get some of this. but the news is good, a lot better now than it was a day ago when we were talking about potential 3 or 4 impacts, now it's mostly 1 and maybe some occasional 2s which i think is manageable. you can get through a 1 or a 2, 3 or 4 you start having problems. if you're in naples with 142 mile-an-hour winds outside your house, that will not be good. we'll take a look at the damage, and i'm sure it was extensive. tyler, talking about storm surge? >> thanks, paul. we've been talking -- bill: okay, wtvt and their coverage, looking at the radar, the bands of rain are going to rip up through the center part of the state. this is going to be with us as the night drops here around 7:30 subset time here in central florida, around midnight we'll feel a bit more. we to not believe we're going to be in the clear here in orlando or tampa until about 8:00 tomorrow morning, and then we'll see what's left after that. after being in tampa most of the day yesterday and last night, a mandatory evacuation went in place there three days ago, and last night that town to was -- it wasn't a ghost town, but it was pretty empty, and those people really listened to warnings that came their way. tampa, we said yesterday, hasn't taken a direct hit by a hurricane in almost a hundred years, and it looks like, clearly, this will not be a direct hit either as irma drops down to a category two. still a lot of concern about the storm surge that we have yet to see what the after-effect of that is. however, i will say given the number of reporters that have spread out through the state of florida, just getting bits of information here and there, we have not yet found the one place where you could say, well, this was the epicenter of this storm, or this is where irma did the most damage. perhaps it's in the florida keys once things clear and we yet a chance to see what aia looks like, that road that connects the florida keys all the way down to key west. we have yet to see really daylight images of what is left behind. the other issue was marco island when it came ashore at a second time at a category three pushing all that weather up and onto the shoreline. it's anybody's guess right now how those houses withstood the storm that we just witnessed here and continue to watch through the night. i will say in marco island they have done a lot of new construction there on homes that are fortified, they are built in a way to withstand strong hurricanes. whether or not this was strong enough this time, we'll wait and see as soon as possible we get more reports from out out there. we're in orlando, we're awaiting the arrival of this hurricane. we're going to feel it probably in about 90 minutes based on the latest forecast, and we'll see what we get until then. i'm bill hemmer live in orlando, i'm going to get back to my colleague, shepard smith n new york city. shepard: bill, thanks very much. i want to go up the coast now. if you were to go up the coast from where all this is happening, frankly, some very soak iserring reports from our own griff jenkins in the naples with reports of widespread damage and trees down. there'll be a lot of cleanup to do. we don't yet know what the florida keys look like. we hope those middle and lower keys have taken the punch and have withstood it. we'll know soon enough. if you go up the coast to st. petersburg off onto the barrier islands is a place called madeira beach, north reddington beach, st. johns pass village and boardwalk, and that's where jeff flock is from the fox business network live for us. jeff, how are things progressing there? >> reporter: and i've got a couple of guys who were going to weather this, and you say how are they progressing. as you can see, conditions deteriorating. they're going to weather this on their fishing boat. jeff and joe are the captains of this boat. why on a fishing boat? >> that's what we do. we fish. this is a florida fisherman -- >> reporter: you leave this alone, you're concerned something's going to happen. >> yeah. we want to save the boat. the boat's a strong vessel. we have got it tied off, we're out here to man it and make sure it makes the storm. >> reporter: look at what this water level is like. because of the rotation of the storm, this has sucked the water out of st. johns pass out into the gulf which is off to the right. but when that storm comes around, joe, you're going to get this water back in here. >> yes, absolutely. >> reporter: what happens then? >> at that point, we're going to have to make the decision if we're going to keep the boat right here in the slip or if we're going to pull it out of the slip and head east of this slip -- >> reporter: pull it out in the middle of the hurricane, is what you're telling me. >> in the back end of it. hopefully, the winds calm down substantially, and we're able to get the boat out and protect it -- >> reporter: the name of the boat again? >> the florida fisherman ii. >> reporter: i already asked, florida furberman i is not at -- fisherman i is not at the bottom of the sea, it's been retired. not the place i'd choose towater it out, but -- weather it out, but to each their own. shepard: unless the storm makes a turn, we think the storm is going to move inland of you. we think that the eye of this storm is going to pass over something like lakeland and lake wales which is due east of tampa and st. petersburg which would put you guys on the dry side of the storm. >> reporter: but then you get that spin on the back end of it, right? shepard: exactly. >> reporter: it's unknown what that's going to mean. do we have any sense what that's going to mean? shepard: from my perspective, i think it means this eye will be over the land for long enough to to where it will lose some of its punch. that is not to say it's not dangerous for people there, it definitely is. >> reporter: yeah. we'll see. [laughter] shepard: yeah. we will see. jeff flock who's been moving up and down the coast for us all afternoon. it's hard to imagine that when we started, when i started coverage this morning, 8:00 eastern time, miami was already getting battered. the water was coming inland, the winds were really high. here it is 5:30 in the afternoon, and that's still the case. phil keating is somewhere around the 79th street causeway in miami. phil's -- phil, how's it looking there now? >> reporter: well, the rain has really decreased. the winds are still strong but nothing like a couple of hours ago. you've got to come this way. two guys pushing their little mini cooper, unwisely tried to drive through the floodwaters that still remain. but the flooded street, the 7 9th street causeway, major east/west artery between the city as well as out to the beaches. that's a neighborhood right there. definitely a lot better. the water's down, the level of the water flooding the streets down. but a lot of these cars that you see right here behind me all lined up here in the median since this is the highest point of the street, clearly, they left their neighborhoods from both sides realizing, well, we'd better get our cars out now. it's dry in the middle of 79th, so they just parked. look at all the debris. there's a black shoe, got a black sneaker over herement i mean, the whole street's riddled with debrief. rooftops are ripped. somebody's black shoe right there. so this is not the only street like this. many, many streets throughout miami-dade county are this way, that's why there's a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew again tonight. also traffic signals are -- no power, not operate toking. so it's very dangerous, especially once the sun sets. nobody needs to be on the streets. now that, actually, we seem to be very close to the tail end of what has been a miserable and dreary 30-plus hours of pounding rains and winds, we've actually seen an increase in traffic coming out here just to start looking around as everyone does after a hurricane passes through, get that cabin fever and go out and let's see what the damage is. and up and down the street there's certainly plenty. flooded streets down at brickell, downtown, hot, happening, hip a neighborhood. a lot of new condo towers, a lot of young people moving down there. that was one of the first neighborhoods that was ordered to mandatory evacuate. a lot of people did, i've got to say, out of the city of miami. not everybody kid because not everybody always does. as of yesterday, they thought they made the right choice as the eye of the storm had shifted from the east coast to the west coast, but as we saw sod today, punishing upper tropical storm strength, lower category i hurricane strength winds and rains just beat down this area all day long, shep. shepard: phil keating on, right there on the 79th street causeway. some rain totals have started to come in for us. really totally different scenes across the region. hollywood, florida which is dade, broward with, were with hollywood, florida, 4.68 inches of rain. jupiter, also on the east coast and a little farther north, 7.73 inches. fort lauderdale's executive airport, 8.8 inches. the national ceer key, just to the east of where the eye went across, 11.5 inch obviously rain. in naples officially cose concern close to 12 inches of rain. in melbourne, florida, 14.5 inches of rain, and now a live drive-along. let's go to the police chief at marco island. chief, have you been able to get out and about? do you know what kind of damage was dealt you? >> first off, i'm captain, not the chief. shepard: oh, apologies. [laughter] >> that's ooh okay, i just want to make sure i'm not taking undue credit. thanks for talking with me. we're currently experiencing the back eye wall, the storm on the back side, and we're seeing, we're seeing significant damage. i'm looking out the window of the station, and our -- at least a foot or two of water over the roadway. we can look around, i'm on the second floor of the police station, and i can see multiple roofs that have damage. it's, it is pretty significant, pretty significant. shepard: what about your high-rises? are windows out, or did they hold? >> we don't have -- we haven't been able to go out and do a reconnaissance for information on that. obviously, we're very concerned about the physical safety of our residents, so currently our primary task is we're creating plans to enact those plans after the storm to go out and start to do a reconnaissance and rescue. we have a list of people who have call who need services, we're unable to do it right now, but as soon as we can go out, we're going to start knocking through that list, triage them in order of priority. shepard: marco island, you've got to use a bridge to get there. what kuhn about it? >> yes, sir, there are two bridges. that'll be one of our primary actions, start to inspect those bridges. there's two or three large bridges that get folks onto the island, then the island has multiple small bridges. so those will be a priority to get emergency folks around the island. shepard: safe to say driving along north collier boulevard is not something anyone should be doing right now? >> that is an absolute certainty. shepard: the j.w. marriott island beach resort that's down there on that boulevard, the south seas east condominium is another big one, tiger tail beach. i guess time's going to tell, to get out there just to do assessments now seems like it would be a dangerous thing. >> it is dangerous. actually, we're using social media to do assessments. just in the last five minutes, i saw a picture that one sent us of the surge coming up over the bridge. so we're using technology to try to figure out where we have the largest risks and then we're going to develop a plan to figure out what vessels or vehicles we're going to take out to start rescuing and people. shepard: david bayer, i gave him a temporary promotion, but we certainly do thank you and all the first responders who are out there helping people throughout this storm and ever day of your lives. all the best and so many thanks. david baer live with us from marco island where they don't really know the extent of the damage. there's a lot of stuff down in the streets, don't know about the bridges just yet. same thing down in the florida keys. you know, the storm went right over the lower keys, and we have some sporadic reports from here and there, but we really don't know about the structural intelingty of some of the bridges there. i'm not saying there's anything wrong with them, i'm telling you they haven't made assessments. we don't know about serious building damage or about the, we believe, thousands of conchs who stayed behind. we expect they'll be fine, we hope there's been no additional loss of life down there, but at this point there's no way to know, and that's why we hope you stay with us for the rest of this afternoon. this storm is on its way now to fort myers and we'll get to our teams live there as fox news channel's coverage continues right after this. ♪ be. ♪ (male announcer) shop like a pro at bass pro shops for huge savings! like savings of 40% on redhead camo tech hoodies. save $20 on a muddy 10 megapixel game camera bundle. and save $50 on lacrosse alpha lite rubber boots -- at bass pro shops. you don't let anything lkeep you sidelined. come on! that's why you drink ensure. with 9 grams of protein, and 26 vitamins and minerals... for the strength and energy, to get back to doing what you love. ensure, always be you. tech: when you schedule with safelite autoglass, you get time for more life. this family wanted to keep the game going. son: hey mom, one more game? tech: with safelite, you get a text when we're on our way. you can see exactly when we'll arrive. mom: sure. bring it! tech: i'm micah with safelite. mom: thanks for coming, it's right over here. tech: giving you a few more minutes for what matters most. take care! family: bye! kids singing: safelite® repair, safelite® replace. afi sure had a lot on my mind. my 30-year marriage... ...my 3-month old business... plus...what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? so i made a point to talk to my doctor. he told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots. eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. eliquis had both... ...and that turned around my thinking. don't stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. if you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily... and it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. plus had less major bleeding. both made eliquis right for me. ask your doctor if switching to eliquis is right for you. shepard: hurricane irma now a category to hurricane northbound in southwest florida packing maximum sustained winds 110 miles an hour at last report. let's get an update from the national hurricane center, ed rap a pa port there live. where do you see this going, ed? >> for the next day or so, progressing towards the north. center's just past naples, marco island area. in fact, a report of 140 mile-per-hour wind gust. the storm's going to track north through the fort myers area and tampa over the next the hours -- 12 hours. the biggest fear is the storm sucker. as the center goes by, the winds are going to flip out of the south. right now they're the north, you may have seen video of how part of tampa bay has emptied out, but that's going to switch quickly, and that's a major damage, the very rapid rise of water. we've had instances where people have gone out in the eye and lost their lives because the surge came in so fast. shepard: i was reading about a surge down in naples had risen 4 feet in about half an our hour or so. so are we expecting further rise of the surge in naples and fort myers? >> that's right. the water levels were below normal, and they've surged back up 4 feet in 30 minutes, and that's in the calm of the storm. now that the winds are coming onshore, it's going to blow even more water, and we're thinking still of a storm surge that could be as much as 10-15 feet keep along the coast. shepard: so it's going to go through the fort myers area and generally toward tampa and st. pete. it'll be dark by the time it gets there. what can people there expect? >> over the next the hours, the reasons -- over the next 12 hours, the conditions are going to deteriorate. this is been some tornadic activity to the north. for the most part, the winds are going to increase, again, from the land to the sea over the next 6-12 hours. once the center passes, that's when the winds are going to blow very strong onshore. that's the greatest concern, is the storm surge that we've seen great loss of life before. shepard: unless it makes a turn, it look like this system head to the east of tam and -- tampa and st. peat. that versus to the west over the water, what's the difference? >> not a lot. look how big this storm is, hundreds of miles wide. regardless of whether the center passes over tampa pa bay or just to the east, once it goes by, we're going to have very strong winds. shepard: that storm is right in the cone where you guys had put it it seems like a week ago. impressive work down there, our thanks to your colleagues. >> thank you very much. shepard: ed rappaport. steve harrigan in naples experiencing that water rise in parts of naples, though not exactly where he is. what are you seeing, steve? >> reporter: shepard, from our limited point of view, walking distance from our base here, we can show you some scenes of damage here. you can see some large trees completely uprooted by the storm. it had maximum winds of sustained 130 miles per hour in naples. if you do look down the street further, there are more downed trees and some flooding as well, 2 or 3 feet of floodwater. we can just give you a limited perspective of where we are. certainly, the storm powerful enough to knock down trees. but as you pan could be the street, everything, you can see concern eric, not powerful enough to destroy structures. some roof damage we've seen, but the win des are intact, the buildings themselves are intact. electricity out for more than 70,000 people, and a curfew is in effect from 9:00 in the evening here. the real question is going to be the floodwater. we've seen the eye pass overhead about 5:16 here. it was very calm and still. we're not sure how powerful the back end of this storm is going to be, it feels like it's justing right now. some significant damage, major trees down, possible flooding, 3 or 4 feet, from what we can see, but it's going to to be tough to assess while many of these roads are still blocked like this. shepard: sounds like the winds are kicking up yet again. >> reporter: yeah. we're not sure how organized the back end of this storm is going to be. you can see a lot of palm fronds down on the street, the lights blinking. ofof course, traffic's going toe a concern, it's going to be four-way stops, and we're not seeing first respond or us out and about as of yet. i guess it's really a question mark as to how big the wind kicks up on the back end of the storm. walking through a neighborhood, i saw several houses with damaged roofs, but the structure's largely intact, and the water just got deeper and deeper. there were concerns about a possible 5-16 foot storm surge. we're going to have to get closer to the shore when we can to see whether or not that happens, shepard. shepard: hearing the familiar after the storm noise of alarms. are they coming from everywhere? jr. they are, and a lot of bits of tin roof making a lot of noise when they get blown around and bits of tile also. it's going to to be a major, at the very least, a major clean-up operation. you're going to hear a lot of chain saws and generate ors and, of course, more than 70,000 people without power. 20,000 evacuated, and a lot more left the area. it's going to be a big comeback, but we're still not sure. we can give you a little snapshot of the damage. big enough to knock down trees, powerful enough, but not every tree and not the buildings. shepard, back to you. shepard: thank goodness. steve harrigan where the wind's howling in naples. i mentioned fort myers is next for this storm and then at some point to tampa. mike tobin's there live now. how's it looking? >> reporter: well, shep, it's interesting how harrigan's talking about how high the water is coming up. we still have this remarkable phenomenon of the water being very, very shallow. you can see the exposed crab trap here in hillsborough bay. you look out, it is dry about 300 yards out there. earlier today we saw people, word went out of this remarkable phenomenon. they came out here to walk out into the center of the bay and have a look around. the police came with loud speakers, said don't do that, get to safety. i talked to some of the people, and they said they wanted to satisfy their curiosity. and most of them said they had a plan to get back to safe i before it gets too bad, and that's an interesting point, because the water eventually will come in with the storm surge and come inside the bay and all the connected bodies of water, and then it has nowhere to go. it has nowhere to go but to flood the low-lying areas and push up into the tributaries. that is why these were mandatory evacuation zones. across the bay, pinellas county, zone a and zone b, mandatory evacuation. for the last couple days we've been talking about how the timing was right to get out while the getting was good. authorities are now saying if you didn't heed the orders to get out of the low-lying rares, now is the the time to hung e down. -- hunker down. shelters are very full. those people are in for a long couple of days as well. you can see right now you cough tropical storm force winds -- tropical storm dpoirs winds blowing in here. the barometer's been dropping. as i look across the road, you can see some of these beautiful houses, some of them have the windows boarded up. a lot of them, it appears as though they've gone hurricane grade glass, and they just left it. very quiet out here. the curfew goes into effect in exactly eight minutes. people are supposed to be off the road at that point, media being the exception in this case. by and large, the authorities want people to heed that cur true after the wind event, after the storm surge event and until the authorities can get out, take look at these areas and make an analysis about the risk that remains, shep? shepard: trying to get our viewers a sense of power outages, and the map just keeps going a little whack on me. i can show you this though. miami-dade county, 888,000 people without power, and this is florida power and light only. 888,000 out of 1.1 million. up in broward county, 666,000. if you go to the naples area, collier county, 210,000 total customers, 173,000 without power. and over in the fort myers area, 171,000. total across the state approaching three million people without power. finish i'm going to get over to the big wall and show you the progress it's made. remember, the storm came ashore in the florida keys this morning, just a little bit after 9:00 officially. landed at, as a category four and a strong one at that. we don't have reports out of there yet. still too dangerous for them to be doing a lot of moving around and damage assessment, but we'll yet them. it then made another landfall in marco island as a very weak three or a very strong two, i forget. one or the other. it has passed over naples heading toward cape coral and general hi the lee county area before making its way up toward the tampa bay area. see the new projections this. by monday at 2:00 in the afternoon, the winds ought to be at about 65 miles per hour, so ono longer as a hurricane, but as a tropical storm as it passes by tallahassee. when it gets close to the birmingham area by about midnight, 1:00 in the morning on tuesday, stick a prop call -- still a topical storm. you see northwest montana, a low pressure center with winds of about 35 miles per hour and still a lot of rain. it's the rain navy been concerned about and especially all the storm surge all along the coast of florida. and certainly, right along the florida keys this is a live picture out of miami where the winds are still plowing, -- wins are still blowing. florida power and light says restoring power will not be a quick fix. they anticipate others will lose power as the storm continues to head north. and then it could take days or weeks to get it fixed. a quick live report from wsvn down in florida where some roofs came off some boat storage areas. listen to this. >> and 8:00 for this area. i'm not a boater, i don't know how these boats are actually stored, but it looks like, to me, some of them have been pushed out, a couple partially dangle, not all of them. but this is some of the damage that we've seen. and i want to imclear you about something else. we -- implore you about something else. we drove down 95. the danger to me is this: it would be like in a nascar race hitting an oil slick, you are going to slide. and people will say why are you out there. because we need to show you this, we need to show you how dangerous it is. i implore now not to go out. shepard: p our good friends at wsvn in south florida, we thank them for all of their help. we could not have brought you the pictures and information without them and their army of news profession asals. my guess is their helicopter and that of our station on the west coast of florida, fox 13 in tampa, those helicopters will be up once the wind goes down, and we'll get a better idea of how bad the damage was. a live picture now out of miami, and two different crepes collapsed during the course of this storm during the day today. they said there was no injuries, but we'll continue to follow the storm as it heads north and on up into the tampa bay and st. petersburg area. i'm shepard smith in new york. fox news channel coverage continues throughout the night. i'll see you back here tomorrow. arthel neville and eric shawn continue our coverage right after a commercial break on america's choice for news and information on d cable. ♪ ♪ in body, in spirit, in the now. boost® high protein it's intelligent nutrition with 15 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for when you need a little extra. boost® the number one high protein complete nutritional drink. be up for it : how do you chase what you love with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis? do what i did. ask your doctor about humira. it's proven to help relieve pain and protect joints from further irreversible damage in many adults. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. ready for a new chapter? talk to your rheumatologist about humira. this is humira at work. for tech advice. dell small business advisor with one phone call, i get products that suit my needs and i get back to business. ♪ . arthel: pray for everyone in florida. the words of the state's governor, rick scott, as hurricane irma roaring up florida's gulf coast bringing life-threating storm surges, flooding and dangerously high winds to cities in its path. and the full damage not yet known. the storm knocking out power to two million floridians. more expected as it slams the western edge of the state as we've been watching this afternoon. hello, everyone, welcome to "america's news headquarters" i'm arthel neville. eric: and hello, everyone. i'm eric shawn. witnessing the dramatic power and wrath of mother nature all day. started when hurricane irma first made landfall in the florida keys and southwest