Florida from this one. From up in tallahassee where he recently served as bishop to Daytona Beach where he was in Community College and all the way to tampa, south tampa where he served in a church, he has put down roots all over the state of florida. And now he says that he got his calling from right here in tampa bay. You as much joy and happiness as this great diocese has brought to me. Reporter with a heavy heart, retiring Bishop Robert lynch introduced his successor to a small group of loyal parishioners. Welcome. [ applause ] reporter and with that, Bishop Gregory parkes will soon become the new leader of the second Largest Diocese in the state. Know that i am very grateful to the holy father, pope francis for this appointment. Reporter Bishop Parkes is no stranger to the area. He worked in the Banking Industry in tampa and attended in a certain sense, the origin, the foundation of my vocation, was discerned here in our diocese. Reporter as for parishioners after 20 years, they h
12 00 out west and good afternoon, everybody. Im Thomas Roberts and we continue our live coverage of irma and just hours away, the full impact on the u. S. Mainland. Really bad. So weve got wind, weve got rain. Its already moving in. The outer bands of this storm system, and in a few hours, its going to be a lot worse. Weve got irma listed as a category 3 hurricane right now. That means it packs winds of 125 Miles Per Hour. It weakened after slamming into cuba earlier, but this catastrophic storm is expected to refuel because once it goes off the side of cuba and back over warm waters of south florida, it could return to strength of a cat 4 or even a category 5 storm. Reporter as you can hear, the wind is really picking up here in fort lauderdale. Storm surge will be the most serious part of this storm. Its the most deadly potential part of the storm. Protectings li life is our absolute top priority. There will be no resource, no expense spared to protect lives. Its not just the trees
Which now has that storm plowing right through the florida keys overnight. And then the next target, floridas west coast, which could face storm surges of ten to 15 feet. Irma may still be hours away from making landfall in florida, but take a look at this video. So this is a marina just north of key largo, already dealing with more than a foot of flood water. Floridas not the only state bracing for irma, by the way. It could still be Hurricane Force by the time it reaches georgia. Authorities there have been evacuating thousands of residents today. And right now in he is terr row florida we have nbcs gabe gutierrez. Weve reports out all across florida. They are continuing to move. Gabe, let me start with you. Tell us whats going on where you are. Hi there, chris. Well, over the last few hours weve been reporting on this massive shelter that opened up here on the outskirts of fort myers. There were thousands of people waiting to get into this shelter. Some of them saying they were wait
Not tonight. Not in an hour. Now. That was his warning this morning. And for a lot of those folks, it is too late to get out at this point. We want to go to miami oh, actually, we have bill karins. He has been working tire lessless in harvey and irma. Do we have a new update . Yeah, and they didnt change much. We were worrying about the intensity. What will they do now that the eye is off the coast of cuba. How intense can it get in 24 hours. Here is the brand new path. And they have it almost going over the to which of key west, this is at 2 00 a. M. At 135 miles an hour. So that is not much strong are than it is now. So the keys will get the equivalent of a strong category 3. And then we have this painful wait of about 12 hours as the eye will be offshore not doing much damage. And then it gets my finger is right where marco eye land is. Naples is right here and then we head up toward ft. Myers. That is the right side, the dirty side of the storm at 140 Miles Per Hour cat 4, that is