off. this is going to be a significant and ongoing threat. >> reporter: we're getting the gusts, you know. i'm at the naples pier. the gusts are starting. i'm going to actually keep my hand on the railing as i come down here because it's just -- you don't know when the gust is coming. >> and a sight in tampa that even long-term residents had never seen. hurricane irma pulled a huge amount of water out of hillsboro bay. meteorologists call this a reverse storm surge. thomas roberts has been reporting on this monster storm all day long, and he joins us now from tampa. thomas, what can you tell us? >> reporter: cynthia, you make a great point about what meteorologists were concerned with when it comes to the fact that there was a pulling of tampa bay into irma for its energy. this is the hillsboro river, and you can see right here how there is beachfront that is shown by these rocks. people that live and work here have been telling us by this seawall, that typically the water is up to the wall itself,