Always, we should say that these numbers are very early and very fluid. Elsewhere, well, just take a look. This is the island of barbuda. At least one fatality reported there. These are some of the first pictures of the devastation. They were taken from a chopper flying the Prime Minister of barbuda and antigua over the scene. I spoke with the Prime Minister a few minutes ago. Well play that shortly. What he saw, he called the destruction unprecedented saying, in his words, barbuda is barely habitable. And now this monster storm, this already destructive and deadly storm has started slamming americans, millions of people with no way out in puerto rico. In a moment, the newest forecast of exactly where on the continental United States this may hit and just how hard. But first, lets go to leila santiago who is in san juan for us. What are the conditions there . Reporter we are certainly starting to feel the winds. Or not starting we have still feeling. We have been feeling this for several hours as irma is near the northern coast where we are right now of puerto rico. The shelters right now have more than 2,000 people in them at last check. Rain is coming down, and within the last hour after checking with Emergency Management officials, they tell me this evening they have only had one rescue that they had to carry out. And that they havent had any major injuries as a result of irma. But you can tell, this wind is coming in strong, and this was the fear for many today as we talked to one woman who was locking up her business, closing down before going home to stay there for this very moment. Very interesting how she locked the door and looked at us and said, it is now in gods hands. Theres certainly been a lot of fear leading to what we are seeing right now, given that this is one of the strongest storms that has come this way. The governor saying theyve never dealt with a storm of this magnitude in puerto ricos recorded history. So now is the moment that many people are paying attention to wait and see what is next. Will there be floods and will they be able to handle what comes over the next 24 hours, anderson . When is it supposed to be at its worst . And im wondering how close from what you understand is it supposed to get to puerto rico . Reporter it is coming just above the northern coast. We dont expect it to make direct landfall, but we will still have that impact that will still be felt. We still will feel the wrath of this category 5 hurricane, making its way above puerto rico. You know, the governor has said all day that they were hoping for the best. But preparing for the worst. We dont know yet what the worst will be. Heavy winds, yes, weve seen it. Rain, yes, weve seen it. Rising water, some of it. But what will come next is the big fear for this island that is filled with 3. 5 million u. S. Citizens dealing with the uncertainty of whats next. Leyla santiago, be careful. At the top of the program, we showed you what it looked like on the island of barbuda. Just before the air, i spoke with the Prime Minister of antigua and barbuda. Mr. Prime minister, if you could describe the scene you saw over barbuda today. It was heart wrenching. Absolutely devastating. I have never seen any such destruction compared to what i saw in barbuda this afternoon. 95 of the properties in barbuda were damaged. The infrastructure was damaged, all of the institutions, the hospital, the schools. It is absolutely heart wrenching. You said 95 of the structures are damaged. How many of those are completely destroyed . In my estimation, probably about 20 , 30 of the properties were totally demolished. And even the airport was damaged, so it cannot accommodate any flights. So the only way to access now is by helicopter. We have a situation in which the Telecommunications System was totally destroyed. So for example, we have seen cell towers broken in two. So is the island right now cut off . Well, it was. And that is why it took so long, because we could not have gotten any phone communication. They had a system there a h. A. M. Radio system that was destroyed. They had a few phones that got damaged during the storm. So they had no mechanism to communicate with us. It was too treacherous for us for any boats to go to barbuda. Even for a helicopter. But a few of us journeyed over there this afternoon. We risked the elements to get an idea as to what is happening. We noticed after about 2 00 a. M. , 3 00 a. M. Last night, or this morning, we did not have any form of communication with barbuda. In some of the video, we can see the cell tower that seems just snapped. In terms of injuries or fatalities, what have you learned . Luckily, there was only one fatality. Apparently one of the properties that was destroyed, the mother was moving the child and they were trying to get to safer ground. During the process of leaving the process that was damaged, apparently the child suffered a fatal injury. But when you look at the extent of the devastation, im surprised we did not have any more fatalities. So that in itself would have they would have had a high level of preparedness. But the monstrosity that this storm was, anything that would have been in its path would have suffered the wrath of that storm. So it is easily one of the most consequential storms to have actually developed in the atlantic and certainly to have actually stormed through the caribbean. What is are the capabilities in terms of relief, of getting whats needed to that island . I know you said the runway is damaged. Obviously, thats something that needs to be repaired to bring in large aircraft. Well, yes. What well have to do is use antigua as a hub and use helicopters to move the relief items into barbuda. We are presently negotiating with International Agencies and different countries. We have estimated the rebuilding efforts to be no less than 100 million. That is conservative, because were talking about rebuilding everything, all of the institutions, the infrastructure, the telecommunications, the roads. It is just absolutely heart wrenching. Even the hotels on the island, those are totally demolished, as well. It is terrible. Prime minister browne, i appreciate your time tonight and wish you the best. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Well get another report coming up. More now on the scope of the threat, the strength of the storm and who is now in danger, as well as the horrifying fact that irma is now just one of three hurricanes out there. For that, were joined by meteorologist tom seder and ed rappaport, acting director of the National Hurricane center in miami. Tom, lets talk about where is this headed, how strong is it going to get . Conditions are starting to deteriorate, anderson, in puerto rico, in san juan. Theyre getting gusts over 60 right now and the rabe is going to pick up. Yesterday, we told you theres only one other hurricane in recorded history in the atlantic, that was allen in 1980 but irma surpassed allen in one category, this has been churning for over 31 straight hours with the winds above 180 miles per hour. That is staggering. We saw the large eye swallow up barbuda. The four large structures in st. Martin have been destroyed. In the British Virgin islands, and the radar showing a well formed eye, the outer bands are starting to lash this and will for a couple of hours. The track shows it moving through the turks and caicos, in between cuba. We could see 15, 20 foot storm surges in the turks and caicos. Not much of a change, and from this morning to this evenings track, but there was a change from last night. Shifting ining it eastward, th cone of uncertainty here. So each day is important as we watch this unfold each day this week. So specify that on miami, its now shifted which direction, east . East, about 60 to 70 miles, yeah. So ed, you spent decades forecasting hurricanes. From a historical perspective, how rare is this storm and what do you make of these models, how accurate are they sp at this point, we have quite a bit of confidence in the next 3 1 2 days in terms of the track. Were expecting the hurricane to pass just north of the islands. And when it gets to about the florida peninsula, were going to see a turn. What we dont know is whether it will occur right over the me ninls la, just to the east, or just to the west. That makes a huge difference. If the hurricane turns and comes over south florida as is forecast now, this will be the most Significant Impact that weve had in florida, in fact, in the u. S. Since hurricane andrew. So this would be a once in a generation type of hurricane, if it comes ashore at category 4 or 5. Is that the middle track or the track on the far west . Right now, the forecast track is for the Hurricane Center to come up very close to the east coast. But were talking four to five days from now, and the average area is large enough to cover the peninsula from west to east. So if it comes ashore, well have the worst of the conditions. If it turns offshore, and even passes say 50 miles offshore, well still have Hurricane Force winds in south florida, because the size of the storm is large enough to bring Hurricane Force winds up to that extent. This may be a dumb question, but when we will know which of those options it may be taking, with confidence . Well probably know in 24 to 36 hours. At this point, what we know is a little more clearly is that the track will turn near the peninsula. As of yesterday, theres some possibility it would make it into the eastern gulf of mexico. Thats much less likely right now. Now were focused more on the area from east to the west part of the florida peninsula. Tom, is it possible for it to go further up the east coast . Yeah. I mean, we can look at an ensemble. This is about 20 miles that make up the models, and were wondering if it is going to interact with cuba, because that could squeeze out a lot of water. If it heads in this direction and further to the north, we would be looking at a landfall up in the carolinas. And this is a lot like matthew last year. I mean, a category 5 in haiti, taking hundreds of lives and plowing into cuba. But when it made its way through the bahamas and reorganized itself, it stayed along the coast. We had significant damage on a1a, buildings up and down the coast. And dont forget the historic flooding we had in the carolinas, where we lost dozens of people in georgia, south and north carolina. The difference is off coast is catastrophic damage, and if it stays off the coast, it will be minimal or moderate damage. But if it slides a little bit, catastrophic damage on land. The Tropical Storm force winds are so wide, it would swallow the entire florida peninsula as it moves northward. Ed, buildings in a city like miami, if it was that track that takes it right over land, how strong are they . Are they built to prepare for a cat 5 . After hurricane andrew, florida upgraded their building codes. And the building codes are the strongest in the nation here. Still, a category 5 hurricane is going to cause devastating damage. The buildings may be Strong Enough for people to survive now, which is good. But there will be tremendous damage, if the eyewall just around it come across the land. Tom, ed, well continue to check in with you. Coming up next, what it is like to observe and measure this storm from a whole lot closer than this view from space that were about to show you. Youll hear from a noaa scientist who has flown straight into irma and says it is getting Even Stronger as we speak. David. Whats going on . Oh hey thats it . Yeah. 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Tempurpedic sleep is power. Hurricane irma now passing north of puerto rico after slamming st. Barts, and laying waste to barbuda. Millions now have some terrible hours, days and weeks ahead. Others facing danger so they can get the latest information on the storm itself, flying directly into hurricanes. Late today, i spoke with a noaa fright director Richard Henning aboard one of those missions. Richard, this is your Third Mission flying into Hurricane Irma. How does the flight compare to the previous ones . Well, the last two flights that weve done, weve essentially followed the same kind of a pattern. Im flying in the noaa gulf stream jet, which is a High AltitudeHurricane Hunter reconnaissance aircraft. This is the aircraft that flies across the top of the storm at 45,000 feet. And what we do, the key elements of our mission is that were releasing drop sons, which are the opposite of a weather balloon. Instead of go up, they fall by parachute and transmit data back to the aircraft, Critical Data like pressure, temperature, gps, wind direction, wind speed. All that data gets gathered by the aircraft and we transmit it by satellite to the National Hurricane center and it goes directly into the computer models that are forecasting the track, which everybody in the southeastern u. S. Is now focusing on that track. So we are dropping 33 of those on our mission this evening in order to refine the accuracy of the track. In terms of what the storm is doing right now, can it getting weaker, maintaining, getting stronger . The storm is actually, sadly, sad to say, the storm is actually getting stronger. The latest aircraft in the center measured a pressure of 914 millibars, which is the lowest its been. And were continue sting to see winds measured directly by the aircraft in the range of 150 to 160 knots at the surface in the eyewall, which is over 180 miles per hour. So this is a legitimate category 5 hurricane. You really cant overhype this storm. Its the strongest storm that has ever formed in this part of the atlantic. Weve had cat 5s that have formed further to the west, closer to miami, of course, we had andrew, then we had i think storms like katrina and rita in the gulf of mexico back in 2005. But we really havent seen a storm like irma. So its extremely dangerous, especially with the path that its projected to go through the bahamas and threaten florida. Also a very large storm. It bears repeating what you just said, this is the strongest storm in the atlantic that we have ever seen. And its getting stronger. Is it getting stronger because its going over warmer water as it approaches the u. S. . Yes. That is a big part of it. Part of it is the upper level environment around the storm. And thats exactly what we are measuring right now in our gulf stream jet. Were up at 45,000 feet, getting a full profile of the atmosphere from that altitude all the way down to when the sons splashes into the ocean. So the ocean temperatures, ahead of irma, are very, very warm. Were talking water temperatures of 87, 88 degrees fahrenheit. And that just is fuel for the fire. The waters through the bahamas, heading towards miami, are about the warmest theyve been all year. And you talked tanlt size ee of the eye. Yesterday, people were talking about how perfect the eyewall was. Im wondering how it looks today. The eye continues to have that perfect, what we call stadium effect to it. Where it looks like youre inside a circular football stadium. Right now, the eye is approximately 15 miles across. Its actually getting smaller. Its going through another one of those, what we call eyewall replacement cycles, where theres a double eyewall right now. That outer eyewall is forming, that has a wider diameter than the inner eyewall. And its contracting in towards the center. And normally what that does is it actually weakens the storm briefly. So what you might see overnight is you might see the hurricane bottom out in intensity, maybe weaken just a few millibars. But then once it completes that eyewall replacement cycle, its right back to being Even Stronger than it was before. And irma has been amazing, because its gone through about four or five of these cycles over the last few days. Thats incredible to see. I appreciate all the work that you and all your colleagues are doing to keep us informed. Richard henning, thank you. Thank you, anderson. I want to go now to miami beach and the mayor. Do you feel that miami beach is prepared for whatever comes . Anderson, this is one of the most powerful storms in the history of the atlantic. I think we are as prepared as possible at this point. The county just declared a mandatory evacuation. Ive been telling our residents and our tourists as of yesterday, get out of miami beach. This storm is a nuclear hurricane. So we are putting in pumps, generators, offering sandbags to our residents so they can fortify their houses. But starting tomorrow mor