Going to one particular shelter near ft. Myers. Many of them are still waiting to get in. Were going to check in with our drew griffin whos there in the hour ahead. But first, lets get the latest most porntdly on where this storm is headed. Allison chinchar is in the Weather Center. Bring us up to date. Right, anderson. Take a look at what we have right now, imagery where we can see the latest on irma. Winds 125 Miles Per Hour gusting up to 155 Miles Per Hour. The movement its been what we call wobbling where its going back and forth between west and north and west and north. The question is when does it finally start to make that really sharp turn to the north. We focus on the maximum wind gusts. Notice for the most part its the western half of florida where we have our strongest winds. Key west, this will be our peak maximum wind gusts around 138 Miles Per Hour. But say up around ft. Myers 136, even tampa going to be in the triple digits right around 116 Miles Per Hour. The track itself will still take it over portions of the keys and then riding up along the western coast making a very close call towards naples, ft. Myers, even into tampa. Those are going to be the cities of concern Going Forward in about the next 36 to 48 hours. Heres a look at the forecast radar. This shows you not just where its headed but where some of the heavy rain is going to be as well. When we get to sunday morning, this is when we really start to see incredibly heavy downpours for cities like miami, into ft. Myers, then we push into sunday afternoon and evening. Now tampa starting to get some incredibly heavy rainfall. And then the system itself begins to make its way into portions of georgia and also into south carolina. Overall Rainfall Totals were talking widespread 6 to 10 inches of rain. But it could even be slightly higher than that. Especially when you get some of those outer bands where you could end up getting incredibly heavy downpours for several hours at a time. But the rain spreads even farther north. So even states like alabama,
it created a little bit of a panic. What happened was at the same time they were opening up a second door on this center, the Germain Center and trying to get the people inside now with a little more importance because the squalls are now really beginning to come through. There was a bad tweet that went out not too long ago, anderson, that said somehow or another this place was going to reach capacity. That is not true. I want to knock that down for anybody who might be in the viewing area. Its not true. There is plenty of capacity at the Germain Center. Everybody here is going to get in. But obviously the rain has begun. Were seeing the first bands coming through. And theyre really rushing now to get these people inside before irma really strikes, anderson. Well, drew, if you have a band of the rain there, were expecting now in ft. Myers, looking at the sky here but again, good information that
arena is not that arena is not full. More people can still go there. For anybody in the ft. Myers area who still wants to try to evacuate, the buses according to the city were shut down at 3 00, the shuttles. So youll have to figure out a way to get there on your own, but there is still room in those shelters and mayor talking about opening other shelters throughout the day as needed. 211 is the number to call for information and also for help in trying to get to some of those shelters. That line has been busy throughout the day. I want to go to bill weir in key largo where its also started to rain pretty hard. Bill, how is it now . Its so interesting, anderson, like someone flipped the switch and turned on the waterworks. We were just enjoying calm skies and then boom it came on. Now its easing up a little bit. Ernest hemingway, law mar, calm
storms and who survived, what boa boats survived. About five families are actually riding out the storm in this little marina here in key largo. Not on their boats but in a Stone Building right here nearby. Theres also a shop has three storage made of stones. Were just bracing to see what comes next, anderson. Yeah. People shifting their plans all throughout the day as the winds and the path of this storm has been shifting here further west. Lets go to John Berman Whos Standing by in miami beach. John, you know, we talked about this earlier today with chris cuomo, but it can be so deceptive when if you havent been through one of these hurricanes before, and frankly no ones been through a hurricane this size, but it can be so deceptive when you look at the weather for most of the day here in ft. Myers, you know its been hot, the suns been out at times, sometimes just behind the clouds, havent really seen a lot of rain. But as we saw bill weir talking
and storm surge as well, anderson. Maybe not the 10 to 15 feet theyre fearing where you are on the west coast, which sounds terrifying, but 3 feet, maybe up to 6 feet in some areas. In particular concern you can see behind me right now theres the causeway. Theres a bridge out to miami beach. Miami beach is particularly low lying. Its one of these barrier islands, mandatory evacuations over that whole island. That has been a cause of particular concern now. The entire run up to Hurricane Irma making impact. Our kyung lah is out on miami beach, one of the few people, hopefully, still out on miami beach. Kyung, what are you seeing out there . Well, were seeing the same sort of winds out here. Sustained winds now. And were just starting to hear from the Miami Beach Fire Department that theyre responding to some calls. Calls of fallen trees, trying to get to some of that. The reason why is the winds are picking up. You can see in the trees here you can see that palm tree over
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ft. Myers, the real threat in the florida keys which is going to get hit hard and it got to cat 5 on the florida keys, that could give some structural damage to the 7mile bridge. But thats a whole set of other problems. But coming up the west coast, if it moves out into the gulf and parallels the coast, thats the worst of all possible situations because the counterclockwise rotation takes the water and runs it up the bays like Charlotte Harbor and tampa bay. And once, anderson, it gets up in the bays, theres no place for it to go. So it walls up and becomes a huge, huge storm surge. Right. At this point, i mean, theyre talking about for tampa bay estimates of 5 to 8 feet of storm surge. Of course depending on the wind you have waves on top of that. And even here at ft. Myers could
be 10 to 15 feet. I mean, senator, for people who are living in a onelevel house, i mean, a 15foot storm surge, that covers first floor of a house. Exactly. And then if the storm surge comes at high tide, you just add that much more water. I remember back in 2004 covering Hurricane Charlie and i was talking to the mayor here in ft. Myers, charlie was on the same track essentially coming up this river. It had an adjustment of about 4 degrees and hit porta gorda which wasnt initially what people expected it to do, i remember i was in tampa, florida, and ended up driving there, even now this storm could still move even slight changes in degrees make a huge, huge difference. It could, but youve got to give a shoutout to the national
weather service and Hurricane Center and noaa. All of their assets theyre much more accurate now in their predictions of the path and intensity since Hurricane Charlie. But youre right, anderson. Hurricane charlie was going up the west coast and all of a sudden it took a right hook and went right up Charlotte Harbor, ground zero was ponta gorda, and that was a big surprise. Thereve been a lot of people evacuated from tampa to come down to stay in the holiday inn and that ended up being ground zero. I got a text this morning saying where should i go, should i go back to miami beach, because now tampa seems to be possibly worse off than miami was supposed to be. Are you concerned about people getting to shelters . You know, buses here in ft. Myers were supposed to stop at 3 00. Weve seen a long line outside one shelter the arena where our correspondent has been. Seems like everybodys going to be able to get into that arena. But it seems like theres a lot of people who decided to ride out this storm and then woke up this morning and realized, wait a minute, this storm has moved west. Were now directly in its sights. Thats precisely whats happened. And youre not only getting to locations for shelters now. I saw it, i just came from tampa from hillsboro county emergency center, the traffic on interstate 4 going east is significantly picked up. So thats exactly what people are doing like your friend that you just mentioned. They had evacuated to the west coast. Now theyre moving off the west coast back to the east. Yeah. When i drove here obviously going west from miami this
morning there was virtually no traffic heading back to miami. But as you say now thats definitely changed. Senator, appreciate talking to you. Well talk to you in the days ahead. Another short break, but our coverage continues in a moment. We are not here to sit idly by. We are here. To leave a mark. Experience a shift in the natural order. Experience amazing. When does a Business Trip really start . The Global Lounge Collection from American Express offers you a place to prepare and recharge at over one thousand airport lounges worldwide. The world is yours, with platinum. Backed by the service and security of American Express. Backed by the service and security of American Express. After a hall of fame career, its no wonder why i use blueemu arthritis cream. Blueemus nongreasy, deeppenetrating formula gets down deep into those joints for big time pain relief. Blueemu, it works fast and you wont stink. At holiday inn express, we cant guarantee that youll be able to contain yourself at our breakfast bar. Morning, egg white omelet. Sup lady bacon fruit, there it is but we can guarantee that youll get the best price when you book with us. Holiday inn express. Be the readiest. Theseare heading back home. Y oil thanks to dawn, Rescue Workers only trust dawn, because its tough on grease yet gentle. I am home, i am home, i am home
theres a lot of construction here. The problem is they couldnt take these cranes down in time. They had to leave them up. And the booms, those arms, looks terrifying when they move. Theyre designed to move. They serve like a sort of weather vain. If they tied them down, it would be like a sail and blow a whole lot over. That resistance would be dangerous. So they let them twist like that. Could be a terrifying sight for people in the city of miami. Building officials here in the city sent a note out saying if you live in a building near one of these cranes, you should evacuate. There is obvious concern about that, just one of the things were watching here in miami as the wind has picked up. It is now consistently windy here. A wind of about 30 miles an hour blowing. Fairly consistently. Gusts a little more than that. Just starting to drizzle right now as these bands move through. Lets go to Allison Chinchar in the cnn Weather Center to get a sense of what we will be feeling here in the keys and maybe most importantly on the west coast of
florida and when. Allison. Thats right, john. We take a look at the current numbers that we have right now, irma is a category 3 storm and a very strong category 3 storm. Winds right now 125 Miles Per Hour, just five Miles Per Hour stronger and it would be a category 4 storm. Youre talking a difference of 5 Miles Per Hour here. So dont focus on the Category Number so much but the intensity of the winds. Movement is west at about 9 Miles Per Hour. But we have started to see at least a slight shift off to the north as well. One of the big concerns is going to be maximum wind gusts. Take a look at some of these numbers. Key west were talking around 138 Miles Per Hour. This will be at the peak as the storm is crossing over that region. Naples and ft. Myers also in that 130 to 130mileperhour range. Even tampa likely to be around 116. Now, the east coast while it may not be as strong, youre still talking pretty strong wind gusts. In fact, orlando looking at 95 Miles Per Hour for their peak wind gusts. Storm surge is also going to be
a huge threat with this particular storm. We got some updated numbers a few hours ago that really made these numbers rise. In fact, especially in the southwest portion. Say naples down towards key largo were talking 10 to 15 feet. Miami down towards key west, 5 to 10 feet. Even around the ft. Myers area youre talking 6 to 10 feet. The numbers however you have to understand what they mean, so lets take a look at this for example. Just to talk about storm surge. 10 feet is what an average first Story Building is. So if you have storm surge of 10 feet, and keep in mind some places were actually forecasting higher than 10 feet, some areas it could be as much as 15 feet, which means it would start creeping into the second story of a home or a business or Something Like that. But this is just the storm surge. Now you also have to factor in the waves. This is where True Inundation takes place. Because its not just the amount of rain or not just the amount of water pushed in from the storm surge, but those waves, the crests of those waves
can add even a couple more feet on top of that. So you talk about 5 to 6 feet, if you have a person 6 feet tall, you are now completely submerged under water and you have the waves moving everything around. This is where it gets very concerning, especially those higher amounts too. You could have cars submerged. If you take that car out onto a street as the storm surge is pushing in, you will have absolutely no control over that vehicle. Even say the car may not be fully submerged at that point. Now, when we talk about the track, this is the part that everybody is concerned about because you want to know where landfall is expected to be. However, because of the size of the storm, at this point its really just semantics. Everybody around florida is going to get some impact from this storm. Some will just get bigger impacts than others, namely the winds. Heres what we expect. We do expect it to increase back to a category 4 strength storm as it crosses over the keys and continues its way up the west coast. Right now landfall could be anywhere from say naples to ft. Myers, even up around tampa. And tampa is a huge city. A lot of people in tampa did not necessarily evacuate, especially several days ago. Thinking this was mostly going to be an east coast main landfall of a storm. But that is now starting to change. Then we see the track kind of push further into the north, states like alabama, georgia, as well as tennessee. And the other thing, john, to note is we are still talking a pretty good amount of rain. Weve talked about storm surge and wind, but dont count out the rain. We could be looking at widespread Rainfall Totals of 6 to 12 inches of rain. All right. Allison chinchar, an important forecast, point people should listen to there when youre talking about impact on the state of florida, the impact of a hurricane will be the entire state of florida. The eye may hit on the west coast, but youre going to feel the Storm Force Winds and see the storm surge in water like this all across the southern part of the state. The storm surge clearly what is worrying officials the most, you can hear it in the voice of the
governor. You can hear it in the voice of the fema director in washington. Theyre watching that very, very carefully, particularly on the west coast where they could see a storm surge from 10 to 15 feet. Lets go over to the west coast. I want to talk to ben mcmillan. Hes a storm chaser. Hes in punta gorda, florida, right now, punta gorda, by the way, has seen its share of hurricanes in the past. And, ben, yo