Miles per hour making it a dangerous category 4 hurricane. Its located southsoutheast of naples. It passed over cudjoe key around 9 00 a. M. And it impacted a large area of the keys and middle keys and upper keys. It continues it upward approach to the naples area as well as captiva and the upper coast. Many reports of hurricaneforce gusts in brevard and lee county at this time. This will be updated at 11 00. But its essentially unchanged from the previous forecast. We are expecting the system to move up the west coast of florida with significant impact. We have hurricane warnings for essentially all of florida except the western panhandle. The timing. South florida will continue to be under the gun for the rest of today and tonight, and well see the impact spreading into the tampa area tonight and continuing up the coast into the georgia and South Carolina area. The storm surge, we are expecting values of 1015 feet from the captiva area down to cape sable. At this point these conditions will be coming on that area in the next couple of hours. The high tide is expected around noon today and with the high winds on the front of Hurricane Irma we are seeing values up to 3 to 4 feet, and that may continue. So the east coast of florida is a storm surge threat and further up the coast as the storm progresses north. Irma is a significant hurricane. Rainfall as well as tornado threat. We have a tornado watch for orlando southward. Shep i want to show you the area we are talking about. This change in direction. The storm is moving westnorthwest for a long time. Now it meade that promise turn to the north. One they thought would happen 12 hours ago. It didnt, now it has. The storm is northeast of key west. So here is the situation. If the storm is here and its headed due forth. That brings it right over marco island. Here is where we are. This is marco island. Everglades city, which is evacuated im told. Then the city of naples and golden gate. If the storm continues on its path it will make landfall at march code island and continue up, naples, cape coral, fort myers. It would be potentially devastating. A lot of highrise buildings. You will be able to see the bays. This is and bel sanibel island,a island. Cape coral and fort myers. Thats the area its now head. Could it wobble and change to another area . It could. This is a cape coral, naples, fort myers storm. Reporter the first hurricaneforce winds measured here was 12 1 2 hours ago. So its been nonstop battering. Its a cool phenomenon the way Mother Nature works. Its blowing counter clockwise, sucks the water out of the bayside of key largo. That what per will eventually come back when the water starts coming from the other direction. We could get a pretty good storm surge on the bayside of key largo. Hurricane irvin was a category 4. It hit pensacola as a 3. We were in the eye of that one. This has as much power or more and we are not in the eye. Well be 25 miles or 30 miles to the east. Thats what will hit so much of the west coast of florida. If you are watching on the west coast of florida it temperatures coming slope and its relentless. Shep adam housley live for us in key largo. We have an opportunity to go to elaine duke. Big picture, how are we . Good morning. We are as expected, a slight move to the west. The storm path has not changed anything we predicted. The storm has hit as a shirk category 4. The winds and storm surge are starting as predicted. Shep this is beginning to look like from the latest update like a marco island call your county naples event with what appears to be unless it makes a turn, direct hit, and heavily tropical hated. Is fema ready in that region . Governor scott is leading the response for fema. And we are providing any requests they make. Shep the is it the expectation that this will weaken . We expect this to be a strong storm through the entire peninsula. So unless it takes a different path we expect throughout the movement of the peninsula for it to continue to be a very, very strong storm. Surge from the ocean and high, extensive winds. Shep ways your advice for what is your advice for people who remained in collier and she counties on the west coast . You have to follow the directions of the local officials. In certain counties there is the ability to evacuate still. If its too late listen to your local officials and shelter in place. Response will not be immediate. A person should not expect an Immediate Response if they have chosen to stay back contrary to an evacuation order. Shep elaine duke, the acting director of fema. I want to show you the Bigger Picture what this means. The original track of this storm was taking it along the coast. This storms eye stayed over the coast. Often the warm watters of the gulf of mexico. It will continue to regenerate itself. If in fact it does what they now believe its about to do, that is go ashore farther south in the marco island, naples area. If it comes ashore here, once it hits the land it immediately starts to weaken. As it moves north from collier county, lee county and up to charlotte county. It will lose steam. Not to say it will fall apart. But it will continuously become weaker because it will need the fuel it gets from the gulf of mexico. It will be a horrible set of circumstances for people in naples, cape coral and fort myers. If you are looking for good news there is that. I want to show you a waterspout. What was the location . Fort lauderdale. A waterspout. We are playing this out on the deck here. These have been dropping out of the sky quite often. Its not that uncommon to see in south florida on a normal day. But when you watch them in the middle of the storm, its quite something to see. They dont do any damage. They are funnel clouds until they touch the ground and then they are tornadoes. We have had reports of tornadoes touching down, but no reports of any damage. John there was one item you wanted me to show. The crane collapse. We have video of a crane collapse not far from the federal prison there. Here are pictures we have gotten in from south florida from that. We know people who live in that area have been told to move to the center of buildings. The chief meteorologist in south florida was talking about Power Outages. More than 1. 2 Million People out including the entire keys chain. There is no power that comes from Power Companies in all of south florida. There are your outages. More than half of miami date county. The number in Broward County has gone up significantly. Palm beach county, 177,000 people without power there. The storm is headed due north now. Maximum sustained winds 130 Miles Per Hour. Its moving due north at 9 miles an hour. So its varied in forward speed from 6 Miles Per Hour to 8, 9 Miles Per Hour. As it continues north it will run likely right into marco island and at naples area where it will continue that forward speed at 9 miles an hour. They can have hurricaneforce winds in southwest florida for as much as 12 hours. A sore back. But hes got work to do. So he took aleve this morning. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Tylenol cant do that. Aleve. All day strong. All day long. Check this sundays newspaper and save over 20 on products from aleve. Shep this just south of downtown miami right along the water. We are looking at the storm surge. This is going to last for quite a while. This is the body of water being pushed in from the atlantic by strong winds. The high tides. Miami beach 12 26. 1 28 in key west. Shep Rick Reichmuth is live on the big wall. Rick the pressure has come up a little bit. Fit kept that northward movement it would put it in toward the everglades. But as you look at the wobbles and the official forecast it will keep it toward that west northwest motion. You can see the center due south of naples and moving toward that direction. The water vapor is interesting. Because you see that orange in the map, thats that area of low pressure. Also well see drier air in the last few images you can see. This maybe will get wrapped up in that a little bit. Thats the shear that will break this storm down a little bit. Storm surge is our big concern. The water levels off naples are 6 feet below where they would normally be because we have offshore winds pushing the water away. But its later on when the water moves into naples after the storm passes and thats when we expect to see the waters rise 1015 for potential storm surge. Shep the water has been pushed out of its banks in downtown miami. Tell me about the intensity. It look like the water is just rushing in. Its almost like a big current right there. It is. The wind picks up when you are in between the buildings. There is white caps out here. It looks like the ocean on prickle. On on brickle. Between here and the way its under water. These roads are totally subject merged. We are not talking angle deep. If we went out in the middle of this its waist deep. This is empressive indeed. We are glad people got out of harms way. This is going to stick around at least for. The hour or so, if i can take a look at the time. Its 11 19. The high tides will continue to stay with us. The latest one we have is 1 28 across cudjoe bay. The wind gusts are 4560 Miles Per Hour. Im sure that will continue to push the water far far inland. Can you see how far it goes . Reporter it goes for as far as i can see. When i was look down that block, its 12th street. It looks like the water was this high two blocks away. This is not just an isolated area on this block. This entire area is under water right now. Reporter this is the storm surge coming in that we have been talking about. Where are you, what are the buildings around you, where is all this water coming from . Reporter we are at brickle and southeast terrace. This is the main section where the steakhouse is, the cvs on the corner and the marriott. This area is higher than waist deep in the middle of the intersection. I you can tell me, this cant be rain water. I dont think it rained this much for this much water to flow in this quickly. It wasnt like this hours ago. Now all of a sudden you have got brickle under water. Reporter there is a fire hydrant across from you. 10 minutes ago i was looking at the fire hydrant. The water was halfway to the fire hydrant. It looks like its halfway. Thats good news. Maybe it water wont go any higher. I will use that as my reference. But that looks deep. Thats at least a good foot, foot and a half. And you are mentioning its deeper. We have the Weather Channel suburban. I hope they know what they are getting into. We saw the other vehicle get through. It gets really deep ahead. I guess they know what they are doing. But i dont think they should be driving through here. I he doesnt even see me. Hes buy himself on his phone and hes driving through this. This is what not to do. To see the Weather Channel doing this kind of stuff is surprising. If he gets stuck right there it will be hard to get him out. I wish i could have a meter to measure the power of that current getting pushed along by the strong gusty winds. The winds are intense. The winds seem Even Stronger in this area because you have the buildings that create the wind tunnels. When we got here, the other issue is you have construction sites and debris falling from the construction sites. We are being careful because i dont want to go out in the water with luis with the camera. There are a lot of hazards in this area. The water is murky. This is not an area you want to be exploring right now. Reporter one of the things you were mentioning about the water being murky, there is debris and things that are sharp and dangerous. And its going to stick around for a while. Let me review the tides again. Lauderdalebythesea. 11 39. Miami beach, 12 26. As the storm surge continues to come in, we are look at these high tides that will make the warm of water continue to rise. We were talking about it since yesterday. This wasnt going to be an incredible thing moving in like a freight train. Its going to slowly build up since last night, and this is where we stand across the brickle area. Im keeping my eyes on that fire hydrant to see if it goes up any further. If i could guess i am sure the water is moving at 35 miles an hour. A mere 6 inches of water can lift an automobile and float it away. Those folks driving their vehicles through there were taking their lives in their hands. It looks like you are in a safer place right now, brian . Reporter i am going to check to make sure there is no water creeping up towards our car about a block away. We are in a safe place. Some of these Office Buildings have really highlanding. We are dry high landings. The roads, totally impassable. Shep thats brickle south of downtown miami. Over at the bay, phil keating is there. Its kicking up, right . Reporter the watters are without a doubt rising. Branches broken, palm fronds broken all over the place. A tree fell over. I want to show you the water situation in the marina. When we got here this morning there were 18 inches and 2 feet of water level down below this. Now its all at way up to the sidewalk. This has risen at least 18 inches, 2 feet. High tide will be at 12 30 in about an hour. Everything will be compound once that happens. It looks like at this rate thats easily going to happen. The winds and rain are still coming in from the northeast. Meaning we are getting the Northeast Quadrant of the storm. We are not getting the southern half of the rain bands. As that happens the winds will shift and change bringing in more storm surge in from the bay. Power is out for half the county. 3 million so far is the latest estimate. And its likely to rise as the storm system swaddles the entire state. The west coast really getting pummeled in the next couple of hours. The east coast, the residents yesterday when they saw the track of the storm shift over towards the west coast, they thought wow we are going to get some wind or rain. This has been going on for 15 hours and there is still 1215 hours to go. This is miserable weather. The curfew has been in effect all night long. Its in effect now. There is no desire to get outside. The Pelican Marina is starting to puddle up. We wonder if well have to drive over to the mainland before our next live shot. Shep lets go back to brickle . Downtown miami which is just down the street. Its main highway to the mercy hospital. I understand they have to leave the power grid on. We have had electricity and wifi. I have been pretty comfortable. Lets talk about the water. I know it will be intense. But it was crazy. I hope everyone is safe out there and careful. My car is parked on the tenth floor. The only thing is the wind is very intense. But thank god im okay, i hope other people are fortunate. Reporter sir, can we talk to you. Do you live here . Yes. In brickle. Reporter what do you make of this situation . Its a lot of water. Its a new experience for me. I have been here for 10 years. Its crazy. Reporter i have never seen it this high. I have been here for 10 years and this is a first. Reporter you decided to ride the storm out in a condo . I did. I thought it was better than dealing with crowds in the airport man the street. The power is still on. A minor adventure. If it had couple the east coast i probably would have gotten out of here. But you guys did a good job letting us know what was going to happen. Reporter i dont think we expected this kind of flooding. Its waist deep in the intersection. I didnt expect brickle avenue to be waist deep in water. The traffic is backed up. Reporter did you notice it rising . Tell me the timeline. When did you notice it rising and tell me how long it took. I looked out the window 45 minute to an hour. You could see a little bit coming down in the garage. I walked down here and took a look. It wasnt at that stair, it was lower. The stop sign, the telephone booth, i see it coming up. Reporter all of this happened in the last 45 minute . I came down here a halfhour ago and i would say it raised inches. Im renting out with a buddy who lives here. Shep adam housley in key largo. Reporter we are getting gusts in excess of 120 miles an hour. The wind is blowing sideways blowing this direction from my right to my left. The swirl will come from another direction. The hurricane, wore starting to get a stronger situation of wind and rain. Its hard to explain. Its been going on for so long. We heard crackling a moment ago. We are protected right here. I look over to my right. I see a part of a roof. To my left as i look out on key largo. I see stuff blowing in all directions. They can still get swirling depending on where the buildings are. The rain is coming down heavy, shepard. You can see the water coming from the other side. We know there is storm surge coming from the ocean side. In the last few minutes it picked up, shepard. Reporter it just continues to blow and has not let up. Then we are going to get from the other direction. I dont know how much they can take, shepard. Shep we just got word storm surge is a significant threat for the keys still as the west wind continue. The store surge could increase to 510 feet above ground level. Look at North Bay Village. Lets listen live. This is the center of biscayne bay. Its unbelievable. In the matter of a halfhour the water made it over the storm wall, three feet, and we are starting to see flooding in our own parking lot. Our studio is surrounded by water. And we can hear the wind howling. So i thought at one point we were in the worst of it. Store surge a big issue, now we are seeing what that looks like. And why our meteorologists, our local officials have warned us about how dangerous this is. We learned that high tide at this point is at 11 00. We are at high tide. These wind gusts are stronger than i have ever felt, practically knock us over before you threw over to us live. This massive gusts comes through. Take a look at that. Its unbelievable. Reporter i know yesterday you and i were talking about the storm and what your plans were. On a personal level. I want you to share with viewers what you thought about leading into this storm and what its like for you. This is the first hurricane you have covered. What are your impressions now that you are in the thick of it outside North Bay Village. I was really concerned. I am from emergency and never experienced a hurricane before. Hearing about how strong and massive irma is and what we believe she would be as she makes landfall. It became a reality its very serious. Eve