Weather center, 120 miles an hour, nothing to mess with. No, when katrina made landfall 12 years ago, that was also a category 3, people are saying, oh, its weakening, it cant bring much of a punch, it certainly can. This is going to be a storm surge issue. Certainly the winds at 120 per hour is going to be very hard on a lot of structures but the storm surge is water that comes from the ocean and piles up along the very vulnerable areas across the west coast. Now i just want to move in with radar, shepard, i know that you have been talking about marco island. Thats the strongest of the core of the strongest winds at 120 mierp 120milesperhour sustained. Everglades seeing the worst of the weather. Sustained winds. The worst of onshore flow and potential for tornadoes in Northeast Quadrant of the storm, that will remain a concern not only right now but throughout the overnight hours and into tomorrow, so we have tornado watches in effect and right now tornadowarned storms. I know that you have been concentrating on warnings throughout the show, melbourne, port pierce, they can cause structural damage. If we are telling you to go to the highest portion of your home and theres a tornado, we typically tell you to go to lowest portion of the home. This is a very dangerous situation no matter how you slice it. We have several Tornado Warnings. Six of them in an around the florida area including some of the highlyPopulated Areas. Tornado threat will continue not only tonight but into tomorrow for much of the Florida State and we are still watching the potential for this storm to continue to move northward, there could be a potential for multiple landfalls, thats the lowest Pressure Point if the center comes on shore. We already saw that in the keys earlier this morning. We potentially could see another landfall in the next couple of hours depending if the center, the lowest point comes on shore, theres marco island, theres naples and again theyre feeling Hurricane Force winds. This is a storm surge story. I know the winds are a big threat, the tornadoes will remain a big threat but the storm surge on particularly vulnerable coastline on west coast will be inundation of the homes and thats why we have been told to evacuate. Storm surge in and around tampa area, naples, port myers and storm surge potentials all the way towards southeast coastline. We are watching tampa tonight. The high tide is at 7 00 oclock. Offshore flow right now. We will start to see onshore. However, shepard, could potentially be catastrophic for them. Shepard this is the eye of Hurricane Irma. The outer bands have crossed it and just right there theres a little bit of a peek of daylight. Live pictures from miami beach. That tells the story, bigger picture, concern here, the concern for all of this region is the storm surge is that its deadly in the end. Thats a heoring experience. What happens when the eye is moving over land . Partially over land, we presume it will become over land and what happens then, the storm will begin to weaken almost immediately but the storm surge does not go away, theyll will meeting the full brunt of it in naples. Steve harrigan is there on the front end and i saw a huge band going through there, steve. We are seeing more debris come down too. The buildings are starting to break up as well as larger branches. The roads are getting littered as warnings pour in from every side, warnings about extreme wind in excess of 115 miles an hour. Warnings about lifethreatening storm surge, the storm surge that could be 10 to 15 feet and could come up on people suddenly. Im here in naples with photographer eric barnes, producer ivana moore and jason, its been interesting to see what the next hour brings here. This town has done Everything Possible to get ready. Sheriffs were going door to door. They opened shelters when shelters became full. They tried to get everyone out of here and for the most part they tried to get everyone out. We have seen remarkable pictures in the last hour of waters rushing into the rivers, that water is going to be coming back soon once the eye passes, the next 90 minutes could be tough, shepard. Shepard thanks so much. Carla is riding out the storm with her family right there in naples, carla, how are you . Im good, shep. How are you . Shepard where are you in naples . Well, we are in north naples and we are located in a community that is actually on a manmade lake but we are about 8 miles from the shore, from the gulf. Shepard youre well inland. Yes, well, we are not in the storm i wouldnt say well inland but we are certainly out of the storm surge area. So weve prepared as best as we could. Naples is a very communityminded city. Shepard absolutely. Neighbors helped neighbors put up shutters. Taken in our out door furniture. Shepard you were not in a mandatory evacuation zone, right . No. We were not in a mandatory evacuation zone but we are worried about our friends who were and they had to they had to leave. It was lastminute preparations, so, you know, a lot of people just helped each other, tried to get out and sort of luckily are, children left to the west coast and they went up north, ive had some friends who left town days ago and i work on i work very close i work for a Company Whose office is very close to the shoreline. Shepard carla bogart riding it out. All the best to you and yours. I want to show you the storm making its way the center of the eye making its way into marco island. Here is naples, port myers, punta gorda, call Collier County florida. The circulation within the walls, now we are going to make this a little bit bigger for you so you can see the southern tip of marco island. The worst of the bands right over it. Marsh lands down to south and east, Everglades City inland. If this continues north, the storm is heading due north, the eye walls will hit naples and then naples will be in the eye of the storm sometime in the next couple of hours, like i said, as the crowe flies, probably 35 miles. As the crowe flies, 30, 35 miles. If the crowe flies, id say 35 miles, at 12 miles an hour thats about 3 hours. If its hitting marco 2 or 3 hours from now, it will hit naples, south naples and north naples, its on the way. The worst of the storm band is coming into naples probably in the next 15 or 20 minutes and thats a really impressive eye. Think how far we are zoomed in here and to think that that whole eye. We are stealing the radar from station in tampa, the entire eye will go into naples. No one should do the following thing, no one in naples should walk outside and see a completely calm afternoon sometime around 4 00, 4 30 afternoon because the other side of the wall is coming and its very dangerous to go out in the middle of the eye of the storm. Its tempting but its extremely dangerous. A few news items to update you on. The second construction crane collapsed now confirmed by the Associated Press in the miami area, two tornado the one we mentioned earlier that was on the ground in brevard county. It hit a mobile Home Community, Palm Bay Police say at least 6 homes in the mobile Home Community have been damaged, no reports of any injuries there and Hurricane Centers with water levels are beginning to rise now in naples and they think the rise will continue. Griff jenkins is live in naples now. Griff, it looks like a mess out there. It is, shep, this is just the kind of conditions that you are talking about and why you dont go outside. You can see look at this tree, snapping on, the wind im not at what level we are but gusts at 75 miles an hour and janice dean talking about the storm surge being problem but the immediate threat to anyone that should possibly consider leaving their house which is the worst idea is that the trees have literally snapped in the last hour or 90 minutes. Not sure you can see, theres a stop sign here teetering, youre seeing on the streets, its beginning to flood a little bit. And we have lakes near us that are starting to gather, lagoons, right now the problem with this storm is the wind. The storm surge is coming and its coming very quickly along the water which is 3. 1 miles east of us, but where we are inland, we are showing you the damage, the terracotta flying off roofs and trees and branches flying. Its actually difficult to walk in this kind of wind with the gust as theyve got leading right now it looks like debris but they are very, very sharp, very, very heavy. We are trying not to flattened our tires but we are trying to have everyone have a look as far as the eye can possibly see, shep. Trees snapping, debris flying everywhere like a hailstorm of palm trees. Hep shep and its going to get worst before it gets better. Once the storm has been blowing in one direction, the winds have for so long, the winds shift and so often tree that is were blown in one direction end up blowing over back in the other and thats whats happening there. Just in from the National Weather center, breaking from the the National Weather service, you can kill the audio from espn, 130 Miles Per Hour. The eye wall was coming right over marco island. Official from the National Weather service, 130milesperhour wind gust 130 would be category 4 level winds hitting marco island in the last two minutes. Lets listen. Very busy but i dont say a you can imagine, it is just dead. Theres a lot of destruction in this area happening as the mall here has really turned into essentially a wind tunnel as the winds have come through. Take a look over here. The hard rock coffee out there. Cafe. Maybe you can see some of the palm trees out there ongoing as well. The water here where all the boats are docked, not so bad. We should have video to show you because we are feet away from biscayne bay right now and the storm surge is large, it is actually not safe for anyone specially us to be standing right there [inaudible] shepard we are losing the audio there a little bit. Lets go to phil keaton live on 79th street in miami, phil, still raining. Oh, my gosh, the rain has picked up again and the winds howling, blowing debris at me and past me at the street. Its too much rain for it to drain after storm surge and high tides flooding roadway connecting you mainland, over to the beach barriers island. Curfew has been announced for tonight within the past hours because the roads are too dangerous, so impassable, so many streets have flood waters in them and so many county wide have traffic lights that are not working, not operable. Power is out for three quarters of all residents of Miamidade County at 750,000 the count according to fpl and that accounts for at least 1. 4 Million People and they think its going to be 3 million after the storm is said and done. Itll be a while before you get power back. Not having airconditioning in the days after the hurricane can make recovery and life just extremely that much more miserable and challenging, but its been 26 hours now of the onslaught of rain and wind for the east coast, southeast coast of florida, palm breach, broward, Miamidade County, remember, a lot of these people thought this was going to be happening with the eye of the hurricane coming straight up miami to Fort Lauderdale and the storm shifted over to going the same route south to north up the west coast of florida. That gave a lot of people, many people the idea that it was going to be nice and easy here today not the case at all. This is Tropical Storm force, borderline category 1 force winds and rain so its causing a lot of damage, a lot of chaos and a lot of danger for people. The car way out to the distance. Thats one car we know. Im gletting blown around getting blown around perhaps more extensively than the day and a half. This is supposedly the tailend of the infliction of irmas raft on southeast florida. So we will remain we will stand in it, shep, but it is shepard thats just north and east, pretty far northeast actually. Right on the coast of the big lake. Tornado on the ground, Tornado Warnings till 3 45, Flash Flood Warnings for all of southwest florida specifically golden gate, naples, marco island and the Flash Flood Warning for this whole area, the whole area of southwest florida coast, thats until 6 00 oclock eastern time, 6 00 oclock local time this afternoon. We just got a Tornado Warning where phil keaton is. Phil keaton needs to go inside because theres been Tornado Warning issued. The video box on the side of the screen until a split second ago, the video box was of the area where the this is our local weather guy here talking about specifics of tampa, we have been stealing their local they are radar thats ground base there to which we use our afill affiliates for access. We thank our friends, sky tower hurricane watch weather here. Its right over marco island now and because of that theyre about to be in the eye there in marco island. Inside the eye of Hurricane Irma in just a matter of minutes and then by tonight at 8 00 oclock, this thing ought to be slightly north of fort myers, by tomorrow morning it should be north of tampa, by tomorrow evening it should be on the floridageorgia line and then continue up through the state of alabama and eventually be in the memphis area by tuesday flight. Matt finn in florida which is north of north of marco and north of fort myers, north of naples and an area that we are worried about flooding later on. How are things . Shepard, one of the biggest concerns will be the storm surge in this area. The fire chief warning anywhere from 15 feet. Fivelane road that would probably be busy on summer weekend, it is absolute ghost town right now. No humans in sight. The fire chief saying that unfortunately fortunately evacuation was so smoothly. If you happen to be here, its too late. Right now, we are probably getting there, shepard, back to you. Shepard update for some of the viewers, the airport, all of the major south airports are currently closed. Miami international airport, closed, just as of the last few minutes, southwest Florida International airport, used to be southwest regional closed down until midweek at the earliest and executive airports are closed as well. You cannot get into south by air. Do not go outside after the eye wall passes. Marco island right now is in the eye of the storm. If youre there, we do not want you to leave your house to go take pictures. We want you to remain safe. That said, there will be pictures and show up in news feed and youll see what its like in the eye of the storm. Rare thing so often when they do cross over, people who have evacuated the area. In just a matter of minutes if not this minute, marco island is in the eye of the storm. Thats a live look at naples, the storm is headed directly in that to that vicinity. Whether it will hit exactly over naples or just a little bit more inland, we dont yet know. If it continues northbound, if youre from the region, you know where marco island is, if it does head north part of naples will be in the eye, eye wall which would be extremely, extremely dangerous. Now, the storm has not officially made landfall because landfall is declared when the area of lowest pressure within that eye, the lowest pressure of that storm comes across the land mass, this morning that happened, a few minutes after 9 00 oclock in cudjoe keys, in lower keys in north and east of key west but lower keys we now e reports of 15foot storm surge there. The next landfall will be coming startly. Truth be told, its made landfall and the eye of the storm is there but when the lowest pressure rating, reading makes its way inland at marco island or nearby, we will have a second landfall in marco island and could be many more to come. At some time the storm will pass right through naples and i believe in the next couple of hours, Steve Harrigan is there and watching and waiting. Shepard, this is probably the approach of the eye wall, the worst its been, sustained winds of more than 80 Miles Per Hour here and just to think about what the First Responders are up against, they had to evacuate several fire houses here and we have seen the force river here off to my side actually have water sucked down into the gulf and thats all starting to come back down, there are multiple warnings for the naples area right now. Warnings from extreme winds in excess of 115 Miles Per Hour. We have seen gusts from that but havent felt it consistently. Everyones phone is beeping for Flash Flood Warnings in naples. Theres a real fear of storm surge, 10 to 15 feet and fear too that that surge could be people here including First Responders on the alert about multiple warnings as the outer edge gets closer to us, shepard. Shepard whats happening now is you have the wall of the eye and then right after that is really tight and heavy band that proceeds it. I think the eye wall is right now about 20, 20 to 25 miles away from you. Thats probably about an hour, a little more than an hour, because the storm has sped up. As far as the debris its gotten more significant. The roads are becoming littered with branches and pieces of roofs are beginning to fly off as well. We are not seeing the sign here but Civil Emergency in effect. People are being told to stay in their house and not get on the roads. At least its daytime so its not as scary as some of these things at night when you cant see whats around you. Shepard i was thinking exactly that. Theres nothing more terrifying than its the middle of the night, the lights dont work, you hear noises your house has never made, theres a palm steve, it looks like its getting dangerous out there. No, i think we are in a pretty good spot, shepard. I think we have a pretty experienced t