Page 12 - Blinding Rain News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

All right. this is cnn special coverage of hurricane irma. john berman here in miami. we're on hour 17 or so of just relentless winds and this is the fiercest they've been here by far. i'm in miami. out there, past the white fog and rain, is miami beach, which i think is getting it even worse than where i am. kyung lah is there. what are you seeing, what are you feeling? >> reporter: so i can't -- it's just getting worse and worse. we're getting much more rain now, john. you can see there's water in our lens. we've lost the ability to zoom and amy cameraman lost his ability to use the view fin...

It's not draining right now. you just had to look around me to see that. here's what happened. on top of the ocean coming ton to land, on top of the surge there silt a of debris because of the high winds we've been experiencing. you can't see it now but earlier we could see leaves on a lot of these drains. tree branches. all sorts of debris that blocks the drains and doesn't allow the system of canals to work. that's why we're seeing a lot more of this ponding, john, and then you look right now and we are getting very heavy rain. so not only seeing the surge, ponding, because drains are clogge...

So, please, listen to the authorities there. joining me now is major richard brand with the north miami beach police department, i believe. did i get that right? north miami beach, sir? >> yes. north miami beach police department. >> reporter: all right. give me a sense of what you're seeing, where you are right now, major? >> so let me tell you what's going on in north miami beach. gusts of winds up to 60 to 70 miles an hour. several homes that have been damaged as a result of the winds. we have power lines down. we had severe flooding going on in some of our neighborhoods. the intercoastal a...

Hours to assess damage. our patrol vehicles are off the road because it's too dangerous for us to go out there. >> reporter: one of the biggest concerns in miami beach and north miami beach was storm surge. predicting five to ten feet and downscaled that to four to six feet, still an awful lot for where you are right now. we are seeing storm surge here in miami proper. is that something that has affected you yet? >> it's affected us in certain areas of our city. there is pretty major flooding east of biscayne boulevard u.s.-1 from 163rd street. i have one of our all-terrain vehicles doing a su...

Local media reporting they are seeing water on hollywood boulevard already washing in to homes. >> hmm. sorry to hear that, sir. mayor, as you know, it could go on for some time. you said you've been talking to residents there. i can't imagine your first responders are out right now given the force of this wind and the rain. have you been receiving a lot of calls asking for help? >> i think everyone knows that there has been a curfew and everyone made aware once the wind hit 45 miles an hour sustained, first responders would not be able to be dispatched to any calls. so police and fire are on ...