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Which covers most of the keys there says that they cannot stay there on the southern end of the keys. the southwest portion of that county. they ll be heading north to key largo, so that they ll be able to keep a better eye on the storm. now, let s talk about the path and some really bad news for one city on the west coast of florida. we have on the phone with us, mayor of fort myers, randall henderson jr. mr. mayor, good morning to you. when we went to bed, all of us last night, this was a category 5 storm. it had crept a bit west, but now you are in the center of this cone. what are your thoughts and preps as irma approaches florida? our primary focus right at the moment the preservation of life. this is a worst case scenario for our city. and our region. we re taking it very seriously. we are prepared for it. we have opened up additional shelters for those who need to continue to evacuate. there s still time to do that. ....
Closer and closer to us here. there was a significant weather advisory for central miami-dade county. the winds picking up tropical force winds officially. that means any trees with coconuts, flying debris, life-threatening conditions as some of that debris makes its way down to ocean drive, for instance. fortunately, everyone s heeded the warning to evacuate. really, there is just no one out right now with the exception of my team and i. victor. all right, derek van dam for us in south beach in miami, derek, thank you so much. stand by. we ll get back to you later this morning. i want to go to the mayor of naples on the west coast bill barnett. mr. mayor, thanks for making time for us. increasingly, with the advisories we ve seen from the national hurricane center, about the path of the storm had crept west. now putting your city and your ....
Evacuation orders. and evacuation zones that we ve seen that are really just emptying across the state. florida governor rick scott has told people to leave now. head to those shelters. we are expecting the governor to hold a news conference on hurricane irma at the top of the hour. so about 15 or 20 minutes away. of course, we will bring that to you live. irma is now a category 4 storm headed to florida. the storm surge, one of the greater threats of this storm. heavy rains coming, the winds as you know, a little more than an hour, more shelters open in fort myers, in the west coast of florida who want to escape the path of the storm. some of them people slept in their cars overnight, hoping to get a spot in one of those shelters. cnn s drew griffin in fort myers. drew, good morning to you, for days now the entire peninsula ....
Naples, fort myers, sarasota, same story. even into key west. all the way from key west to tampa, could be still a hurricane cat 1 or cat 2. all the way up into northern or central florida. winds in atlanta probably 60 or 70. crazy storm. back to you, guys. all right, chad myers for us in the cnn severe weather center. we just got an update. governor rick scott will be holding an update, a press conference at the top of the hour, on the latest on preparations for this monster storm, hurricane irma. of course, we will bring that to you in just about 20 to 25 minutes. again, governor rick scott updating the state of florida on preparations for this major storm that will make landfall sometime in the early hours of sunday. after the break, we ll talk with the mayor of south miami about what s being done to protect the power plants there. a quick break. special live coverage of hurricane irma continues. what started as a passion ....
I got the pick of the litter here. no one to talk to. everyone has heeded the warnings to evacuate. the national weather service just tweeted from the miami bureau the international airport had an official wind gust of 58 miles per hour. where i m standing we re averaging 35 to 45 miles per hour. it s picking up sand and pelting us in the face. it s also getting a bit tricky to stand because the wind can be so gusty at times. and really take your body along with it. i want to show you just quickly, because i want our camera from the storm that continues to come in. but look to the shore here, you can see that this water is really starting to pick up. waves earlier, one to three feet, i would say anywhere from three to upwards of five feet. and the search is definitely starting to press in. so, i would say the national hurricane center, there s inundation forecasts of five to ten feet, spots on. bus we are getting that push of atlantic water, starting to move in as the eye wall approach ....