Stay updated with breaking news from Goodland greens. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
reporter: hi, wolf, here in goodland, florida, there are about 40 people who rode out the storm here, amazingly enough. it s a community that sits on the edge of the everglades and the gulf of mexico. this is a community that took a direct impact from this storm. many people would probably suggest no one should have been here behind me. a home where gary stringer waited out the storm by himself. he thought this was all going to come crashing down on him. he described how the roof was crackling, the tree next to him was rumbling and then all of a sudden he heard the crack and this is what happened, wolf. this tree collapsed. thankfully not toward him where he was. unfortunately for this family, the tree came crashing down on their house. and the stories of survival here is just absolutely stunning as the people kind of the handful of people we ve talked to describe what it was like to wait out the storm here in ....
Fishing village called goodland just east of marco island. we were able to get on to marco island. that island has been reopened and residents that were there, 17,000 or so able to get back on. that island withstood the power and the fury of hurricane irma rather well, but it is a different story in goodland, florida, which is a small little fishing village at the very bottom of florida and the edge of the everglades and the gulf of mexico, and this is a small little village that just took a clobbering from hurricane irma. this is very typical of the scene that we have seen here on the island as we ve driven around is surprisingly, we ve also spoken with a number of people who have who rode out the storm here on marco island. we just interviewed a man by the name of dustin shepard whose home is up on 15-foot pilings, and he said it was one of the scariest experiences he d ever endured. ....
Goodland, florida. this is a small fishing village, couple hundred residents call this home. this is by far the area where we ve seen the most intense damage. this is an area where essentially the second landfall of hurricane irma was in here along marco island. we re on the eastern edge of marco island. the winds were 130 miles an hour. at some point the gusts reached up to 140 miles an hour. residents described the storm surge taking over most of this town. 7 feet of water in some places. most of the people we ve talked to that were in their homes really thought at some point their houses were going to start splintering apart in those winds. wolf? what a sat story, indeed. ed lavandeira on the scene, thank you. also tonight, irma is creating new danger and damage as it moves north into georgia, the carolinas and beyond. this as another hurricane actually looms potentially, potentially threatening the united states. let s check in with our meteorologist tom sater. tom, what s the ....
There? just a lot of debris and damage all over this place. wolf, this is the goodland neighborhood of marco island and this is a neighborhood that got much of the brunt of the storm when it hit yesterday as a category three, and some neighbors here told us that they had seven-foot storm surges down the street a little bit, and the houses here had water three to four feet and waist-high and look at the damage here. that part of the met al roof just torn off of that home there. and this is really seen all over the neighborhood. there is debris all over the place. and looking over there, and there is downed trees that are going to be taking a long time to clear out of here. and this digging out process, of course, it is just beginning, because we are less than 24 hours off of the storm, but hundreds of people live on marco island in this section of it year-round, but only 40 chose to ride it out. thankfully, no serious injuries here, and we can also talk about another place here not fa ....
He talked about seven feet of water, storm surge rising upunderneath his home. part of his roof coming off in the middle of the storm and it was at that point whether or not his home would withstand the winds that here in the marco island area the strongest gusts reached up to 140 miles an hour. so you can see the damage that we see consistently through this community, a massive tree here falling over on to this home. we ve seen a lot of this a lot of this throughout the small streets and the canals here in this area in the small fishing village of goodland, florida, john? all right. ed lavandera on the ground there in the streets where the people need the most help right now. thanks so much for that perspective, ed, and we hope that it does get there soon. thank you for your work. i want to go up the west coast of florida to bradenton, florida and diane gallagher is there to give us a look of how things are progressing. diane? we ll go live now. john, we are in bradenton in ....