Think of the sports teams headquartered in tampa. Irma is now a category 2 hurricane. It is no longer a category 3. This does not affect storm surge at all which we expect to be the worst part of the storm. 5 00 here in the east coast. 5 01 p. M. , in fact. Perhaps you heard there the news from the National Hurricane center through bill carons our meteorologist as weve been watching mike bettis from the Weather Channel. The good news and it is nothing, but good news for those in the north as this formidable, sprawling storm makes its way there is that we are no longer talking about a category 3. Irma is a 2. So it looks like bill caron, our biggest weather gust in the last hour will turn out to be 147 miles an hour. Yeah. 142 was the one from naples there and that was the highest that i saw. Im just trying to get the new stuff from the 5 00 update. It is now moving to the north at 14 Miles Per Hour. We were at 12 and now to 14. Why thz more thhas it more t its speed . Its hitting the t
12 00 out west and good afternoon, everybody. Im Thomas Roberts and we continue our live coverage of irma and just hours away, the full impact on the u. S. Mainland. Really bad. So weve got wind, weve got rain. Its already moving in. The outer bands of this storm system, and in a few hours, its going to be a lot worse. Weve got irma listed as a category 3 hurricane right now. That means it packs winds of 125 Miles Per Hour. It weakened after slamming into cuba earlier, but this catastrophic storm is expected to refuel because once it goes off the side of cuba and back over warm waters of south florida, it could return to strength of a cat 4 or even a category 5 storm. Reporter as you can hear, the wind is really picking up here in fort lauderdale. Storm surge will be the most serious part of this storm. Its the most deadly potential part of the storm. Protectings li life is our absolute top priority. There will be no resource, no expense spared to protect lives. Its not just the trees