evacuation zone, and more evacuations are expected to start later today to our north in miami-dade county, a heavily populated area, they're already saying to expect some evacuations to start as early as today. if you do live in one of those areas, authorities are saying you need to get out now. governor rick scott expected to hold a press conference isn't just a few minutes. he's already saying this storm could be bigger than andrew, certainly something that gets people's attention here. again, in florida keys where evacuations are starting to get under way. >> rick scott saying it could be worse than we just saw. extraordinary. thank you, and stay safe. as he just mentioned, rick scott will be giving a press conference just a few minutes from now. he already made a statement and let's share a bit of that. >> this is a massive storm. water could cover your house. so i want everybody to understand the importance of this. this is bigger than andrew. andrew, we just had the 25th anniversary. this is bigger than andrew. it will have more storm surge than andrew. it sure looks like it's going to

standing, ten feet of water, another five to six feet with dre from miami to fort lauderdale and all the way through the keys. we till get five to taken feet and we've been doing this for the laos couple of dawes commonwealth are can the jefr glades covers this section here. if the american model happens, that's a more damages path right through southeast florida, mika. there are still some questions to be answered. we're about 48 hours away from the landfall. >> also, a massive earthquake off the coast of mexico. >> what else, right? >> i know. >> this was just off the south shore of mexico. it was relatively shallow. there were tsunami warnings up overnight. the highest i heard of was about a three-foot tsunami. 8.1 are very rare. usually on this planet we only get about one per year. anything near the epicenter they consider it violent to severe shaking and all the structures and pictures you see here, when we get to daylight, i think these pictures will get about a hundred times worse. >> bill karins, thank you. with us on morning joe, we are mark halperin, john heilemann and in wash

ports while they're open. i have offered school buses for transportation needs in monroe, miami-dade and broward counties. at this time, miami-dade is using these services to help evacuate those with special needs and broward's buses on stand by. monroe said they do not need the buses now because they're using city buses but my offer still stands. there is mandatory evacuation orders in effect for the florida keys. this means all residents, all residents and all visitors in the florida keys. there is a mandatory evacuation. we estimate 31,000 people have already evacuated from the keys as of 6:00 p.m. last night. if you're in the keys, and you do not have a way out, please call 1-305-517-2480. this number is for monroe county residents. 305-517-2480. all other floridians can call the florida emergency hot line at 1-800-342-3557, a dedicated emergency management hot line for the entire state. if you're in the keys, and still home, leave, get out. we can't save you once the storm starts. the entire lower keys hospital has been evacuated. all other hospitals in the keys will be evacuate

about a minute but tell us what is going on at the airport in miami. >> i have been here since 4:00 in the morning and the scene here has not changed. if anything it has gotten worse. i want our camera man to show you what people are facing. a sea of people as they try to leave south florida to he'd the warnings to get out quickly. it's not easy to do. there is a shortage of gas and 40% of the gas stations in miami and when they try to leave by air, they're facing canceled flights, airlines not bringing their crews here as often as they should be, and people here just trying to get out of the path of this monster storm. the airport is closing in on them quite literally. >> let me go back to sam champion. how confident are the folks at noah about this storm path. we saw there was so many different abopossibilities here. >> it has been in the last 24 hours that they feel really confident. the three-day forecast has been on track. it has been four or five days out that has been the biggest question. that is where you see them spread out widely and it was going east of florida or to the gu

miami, fort lauderdale and west palm beach and category 2 or 3 into south carolina line a. category 4s are 250 times worse. we still have the european mod es. we still have about 60 hours it will be on her. >> now to politics. seven months in highs presidency, donald trump has reloud the art of the deal, it, agreed to a plan bringing hurricane harvey relief, a three-month period of relief and it gives democrats leverage, force it would go unpopular debt ceiling's votes instead of just one. the democrats put out a news release call for for a three-month funding bishl which got an icy reception from paul ryan. >> reporter: seem like they're trying to ek tract something of the d.r.e.a.mers. >> i think that's a ridiculous idea. let hope they don't mean this. weep have all this devastation in texas and they want to play politics with the debt ceiling. i think it's relouse and diplomacy a. republicans argued first for an 18 debt limit hike. then they offered section months, which the pans, are multiple sources had mitch mcconnell insisted, they would have added a three-month federal agent. i

miami and a group that's been going door to door to get people to their much-needed shelters. >>> 12:20 on the east coast. i'm joined by mya rodriguez who is in miami. what you seeing? >> reporter: we've had such strong wind out here at this point. we started at about noon today. the conditions have deteriorated consistently throughout the day. we are experiencing pretty strong wind gusts right now. we have also had rain bands moving through. the outer rain bands started moving in at 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, and we are getting rain pretty much in sheets at this point. we are seeing a lot of electrical outages. and with are about 12 stories up in the hotel we're in right now. you can look out over miami. it is lit right now. but in other sections of the city you can see the blue and green flashes and then you'll see certain sections of the city kind of go dark. on a normal day from here you would be able to see the miami skyline. you can just not key it at all. that rain is so intense. i just heard an explosion there. sounds like another transformer blew out nearby. normally you can see the

issue facing this area this morning. we had 64,000 -- 74,000, check that, in brow wards and in miami-dade 164,000 outages. we're talking a quarter million outages in the miami area. power outages were the biggest problem and now we're getting the really strong gusts of rain and wind. >> well, obviously the situation there looks terrible. give us a sense of what the progression has been. because i know you've been there for a while. >> well, we have been getting these bands. we have been getting gusts tt were pretty strong. itould be very intermittent. we could go 10, 15 minutes without it really dousing us. just in the last 10 or 15 minutes, everything, we've became more wet than we've ever been before out here. you can lose your balance from it. the visibility is almost nothing. you've seen sheets of rain going all sorts of directions. again, we're 200 miles north of where steve was saying it is intensifying out there in key west. that should give you a good idea of the strength and the scope of this thing. >> you be careful out there, phillip. thank you so much for that. where the

orsaid they are cooperating fully with authorities. joining us live from miami, florida, mia rodriguez. you've been on the ground tore sometime. how are the recovery efforts faring. >> reporter: the cleanup is well under way but much working to be done. all these boats are still smashed up against the seawall in coconut grove. but there are more than 7,000 people in shelters spread across 87 shelters in the state. the hardest hit areas remain the florida keys. national guard and red cross have been making their way down there. here's what they said about the needs down there. take a listen. >> we're trying to put support in, something that people have the least of. we have water and food, two other big things we're pushing out. >> reporter: the good news is that 8.2 million people have gotten their power back. 3 million people still do not have it. florida power and light says by this weekend most of the customers that don't have it along the east coast of florida should get it back. >> extremely serious situation still happening down there in the florida keys. thanks so much

residents of miami dade county were ordered to evacuate jamming highways up and down the same. it's stronger and could be much more devastating than andrew. >> let's get a quick update on how the path of the storm was playing out. let's bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> nothing too major. still looking at very kroes to worst case scenario for the state of florida. the bigst change in the 5:00 a.m. have had advisory, no longer a category five. we're now looking at a category four. it's as strong as you get from category four. that's down from the peak. remember, 185 when it was near barbuda. now it's heading south of the bahamas. it's going to play an important role. how cool as it gets to cuba. this is the new forecast. when taking it out, this is saturday at 2:00 a.m. 155-mile-per-hour winds. just off the coast. >> it could weaken the storm more. bad for cuba. it's just off shore and only continues to weaken slightly. at 150-mile-per-hour winds. very close to landfall at 2:00 a.m. here in the keys, and then heading pretty much due northwards straight up through the state o

and thinking, okay, if it hits miami and it goes up there, we have less to worry about. why shouldn't they be thinking that way? >> well, you know, i've said this before. i don't put a lot of confidence in a five-day forecast, meaning that in five days it will exactly be where that forecast point is predicted currently. what you have to look for is friends. what's it been doing over the last three, four cast periodsment is it trending to the west or to the east? and right now it's a race against a cold front coming out over the continental united states and the bermuda high, and the bottom line is as when this storm starts to turn north we'll have a better understanding of the true impacts when it comes to florida or whether or not it travel in a different direction. and, you know, you don't want to be in the maximum radius winds of this storm or where hurricane force winds are prevalent. >> well, as somebody who went through andrew, i can tell you there were people that were without power for months and never evacuated and should have. and these were friends and family of mine. i thi

, there is a 74,000 that are out here in broward county alone, in miami-dade, about 150,000. so the vast majority of those outages that you mentioned are here in the metro area. that's the biggest problem with people are facing. we talked a few minutes ago about how they were pulling some deputies when the weather was getting too treacherous out from broward county, i'm speaking about right now, when that was happening. that doesn't mean they're off for good until the storm passes. because we're just feeling these bands here and there, they're trying to make sure they're safe, you know, when it gets a little too hairy out there, as soon as that passes or if the -- if they're called to duty, they will do it if it is safe. i spoke to them a few minutes ago and because we are under a curfew and so many people have heeded the evacuation orders, they are getting hardly any calls, so thankfully they're not even in harm's way. and that's some really good news. >> that is really good news. ft. lauderdale not too far from heim. h miami. how about to the north of you? what is happening in the

tip in miami and ft. lauderdale and looping around to the southwest florida area and up here in tampa and st. pete, the issue with high wind gusts. there are certain places like naples airport that registered 140-mile-per-hour gusts earlier. in sarasota they had gusts up to 105 miles an hour. that's just south of us. really the biggest issue for so many of these coastal communities has been storm surge. the prediction for this area specifically that we would see 5 to 8 feet of storm surge return because when tampa bay got sucked out and the hillsborough river got sucked out, all that energy went into irma, helping it produce all this rain. now that water will just pour back in. they didn't know if they were going to be able to handle that type of surge, that type of flow kochlg back into so many homes. we do know there have been millions of power outages reported. most of the outages have happened throughout florida specifically, but in this area, alex, it's over 1.3 million outages. the front page of the local newspaper just says "slammed." and i think that listening to this ca

, we're going to get into that in a little bit. i want you to take a look at this, this is miami right now. the idea here is you look at those trees and you can see the sorts of winds that miami is getting. look at that palm tree, look at them swaying the way they are. now, not just that, tornado warnings are also out as wind gusts and rain continue to strike the southern portion of the state. over 400,000 people do not have power and that number is expected to rise dramatically, possibly reaching into the millions. let's bring in nbc's steve sosna, he is dealing with not just these winds but the fact that there are tornado watches in the area. >> that's right. these warnings pop up as quickly as they are issued. so we had a tornado warning in the miami area with circulation coming on board here, it has been canceled now, but more spinups definitely likely as these outer rain bands come pivoting in here rapidly. when that tornado warning was issued the storm was moving at 80 miles per hour. so it gives you little to no warning to prepare. so the latest here at 8:00 this morning is that

the winds in miami are in the 50 miles per hour gust range, the when you're up high in those condos in miami and the south part of the fort lauderdale and hollywood and hallen dale, you can get hup to 100 miles an hour wind gusts. i i've got gabe gutierrezgutier. what's is looking like for you? >> reporter: hi, there. we're looking to see some rain. wind picking up in the last hour or so. we had been at the emergency operation center for collier county. now we've moved to downtown naples. the big concern here is as you were talking about, that storm surge as it rolls through here over the next couple of hours, as irma roars through, there is concerns parts of downtown naples could flood. and we just spoke with someone by phone who's actual lie chose to ride out the storm in marco island. of course mandatory evacuation there. the he says he's in a high-rise, conditions so far have been good. he's above ground. he expects to flood but felt more comfortable riding out the storm in his high-rise condo. but, again, here in naples, you can see behind me these palm trees just swaying a lit

quadrant is the strongest wind and storm surge push. it puts that very populated homestead to miami to palm beach area right in the path of those driving onshore winds, and the models are going from five to ten feet of water, way way way up there. i'm six feet tall. that is how much water we're talking about possibly moving in those areas, just as much on the west coast of florida as well. >> that would swamp the keys. >> absolutely, and that is why we're telling people who think they have ridden out other storms before, and they mention strong storms that moved through before, no storm has taken this track before. >> sam champion, thank you, sir, stay safe down there. are residents going to be prepared in these shelters. let's take a look at the staging area. the school may house 1500 peo e people. they opened the doors initially saying at 1:00, but there was such a long line they decided to get it going. first of all, i myself have spoken to several people who are maybe here on their honey moon, tell me what you're finding and those coming here. they followed the direction of gove

, thanks. msnbc weather contributor sam champion joins us live from miami. and sam, it's interesting talking to catie up there in jacksonville and you down in miami, which are two areas when you look at the path of the storm you don't think are going to get it the worst. but when you look at flooding implications. >> yeah. >> it does seem like those are the two spots that did get it the worst. >> yeah. and chris, the one thing, even though this storm certainly did wobble from one side to other, the thing that was true, that was forecast to be true is that this is an all florida storm. every bit of florida was impacted by this storm. from the tip of miami with the very strong winds and the tough wind damage here and the heavy rain and the flooding, right off our shoulder here in base skein boulevard, to the actual hit on the southwestern tip to that flooding that goes on in north florida. we wanted to give you a shot of downtown miami tonight, the normally bright lights because about, well, the largest percentage of those, more than six million power outages in the state of florida ar

category 4 or even a category 5 hurricane slamming into our own miami this weekend and the governor of florida expected to give us an update any minute. when we get that, we will bring it to you live. in the meantime, this storm is showing exactly what it can do. 180-mile-an-hour winds blacking out much of puerto rico, killing nearly a dozen people in the caribbean, and almost wiping out one island completely off the map. we have a great team covering this storm all over the caribbean. i want to start of course with nbc news meteorologist bill karins, who is tracking irma's path. bill, gives the latest. when i talk to people in puerto rico, as worried as they are about having a complete blackout, they feel relieved that this thing has gone north of them. >> an important point. they only missed the eye by about 40 to 50 miles. they got bad winds, but they didn't get devastation. that's what we want for south florida, to get the storm about ho 40 miles off the coast so we only have minor impacts. we don't want the impact we're forecasting. miami is expected to get the worst-case scenario

what people in the south part of the state in miami and then over to southwest florida down in marco island and then up to where we are in tampa, the amount of power outages that people are facing right now in this state are in the millions, double digits most likely. we will have more accurate numbers about that. we were hearing from bill earlier the fact that this storm system is affecting all the way up to delaware if you think about that down the eastern shore line in the coastal portion of the peninsula of florida and back into the gulf to where we are almost to the panhandle. it is amazing to think and we are not really in the full effect of irma yet because we have to get through the eye wall and what they call the dirty side even though the fact that the storm has been over land is a good thing because it has absorbed a lot of energy although irma doesn't seem to be over it yet in terms of what forces she wants to bring certainly to tampa right now. look at this. it is amazing to look at how fast this is moving in terms of the water. sometimes it looks more ocean-like.

today. this is the line for canceled flights. even though miami international airport remains open, airlines have been canceling flights in and out. i've spoken to people who spent the night at the airport, making the last attempts to get as far away from this life-threatening storm as possible. let's see if we can talk to some people here. go ahead, ma'am. excuse us. hi, folks. where are you trying to get to today? >> atlanta, georgia. >> to get away from the storm? >> we were in cuba and they evacuated cuba for u.s. citizens. we had to make it here. now we're trying to get to our home state. >> you're running away from this storm, it's chasing you. what's the status of your flight right now? >> our flight has been canceled. it wasn't due back until saturday. we had to leave cuba. i just confirmed us a rental car so now we're driving. >> you basically have given up? >> oh, yeah, because it will be a couple of days before anybody will get out of here. >> you've gotten a rental car, you're going to hit the road in a couple of minutes? >> as soon as we leave here. like when i finish

. >>> you have got to see this. this is sister margaret ann principal in miami taking a chain saw to a tree. this video has gone viral on the miami-dade police department's facebook page. sister margaret ann joins us now via skype. sister margaret ann, first of all, that isann, first of all, that is extraordinary. tell us, do you have a background in horticulture or tree work, i'm going to say? >> no, i grew up in texas and i didn't do did do a lot of yardwork, but it had nothing to do with that. we just needed to get the trees out of the way so the cars could pass by safely. it was a dangerous situation and i just wanted to be able to help out the neighbors and clear the road work for everybody. that's all it was. >> how long did it take for you to do that? that's a big tree. >> i did about half a block so it took about three hours. it was a lot. but it was necessary in order for the travelers to travel safely. >> that's amazing. how did your school f arare in area and how are people doing? >> we lost a lot of trees. about six acres is trees and we lost a lot. we lost a building in our pav

. 866,000 customers are in the dark. downtown miami swamped even though the storm passed well west of the city. on? on florida's west coast, drone damage showing wind gusts of 42 miles per hour, winds were so strong they caused the tide to recede into the gulf of members colorado can you see people there walking up, taking pictures, it's an unbelievable site there. this morning, hurricane irma will continue to move over the western peninsula before move nook southeastern states. overnight, miami-dade police saying 28 arrests have been made so far because of burglary and looting. our affiliate wtlv in st. augustine, they're getting heavy rain bands, give us an update on what you have been see sock far this morning. >> hey, good morning, as you can tell, heavy rains right now in eight augustine the winds proceeding. we measured it a few minutes ago, over 46 miles per hour. already this parking lot flooded and the lights just went out. right now so we're standing, you know, as close as we can to the power source as i move up to tell you, that most of downtown st. augustine completely under w

been through hurricanes before. >> exactly. >> in miami they were picking up everything that was debris that could possibly do that damage. a. >> exactly. >> including in sandy that's one of the things you heard a few of the deaths were from people hit by debris. >> garbage can lids. >> thank you david, stay safe thank you for joining us and letting us know how things are in orlando. >> i appreciate you keeping us updated thank you. >> we just got msnbc update now. more than 190,000 people are without power in the florida keys. when you look at the images -- some people saying maybe this is heading a little west, maybe not as bad as we thought. think about the people home without powe these are definitely scarey times. >> it may be the bour is because of a blown transformer. it may be because power lines are down. you got to wait out the entire storm to the other side and then rescue crews come out and the electrical crews come out to try and fix things. you remember after sandy and other hurricanes they got to bring in new poles and things like that. people who lost power now ma

, right now, nearly 5 million people are without electricity. in miami-dade county alone more than 860,000 people are in the dark. downtown miami swamped, even though the storm passed well west of the city. >> on florida's west coast, drone footage showing some of the damage if naples, where a wind gust of 142 miles per hour was reported. in the miami area, the winds were so strong, leaving tampa bay on display for a time being. this morning, hurricane irma will continue to move over the western peninsula before moving into southeastern dade and overnight, miami-dade police said 28 arrests have been made so far because of the burglary and looting there. >> let's cross over to florida. john thomas is joining us live from tam pam i know t-- tampa. give us an idea of what tampa sustained. >> reporter: it's been a big beating t. local paper has the headline slammed in all big plaque letters about what took place here. irma will go down in history as up with of the worst storms to batter southwest florida specifically as far south to marco island and to us in tampa and st. petersburg. o

spot as you're going to get in miami. they're getting all the storm they can handle. just to emphasize to our viewers, sam's location is, again, across the state, which is, what, 140 miles at its widest point. >> 90 from the center of the storm. >> but 90 from the center of the storm. and yet you see what it's doing to sam. let's see what it's doing where maria mariana intenso is doing. mariana, how have conditions deteriorated there? >> brian, i'm at a point in the beach that's the southern most part of miami beach, the southern most cone of miami beach. this is where the big condos are. i want you to look at the scene behind me. that's how big things are. i have never seen the big palm tree, which are new, and they actually had reinforcements installed to avoid this from happening. they just completely gave way. because conditions are worsening by the minute. i don't know if you can appreciate how these palm trees were yanked from the earth right here. these are some pretty big palm trees right here. this is the scene that the residents here are going to have to grapple wit

of concern. meaning the storm could make landfall anywhere in that area that includes miami ft. lauderdale and palm beach and florida keys. right now sustained winds are topping 180 miles per hour with even higher gusts. we're going to have a full forecast and the latest from puerto rico's governor who is joining us coming up. >> also now, breaking news, we're awaiting attorney general jeff sessions, let's listen in right now. >> to announce that the program known as daca that was effect waited under the obama administration is being rescinded. the daca program was implemented in 2012 and essentially provided a legal status for recipients for a renewable two-year term, work authorization and other benefits including participation in the social security program, to 800,000 mostly adult illegal aliens. the policy was implemented unilaterally, to great controversy and legal concern on numerous occasions to this same group of illegal aliens. in other words, the executive branch, through daca deliberately sought to achieve what the legislative branch specifically refused to authoriz

city of miami. we've got 36 hours to go. this is not an exact science. but what we do have is the urgent and always vital 11:00 p.m. eastern time update from the national hurricane center. for that, i am joined by our meteorologist bill karins. what do you have? >> it's a cat 5, we just updated right along the coast of cuba. it's literally sitting on the beach of cuba. the storm has just swallowed cuba it looks like. our thoughts are with them this evening, because they are going through right now the eyewall of a category 5 hurricane, which is extremely rare on this planet to have winds this strong anywhere. we saw what it did to a lot of the islands. now we have to wait to see what it does to us? >> category 5, despite its interaction with land because it -- >> it hasn't happen eed yet. the land interaction is just happening. so that's the question, how much will cuba weaken it? i was just updating the new path, trying to get you some of that new information. here's the new stats. ignore this category 5, this just came out. 160-mile-per-hour winds once again. so it did intensify

convention and thunderstorms were over the coast near miami. have kicked near the bahamas. the be wind field is the legacy of this storm. it's still huge. the storm is located here. and there's the wind field in the yellow. so we still have tropical storm force winds down to key west. i have to widen out more than this. it's ridiculous. >> remind us what that trenstre on when you say tropical storm force winds. >> as the night goes on here, my -- >> don't make me come over there. >> we'll fast forward it and go back to it. here's the map that shows you the current wind gusts. how large the wind field is. and now back to the map i was trying to show you brian was talking about. so here's the yellow. the yellow is the potential for tropical storm force gusts. that's going to be 39 miles per hour-plus. and to the top of the map, it's now arriving in the jacksonville area ocala to gainesville, flagler beach area, daytona beach, new smyrna. they're getting the wind off the water. and you still have a little storm surge to go. so almost the entire peninsula from the keys to jacksonville righ

talking to folks here and they were saying they were coming from miami to jacksonville to try to get away from this storm. what they didn't predict is that storm surge that has invaded especially the low lying areas. we are right along the st. johns river and this community is filled with water. this is a public park next to me. hard to see at this point, but a public park that was completely submerged a few hours ago. if there is a silver lining for this, it's that there's a tide moving in and out of this neighborhood and right now we are at low tide, so this water is actually lower than it's been probably several hours. sometime around 2:00 a.m. the water is going to come back through here. anybody's guess as to how high that water could be. but that is really the dangerous part at this point. that's what the mayor was talking about. you know, you can come back to your home. you can try and assess your damage and get your belongings, but be aware that these waters are going to recede and then come back. and that exercise is going to happen several times. he said it could even be a

, have seen gridlock and shelters are opening up in miami dade county. people are satisfying this very seriously. what makes this very different, this storm unlike andrew, which sliced through east to west, this one, the projected path could go from south to north. basically engulfing the entire state so there's no way to get out. some people are hunkering down. others are rushing north, trying get out of irma's path. >> bill carnes is at the nbc weather center. i wonder about florida. not tonight, the conversation about climate change. but it is a fact, florida has very low ground level. very close to sea level. it wouldn't take much for a surge to sweep that peninsula of the. >> that's an excellent point. this is completely different than harvey. this devastation will be caused by the winds and the storm surge near where the lavell will be. there will be areas hit so hard that they'll be uninhabitable for weeks. that's how bad it will be. we don't know where it will occur. i know it is frustrating people. we'll get a better idea in a couple days and maybe even 24 hours. our thoughts,

. miami could be directly in the path of this thing. how much depends on when hurricane irma makes its turn toward the north. msnbc's mariana atencio is at miami international airport. that airport appears to be packed. >> craig, it is growing increasingly chaotic here. it is almost hard to walk so, many people trying to leave south florida as fast as they can. they're heeding the governor's warnings, they need to get out, they know they need to get out quickly. airport remains open, but the cutoff point 35 miles per hour of sustained winds, that is when miami international airport will close down. as you can see from the scene behind me, airlines are already canceling many flights. there are people here that are pretty much stranded in florida. they've spent the night here with their families, people trying to get out with their pets, their small children, and they literally have told me we will go anywhere as far away from this monster storm as possible. for those people whose flights have been canceled, though, the option of leaving south florida by car also increasingly challenging

florida keys. that's not surprising. but also now growing parts of miami dated county, including the barrier islands, but also the county itself. miami dated evacuation zones were expanded this afternoon to include several inland areas, making it the largest evacuation attempt ever by the county. and a shortage of gas is currently a major concern. florida governor rick scott said today getting fuel to south flar is a priority. >> this is not a storm you can sit and wait through. one of our top priorities right now is fuel availability. we know there are problems with supply at gas stations and are working around the clock to get fuel to you. we know fuel is important, and we're absolutely devoting every state resource to addressing this. >> and for what it's worth, it's not just a south florida issue. i can tell you from my own accounts that northeast part of florida also seeing gas short anlz right now. joining me now by phone is miami beach mayor phil levin. how is the evacuation going of miami beach? is the island fully evacuated or not? >> it's going very well, chuck, thank god.

25 miles north of miami airport. what's the situation? >> reporter: well, the situation is the airports are closed. this private airport here -- ft. lauderdale airport is closed, of course. but this smaller airport is also completely shut down. what we have seen as some of these smaller airplanes airplaairplan, not the jets but smaller aircrafts, their doors have been blown open and some of these trees in the nearby area have fallen down on them. that's also what you're seeing on the streets as well. those palm fronds flying around and a huge tree went down in front of a wendy's. animals even getting pretty confused about this weather. we've seen some squirrels and ducks be in places they probably shouldn't be in. all of this continues to change by the minute. but ft. lauderdale may not be in the eye of the storm, but we are feeling it. >> that's important to note. if we can show you the bands that are going around ft. lauderdale. we'll show you the bands of the storm. it's consistent around miami and ft. lauderdale. you're still getting winds and they're going to be gusts over

champion joining me from miami. sam, i've been watching you all weekend. good to sue you with bright sunshine behind you but you have really been through the storm. what is the latest as people try to i guess leave the shelters? >> yeah, and trying to get out of shelters and get back into their homes. so really today, andrea, is day one of recovery for miami and miami beach and all of florida as that storm made the move all the way up the peninsula of florida. let's set the story for miami beach a little bit. we've surveyed this morning all day long on damage. what we've seen is a lot of tree damage. most of the water that we saw that hit areas in downtown miami and here at the beach is gone. i can show you debris lines and i'll show you boats tossed, as well in our location and some problems going on in that. what most people are waiting for and the people who waited out at theables on the beach are waiting for water and power. as you mentioned at the top of the show, 6 million without power. fpl has the biggest army of people that the u.s. has ever seen. 30,000 people ready to tack

6 million people in the miami area could suffer a direct hit by hurricane irma. floridians have been warned. mass evacuations are under way, but there are always people who cannot afford to evacuate, who don't have the ability to evacuate, who need help to evacuate. and as if irma wasn't enough to worry about, another hurricane, jose, has now reached category 3 status as it tracks across the atlantic behind irma. a double hit of hurricanes on the east coast is almost unthinkable, and if you aren't busy evacuating or trying to evacuate now, all you can do is wait to see what happens when irma reaches florida sunday morning. we will have more on tracking the hurricane later in this program. >>> in washington today, donald trump jr. submitted to five hours of questioning from the senate judiciary committee staff about his meeting in trump tower on june 9th, 2016, with four russians and a british escort of those russians along with jared kushner and paul manafort. all we really know about that judiciary committee session today is what donald trump jr. said in his prepared opening re

was a lot of frustration getting home and a lot of people trying to get back to miami, they evacuated before irma came through for their own safety. they want to try to get back and assess damage to their homes. you know, the frustration they feel, it's not just the travelers. the employees, the ones showing up here, we talked to a few of them. a lot of them, their homes were damaged. they don't have power at their homes, yet. they are coming in, trying to get people up and ready go. we are getting our first look at the board. you walk into the airport to see what is going on with your flight. departures, charlotte, north carolina, the very first one, 10:15, delayed by a few minutes, that's to be exxekted. the arrival board looks scary with all that red there. don't fear. we talked to jetblue what had all the cancellations. they said because they just opened and are getting up and going. the first flights aren't expected to leave for hours now. maybe delays, but that's to be expected when you are getting up and going after several days of airports being shut down. it's going to be slo

folks here and they say there were people coming from miami to jacksonville to try to get away from this storm. what they didn't predict is that storm surge that has now invaded so many neighborhoods in jacksonville, especially the low-lying areas which is where we are tonight. we're along the st. johns river and this community as you can tell is filled with water. this is a public park next to me. a public park completely submerged a few hours ago. if there is a silver lining for this, folks, there is a tide moving in and out of this neighborhood and right now we're at low tide so this water is lower than it been probably several hours, sometime around 2:00 a.m. the water will come back through here. anybody's guess as to how high the water could be. that is really the dangerous part at this point. that the what the mayor was talking about. you can come back to your home and try to assess your damage and get your belongings but be aware that these waters are going to reseed and then come back and that kprexercise is go to happen several times. it could be a week before it stops. em

there for miami-dade. former fema administrator. that is all in for this evening. the 11th hour with brian williams starts right now. >>> on our broadcast tonight, in a five-hour appearance before senate investigators, donald trump jr. says his meeting with the russians was a chance to learn about hillary clinton's fitness for office. plus, president trump takes a request from nancy pelosi, tweets out a message of reassurance for the d.r.e.a.m.ers. the president's fellow republicans are not amused to put it charitableably. florida preparing fr a direct hit as >>> hurricane irma barrels to the u.s. coastline with destruction behind it, as "the 11th hour" gets under way. good evening, once again, from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 231 much the trump administration and it leaves much of the american southeast prepare for a devastating blow of a very big, very dangerous storm, hurricane irma. right now the fear is it's obliterating many of the structures in the turks and caicos island chain before heading to the southern bahamas. the fear of the u.s. is where it's

brunt of it. however, by early sunday morning, it is looking more like miami is in the cross hairs, but, again, we have to wait and see when this makes its turn and then comes offshore, by daytona beach, by monday morning at 8:00 a.m. as a category 3 storm. the advisories right now, we got hurricane warnings from antigua, anguilla, virgin islands, northern shore of hispaniola, watches for cuba and the bahamas. here is what we talk about, this turn. the american ensemble models, they run all these, by the time we get into saturday evening, we're starting to see that turn happen. yesterday a lot of these strands were out here into the gulf. a lot of them coming up over florida. look what happens now as we move into sunday, into monday, we have a fair number coming over florida, but we have more offshore and making a b line for the carolina coastline. south carolina, north carolina, georgia as well. we have to watch this. storm surge right now, that push of water where general situation you're going to have your most damage and death from the storm surge, about 7 to 11 feet from angui

the u.s. is where it's tracking. the leading predictor models bring it right in south of miami. as perhaps a category 4 or 5. that could be catastrophic. interstates 95 and 75 are the only major roads north, and they are packed. have been all day. a lot of drivers worried about their gas gauges, among other things. we'll have much more on the storm later in the hour. >>> the headline tonight dominating the political world, donald trump jr. spent about five hours with the staff with the judiciary committee answering questions about a meeting he said lasted about 20 minutes. it was last summer at trump tower here in new york when he, then-campaign chairman paul manafort and jared kushner, met with five others including a russian lawyer and russian-american lobbyist. after leaving the capitol today, the president's son said in part, i answered every question posed by the committee related to this topic as well as all of their questions on other topics until both sides had exhausted their lines of questioning. i trust this interview fully satisfied their inquiry. more on that in a bit.

implications for miami, ft. lauderdale, west palm beach and marco island and for tt. myers. we are within 36 hours of this landfall. they're usually pretty accurate. the models were pretty much pointing at marathon, florida. now look what happened. now they're pointing towards key west. another 10 to 20 mile shift to the west has huge implications. now instead of bringing it up through the everglades, they're clustered pretty well here keeping it offshore with the eye coming possibly over the top of marco island and the naples area and maybe straight into ft. myers. and also for areas like tampa, sarasota, the storm could be a little stronger if cuba doesn't weaken it, over water longer. that could mean more storm surge and stronger winds for areas like central florida. that's one of the huge developments that we are literally now just getting in and dealing with. the hurricane center's update will be at 11:00 p.m. and we'll see if they shift it further to the west. again, the further west it goes, the weaker the winds it could be for the east coast, including the big cities in south flor

investigator whose 94-year-old mother told the ""miami herald" they should have called 911. somebody should go to jail for this. tonight we're learning the nursing home says they did place emergency calls for help. they say they called florida governor rick scott. investigative reporter of cbs foreign miami reports this tonight. 36 hours prior to the first death, officials at the first facility called on three separate occasions an emergency number that governor rick scott had given to health care institutions including nursing homes so they could have a direct line to the top of the state government if they were in need of help. nursing home officials say they called that number three times asking for help and placed the first call to governor scott and then they say they called again the next day on monday. then they say they called again the next day on tuesday. they say those calls went unanswered. now nbc news is reporting with some specificity about the calls, according to nbc news the first call at 5:34 p.m. on september 11th and another call at 5:59 september 12th a

. >> today, andrea, is day one of recovery for miami, miami beach. >> see boats not only under water but homes and vehicles completely submerged. homes are obliterated. looks like tornado alley in some places here where they've been shredded to pieces. >> and in other parts of the state as you just saw people are starting to assess the damage. we are expecting an update from governor rick scott any minute. and later this hour we'll get a white house briefing from sarah huckabee sanders. most of the airports in florida will remain closed today. 6.5 million customers in the state are now without power. officials warn it could take days or even weeks for it to be restored. and irma isn't done yet. now a tropical storm, she has her sights set on georgia. atlanta is under a tropical storm warning for the first time ever. we've got an incredible team of reporters who've been covering every angle of this storm all weekend and into the day. let's go first to nbc's morgan radford who's in jacksonville, florida. morgan, the flooding there, it doesn't look good. tell me what you're seeing. >> i

-14 in that one. great game there. over on the diamond, the miami marlins beat the braves 7-1. the big story was marlins slugger giancarlo stanton put on a show smacking 58 and 59 homers on the season. first player to hit 59 home runs in a season since 2001. also only the sixth player joining babe ruth, mark mcgwire and barry bonds to hit 59 or more home runs in a year. that's pretty good company. also one away from reaches the 60 home run miles stone with three games remaining. a lot of people out there rooting for him. and how about this for an epic selfie. snagged this with presidents at the presidents cup tournament at liberty national golf club in new jersey. very first time three presidents have attended the tournament since it launched back in 1994. and introduced by none other than our very own willie geist. quite the honor there. airs on the golf channel today and nbc this saturday and sunday. looks like an unreal event there. >> imagine being with three presidents. >> that would be so cool. he cut his face off in that selfie. >> long as he can prove the three presidents w

with aryana atenzio back in miami after a tour of the keys and mary ann jackson in jacksonville. ariana, what did you see from the air? >> reporter: andrea, i just landed here in miami about 30 minutes ago, and we just caught a glimpse of the devastating images of the aftermath of this monster storm in what is perhaps one of the most pristine, one of the most beautiful places in our entire country, the florida keys where this monster storm first made landfall. and we saw some areas of the keys, especially marathon, florida in our short flight, completely ravaged by the 130-mile-per-hour winds that irma packed on sunday when it hit the keys. our journey started in key largo where you already started to see a lot of the devastation. the keys on the overseas highway was completely blocked with traffic. first responders aren't letting the entirety of the traffic in right now, but you can see the desperation in many of the residents, in many of the families who did evacuate to try to get back in to survey the loss of life, to see how their homes are. we do know that around 10,000 peo

this one. it's their 11th straight 13-0. >>> and in miami john carlos stanton launched his league-leading 53rd home run of the season during the fifth inning of the marlins 7-2 loss against the nationals last night. while it might be good for ratings, the tv crew probably didn't appreciate it. the busted camera in right field, courtesy of stanton's home run ball there. that looks like an expensive one too. >> what would you feel like if your camera got busted by a home run? i think that would probably be a good story. >> bring home the camera as a souvenir. >> i don't know if they're going to let you do that. >>> still ahead, everybody, as the russia investigation continues, we've learned special counsel bob mueller is examining a letter in which the president explains his firing of jim co y comey. we have tensions escalating over north korea. defense secretary jim mattis says the u.s. has "many military options." we're going to get a live report coming up next. this is not a cloud. this is a car protected from storms by an insurance company that knows the weather down to the squa