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American Morning
In Southwestern Florida, Hurricane Wilma Comes Ashore
Aired October 24, 2005 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
I'm Miles O'Brien live in Naples, Florida.
Hurricane Wilma, after all the talk, is here, on our doorstep. Wind gusts where I stand approaching 70 miles an hour. Much of the people here have headed for high ground. The question is will everybody in Southwestern Florida be safe as Wilma comes ashore?
This is CNN, your hurricane headquarters.
Hello, everybody.
I'm Miles O'Brien.
We're right in the teeth of it here in Naples, Florida, as hurricane Wilma comes ashore.
We're at the Admiralty Point condominium complex, right here on the beach in Naples. The surf is just out there in the darkness and it is getting much higher and much rougher as hurricane Wilma reaches landfall, gets to the point where it gets to be a serious situation for Southwestern Florida.
From the Florida Keys all the way up beyond where I stand at Fort Myers, we are watching things.
And in New York, in for Soledad this morning, Zain Verjee -- good morning, Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Miles.
I'm Zain Verjee, as Miles said, in for Soledad this week.
We have so much to cover on hurricane Wilma from here, as well.
I'm going to be talking to a forecaster from the National Hurricane Center in just a moment. It's a category three hurricane, capable of a lot of damage.
We want to get started straight away.
Let's go to Miles in Naples -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Zane.
Sustained winds here are at least 30 miles an hour. But these gusts which you're seeing right now get us way, way higher. Lots of rainfall expected here, perhaps a storm surge as high as nine, maybe even 12 feet by some predictions.
We've got this story covered all the way up and down this affected coast of Florida.
Key West, Gary Tuchman is there, where we saw the first inkling that Wilma was going to be serious business just a little while ago. We'll check in with him.
I'm here in Naples, Florida.
Just to the south of me in Marco Island, Anderson Cooper along with CNN's John Zarrella. We'll check in and see what's going on there.
To the north of me, Fort Myers, we have people there, as well.
Across the state, this is a storm that will move across the state 20, 25 miles an hour, will bring hurricane force winds to the east coast of Florida, as well.
In Hollywood, Florida, we have CNN's Allan Chernoff.
We have this story covered, as well, with our affiliate teams all around the State of Florida.
There's nobody that has more resources put to bear on hurricane Wilma. So just sit back, stay in a safe, dry place and make sure you are safe as you watch.
In addition to all of that, we have CNN's Jason Carroll in our Hurricane One vehicle, which allows us the mobile -- the mobility to cover a storm and move along and get the information as it is happening.
CNN's Jason Carroll checking in with us now -- Jason, where are you?
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.
I am, right now we are in downtown Naples and what we're doing is we're moving along U.S. 41, which is an area that cuts right through Naples. And I have to tell you, in terms of the conditions that we're seeing out here right now, just a little while ago when we were stationary we were trying to get Hurricane One up and running. And one of the gusts was so strong, so powerful, it shook the car, rocking it back and forth. My photograph, Walter, looked at me with one of those sort of uncomfortable smiles and we knew things were getting very, very serious.
I had an opportunity to speak to the mayor. He told us that he believes most of the people in Naples, at this point, have evacuated. That is certainly good news for the people here in Naples, because as you drive along U.S. 41 at this point, you can really get a sense of just how powerful hurricane Wilma is. We've seen a number of downed trees, which you see oftentimes for these types of things. We're moving very slowly at this point because there's a tree right in front of us. So we're moving around it. We've also seen downed power poles.
What we're going to be doing is we're going to be following the hurricane as it moves east. We're going to be taking U.S. 41 as slowly and just as carefully as we can, as hurricane Wilma hits Florida -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Jason Carroll with Hurricane One.
We invite you and your team to be very careful as you drive down the road they call Alligator Alley. It cuts right through the Everglades. On a good day, it's a tough road. On a day like today, it's something you really need to be careful about. But he will be checking in with us, with our Hurricane One team all throughout the morning literally following this storm as it goes across Florida, 20 to 25 miles an hour. That is a fast moving storm.
Chad Myers in the Weather Center to give us a sense of it -- Chad, I was looking at some of these predictions and what I found most interesting, as it moves across, there will be periods of time when the entire lower part of the Florida peninsula will be feeling hurricane force winds. That's west to east coast.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. No question. Absolutely, Miles. All the way from where you are now -- and I know your winds. I just checked them, 75 mile per hour gusts there, right across Alligator Alley, all the way over to Coral Springs, down to Miami.
We spent a lot of the night focusing on the landfall for Naples and Key West and Islamorada and Big Pine. Now it's time to focus on the millions of people that live from Florida City through Homestead, Cutler Ridge to Miami, right on up even into Fort Lauderdale.
This now is the most dangerous part of the storm for millions of people living right through here. This was basically to the south and east of there, south even -- south and east of Naples. That's basically, well, I mean, it's all Everglades. A few people live there, but not nearly the number that now we're going to affect from Islamorada up through Key Largo. The storm surge coming into the Lower Keys here, into the Middle Keys and finally now the Upper Keys.
Up to the north of there, across Card Sound Road, across the 18 mile stretch, winds gusting over 75. At Jewfish Creek Bridge, back up here to Miami now, the heaviest wind not quite to you, but not far away. At the airport, the winds just gusting to 59 miles per hour. And when this yellow and orange gets into the city, gets into the I-95 turnpike corridor, everyone here will see winds gusting to about 100.
That will take off shingles. That will move things around. That could even do some significant damage to mobile home and mobile home parks. So you need to be careful here. I know we've done a lot of focusing on the western part of the peninsula but now it's time to focus on the east. Time for you people off to the east in those big cities to be careful. Hunker down and stay away from those windows, because we are going to have a lot of damage in the east, as well -- back to you.
O'BRIEN: Chad, worth pointing out, for people who have endured hurricanes that have come from the other direction there, it's not the same set of windows you need to be as worried about necessarily, right?
MYERS: Isn't that amazing? Everybody boards up and everybody buys storm surge shutters and everything for the eastern windows, thinking the storm is going to come across the Bahamas with an east wind. This wind is from the south and then from the west. And most of those windows don't have shutters, at least the ones that my friends own. They didn't bother to buy shutters for that side of the house. So they're just going to be watching those windows going back and forth and back and forth. The wind sustained at 125, even maybe by the time it gets the, maybe to 120. But not losing any more speed than five or 10 miles per hour -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, category three strength, 120 to 125 miles an hour, and it might very well be coming from the weak side, the side of your home that may be weakest, put it that way.
CNN's Gary Tuchman in Key West.
It's been a wild scene there and it may not surprise you if you know Key West, that a healthy majority of people decided to stay and ride out the storm -- Gary, this -- I think there were four evacuations of Key West this season alone and people might be a little hurricane weary.
I wonder if there's a lot of regrets there this morning.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know yet, Miles.
I will tell you, the worst part of the storm here in Key West was between 2:30 and 4:30 Eastern time. It's improved quite a bit. That's not saying it's great outside right now. And we have a lot of concerns.
I mean one of the things about a hurricane, when it happens overnight, things fly around and you don't know what's happening. And just a short time ago, this piece of roofing fell off and landed like that about 10 feet away from us. This is not a risk-free occupation. We try to limit the risk as much as possible, but obviously that scared us a lot when we heard that noise coming down from this roof behind me.
Right now here in Key West, the southernmost city in the continental United States, we are dealing with a lot of flooding. That's what we have been told. We don't know how serious it is. We know it's not unexpected because the elevation of Key West, the highest elevation is a foot-and-a-half above sea level. And we were told in the best case scenario they'd have an eight foot storm surge.
We know near the ocean, to my left, a big storm surge. There's flooding. We know near the bay and the Gulf of Mexico to my right, a storm surge. There's flooding. What they are very concerned about is this street behind me, if it were to flood. This is Duval Street, the main street through the business district -- that's another thud we hear behind me -- the main street in the business district here in Key West.
This has not flooded yet. But many buildings have.
We have just found out from a CNN crew out on the scene right now that the fire department -- there's three fire departments, three fire stations here in Key West -- one of them had to be evacuated because the water starting getting too high. So they pulled the fire trucks out of the fire station and brought them to another one.
An apartment complex near by the water has gotten too high, so people on the first floor have gone to the second floor. And you're saying why are those people even dealing with that in the first place? Why didn't they evacuate? Twenty-eight thousand people live here. It's estimated that only about 5, 500, 6,000 evacuated. Another 22,000 decided to stay, for two reasons. One, they haven't had a hurricane directly hit Key West since 1919, so people kind of become complacent. But, also, the nearest shelter is 150 miles away in Miami-Dade County. A lot of people just didn't want to have to deal with that ride. They've stuck it out.
And it really was a frightening early morning in the dark with those winds we had for over two hours, more than 100 miles per hour sustained winds here in the city of Key West, Florida -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Yes, Gary, I think a key point to remind our viewers is, you know, this part of the world, Naples, hasn't had a direct hit, really, since 1960. Hurricane Donna came through here. Hurricane Andrew hit it on the back side, but that wasn't very significant.
But there haven't been the number of evacuation orders which we have seen in Key West this year. And I wonder if all those evacuation orders have gotten people lulled into the sense that they can get through this without leaving.
TUCHMAN: I think there's a mixture here. Yes, that does lull people. But, also, Miles, I mean we all dealt with hurricane Katrina, all us CNNers, and we all talked about this in Louisiana and Mississippi, how the legacy of what happened with hurricane Katrina would probably mean that people really would evacuate right away.
And we saw it during Rita. I was in Port Arthur and Beaumont, Texas, and we couldn't find a soul on the streets. We found no one in their houses. It was completely empty.
So now you have a situation where in Naples and Marco Island, my colleagues are saying that people really have evacuated.
But here in Key West, it's a different kind of place. It's a live and let live philosophy. And a lot of people just aren't going to be told (AUDIO GAP)...
O'BRIEN: All right, I think we lost Gary Tuchman.
We're going to get back with him as soon as we can.
Let's go a little bit north up the coast from where I stand into Fort Myers, where rob Marciano is -- Rob, we're getting battered here.
How about you?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I see that, Miles.
Not to that extent. But you've got to realize our set up here. Fort Myers Beach is southwest of the town of Fort Myers and the beach actually faces southwest. The winds all afternoon, all night, all morning have been coming offshore as this storm approaches and we're on the north -- the northern fringe of that.
So a lot of the wind has been blocked by a bunch of buildings and businesses that line this beach. So the winds coming up and over the top of us and out to sea, blowing the ocean, or at least the Gulf of Mexico, out to see. And that's been the good news.
The tide, high tide has come and gone. The surge is not going to be an issue here. It's probably not going to be much an issue (AUDIO GAP)...
O'BRIEN: OK, I think we lost Rob, obviously.
I hope you understand, we're going through the thick of it here. We're getting into the thick of it. My signal is kind of dicey. We just lost Rob. We just lost Gary. The combination here, it's not just the wind moving our satellite dishes around, which makes it difficult to lock up on the satellite, but this rain is very, very thick and intense. It causes what we call a little bit of rain fade and you can lose people at a moment's notice.
Chad Myers up at the Weather Center -- Chad, give us a sense about the rain in this one.
I remember when we were talking about Rita a little while ago, we were talking about how much rain it generated.
What are the predictions for this one?
MYERS: This one raining sideways for hours with very heavy rain, Miles. But the difference is that this storm is now moving about 24 miles per hour. So when you get a storm that crushes across the state in that amount of time, this thing -- you're going to have a sunset. You're going to go to Mallory Square if you want to, in Key West, tonight and see a beautiful sunset, as this storm is completely gone.
And look at you, Miles. Right here, you are in the northern eye wall right now. Your winds coming at you from the east. Then you're going to kind of get a piece of the inner eye and then your winds are actually going to come out of the north. You're going to get a complete different turn for the wind here in less than about 20 minutes to an hour. So it just depends on how your satellite truck is situated behind a building whether we're going to be able to keep you or not, keep you up on the satellite or not.
But very heavy rains now across Naples, across and south of Fort Myers. And we even have had some significant tornadoes to the north of you on up into central Florida, and that's not out of the question for the rest of the day.
By 2:00 in the afternoon, this thing is in the Atlantic Ocean, completely gone. But if you are in Miami, Miami-Dade, Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, you're about to get 100 mile per hour, maybe more than that, winds. Just look at what Miles is experiencing there -- Miles.
Miles, I don't have you.
Zane, I think we've -- I can see Miles, but I can't hear him anymore.
VERJEE: Yes, we seem to have lost Miles there.
As he was saying, you know, I mean this is a major hurricane approaching and Miles, as you said, is in the northern eye wall of the storm.
MYERS: He is.
VERJEE: And obviously we're going to lose our communication quite easily as this gets going in the region.
We've got reporters all around the scene. Gary Tuchman in Key West, Miles in Naples, Anderson Cooper and John Zarrella also on Marco Island, and Rob Marciano in Fort Myers.
Joining us now, though, is Ed Rappaport, who's the director of the National Hurricane Center.
Thanks so much for joining us.
First of all, when will it make landfall?
ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: The center is coming ashore now, at least during the next 30 minutes or so. But some of the worst of the weather actually is preceding the center. As you can see the center right here now. And here is Marco Island and Naples, just a few miles offshore here. But this yellow area out ahead of it is the eastern eye wall. That's moving ashore, coming inland with category two to category three winds. Winds over 100 miles per hour. And unfortunately pushing a very high storm surge ashore near and to the south of the center of the hurricane.
VERJEE: Why is it going to move across so fast? What's pushing it?
RAPPAPORT: The hurricane is embedded in an increasing southwesterly flow ahead of an atmospheric disturbance that's up over the United States. And the system, which was nearly stationary, was moving slowly off the Yucatan Peninsula, was forecast to accelerator, and it's doing so now, moving about 20 miles per hour. It'll be moving much more quickly later today and we expect the center to be exiting the east coast of Florida near noon today.
VERJEE: How many inches of rain can we anticipate?
RAPPAPORT: We can see perhaps 10 inches of rain. Fortunately, the fast forward speed is going to keep the hurricane from lingering in any particular place. Our greatest concern, though, is going to be the storm surge. And what we're talking about now is a storm surge on the order of eight feet in Naples, 10 feet in Marco Island, Florida, 15 feet in Everglades City and we have great concern for lives there, as well as in the Florida Keys, where after the center passes, the storm surge could reach five to nine feet.
VERJEE: Chad Myers at our Weather Center has a question for you -- Chad.
MYERS: Ed, I'm very concerned now for the people in the big cities, from Florida City through Homestead, Cutler Ridge, Miami, Opa- Locka, all the way up and down there, with winds gusting to, what, 110, 120 still?
I mean this isn't going to lose a lot of energy over the Everglades, is it?
RAPPAPORT: That's right. And what we've been telling the folks in South Florida is that everyone is going to have category one conditions. Many people will have category two and there will be a few spots of category three, as well.
MYERS: OK.
RAPPAPORT: With the worst of the weather between about 8:00 and 11:00 this morning. Maybe a little later than that if the storm doesn't accelerator as much as we're forecasting.
MYERS: Will there be any storm surge on the eastern part of the Florida peninsula due to the onshore flow, let's say West Palm Beach and in those canals that people live on there?
RAPPAPORT: We do think there will be some storm surge, but not nearly as much as we're going to see on the southwest coast and the Keys. Two feet locally, up to four feet in the canals, primarily in the southeastern part of the state. Some surge to the north, where you do have that easterly onshore flow that you're talking about to the north of the eye.
MYERS: Zane?
VERJEE: What will be the most dangerous part of the storm, Ed?
RAPPAPORT: The most dangerous part of the storm is going to be in terms of location south of the center and over the Everglades area from about Naples southward. This is the storm surge simulation we have. The red area here indicates storm surge of at least 15 feet. Here's the center passing near Marco Island. Here's Naples, seven feet of surge. Ten feet of surge near Marco Island. Fifteen feet of surge at Everglades City. Fortunately, only sparsely populated and hopefully nobody is out in this area of the Southern Florida peninsula.
VERJEE: All right, Ed Rappaport of the National Hurricane Center, thanks so much.
We're going to continue to check in with you throughout the morning.
Of course, watching this for many hours, also, our own Chad Myers -- Chad, when you think hurricane, you have to think flooding, as well.
MYERS: Yes.
VERJEE: How far will the flooding go inland as Wilma goes over?
MYERS: You know, it could go all the way to Florida City. It could run right through the Everglades. This is going to be a bubble of water. A lot of people think of the storm surge as like the tidal wave in "Hawaii 5-0." That's not the way it happens.
Storm surge is a gradual rise, and I say that, well, a little tongue in cheek. A gradual rise, it could sometimes go up two foot a minute. But we're not talking this surge wave that you could actually surf. It is a surge of water that bubbles up that is going to come through the Everglades. And as it bubbles through the Everglades, there's nothing really to stop it there. A couple of canals, a couple of causeways. Yes, we know about the Tamiami Trail and all that.
But this water easily could get to the western edge of Miami- Dade, right there along the canals there.
Not so much worried about that because, I mean, literally, this is going to be a saltwater flood for an area that is designed to flood, the Everglades. What I'm really more concerned with are these bands of wind. And these winds will generate winds 100 to 120 miles per hour there in the Miami-Dade County area -- Zane.
VERJEE: How long does a storm surge last? When will it actually go down?
MYERS: Well, if you remember what we had in Waveland and Bay St. Louis, I mean some of those waves of 20 to 30 feet went three to four miles inland. As the eye goes by, the winds actually -- absolutely shift direction. And then the water will have run back out gradually. But storm surge could last three or four hours easily.
VERJEE: At what point, then, does Wilma actually lose its intensity?
MYERS: Well, if it was going to hit a mountain range, it would lose intensity. When it gets out into the Atlantic Ocean, it's actually going to try to merge, try to merge in a perfect storm type scenario, although it does not look like that's going to happen. But it could still hit Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada, with winds to 75 miles per hour. And that's a long distance up the Atlantic Ocean.
Now, a lot of people say oh, wait, that water is cold. That can't happen.
But what happens is if you think of the equator, there is no spin to the air at the equator. There is no what we call coriolis force. There is infinite coriolis force at the pole, at the North Pole and the South Pole.
So as you start to move this storm away, even though you lose energy, you gain spin. So the whole thing starts spinning faster, even though it's starting to lose energy. It's 50-50, one way, tug the other way, kind of like what we had here today.
With this storm, we had warm water in the Gulf of Mexico. That tried to make the storm bigger. And we had some winds that actually began to move the storm. That tried to make the storm similar. Call that shear.
Well, clearly, from 105 to 110 and then overnight 120, and now 125, the warm water won -- Zane.
VERJEE: Chad Myers at our Weather Center.
Thanks so much, Chad.
As we're talking about storm surge, Ed Rappaport a moment ago just told us that storm surge in Naples is anticipated to go up to eight feet.
Miles O'Brien is in Naples for us today.
So is Mayor Bill Barnett.
He joins us from city hall.
Thank you so much for being with us, Mayor.
Firstly, how are you doing? What are the conditions now?
MAYOR BILL BARNETT, NAPLES, FLORIDA: It's been a, it's been a rough night but, you know, I'm locked in down here and just the wind alone, you know, is -- scary doesn't describe it, I can tell you that. It's just, it's something you just don't want to be in. And I know all your storm forecasters and people that are out there in it all the time are used to it, but it's not something that I want to be in, I'll tell you that.
VERJEE: Naples itself is in the northern eye wall of the storm. You're looking at live pictures coming to us from Naples. There are strong gusts of wind, heavy rains, downed trees, downed power poles, as well, according to our reporters there on the scene.
We're following the hurricane as it moves east across Florida.
Wilma is a strong category three hurricane.
Mayor, what is your biggest concern right now?
BARNETT: Well, you know, I just, of course, the storm surge was one. But they had been talking originally about, you know, we could see 13 feet, something like that. Storm surge is a concern. But even more so is, you know, once we're allowed out just to assess damage, people are going to want to come back. You know, you've seen the scene before. People are going to want to go back and inspect their homes, etc. We have to assess first.
So, you know, I'm just -- I'm doing some praying and, you know, I want to see dawn, as well, because it's been, you know, it's even tougher when it's dark out and you can't see anything. You can only hear that wind and the rain and the thunder and lightning.
So dawn is -- should be breaking very soon. So I think that might help a little bit.
But my biggest concern, of course, is, A, that nobody got hurt, no deaths, of course, or series injury. And we're just going to have to assess the damage, that's all.
VERJEE: Mayor, Chad Myers at our Weather Center has a question for you, as well -- Chad.
BARNETT: Sure.
MYERS: Yes, Mr. Mayor, we have winds now for you at 75 miles per hour.
Do you have a percentage of how much of your town is with or without power?
BARNETT: I don't have a percentage, but I know that -- I spoke with my wife, who is across town. And she said they've been without -- and she's about six miles from here. And she's actually east of here. She said they've been without power since about 3:00 a.m.
I'm assuming that the majority of Naples is without power. I have to say -- I can't imagine any power being on.
MYERS: There's always a threat. And, you know, no matter how many times we say this, if the power line is down, you need to stay away from it, because you don't know if there's any power to that line or not. And we just don't want to start losing anybody just because, you know, the power line was down and they decided to drive over it.
If you see that kind of thing, you need to stay away from it, right?
BARNETT: We're not going to let anyone back into the city. We're going to have checkpoints as soon as the wind does subside.
MYERS: Right.
BARNETT: And I'm glad to hear what you said about the storm moving really fast and accelerating because as soon as we're allowed or able to get out with police and emergency services, we'll just start assessing. But we're just not going to let people, you know, come in at will just to go to their homes.
And I think that those that are here or that are in their homes are not going to venture out so fast, either.
MYERS: Mr. Mayor, thank you.
You still have western eye wall to come yet. You've had the northern eye wall, but it isn't over for you yet by any means.
BARNETT: Right. I understand that. We'll just hope we can get through it.
Thank you so much.
MYERS: Thank you.
VERJEE: Mayor Bill Barnett of Naples speaking to us from city hall.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
We want to go now to Anderson Cooper and to John Zarrella.
They're live on Marco Island.
That's about 20 miles from Naples.
Guys, what are you seeing there -- Anderson?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are actually seeing a bit of calm right now in the midst of the storm. This is the eye.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is it. I mean we are dead in the eye for now 25 minutes. And it's a 40-mile eye, roughly, maybe larger than that. We could be another 20 minutes in this.
COOPER: Yes, you know, we heard Ed Rappaport talking to you guys about the storm surge. He's saying a storm surge of about 10 feet here on Marco Island. I think he said about seven or eight feet on Naples.
We are not seeing that at this point. I mean we are on the beach here. You've probably -- I don't know if our light can shine all the way so that you can actually see the water. It's still a good 40 feet away from us. I mean it's maybe raised a couple feet, but there's no way it's near 10 feet at this point.
ZARRELLA: Oh, no, no. Because what we had all night was the wind coming out of the east to the west, blowing the water offshore. When we get the back side of the storm, I'm sure Chad will tell us, we may get a back side storm surge from this. But I'll tell you what, the Keys are really going to get hammered with storm surge.
COOPER: I don't know if you can get a shot of that bird over there, but there are a lot of sort of stunned birds who have been flying around. It looks like some sort of a pelican.
ZARRELLA: It's a pelican.
COOPER: Yes.
ZARRELLA: It's a pelican.
COOPER: Clearly not sure what exactly is going on.
But it's very strange. I mean we have had really severe winds for the last several hours.
ZARRELLA: Right.
COOPER: Then all of a sudden, about 20 minutes ago, just dead calm. It's an eerie feeling.
ZARRELLA: And when we get the back side, it's just going to hit us fast. We're not going to have a slow buildup to the high winds. It's going to be rapid right on us.
COOPER: All along we were anticipating winds actually coming directly offshore, but we didn't get that at all. We had winds coming out of the east this whole time.
ZARRELLA: Yes, they were dead coming out of the east. So we were just on that edge of the center of the storm. So the eye, the bulk of the storm is -- the eye is to the south of us. The right side of the storm to the south of us, pushing all that water up. You know, Florida curves like this then the Keys come off. All that storm surge is going to get pushed up and over into the Keys. It's going to be bad over there.
COOPER: How does this compare to some of the storms. I mean you've seen them all.
ZARRELLA: This was pretty good. I mean it's been pretty nasty all night. This is probably pretty similar to what we experienced in Dennis. The winds are pretty similar to what we experienced when I was in New Orleans in Katrina. That kind of, just that 100 mile an hour winds.
So it's nasty.
COOPER: I don't know if it's possible to talk to Chad at all, Zane, but it would be interesting -- I mean we're a little bit cut off. We really don't have a sense of how long this eye is going to last for here around Marco Island.
It would be interesting to know -- I mean because all along this eye has been such a big eye. ZARRELLA: Enormous. Enormous. I've been looking up to see if we could see any stars. But with the lights -- I think it's probably clouded over the eye now. So we won't see any of the stars.
But yes, we could still be in this. It could have been a good hour of eye. If you're dead in the center of it, you know, it may be an hour.
COOPER: There's definitely electricity here...
MYERS: You guys...
COOPER: Oh, go ahead, Chad.
VERJEE: Chad, what about that, Anderson's point? How long will the eye last over Marco Island?
MYERS: Well, you know what? We had the eye, the width of the eye from east to west was about 45 miles; north to south about 60 miles. And you guys are smack dab right in the middle of the center of the eye at this point in time. And keep looking for those stars, because you just might see them. Not very many people get to do that.
And then Marco Island, John, as you were saying now, will get the other side of this storm that's still way offshore, off the picture here, and it's going to come on and you're going to get north winds that may approach 100 miles per hour again. So that's a different direction and you need to let your camera and your truck operator know of that new direction, because you've been protecting from the east all night. Now you have to protect from the north.
ZARRELLA: Are we going to get any of that storm surge, from what you're thinking, or is it still all going to be south of us?
MYERS: No, you're probably 10 miles north of the storm surge, which is good news. But I know you talked about the back side surge. Just because you're not onshore the whole time doesn't mean there's not a little bit of a bubble to your west where that storm has been sucking in water for now, for seven days. Now it's going to bring that bubble of water onshore.
So, yes, it's going to come up, but I think you guys are probably in good shape. You're not going to have to go running.
COOPER: How much more time until we get that back side of the eye wall?
MYERS: Well, let me see. Here's your Marco Island. You are right there. Now this is into motion moving at about 24 miles per hour. And you're still about 20 -- I would say maybe 25 miles from that eye wall. That's pretty easy to mention. That's pretty easy math. That's about 45 minutes to an hour, guys.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I had a question for you, Chad. I know in '64 Hurricane Isabel came through here, a category 2, 110-mile-an-hour winds, a very similar track and spawned a lot of tornadoes because of that -- you know, the mixing of the cold air...
MYERS: Yes.
ZARRELLA: ... and the tropical air. Are we looking at some scenarios like that today?
MYERS: We've had at least 10 on the ground already that we know of. And I've had 40 tornado warnings printed off all night long. They just keep coming and keep coming. And later on today when the sun comes out, when it does, north of Jacksonville you're either going to have some of that influence there with the cold air influence, as you talk about.
And just as we speak, there's one just coming over the printer north and south central, south central Orange, north central Osceola. And that's about eight miles north of Homapa (ph) and moving to the northwest at 20. It could be near Lake Mary Jane here anytime now. That is a tornado warning. That's out of Melbourne, Florida.
So, you're right on the money, John, there.
COOPER: You know, we've actually seen a couple of people in this eye sort of coming out. I'm seeing a couple of flashlights coming down to the beach. And there's no electricity. There are a couple of emergency lights on some of the buildings. But I've seen some flashlights. And, you know, you've just got to warn people not to come out at this point, because there's no telling. I mean...
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: No, they think it's over. It's not over.
COOPER: Yes, exactly. And take a look down here. This sand is -- I mean, part of the sand is -- you know, sand is always a problem. But this is just filled with shells, which just become these sharp projectiles. So, it's definitely not a good idea to come down to the beach. There's really not much to see at all.
The water is still pretty much where it was, you know, a couple of hours ago.
ZARRELLA: Yes, it's just...
MYERS: Well, they're...
ZARRELLA: It's just dead calm here.
MYERS: They're protected in their home right now. They come out thinking it's over, and then all of a sudden 20 minutes, 45 minutes from now they're walking back to their house, and they're in a 100- knot wind. I mean, that's just not -- that's not smart. Stay inside.
ZARRELLA: And that's when many of the injuries and, unfortunately, the deaths occur is people come out in the eye thinking it's over, and then you get slammed with the backside instantaneously 100-mile-an-hour winds just about. And that's the worst thing. COOPER: So, Chad, you're saying those winds -- once the winds do pick up, which direction are they coming from?
MYERS: They're going to be coming out of the north. I can kind of get a better idea. I haven't really been able to do much of a track here for you. But here's Naples, and then here is Marco Island. The backside of the eye is kind of obscured here. We've got a couple of radars on top of each other. But literally, I would say you can't have more than 45 minutes. I mean, the storm is just -- the wind is going to be pouring out of the north.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Chad, I...
COOPER: It's going to be interesting just to take a picture of us now versus what it's going to be an hour from now.
ZARRELLA: Yes, it's been 30 minutes now that we've been in the eye.
COOPER: Yes, it's a surreal feeling, Zain.
VERJEE: I was just listening to Anderson and John, what they said just moments ago was that, you know, for the past 20 minutes or so there has been a dead calm that they describe as a little bit eerie. Why is that briefly? I need to get back to Miles in a moment.
MYERS: Inside the eye there is very little wind, because there is no mixing. You're actually in the lowest part of the pressure. When you get into the wind and into the squalls is actually where the wind is around the eye wall. That's where the heaviest wind is.
Now, I don't even see you guys' hair moving. It's like -- there's like no wind there at all, is there?
COOPER: Well, that's my toupee, but I don't have (INAUDIBLE).
(LAUGHTER)
MYERS: All right.
VERJEE: All right, Chad Myers, Anderson Cooper, John Zarrella, we'll continue to check in with you.
Let's go back to Naples and to Miles O'Brien.
Miles, how are you holding up?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Zain, I'm doing better than the microphone. We've got it fixed. We're going to press on as best we can. Lots of things are failing here. The power is out at the complex here since last we spoke to you. A lot of our lights are going down. We're going to do our best to stay on the air as we can.
We've got to remember one thing about this storm. Last year about this time, Charley came through here, a category 4 storm, a big storm. It was a very tight, compact, small storm. This one is a monster as far as size.
And so, even as we're getting a taste of the eye wall here, and looking forward to what they're getting in Marco Island now, which is a little respite to get our equipment back together, all the way on the other side of the state they're feeling the effects of this storm.
CNN's Allan Chernoff is in Hollywood, Florida, where they're battening the hatches there as well.
Allan, good morning to you.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now, the local forecasters are saying it's a little more than 50 miles an hour at the moment. Rain is pounding down, but the real danger for where we are at the moment actually comes from the sand. Just nailing us like little bullets. And that's the reason I'm wearing sunglasses at the moment.
The surf (AUDIO GAP) from us yesterday when we arrived. It was about 100 feet down there, if not further. So, the waves are coming in a little stronger.
We're standing on basically the pool deck of a hotel, the Holiday Inn. You can see that the grass roof of the Tiki Bar is hanging on. The palm trees are really swinging right now. They're just waving back and forth, but they're holding on pretty well. And I just saw a little bit of lightening in the background.
We still have power here at the hotel. But across the street, the power went down about a half-hour ago. The front desk clerk said it sounded like a little bomb going off.
But thus far, the hotel itself seems to be doing fine. I'm not sure how much longer that's going to last, because we have sent the lights flickering.
Back to you.
M. O'BRIEN: OK.
VERJEE: Again, with Miles O'Brien in Naples.
Again, this is a difficult situation. A major hurricane is going to be pounding the coasts of Florida. And as you can imagine, we struggle also with the communications.
Chad Myers, though, we never struggle with. He's always there. Chad, give us a sense, for people who are just joining us...
MYERS: Yes.
VERJEE: ... where things stand now.
MYERS: Well, the center of the eye has not really made landfall yet, although the eye wall certainly has made landfall here. It's at the south and east of Marco Island, north of, let's say, Florida City. But this is really not a significant shoreline, if you will. It's a swamp line. You'd be hard to find a lot of soil in this area. Once you get south of Everglade City, this is really -- if you want to talk about bayou, this is the Everglades. This is the swamp that you see those airboats driving through. And even when you're flying over and in airplane landing in Miami, the whole ground down there, it looks like there are plants, and it's just all shining in the sunshine, because it is just all wet down there.
This storm, though, is moving to the east and affecting the big cities. Homestead now even into Miami-Dade and on up into Fort Lauderdale, and these big cities will get wind speeds over 100 miles per hour. And that's going to be the major concern now, not whether the eye actually made landfall in the Everglades or not -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Chad Myers.
Let's get right down to Key West. Key West just a little while ago was enduring what I'm enduring right now.
Chief Bill Mauldin is at the other end of the line here.
Chief, how are things going there now? Do you have the sense that the worst has passed?
CHIEF BILL MAULDIN, KEY WEST POLICE: Well, we're hoping that the worst has passed. We still anticipate some surge coming onto the north side of the island. We had significant surge on the south side of the island. And we have some really bad flooding on that side.
We were out at about 4:00 a.m., the mayor and myself and a couple of others, and we went around that area. And it was very, very significant. It's the worst flooding that we've certainly seen here. And this is our seventh storm.
So, it's pretty bad. And we're not sure about the structural damage that we have here. But we're getting ready to do our assessments. The wind is starting to die down, but we do anticipate more surge.
M. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you about the surge. When you say it's the worst you've ever seen, would you care to venture how deep it is? And are you concerned that there are people trapped?
MAULDIN: Well, I don't think the people are necessarily trapped. I think they're just not, you know, coming out of their homes. It's best that they do stay in their homes. But indeed the water is up. It is in many homes.
I noticed that the water was up to the -- almost to the hood on many cars. So, you can kind of gauge it by that. You know, probably two to three feet. So, it's significant.
M. O'BRIEN: Now, this happened at a bad time for Key West. A big festival, sort of a Mardi Gras meets Halloween festival you have every year. Upwards of 80 percent of the people there decided to stay despite your urgings. Are you concerned about that right now?
MAULDIN: Well, we have a lot of people who did decide to stay. I mean, but we had a mandatory evacuation in place. And that's entirely up to people whether they want to stay or not. A mandatory evacuation essentially says there won't be any services available. And there will be no infrastructure to support you if you get in trouble. So, you know, that was a decision that they had to make.
Now we have to deal with the aftermath of the storm and see what we need to do to facilitate the needs and requirements of the community.
MYERS: Give us a sense, chief, what sorts of calls, if any, you got during the thick of it and what sorts of calls you're getting now. Do you have a lot of calls for help right now?
MAULDIN: We have received calls for help in terms of water in the home and asking us to come out and support them. And, you know, we told them that we'll get to them just as soon as we can. But hopefully, we're going to see this water receding on the south side of the island fairly soon. The pumps are working. The drains are working. You know, so we hope we'll get rid of it fairly quickly.
M. O'BRIEN: So, chief, when you tell me the pumps are working, that must mean there is some power still available there, or maybe there's just emergency generators.
MAULDIN: Well, I mean, we are without electricity. But they have -- when I say they've been working, they were working up to the point until we -- you know, we lost the electric capability there. And we do have some generators in place. And so, you know, we're hoping to have that capability. And we were able to get some of the water out hopefully.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. And, chief, just as an aside, we just heard from the National Weather Service the storm has officially made landfall in the Everglades. Cape Romano is the location, somewhere south of where I am now, north of where the chief is at this moment.
Chief, in general, do you feel as you look back on it that you did all you could to get people out? You've got people who are in most harm's way, the elderly, the infirmed. Did you get them out of there in time?
MAULDIN: I think we did. We did everything we could. We ran buses from here up to FIU, the university. We provided support. We encouraged people to get out. My department went around and told people via P.A. that you really need to leave. So, you know, we did everything possible to get people to leave. And if they made the decision, it was theirs.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, chief, thank you for your time. And we wish you well, Key West. I hope that water recedes, and that will be the end of it, and you can get on with all that makes Key West a wonderful place. We appreciate your time. Let's check in with CNN's Jason Carroll. As I told you a little while ago, we have resources up and down the coast, as we've been telling you from Key West all the way up to Fort Myers, across the state in Hollywood. We've got our affiliates filling in any gaps. And on top of that, we have a mobile unit, Hurricane One.
CNN's Jason Carroll is aboard Hurricane One. When we last we spoke to them, they were making their way down 41, which is known as Alligator Alley.
Where are you, Jason?
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're still making our way. And as you can, we've come -- this is a lot of what we've been seeing as we move slowly along U.S. 41. Downed trees like you what you see up here. Adam, pull up a little bit more so they can get a better look at this. Adam is the producer here in Hurricane One with me.
You can see this is what we see as we come along here. A lot of downed trees, power lines.
The wind -- I heard Anderson talking about the calm. He's about 20 miles from where we are, south of where we are, down in Marco Island. Amazing just 20 miles how different it is. The wind is still roaring through here. As you know, we saw power go off here, which is why it's so dark. It's tough to see out there along U.S. 41, which is why we're driving so slowly, because you don't want to come across a downed power line. You've got to be as safe as possible when you're doing something like this.
When I spoke to the mayor a little earlier, he had told me that anytime the winds go above 45 miles per hour, all of the emergency crews are going to stay where they are. So, if anyone can hear this broadcast, you know, sitting at home wherever they may be, they just say you're going to have to stay there, because you cannot expect any help at this point, simple because it's too dangerous even for emergency crews to be out trying to do what they can.
Also, in terms of the people that are here, they mayor told us that 80 percent of the people, he believes, may have evacuated. He did enter a mandatory evacuation order.
We have not seen very many people out here at all. In fact, only one car along U.S. 41 as we've been making our way slowly along here as Hurricane Wilma bears down on Naples -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, Jason, give people a sense here. You sort of alluded to it. You're going slowly. You're being careful. You've got to watch out for flying debris as well though. How are you trying to stay safe and avoid that kind of thing as you go along?
CARROLL: You know what? It's basically a little bit of luck, because it's so dark out here. Quite frankly, you can't see when flying debris is heading your way. All you can do is just move as slowly as possible, be as conscious as possible. When you hear something out there, you slow down, a piece of metal or something like that. You slow down and try to assess the situation before you move forward even more. That's really the only thing that you can do.
It's a risky part of the business, but it is the business that we are in, as you know -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, Jason, we want you to stay safe. We also like hearing from you. Your insights are important as we continue our coverage here.
And, Zain, I'll tell you, this is getting worse as I stand here. I feel like I'm being sliced by these raindrops as they come in here. I don't know -- we'll have to check with Chad what the current gusts, but when last we checked, upwards of 70 miles an hour.
I'm looking forward to the eye of the storm, quite frankly, to get a little bit of respite. It's important to tell folks who are sitting and watching right now -- of course, watching where we are now is in the dark. But when that eye comes in and it gets quiet and it seems like it's nice, that's just a temporary thing. But it's a big eye. So, you might be lulled into feeling it's all over. But it won't be, because this will just be coming up the backside, just the wind coming from a different direction -- Zain.
VERJEE: How extensive are the power outages that are being reported, Miles?
M. O'BRIEN: Well, it's -- you know, it's hard to get a handle on it right now. As we drove in here a couple of hours ago, the lights were on everywhere. Now they're down. And I would not be surprised if at this juncture there is very little power in Naples, the city of Naples. That's a city of about 20,000 off-season.
The county, Collier County, is about a quarter-of-million people off-season. Probably inland there is still some power going, but right now, right along the beach here, I'm looking around and I don't see a single light blaring.
And there was -- we're at an inlet, Zain, right at the end of the inlet there's a little kind of lighthouse, a marker beacon for sailors and boaters. It's still lighting, so it must have some sort of emergency power.
We're obviously on the generators in our truck. So we can keep going. But this condominium complex, and there are a few people still in here, but it is completely dark.
Hey, Chad, I've got to ask you. Chad Myers, who by the way...
MYERS: Go ahead.
M. O'BRIEN: ... picked a rough week to take mornings off, by the way. And what are the gusts here right now? It feels like it's picking up quite a bit.
MYERS: You know, I think you're probably in the 80-mile-per-hour range, Miles. Because you know what? The whole eye wall now is sliding back south of you, and right there, even at Naples proper with 75. And it's been that for hours now.
And so this whole eye wall has been sliding right over the top of you. And the eye itself, the center of the eye went south of Marco Island, and has now moved inland. And so, you're going to get better, but you have to be patient. It's going to take another 20 minutes, and then literally your winds are going to from right where they are down to 35 miles an hour like that.
M. O'BRIEN: So I can't see, of course, what you're talking about.
MYERS: Correct, I know.
M. O'BRIEN: The eye is south of here.
MYERS: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: So where I'm standing, will we get -- will the eye come overhead or is it going to be on top of us?
MYERS: No. The eye is going to go south of you. You only get eye wall. You only get the worst of it. You never get any of the good part.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, thanks, Chad.
MYERS: Sorry.
M. O'BRIEN: I was hoping that we could get a few pieces of the gear going when the eye came through.
Chad, it's interesting to me when we talk about the evacuations, even after Katrina and Rita. In Key West, they were so stubborn about it. And folks stayed there. And then you come here, it's just the opposite. Eighty percent of the people here evacuated as opposed to 80 percent staying in Key West. It just shows you a different kind of mindset, I guess, from Key West, which I know you know well.
MYERS: Well, yes, they seceded from the Union, Miles. They made their own Conch Republic. So I guess that tells you something. They are hardy souls down there.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, an independent lot indeed. There is no question about that.
Chad, as I stand here, I'm looking at the surf. It's getting a little bit higher. I suspect we're going to get a little bit of a storm surge here.
MYERS: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: What are you thinking, six feet or so? Does that seem about right?
MYERS: I don't think it will be that much. I think six feet will be about 30 miles south of you and then south from there. This actually could be 12 to 15 feet here.
But you are actually going to get that dragged-in weather on the backside of the eye, because the winds will come from the north and then from the northwest as the storm moves to your east. And that will bring in probably four feet of water, depending on where you are now. You've got to judge it, because you're going up to high tide at this point as well.
M. O'BRIEN: OK. Well, where I'm standing I suspect I'm about four feet above the surf line. So we might have to take a little bit higher ground. Thank you very much, Chad. We'll get back to you shortly.
We're going to -- are we heading to Gary Tuchman now, is that right? OK.
CNN's Gary Tuchman is in that independent-minded Conch Republic, as they call it, Key West.
Gary, when I started watching you this morning, in the background there were quite a few people having -- what seemed to be trying to have a good time in the hurricane. We shouldn't give people the wrong impression. This is not anything to take that lightly.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Miles. And I will tell you that those people who were having a good time behind us, I don't think any of them were sober. This is a place where people like to imbibe on spirits.
There were taverns opened this very evening -- or yesterday evening. It's kind of all blending into us. But there were bars that were still open despite the mandatory evacuation. So we did see some people who had a few too many drinks who were wandering around.
But the worst part of it here is between 2:30 and 4:30 Eastern Time. We had two hours of sustained winds over 100 miles per hour.
It's interesting how the winds have died down quite a bit, but now we're starting to hear the metal roofs ripping off of the buildings nearby us here. On Duvall Street, they've been weakened so much from all this wind. That's what we're dealing with right now. So we're keeping a careful eye.
And the fact that we can't see, we're not the only ones who can't see. The police can't see either. And they're in a state of limbo right now, because they can't tell yet how much damage there has been here in the Conch Republic, in Key West, the southern most city in the continent of the United States.
Behind us is the northern part of Duvall, and there is some severe flooding down the street, as we just heard the police chief tell us. And they expect more as the storm surge moves in. This is what they're really concerned about in this direction. But they are telling us, the police, that this is the worst flooding they have seen in Key West. This city has not been directly hit by a hurricane since 1919. That was 87 years ago. It's hard to constitute what officially means being directly hit by a hurricane. The eye is not crossing here. But the dangerous part of the eye wall, the southern part of the eye wall did indeed hit here. And it was ferocious for those two hours between 2:30 and 4:30. Now they're going to try to figure out how much damage.
But we know one woman was injured when a tree fell on her house. She didn't evacuate. She stayed in her house. She was brought to a hotel right next to us, because no hospitals are open in the Keys. And then there are lots of families who are dealing with flooded homes.
The police chief told us that there are families waving flashlights from the top of their homes, because they were afraid the water was going to keep climbing. But right now, no serious casualties have been reported -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So there are some people? Because when I talked to the chief a little while ago, he wasn't so certain whether there were people stranded. There may be some people sitting on the roofs of houses or on the second story? Of course, there aren't that many two-story houses there. There are people, though, that may need some rescue?
TUCHMAN: Here is what I think is going on, Miles. There are people who were scared that the water was going to keep rising. And they are now realizing, remember what happened in New Orleans. Could this be happening to me, too?
So the chief does not think they're stranded. But indeed some of the police officers told the chief that the people were waving flashlights, concerned that they would be stranded if the water would keep rising. But right now they are not -- and we emphasize not -- in any imminent danger. But they may have thought that they were.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, it's worth reminding people, New Orleans, of course, an unusual situation with the levees and the fact that it is so much below sea level.
Gary, you are pretty much right at sea level or just a foot or so above it, I gather, where you are, right?
TUCHMAN: The highest elevation here in Key West, Miles, is a foot-and-a-half above sea level.
M. O'BRIEN: OK. So where you are, and you're right near Duvall Street, there wasn't that much flooding, was there?
TUCHMAN: No. As a matter of fact, I'm standing right on the center line of Duvall Street. No, this street right here there is no flooding at all. And that's a very good sign, because authorities said if it was a real serious flooding event this would be flooded, too. I will tell you some of the side streets near us though are flooded. In addition, many of the buildings and hotels are leaking and are flooded. But this main street here is not flooded, and that is a relatively good sign.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. And, of course, the city as jam-packed full of people there for this Fantasy Fest, which is kind of a weeklong celebration of Halloween, sort of Mardi Gras and Halloween together. It sounds like in many respects the party will go on tonight once this passes through.
TUCHMAN: Well, that's right. Fantasy Fest, you're right, a little Halloween, a little Mardi Gras, a lot of debauchery. And it's happened for 27 years in a row. And tens of thousands of people come in. They have parades where people are in various stages of dress and undress. And they have parties. And it's a very important economic engine here to Key West. And a lot of merchants are very upset that it's been delayed. It goes from October 21, which was three days ago, to the 30th. But it is expected to continue after this passes through as early as tonight.
They're saying you may be able to -- there's a custom here in Key West to go to Mallory Square, which is down the street here where the flooding is, where you watch the sunset. It happens 365 days a year, and they are anticipating that they will be able to have it again this very evening.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, I can honestly tell you, you have not lived until you've enjoyed a sunset in Key West. And I think tonight people will be doubly happy to be there and celebrating, having dodged yet another bullet there. Of course, it remains to be seen as we see first light in Key West and elsewhere.
Zain, we're dealing here in Naples right now. It doesn't look like we're going to get any rest from the eye as Chad was breaking the news to me a little while ago. Right now I'm getting about 80 miles an hour not quite sustained, but certainly gusts in excess of 80 miles an hour. Horizontal rain just slices right through me.
No signs of any power on anywhere where I'm standing right now. And there's a very angry Gulf of Mexico there. You can't really see with the light. In just a little while we'll get a glimpse of it.
Just beyond those (INAUDIBLE), it's getting higher and higher. It will be interesting to see how high it goes here -- Zain.
VERJEE: Miles O'Brien reporting to us from Naples in Florida. Miles, we'll continue to check in with you. Thanks so much.
If you're just joining us, the center of a very strong category 3 hurricane's eye hit around 6:30 this morning near Cape Ramona. Now that's about 22 miles south of Naples where Miles is in Collier County. That hit on Florida's southwest coast.
Many of our reporters are talking of strong gusts of winds. The power is out in many areas. Downed trees. The rain is pounding and lashing regions across Florida. Power poles are down as we said.
Gary Tuchman talking about flying debris from roofing that he's experiencing.
But also we just want to make clear that no serious casualties have been reported. But Wilma making her presence felt now in Florida after pounding Mexico's Yucatan peninsula for two days, and then making a sharp right turn to the Sunshine State.
Many people have evacuated areas as requested by local authorities. But many have not.
Jeff Shelar is a fishing boat captain. He decided to ride out Wilma. He is in Marathon, Florida. That's one of the Florida Keys.
Jeff, thanks so much for being with us. Firstly, describe to us what's going on, what you're seeing and what you're hearing.
JEFF SHELAR, FISHING BOAT CAPTAIN: Well, so far we did have a pretty good surge about two hours ago. Well, actually (AUDIO GAP). So we were kind of blocked in. But now that the wind has been switching around, we are seeing (INAUDIBLE) receiving a little bit (INAUDIBLE) the past hour.
VERJEE: Why did you decide not to evacuate?
SHELAR: We (AUDIO GAP) hurricanes. We have not (AUDIO GAP). We just felt like being here (AUDIO GAP), and have been pretty (INAUDIBLE) for all hurricanes we have (INAUDIBLE). And then where we live, we're a little off (AUDIO GAP)...
VERJEE: We seem to have a little bit of difficulty with our connection with you. Jeff Shelar, we'll try and re-establish that with you.
The center of Hurricane Wilma, a category 3 hurricane, has made landfall near Cape Romano. Chad Myers joins us now with more on that -- Chad.
MYERS: Yes, good evening or good morning, Zain. I guess it is already morning at this point in time.
The wind is now coming offshore here at Naples. This is exactly where Miles is. It is actually changing direction now, and will eventually, this band, this last band of the outer eye wall will move to the east. And that will be it for Naples and Marco Island.
The guys there at Marco Island, Anderson and also John Zarrella, right there still in the eye itself, in the calm part. But very quickly this band, this very heavy band of rain, will be over Marco Island. And people are out there walking around thinking it's over and the winds will be north at 80 to 95 miles per hour here in no time.
This entire storm, though, has really moved to the east. The most intense part is actually going to be on the eastern part of the state of Florida now, with damage from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale, down to Miami.
The 7:00 advisory now, we're getting them every two hours, so we don't have to wait for every three hours anymore. It is 10 miles north of Everglade City. That's where the center of Wilma is located. The winds now are 120, down 5 miles per hour, and is a category 3 still on the Saffir-Simpson scale. A category 3 begins at 111 miles per hour and goes up from there.
You have to remember, this was a 125-mile-per-hour storm, and now it's 120-mile-per-hour storm. So they are calling the center of the eye to the north -- what did they say? To the north of the Everglade City itself, which is right about here.
We did talk to the mayor of Everglade City. Ninety-five percent of the people are out of there, but still about 20 people remain. His entire city is right at sea level. And it is forecast to be an eight to 12 foot storm surge right over that city.
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