With the 2 p.m. ET update from the National Hurricane Center, category 3 Irma is now 35 miles south of Naples, with sustained winds of 120 miles an hour. The strongest winds will hit Marco Island in the next couple of hours.
“Trust me. This is not the worst of this coming in,” predicts the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore.
ABC is continuing with its live network special report with Elizabeth Vargas and Dan Harris. Shepard Smith continues on Fox News and Brian Williams leads MSNBC coverage.
Sam Champion lost his wind gauge during coverage on MSNBC. “This is the worst of the day.” Carol Costello is anchoring continuing coverage on HLN. “This place is pretty much a ghost town,” storm chaser Brett Adair told Costello from Marco Island. “Considering the 110, 120 mile per hour winds I’m surprised I’m still on the phone with you,” he said.
Funnel cloud forms over Fort Lauderdale, Florida as Hurricane #Irma leads to tornado watches across the state https://t.co/qid16ZXMQ0 pic.twitter.com/Qycena6B2T
— ABC News (@ABC) September 10, 2017
John Berman anchoring for CNN from Miami tells his colleague Kyung Lah across the bay in Miami Beach: “As a second source, I can confirm this is the heaviest rain at this hour.”
.@KyungLahCNN “Oh, my goodness. I’m just going to call it. This is stupid” as two guys on bikes ride by her #irma liveshot on Ocean Drive. pic.twitter.com/1eVOdaktwL
— TVNewser (@tvnewser) September 10, 2017
- Related: TVSPY: How Ft. Myers Stations Are Covering Irma
This is the first weekend of the 2017-18 NFL season, and CBS will air special reports during half time of games. The CBS Evening News will expand to an hour and CBS This Morning will go on an hour early at 6 a.m. Monday.
NBC News and Telemundo anchor José Díaz-Balart is leading continuing coverage for Miami’s Telemundo station WSCV and other Florida Telemundo affiliates. Bi-lingual reporters from Miami NBC station WTVJ are helping out as well.