As this comes along, if it gets close enough to that, it's going to get swept up in that
flow and go that way.
But so far, it's looking like it's going to stay south, and this system is going to move
away as well.
So this bears very close watching, especially late in the week.
Let's go ahead and locate it for you so you can plot it.
19.2 north, 59.5 west, 50 mile an hour winds, west, northwest at 21, and there you see the
central pressure.
It's reported now that it may be forming an eye.
It was disorganized, becoming a little more organized though.
And the question is, is it a threat to us?
It's only a threat in the sense that it's not that far from us by the way these storms
go.
We are expecting the storm to start turning on a more westward track similar to this.
If the storm continues on this path and it is heading right down the pike of due west
at this point, we expect that the storm is going to be in our neighborhood here by early
in the day, Monday.
A hurricane watch is now in effect for South Florida.
As you can see, it is almost two o'clock in the morning, and here at Varadero on Coral
Way, every single one of the cashiers is busy.
They've been busy all night.
We're loading up for a couple days, three days at the most, and we strongly recommend
that they follow the law and evacuate, it's for their own well-being.
This is serious.
Hey you surfers, everybody out of the pool.
And when he said 150 miles an hour, I said it's time to leave.
You're in an evacuation area.
What are you doing?
Staying.
Why?
I got two little dogs, I will not take them no place, and I don't, you know, they will
die.
They are pleading.
They are asking any doctor, anybody with medical, any medical personnel to go and help out in
the shelters.
Are you scared?
Not really.
Cool, calm, and collected.
At Jackson Memorial Hospital, the hallways are lined with pregnant women.
Now let me say this to you.
I don't think this hurricane is going to be as bad as they're drawing out to be.
Why take the chance?
The process of evacuation for South Florida should be pretty much wrapped up by now.
It is just about concluded.
We're expecting to have the winds arrive, start arriving very, very shortly.
It's absolutely for sure.
No question about it.
It is going to happen tonight.
At this hour, the center of the hurricane is located about 40 miles due east of Miami.
And it is a big hurricane.
What do you think is going to happen to you when it starts blowing here really hard in
a few hours?
I'd say the wind is going to really, really blow friggin' hard.
We've also been told now that they are experiencing heavy rains in the Fort Lauderdale area, so
it appears now as we had anticipated.
It's 11.59, in fact it's 12 o'clock straight up.
We hit that one pretty good, didn't we?
We sure did.
It's been about 90 minutes since the buses stopped rolling in Broward County.
The buses that were taking evacuees from the coastal areas to the emergency shelters.
And it was about 30 minutes ago that emergency coordinators suggested people stop driving.
People should have been to those emergency shelters or wherever they were going about
30 minutes ago.
It's not safe to be driving on these streets anymore.
Standing on the beach strip in Fort Lauderdale, it's about seven or eight hours before we
will feel the full strength of Hurricane Andrew.
But already winds are 30, maybe gusting to 40 miles an hour.
It is starting to rock and roll out here.
We just came from downtown Miami where there is a quiet crisis in the making.
We're talking about the homeless population under the expressway.
Take a look at the tape we shot.
There are dozens and dozens of people still camped out in their little cardboard shanties.
We have been told four county buses will go and pick these people up.
The outer bands of the hurricane are now coming across South Florida.
All police units have been ordered to return back to base.
The ocean has begun to invade the land over here.
We are standing right next to where the pavement begins at Highway A1A.
Normally the ocean breaks about 40 or 50 yards out there.
As you can see, we're getting pelted by the rain.
The winds have picked up.
I'm having to support myself on this palm tree over here.
We're just starting the long period of about 12 to 16 hours where we're going to experience
the thrust of this hurricane.
All right, do you have any, you want to pin down where this eye is going to come ashore?
Well it looks more and more like maybe even South Dade County.
The center will be very close into the Cutler Ridge area for instance, maybe the Homestead
area, but coming right across to South Dade County here.
And Brian, I don't know if you can hear the wind.
Let's listen to it for a second because it's definitely an ominous sound.
And that's just the beginning.
And here are the effects of Andrew as he begins to arrive here on Miami Beach.
You can see the palms blowing and then over here you can see the sand.
It's almost like a, it's almost like a blizzard, a snowstorm of sand.
And here you can see the wind is really picking up.
In fact, the car is rocking back and forth and I'm sure that's evident in the picture.
Here's a bicycle tied to that sign that's just flapping back and forth.
And as we look down Ocean Drive, we have spotted what may be some of the first real damage,
a window that's been knocked out in all likelihood by a piece of construction debris or something
that's been picked up by the wind and then thrown right through that window.
And on top of this one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight story building, there's
a flag on a mast that is, well, it's hanging on there, I'm not exactly sure how.
We'll see whether that's the white flag of surrender.
Everybody has basically left the beach, the white flag blowing.
What is it like out there right now and are you feeling a little concerned for your safety?
Not really.
It's an old building.
It's been through a lot of hurricanes.
We've got a wind meter inside and we've got 106 so far, miles per hour.
We're looking at downtown Miami and every once in a while there's a brilliant burst
of lightning that just fills the sky and it's sort of an aquamarine lightning that just
fills the sky.
Well, here you can see the water's just whipping up, the wind is whipping up, the surf is
just coming right across the front of our car.
We're on the MacArthur Causeway and the reason we can't get off the MacArthur Causeway is
because as we turn over here, let me take the window down, turn it down just for a minute.
There you go.
There's a tree that's down blocking the road.
Just listen to this wind.
I'm going to hold the microphone right up to the open window.
We're asking everybody to get into a position where they can be safe, not be moving about
for the next couple of hours because we're about 15 minutes away from supposedly the worst
part of the storm.
So we're asking everybody to kind of get a safe spot and hang loose.
22, you'll have that control.
It's right there.
I don't care, it's right.
We may be into something here or worse than what we thought.
Just keep an eye on this wind.
I see you there.
I see you there.
I see you there.
I see you there.
I see you there.
I see you there.
This is a strange position to find myself in, but I'm laying on the floor of the car.
My head's right up here on the seat.
This is the reason I'm sort of sideways.
We're underneath metro rail.
The winds are gusting outside our car up to 165 miles per hour.
The car is shaking as if there were 10 people on either fender bouncing it up and down.
You can see the camera bouncing here.
I've got myself in this position in case some debris were to fly through and maybe hit a
window.
At least my head will be out of the way.
Photographer Steve Schneider on the other side there, you can't see, but he's in somewhat
of the same position as me, other than the fact that he's somewhat taller than me.
He's six foot five, so he can't get down quite as low.
This is the one place, I guess, that if we have any sense of safety, it is here simply
because we are underneath the metro rail right at one of the archways and the car is just
in between.
If anything does blow through here, hopefully it will hit the cement stilts that are holding
this up.
Friends, it is going to happen now for Dade County.
Now, once the storm goes even further inland, this intense part of the storm is going to
go through Coral Gables and it's going to go through Coconut Grove and it's going to
go inland into the Kendall area and it's going to be very, very bad all the way west, as
far west as this county goes.
We have just been told that some people in Dade are beginning to lose power.
Whatever dumb luck we had has ended here.
The power just went out throughout all of this Hallandale area.
When you see us move and you're watching us, we want you to move to your safe spot.
I'll tell you what, maybe, Rafael, you could find a couple batteries here to bring in here
as we go in here so that we don't run out of power, although I guess Tony has a mic
in here that we can use no matter what happens battery-wise.
Here we are, Ryan, we're all set.
I'll tell you what, this is the safest spot, without a doubt, here at the station.
The absolutely most intense part of the storm right now is coming ashore at South Miami,
Cocoa Plum area, the Gables Estates, Gables by the Sea, all that kind of area, just south
of the University of Miami.
Do not think that you are in any way safe.
If you have not hunkered down and got that mattress over you, friends, this is the time
to do it.
Get to that interior closet, get a mattress over your head, get your family in there,
and just wait this thing out.
And Kendall?
Storm shutters have blown off, trees are down.
Fences down.
Fences down.
The eye is just coming ashore there in Cutler Ridge.
We have no Miami radar, so we can forget the Miami radar, it fell off the building.
All we can tell people is hang on.
Our producer is telling us that we have an NBC reporter, is it Bruce Hall?
Bruce, go ahead, please.
All right, a couple things from the outside area of your building that you may not be
aware of yet.
You've lost a satellite dish out here, the fence that is around has now disappeared.
What you're getting is a very hard driving rain that is coming in with gusts of wind.
It is throwing a lot of debris and material around.
To do this, I have to have another fellow hold me here because the wind and the gust
just about pick you up, and that is the way it is.
I've been through a number of hurricanes in my career with going through these storms,
and this is among the third or fourth worst that I've ever been in.
That would compare with Camille, Hugo, and Frederick, which went into Mobile in the mid-70s.
Bruce Hall, this is Brian Norcross.
Can you hear me?
Yes, I can.
All right, let me tell you that we can tell you with assuredness that here in downtown
Miami we are not in the intense part of this hurricane.
Intense part of this hurricane is 10 miles south of us and covering the rest of Dade
County to the south.
Well...
I don't know if you heard the report we had Dr. Sheets on as they're trying to survive
the storm at the Hurricane Center at this point.
They had 152 mile per hour gusts, and here we're estimating we're experiencing something
on the order of 80 to 90 mile per hour winds in downtown Miami.
So that's the kind of difference we're talking about.
And it is a very significant difference.
And while you are talking about winds of 80 to 90 miles an hour right here, and you're
protected by some buildings occasionally in the downtown area, once you get up to 150,
that is a major difference.
And we can tell the effects of that as we see the wind and the rain and debris come
through the area.
And you can tell in certain areas, probably to the south as you indicate, it's got to
be a lot more severe than this.
Well, I can tell you with absolute assuredness we have people that have died.
I mean, I say that just because we know what the weather conditions were like, and anybody
there would not have survived along the bayfront in South Miami with those kind of things.
I tell you, Bruce, if you're out there for our sake, please come on in.
You've made your point, and we certainly appreciate it, but we have no further need of your services
out there.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.