Live coverage of the “Morning after Irma hits the Tampa Bay Area.”

Thanks to our LIVESTREAM partner WFLA TV NEWS CHANNEL 8 for their video feed from Saturday through Monday. Now we thank CNN and Fox News.

Tampa Mayor Buckhorn “We got a tough glancing blow.”

Speaking this morning on MSNBC the mayor of Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, talked about warning his city’s 377,000 residents to get ready for Hurricane Irma’s wrath. He talked about a press conference where on Thursday when he warned his city’s residents that “We are about to get punched in the face by this storm.

But early Monday morning after Tampa didn’t get that direct hit from a Category 3 Hurricane, but Irma made a move that took it east of the city. Irma was a Category 2 and according to Buckhorn, “We didn’t get a punch in the face but we got a pretty good glancing blow.”

Irma continues to move north to Gainesville, Jacksonville as it is a now a Category 1 Hurricane.

Irma continued its slog through Florida, while its outer bands were blowing wind and rain into Georgia. With rough conditions persisting across Florida, many communities in the storm’s wake feared what destruction would be revealed when daylight came.

In the Tampa Bay Area, the morning will provide a chance for first responders, members of power companies and other key workers to see how bad the damage really is. Also, it seems that the storm surge that once was thought to be as high as 10 to 12 feet will, in fact, be closer to three or four feet.

Much more manageable than the massive storm surge that was expected to flood much of the Tampa Bay area. Downtown Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater were all expected to see record flooding.

But the fact that Hurricane Irma was not as powerful as once thought it would be plus the track moved inland to the south of the area was the main reason that it was not as bad in the Bay Area as was expected.