Hurricane Irma

When the approaching storm sucked the water out of the shallow bay in Florida, it left a pair of manatees stuck on the bottom. Good Samaritans and Manatee County sheriff's deputies helped out.

The hurricane, which smashed through the Florida Keys earlier Sunday, is hitting the state's southwestern coast. The storm weakened to a Category 2 with winds at 100 mph by Sunday night.

As Irma batters Florida, the storm's earliest American victims fear they will be forgotten by the mainland. Largely reduced to wreckage, the U.S. territory is now struggling to pick up the pieces.

At the Kennedy Space Center, riding out a hurricane means something a little different. You have to keep the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle capsule happy.

"Your efforts could make the difference a family needs to get through this storm," Gov. Rick Scott said.

Cellphone service outages can leave people unable to ask for help or get in touch with family and friends to say they are alive, but drones can help assess damage and get things running again.

A storm surge of up to 15 feet over parts of Florida remained one of the biggest concerns Saturday. "This will cover your house," Gov. Rick Scott warned. "You will not survive."

The software of major airlines monitor supply and demand, then lower or raise prices accordingly — within seconds. That can lead to some exorbitant prices, NPR's Scott Simon says.

With 155 mph winds, Irma is headed for Florida. More than 5 million people have been ordered to evacuate.

The latest hurricane models are using lightning-fast supercomputers to crunch ever-more data. And they're getting better.