Hurricane Irma attracts TV news, weather anchors to Fort Myers, Sanibel Island

• Sam Champion, formerly of "Good Morning America," gave Irma updates from his Miami Beach apartment
• CNN's Chris Cuomo reported from Miami, too, Tweeting: 'We chase storms so you don't have to'

If it is a bad weather day, or worse, a bad couple of weather days, it means rolling out the red carpet for some of television's top news anchors and weathermen.

With Hurricane Irma approaching the coast of Southwest Florida on Saturday, TV studs like Anderson Cooper of CNN, Al Roker of NBC's "Today" show and Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel were all in Southwest Florida.

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Cooper and his crew were stationed along the Caloosahatchee at Centennial Park in downtown Fort Myers late Saturday afternoon. The wind was starting to kick up and there was a light rainfall. Cooper was anchoring CNN's coverage throwing it to reporters in different parts of the state for updates.

Roker, a celebrity weatherman, was on Sanibel Island, giving live reports in advance of the storm. Sanibel was given a mandatory evacuation order on Friday. The island was a ghost town by Saturday.

Earlier in the day, Cantore was reporting from Germain Arena in Estero where thousands of residents were lining up to enter the shelter that was opening in anticipation of Irma's arrival.

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