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Hurricane Matthew Heads Toward U.S.; Sunday's Presidential Town Hall. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired October 06, 2016 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:30:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In moments, we're going to hear from the South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley, because they are awaiting the effects of the storm there. She'll begin a news conference. We have a live picture out of Columbia, South Carolina, at least we did. Actually the governor will have the latest on the storm, its potential impact and what the state is now doing to prepare.

In Florida, the governor, Rick Scott, has sent a clear message this storm will kill you if you don't get out. Some 2 million people are being urged to evacuate. And roads from the Florida Keys to South Carolina are already filling up. You saw that there. Motorists have already flocked to gas stations, creating long lines and occasional outages. Some stations have placed limits of just a few gallons per vehicle. And many grocery stores and convenience stores along the coast have seen their shelves picked clean. Bottled water, bread, milk, all gobbled up by customers right now.

So let's head to Daytona Beach for the latest. Boris Sanchez is there.

Good morning.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol.

This storm is getting closer and closer. And as we've been standing out here all morning, the winds have been growing harder. Already we've been hit with some rain and that surge, you can feel it coming, that storm surge that is of gravest concern because it brings up water several feet. We're expecting the potential for up to seven feet of water to come up to where we are right now in Daytona Beach.

As you mention, there are evacuations throughout the state of Florida, all along the coast. North of us, in Flagler County, here in Volusia County and south in Brevard and, of course, St. Lucie County, as well, more than 2 million people being told to evacuate. Mandatory evacuations may reach beyond levels that we saw in 2012 with Hurricane Sandy. So there's serious concern out there.

But there are still some people that are sticking around. I actually spoke to a family a few minutes ago who are from Indianapolis and they're visiting Daytona and they told me they were going to stick through this hurricane. They're staying at a hotel nearby. We've seen businesses boarded up. We've seen our own hotel boarded up, with sandbags as well, but it may just not be enough. That's why the governor is not mincing words, saying that people will die because of this storm so you should be prepared to evacuate and do it now.

There are about 84 shelters that are open across the state receiving people that are fleeing areas that are going to be targeted by this storm. Obviously as we get closer and conditions get worse, hopefully we won't see people trying to evacuate then because that makes things extremely dangerous, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Boris Sanchez reporting live from Daytona Beach for us this morning.

Fort Lauderdale, there's a voluntary evacuation order in place right now. We just saw some people at the beach there. You see them. They're filling sandbags. They're getting ready for the torrential downpour that will surely come their way by the end of today, perhaps as early as tonight. And, of course, the force of Hurricane Matthew will probably hit the state of Florida maybe Friday morning, late Thursday night.

But I want to bring in a man who knows. Rick Knabb, he's the director of the National Hurricane Center, the people responsible for bringing us the latest update on the storm's intensity and path.

Welcome, Rick.

So, tell us, where's this thing going to hit and when?

RICK KNABB, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Good morning. Well, it is already hitting the Bahamas, no doubt about that, near Nassau and Andros Island. And the outer bands are starting to arrive here on the coast of southeastern Florida. So this morning and mid-day down in this part of the state, the last chances people have to take their last-minute preparations both coastal and inland, and our forecast track brings it toward the southeast Florida coast with the core of the hurricane possibly coming right onshore in some portion of the hurricane warning area here in southeast Florida.

But, again, even if the center of circulation stays just offshore, you can easily still have the hurricane conditions on land and strong winds penetrating well inland. I live in suburban Fort Lauderdale, in Broward County. I've got my shutters up and my family's not going anywhere today. And then you've got the coastal storm surge problem. There are evacuation instructions for a large portion of the East Coast of Florida for storm surge. If you're told to evacuate, get out now. The roads are open still. Get over those bridges. And if you're in mobile homes and told to evacuate, that's a dangerous place to be because of the winds, even if you live inland.

COSTELLO: So, Rick, again, please emphasize how dangerous this storm is. This storm is a potential killer, correct?

KNABB: Absolutely. And there are so many different hazards that take people's lives in land falling tropical systems like this. It's obviously a hazard to have the strong, extreme winds of a major hurricane. This could be category four when it comes ashore in some portion of Florida. And then you have all the water hazards. One out of four people that die in land falling systems like this die due to inland flooding caused by heavy rain. Half the fatalities are due to storm surge in the coastal areas. That's the deadliest hazard overall. Nine out of ten people die because of water, wind and water in play here.

COSTELLO: I'm going to - I'm going to have to interrupt you because the South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has begun speaking about emergency preparations in South Carolina. Let's listen.

[09:35:01] GOV. NIKKI HALEY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Those will be - that evac - excuse me, that evacuation will start at noon is when we want to plan on doing that.

As you heard, John, the big concerns that we have are storm surges are going to go much further inland than people realize. And that's a lot of water all at once. The winds are going to be incredibly high, and then the rain is what we're concerned about that may give us something similar to what we had with the flood last year, you know, when you're talking eight to twelve inches and getting into higher numbers past that.

So we do want to be careful. We want everybody to take this seriously. We're doing this for a reason. And it's because we really do question John and his colleagues on what it looks like. We'll continue to look at this and we're going to look at it again this afternoon.

So, having said that, we are coordinating with our sister states. Florida and Georgia have already declared portions of evacuations and so we're just working with them on traffic and making sure that we're all talking together so that we're running with the same message. The I-26 lane reversals ran beautifully. And I - again, I want to thank the National Guard, all law enforcement, Director Smith, Secretary Hall, for doing a great job with that. Believe it or not, the average time to get from Charleston to Columbia now is an hour and 21 minutes. The average miles per hour is 70 miles an hour. So we actually want people to slow down a little bit. But that's a great problem to have because people are moving through and that lets everybody else that needs to evacuate know that this is the time to do that because we will continue those lane reversals as long as we see the traffic moving and then we will move that back accordingly as we need to.

As of 6:00 a.m. this morning, 175,000 people have evacuated. That's not enough. We need to have more people evacuating. And this is the part that I want you to think about. If you are still sitting at home, if you have not evacuated, gas stations are getting ready to close. Your pharmacies are getting ready to close. Everything is going to leave. Because people have to protect their own families, so they're all going to do that.

So, number one, fuel up, quickly. We know the Circle K gas stations are going to start closing at noon. But everything else will close. So you will not have access to stores, gas stations, pharmacies, all of those things. So we really do need you to think about that. The gas stations will close down. So you will not be able to get the gas. And so that's something that we're very concerned about along the coastline, and especially in Charleston and Beaufort, that that's going to start happening today. I can't thank enough law enforcement and National Guard. You've seen

them all along the checkpoints. We have 700 control points and they literally are everywhere. But they're working long hours and they're doing a lot of work and so I hope that you'll remember them and our DOT maintenance crews as we go forward and thank them as you come in contact with them.

We have 100 buses positioned right now at the North Charleston Coliseum. So anyone that needs to evacuate, please do go ahead and start looking at - at loading those buses. We will bring them in to the upstate as we need to and make sure that they get shelter as well.

We have 38 shelters currently open as of 11:00 last night. We can have 50 additional at any given time. So whenever those start to fill up, we have more than enough room to do that. So far 677 residents are living in shelters at this point. We do have one special needs shelter that is open, but we have four more available as needed also. Two pet friendly shelters are available in the low country, and so for those who were worried about their pets, we do have some pet friendly shelters that are open and I know that that makes a big difference. And those are in the low country.

DHEC is in the process of transporting 150 patients from two nursing homes, and so that is continuing to go smoothly. Hotels - all of the hotels across the state, not including the coast, are pretty much full. I think we have a few rooms left in Anderson. But your best bet now is Charlotte -

COSTELLO: All right, I'm going to jump away from this news conference from Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina. But the evacuation orders seem to be going well in the Charleston area. The governor says 175,000 people have already left the area. She says, you know, they reversed the traffic so all the traffic is running one way away from the water. She says that's worked very well. In fact, people are going a little too fast to get away from Charleston and she said to slow down. But it is good people are leaving, because you can't say that in all parts of Florida.

With me now on the phone from Fort Lauderdale is Miguel Ascarrunz. He's the director of emergency management for Broward County.

Miguel, how are voluntary and mandatory evacuations going in your area?

MIGUEL ASCARRUNZ, DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT FOR BROWARD COUNTY (via telephone): Yes, as of yesterday evening, we completed our voluntary evacuations. Our mayor had issued a voluntary evacuation for all low-lying areas of the county and mobile homes and any resident who did not feel safe in their homes. We wanted to strongly encourage them to evacuate yesterday evening.

Right now we have approximately 1,400 of our residents, and the public in our general population shelters. We have 11 shelters open in total. Two of those are especially for people with special needs, our most vulnerable folks, and there's a little over 100, accurately 76 people in those special needs shelters. So, at this point, we're encouraging our residents and the public to stay hunkered down in their homes, their shutters should be up, and placed throughout the storm.

[09:41:00] So right now we're under both a state, local emergency. And that means that that triggers any potential aid or additional resources that we may need to request from our Broward emergency operations center. We transition to a full-scale level one activation of our emergency operations center this morning. So we have over approximated 300 personnel here to deal with power outages, life safety issues, and to keep people safe. Our Broward sheriff's office is here. Both fire rescue and law enforcement. And so we're all in this together.

The major impact from Hurricane Matthew are expected later this afternoon, and into Friday. And as the public knows, Hurricane Matthew is intensifying and could be a category four hurricane when it reaches the south Florida coast. So it's important - our number one priority is public safety here in the emergency operations center, and we're going to continue monitoring from here.

COSTELLO: All right. Miguel Ascarrunz, I'll let you get back to your job. I heard the phone ringing to you. Thank you so much for joining me right now.

And just to reiterate, if you're under a mandatory or voluntary evacuation and you're hearing from your local municipalities, your local governors and mayors to get out, please leave now because this storm could hit as a category four hurricane, which means it could have sustained winds of 145 miles per hour. Very damaging. And then the storm surge that comes after it, it just could be catastrophic. It could definitely destroy property and, of course, it could cost lives.

It already cost 15 lives in Haiti. It's hitting the Bahamas right at this moment and perhaps will hit Florida sometime late tonight or early Friday morning.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:47:14] COSTELLO: All right, Hurricane Matthew continues to be - well it's really bearing down on the Bahamas right now. Very strong winds there. Hurricane Matthew, of course, is headed toward Florida. The governor of the state of Florida, Rick Scott, said this morning, if you're in the evacuation zone, get out. And there's a good illustration of what he was saying. You know, it happened moments ago in the Bahamas. A reporter standing on her balcony tried to go out and do a report, you know, on the strength of the winds in the Bahamas right now, and here's what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're - we're really getting slammed by these winds right now and some of these structures even having a hard time. So we're going to go inside. I think will be some good advice. Let's take it inside. The wind's just too strong right now.

So, Nick, I'm going to ask you to back up a little bit. Maybe let - I want to get him out of the wind because I'm worried about that camera. But, I mean, you can see what we're dealing with. Forgive me, I know I'm kind of talking in circles. But we're just getting slammed out here by the weather.

But I was trying to say, we saw that structure across from us actually shifting in the winds, which is not something - that's a - it's a big, metal structure there over the bar by the pool. So that's shifting. I'm told by hotel employees they have lost a couple of their security cameras outside, which not surprising given the strength of these wind gusts that we are seeing. And here in the lobby, of course, the wind bringing in all of this rain. It is - it is a mess here. They are doing their best to try to keep these tiles, but the water is starting to pool - to keep them dry, but the water, of course, now starting to pool here. And just out there, the front of the lobby, that is - that is the south. So the storm is coming from that direction, and we've seen a grand palm out there on the front of the property actually snap at the trunk. So a lot of force needed to do something like that.

But we are told the core is actually very close to us. There is a storm chaser who is here at the hotel with us and he says it's just moving so slowly but it's so close. So, amazingly, the conditions here are going to get even worse.

Back to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The conditions will get worse because as she said, that hurricane is moving very slowly. It's moving toward the northwest, towards the United States at about 10 miles per hour. It could become a category four storm, which means it will carry winds of 145 miles per hour.

This could be the worst hurricane to hit the East Coast of Florida ever. So, please, please, obey your local officials when they tell you to evacuate because they're not kidding around.

All right, let's talk some politics now.

Donald Trump will get a shot at redemption when he faces off against Hillary Clinton in the second presidential debate on Sunday. It will be a town hall where the candidates will field questions from the audience. It was that type of format that tripped up George H.W. Bush in 1992 when he infamously checked his watch during a question from an audience member and then stumbled through an answer. Then Governor Clinton was able to capitalize.

[09:50:10] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How has the national debt personally affected each of your lives? And if it hasn't, how can you honestly find a cure for the economic problems of the common people if you have no experience in what's ailing them?

GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, I think the national debt affects everybody. Obviously, it has - has a lot to do with interest rates. It has --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's saying you personally.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You. You, on a personal basis, how has it affected you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Has it affected you personally?

BUSH: Well, I'm sure it has. I love my grandchildren. I want to think that -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How?

BUSH: I want to think that they're going to be able to afford an education. I think that that's an important part of being a parent. If the question - if you're - maybe I won't (ph) get it wrong. Are you suggesting that if somebody has means that the national debt doesn't affect them?

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Tell me how it's affected you again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Umm -

CLINTON: You know people who have lost their jobs and lost their homes?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, yes. Uh-huh.

CLINTON: Well, I've been governor of a small state for 12 years. I'll tell you how it's affected me. Every year Congress and the president sign laws that make us do more things, it gives us less money to do it with. I see people in my state, middle class people, their taxes have gone up in Washington and their services have gone down, while the wealthy have gotten tax cuts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK, so you - good illustration, right? So who might benefit most from this up close and personal format come Sunday? Let's talk about that.

I'm joined by former campaign manager for the Bush/Quayle ticket in 1992, Fred Malek.

Welcome, Fred.

FRED MALEK, FORMER BUSH/QUAYLE CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Thank you. Good to be here.

COSTELLO: I'm so glad to have you here. So when you watched that moment from that town hall in the early '90s, what goes through your mind?

MALEK: Well, Carol, it's kind of painful because that was a really good boost for Clinton and not so good for my guy who's - who's a wonderful man and was a wonderful president.

But I think it relates to a very important point here, and that is that any debate, it's not so much -the substance is important, but it's not so much the substance, it's how you handle yourself, how you relate to a questioner, how you show the demeanor, the relatability, the friendliness, the understanding, the empathy, that you get it. You understand where that person is coming from and you're going to help that person get through it. And that's, I think, what Donald Trump has to do in this next debate.

COSTELLO: So Donald Trump's campaign says, look, this is where Donald Trump thrives. He holds these big rallies.

MALEK: Yes.

COSTELLO: He can relate to people. People cheer him. Does that necessarily mean that his style works in a small town hall?

MALEK: It doesn't necessarily mean it works. I think what he's got to do, look, first of all, let's start with the premise that he's - he's losing at this point. He lost the last debate. I think what he needs to do is get away from the arrogance, get away from the kind of bullying nature and get down to where he's leaning forward, talking to that questioner in an empathetic way, in a softer tones, in an understandable way that shows that he is a person of the people who gets where he or she is coming from and he is relating to that problem.

It's demeanor. It's - look, 70 percent of the people in this country think this election is bringing out the worst in people. Two out of three distrust both candidates. It's a race to the bottom. He's got to show that he is in control, he's got to show that he has empathy and he's got to get away from the arrogance and show a little more humility.

COSTELLO: Well, he tried to do that earlier this week. He had this town hall with retired military veterans and one gentleman asked him about PTSD and this is how Donald Trump answered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: When people come back from war and combat, and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over and you're strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can't handle it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So you see, he was - he had the right tone of voice, right, and he was trying to be warm and inviting and answer this man's question, but he went a little bit too far. So what did he do wrong?

MALEK: Well, I think - I think he went a little too far in talking about why people have PTSD rather than what the solution is. I think what he could have said is, is, you know, it's this tragic thing that people have PTSD and when I'm president of the United States, I'm going to correct the terrible problems they have in the Veterans Administration under this administration, under the Obama/Clinton administration, and we're going to take care of our veterans. He could have gone right to that and shown more understanding.

In this case, I think, with the town hall he's in - going to be in now, it's a great opportunity for him to kind of shift course, show people that he is a relatable person, show people that he's not a bombastic arrogant billionaire, that he's somebody who understands and gets it. He gets where the ordinary guy or gal is coming from and he's willing to address those problems and take care of that person. That's what he's got to do, I think. That's what people are going to remember. They're not going to remember so much the substance, they're going to remember, how does he relate to people?

[09:55:12] COSTELLO: Fred Malek, thanks so much for your insight. I do appreciate it. Thank you.

The next hour -

MALEK: Good to be with you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Nice to have you here.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:59:47] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We do begin with breaking news. Right now the southeast is facing its most fearsome hurricane in years. The Bahamas getting absolutely battered right now as Hurricane Matthew barrels toward Florida. We are expecting to hear from that state's governor at any moment now. He's already urged millions of people, though, to flee the Atlantic coast.