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Hurricane Matthew Causing Emergency Evacuations . Aired 10:30- 11a ET

Aired October 07, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN HOST: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Chris Cuomo live in Jacksonville, Florida. He's following the path of Hurricane Matthew. I'm going to take you to Jacksonville in just a minute, but I do have a bit of breaking news to pass along to you right now.

And unfortunately, it's bad news. We've had our first storm-related death and I say storm-related but bear me out and listen to what happened. A 50-year-old woman suffered cardiac arrest. She died overnight. This is according to the St. Lucy Emergency Operations Center.

Perhaps the reason she died is because rescue workers could just not get to her. The winds were too strong and you heard government officials warning people that if the winds went above 30 or 40 miles per hour they could no longer help people in need, so emergency rescue workers just could not get to this woman.

Again, a 50-year-old woman has died of a heart attack. She died overnight during the height of the storm in St. Lucy. All right, so let's head to Jacksonville. The storm has not arrived there yet, but they're very worried about storm surge and flooding there.

Hi, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. You know, look, certain things are going to be unavoidable because of the circumstances and that's why you just want to take every available precaution. Something like that, you never know when somebody's going to have a health issue that can't be dealt with because of the exigencies of the moment. And that's why, the hope is, if everybody does what they have to, stories like that will be held to a minimum. And that's a good thing in a disaster situation. Storm surge is going to be the story.

The St. Johns river behind us, one of the few eastern cuts here on this coast of Florida is with Jacksonville about 15 miles to the east here, so that creates an opportunity for a volume of water that's coming with storm surge to come from the ocean and then literally funnel right into here and create flooding problems, which of course is going to complicate everything for the people here. That's several hours from now, and that's why the governor said, get while the getting is good. The I10 corridor is open so if you're supposed to evacuate now is the

time to move, preferably west. We're getting a little taste here of one of the outer bands of the storm. Tropical storm level winds about 40 miles an hour; nothing in compared to what will be coming in several hours. Now the storm has moved past Orlando south of here. That's where Alison Kosik is, but enough of a concern that the Walt Disney Parks were all closed, so you got a lot of families in the hotels there waiting it out, Alison.

[10:35:05]

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There really are, Chris. You know what a lot of Floridians do, the ones who actually live here, the residents who live along the coast, they actually evacuate their homes and come to Atlanta here to stay through the storm surge and also to have a choice of hotels, usually. So now the hotels are all booked up and you've got vacationer with those residents hanging out at the hotels, riding this thing out. And you've got a lot of people, you know, trying to pass the time.

They're going to the gym, they're telling their stories on social media. You've got Disney officials hiring more entertainment in those hotels to try to keep all these people occupied. Because what's happening is Disney is closed only for the fourth time in its entire history. You know, Disney started in 1971. It's only been closed for a full day four times and it was because of the weather. It's an amazing sight to see here. It really is desolate Disney.

Usually around this time you would see buses coming in here, you would see cars. There would be a lot going on, but instead there is a mandatory curfew until 7 o'clock tomorrow morning and you've got Disney World closed for the day. No word yet when it will reopen, but it really is a surreal site. We drove around some of the properties last night. Interesting to see, it's kind of like a ghost town. The lights were on, it was waiting for someone, nobody of course showing up, everybody battening down the hatches and riding out the storm last night.

Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alison. Let us know if the situation changes down there. Hopefully the worst is over. And, Carol, you know the concern for the upper half of this state into South Carolina, Georgia first will be what is yet to come.

COSTELLO: What is yet to come because Matthew has caused some damage in Daytona Beach at the moment. That's right below you, Chris Cuomo, so I want to show our viewers some pictures out of Daytona Beach. Our photo journalist Robert Ray(ph) shot some incredible video. He joins me now on the phone to tell us what we're about to see. Hi, Robert.

ROBERT RAY (ph), CNN PHOTO JOURNALIST: Hi Carol, how are you?

COSTELLO: I'm good. I hope you're staying safe, but you shot some incredible pictures of damage in Daytona Beach. What are we looking at? RAY (ph): Well, what we're seeing is a big debris field. You know, up and down the corridor, the main corridor where all the hotels are here on Daytona Beach which is right on the Atlantic Ocean, what you're seeing is roofs starting to dissipate and aluminum, and - you name it, shingles kicking down the streets. You're seeing big garbage cans being moved into the streets. There are trees that are down and, you know, the winds here are a sustained 75 to 80 miles per hour with gusts up to 105 miles per hour. And that's the issue, when those big gusts come through, that's when the structures start to tear open and hit the street. It's very dangerous right now.

On top of that, we're starting to see storm surge that's coming in off the Atlantic Ocean. And what happens is when the big bands roll through, you get that big, that foamy salt water that comes up very quickly and that also carries debris. And the issue is you have to be very, very careful because at one moment the water is right there on the beach and the next thing the water is moving up the road and onto the streets. And I want to remind everyone here that high tide is not until 12:47 p.m., so about two hours away Eastern time and that, I think, is going to be a bad situation with the storm surge. So we are parallel right now at Daytona Beach to where Hurricane Matthew is, so we are in the brunt of it as this counterclockwise twist makes it through here.

COSTELLO: Robert, Robert, you know this is a great report, but I'm going to have to interrupt you, Robert, because President Obama is about to talk about Hurricane Matthew. Of course, he's been briefed all morning long. Let's listen in to what he has to say.

(BEGIN LIVE COVERAGE) [10:39:00]

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, BARACK OBAMA: Obviously everybody has been tracking the course of Hurricane Matthew and I just received an update from our FEMA director, Craig Fugate, as well as the rest of our national security team. And I just wanted to make a couple of key points. First, what we're seeing now is Matthew having moved above south Florida and some of the largest population centers, working its way north. And the big concern that people are having now is the effects that it could have in areas like Jacksonville on through Georgia. And while we've seen significant damage in portions of south Florida, I think the bigger concern at this point is not just hurricane force winds but storm surge.

Many of you will remember Hurricane Sandy where initially people thought this doesn't look as bad as we thought and then suddenly you get massive storm surge and a lot of people were severely affected. And so I just want to emphasize to everybody that this is still a really dangerous hurricane, that the potential for storm surge, flooding, loss of life, and severe property damage continues to exist, and people continue to need to follow the instructions of their local officials over the course of the next 24, 48, 72 hours.

Those of you who live in Georgia, I think should be paying attention because there has been a lot of emphasis on Florida but this thing is going to keep on moving north through Florida into South Carolina. There are large population centers there that could be vulnerable, so pay attention to what your local officials are telling you. If they tell you to evacuate, you need to get out of there and move to higher ground. Because storm surge can move very quickly and people can think that they're out of the woods and then suddenly get hit and not be in a position in which they and their families are safe.

So pay attention to local officials. In the meantime, I've been in contact with the governors of all four of the potentially affected states. I want to thank them all for their leadership. There has been strong cooperation between federal and state and local officials. FEMA has worked diligently to pre-position resources, assets, water, food, commodities and as the hurricane moves north what Craig and his team will be doing is moving those resources and assets further north so that any place that happens to get hit badly will be in a position to immediately come in and help.

But I really want to emphasize the governors have been on top of this, state and local officials have been on top of this, they are the ones who are tracking most closely what is happening in your particular community, your particular area. You need to pay attention to them. Do what they say. Do not be a hold out here because we can always replace property but we cannot replace lives.

I want to than Craig and his whole team, as well as the department of homeland security and my own national security team for really staying on top of this. We're going to monitor this throughout the weekend. Our thoughts and prayers are with folks who have been affected. You know, it's - even if the damage in south Florida wasn't as bad as it could be, there are people who've been affected and for them they're going to need help.

The last point I'd like to make is we're still tracking what happened in areas like Haiti that were hit more directly. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has consistently been hit and battered by a lot of natural disasters to compound what is already great poverty there. We know that hundreds of people have lost their lives and that there has been severe property damage and they're going to need help rebuilding.

So I would ask all Americans to go to the American Red Cross and other philanthropic agencies to make sure that we're doing what we need to do to help people in need. And we'll continue to provide information if you're interested in how you can help the people of Haiti and others. You can go to WhiteHouse.gov and we'll provide you with some direction in terms of where even the smallest contribution can really make a big difference. All right. Thank you very much everybody.

(END LIVE COVERAGE)

COSTELLO: All right, President Obama talking about Hurricane Matthew. He mentioned Haiti. The death toll there rose to 271 this morning, so Haiti is suffering. You also heard the president mention Georgia because, you know, that storm surge that might hit Jacksonville might do the very same thing in southern Georgia.

This is video from Tybee Island. That's what you're looking at right now to my right. You see the surface getting a little rough there. After a break, we're going to bring you live to Savannah for a report about what folks are doing there to keep safe. Actually, the president is still talking. Let's bring you back to the White House and listen in.

(BEGIN LIVE COVERAGE)

OBAMA: Be cautious about making assessments with respect to damage. We're still on the front end of this hurricane. We're not on the back end. So we don't know how bad the damage could end up. We don't know how severe the storm surge could end up being and we're not going to know for three, four, five days what the ultimate effects of this are.

[10:45:12]

If we end up having really significant problems and really severe property damage, then the Stafford deck (ph) comes into play, our ability to provide through emergency declarations and other mechanisms more help to local governments, that's always going to be reflected. We have - as you know, we still have flooding in Louisiana that has left a lot of people homeless, over a hundred thousand people lost their homes there and we still have to rebuild.

There is a backlog of need from natural disasters around the country that we'd like hopefully during the lame duck session to figure out how to fund effectively. So the issue is not so much FEMA's funding for immediate emergency response, the issue is going to be making sure that after the, you know - in this case the hurricane, but in other cases flooding or wild fires or, you know, other natural disasters - after they've happened, are we in a position to properly help people rebuild? And we'll obviously make those assessments after the fact and then we'll talk to congress about how we can help out, all right. Thank you everybody.

UNKNOWN MALE: Thank you. Are you going to be --

(CROSSTALK)

OBAMA: I'm not going to go to the precinct. I'll probably do early vote. I'll fill out my form. Don't worry , I'll be voting. I'm going to be doing a little campaigning and a little voting too. All right, thanks guys.

(END LIVE COVERAGE)

COSTELLO: You knew the election had to come up, right? So the President said FEMA is in place. The emergency personnel in place all up and down Florida's coast and on into Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina and, in case you're wondering, the president is off to Chicago and reporters were wondering if he was going to vote in Chicago because they have early voting there. And you heard what the president said. All right, you're looking at pictures on my right from Daytona Beach.

And you can see some building suffered damage there and they're also worried about beach erosion in Daytona Beach because the storm surge is yet to come. We showed you a few pictures of that. You also heard the president say that the southern part of Georgia, along the coast, those people should be very worried about the very same thing, flooding and storm surge. After a break, we'll take you live to Savannah. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:50:00]

COSTELLO: All right, we're still following the breaking news that is Hurricane Matthew. It remains a category three storm. It's hovering just off the coast right around Daytona Beach, Florida. It's a very slow moving storm, so it's just stuck there. On your left are pictures out of Daytona Beach, Florida. They did suffer damage there. They're still suffering wind gusts there all the way up to 100 miles per hour.

Tybee Island, Georgia, well the worst is yet to come. You see the surf is a little rough there right now, but the storm, as I said, is moving very slowly at 10 miles per hour. So it will be sometime maybe this afternoon that Matthew will reach Tybee Island in Georgia. And that brings me up to this because people there are running out of time to evacuate before the bridges are closed. Sara Ganim's live in Savannah, Georgia. How are things there, Sara?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know that's right, Carol. You mentioned Tybee Island. Just moments ago, the mayor of Tybee Island, a last ditch effort message to the people who live there, he was saying you really have the next hour or so to get off. He said most people did evacuate, but there are some people who are trying to stay behind and soon it's going to be impassable. This morning, we have seen a little bit of rain come through. Of course, nothing like what you've seen in Florida, but here's what is happening here. Thousands of people now evacuating from the greater Savannah area.

You see these buses behind me, Carol? More than 2000 people have gotten on 40 buses that have left over the past two days. People ranging from young mothers with kids to the elderly to the disabled. I talked to one young mother just moments ago who was in tears. She said, you know, she was leaving with her son, her one-year-old son, and her husband, but her mother and her husband's father were refusing to leave. They wanted to stay behind. This is where they lived their whole lives. But she was incredibly scared for them. Asking for people to call her mother and tell her mother to evacuate. We have seen and heard stories like that here all morning.

Another woman who was saying in this Savannah area where the storm surge could be up to 11 feet, her neighbors, they were saying, their neighbors with young kids. She was worried about the neighborhood kids. As she was getting on these buses and leaving for Augusta for safety, people here are really worried about the residents that are staying behind. I talked to one city councilmember who said, this is going to be a historic storm and you don't want to be a part of history here in Savannah by trying to wait it out. Officials are going to put into effect a curfew starting at dusk

tonight and if they see you out on the street after that, they will arrest you, take you into custody, simply for your own safety. And shortly after that when those stronger bands start getting closer to Savannah, those emergency responders are going to go to safety. [10:55:16]

The National Guard is out here helping. They are in armored Humvees but I just talked to one of the service members who said they're not going to be out all night when it's rough. They're going to go to safety too and at that point, residents who decided to stay behind are going to be out on their own. Like I said, we have seen a couple thousand people come to this facility with the belongings that they could carry with them to get on these buses to head to safety, but there are still many people staying behind, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Sara Ganim reporting live from Savannah, Georgia. We're awaiting a news conference out of South Carolina. The South Carolina governor Nikki Haley expected to speak at any moment now. So at this point I'd like to thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [11:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: And I'm John Berman.