Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

Category Three Hurricane Milton Closes In On Florida. Aired 4- 5p ET

Aired October 09, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: This does not portend well for residents who have decided to ride this storm out in evacuation zones. The time simply is too late to get out.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yeah, that's right. It is time to hunker down, although certainly officials, Boris, their hope had been that they would have long left, but that time has unfortunately passed.

Boris, great work there from Tampa. We know that you continue to do it.

"THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts right now

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

We're following breaking news as a monster Hurricane Milton is just -- just hours away from making landfall on Florida's west coast. It's already making its presence known through winds and rain, and bringing Florida its most tornado warnings in a day on record, 90 tornado warnings and counting. You're looking at one of them, one of those tornadoes crossing I-75.

Here's a tower cam that was airing live on CNN affiliate WINK as a reported tornado tore through Matlacha. If you want to understand how truly devastating the storm could be, just listen to how President Joe Biden described it in a briefing, just this afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's looking like the storm of the century, many communities in hurricane Milton's path do not have a moment to catch their breath between Helene and Milton, two historic storms in two weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The storm of the century, possibly.

Vice President Kamala Harris just called in to CNN's Dana Bash and echoed those stark terms.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is unlike anything we have seen before. We got a lot of tough, strong people in Florida who have been through a lot of hurricanes, tornadoes. But this is not like anything they've dealt with before.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

TAPPER: Milton may now arrive by 11:00 p.m. Eastern this evening, earlier than initially expected, giving it less time to weaken. That's because the track has shifted just slightly south, meaning it could hit land sooner than previously projected, possibly at or near Sarasota, Florida. Regardless of where Milton makes landfall or what category it is when it makes landfall, officials say Milton could be one of the most destructive storms on record in the United States.

Officials have been warning for days now that if you are in an evacuation zone and you do not leave, you will die. Mass evacuations have snarled traffic and emptied many gas stations, but now the Weather Service says, the time to evacuate is over. It is time to shelter in place, stay indoors unless a life-threatening situation arises. Bridges across the entire region are being shut down, including the Sunshine Skyway bridge, which connects Pinellas County to Manatee County.

I want to show another view that illustrates the dangers of this storm. This is a security camera outside a house in Fort Myers, Florida. It picked up the violent winds of an apparent tornado.

Let's go straight to our meteorologist, Elisa Raffa in CNN'S hurricane headquarters.

Elisa, where is Milton right now? Just how widespread is the impact including these tornado warnings?

ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. I mean, Jake, it's still sitting 100 miles south and west of Tampa, but the winds are just so wide. We now had a category three hurricane. It's got winds at 125 miles per hour at its center.

So it is still a major hurricane and doing what the category number for you. We have these tropical storm-force winds that stretch 310 miles. This has more than doubled the size from what it was yesterday. Like we were talking about when the intensity fluctuated. Look at how much wider got a wider storm means more people will be impacted across the state because these winds are just far-reaching.

You could see wind gusts are ready nearing 50 miles per hour in St. Petersburg, Naples, and Miami as well, these outer bands that have been coming onshore old day have been nasty. We're talking about a record number of tornado warnings for the state which we get tornadoes with land-falling hurricanes. But this has just been excessive today.

And what has been remarkable about these tornado warnings as a lot of them have had a considerable damage tag, meaning that the tornado was so large and so dangerous, they were worried about the breadth of damage that a tornado can -- could cause.

I mean, look, it's just the cells that have just been popping from all of these tornadoes old day across south Florida. The tornado watch continues until 9:00 this evening, winds will continue to spread across the state, hurricane-force winds from coast to coast. You have those major hurricane force winds in the purple there from Tampa down to Fort Myers and even, you know, no matter what the intensity is, it will drag the ocean with it. It has been sitting over the ocean for days now.

So we're really worried about that storm surge, even if the wind speed in the center is coming down, that ocean is not. Nine to three feet of storm surge from Sarasota down towards Fort Myers, eight to 12 feet going into the Tampa Bay area, again, even up to eight feet down towards Naples, and Marco Island.

[16:05:08]

And this is the un-survivable part that the -- that the officials have been warning about. This is what we are worried about -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Elisa Raffa standby. We're going to come back your way in a little bit. As Milton moves in towards Florida, the weather service now says the time to evacuate is over.

CNN's Brian Todd is in Tampa, Florida, for us, highlighting the struggles of those who decided to leave and the struggles of those who opted to stay.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, Florida bracing for impact as hurricane Milton begins to come ashore. Milton's outer band bringing multiple tornadoes today with more likely to come as the storm gets closer to landfall, forecast to hit as at least a category three hurricane in just a few hours.

The National Weather Service is warning that Milton could be one of the most destructive hurricanes to ever hit west central Florida. Millions have been urged to evacuate, long lines of cars and backed up traffic from the areas expected to be hit the hardest, showing that many have been listening.

JARED PERDUE, SECRETARY, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: We were glad that that people chose to leave, see and where they lived and were evacuating to get to safety.

TODD: But even for those who decide to leave, challenges on the way, more than 1,700 gas stations in Florida were already out of fuel Wednesday morning.

BREEZY CALVILLO, NOT EVACUATING HOME: I would prefer to be at the house than to be stranded in the middle of the street somewhere where that's just as dangerous.

TODD: And even those who feel confident in their decision to stay admit there's only so much you can prepare for a storm like Milton.

What else is kind of having you and your family a little bit worried right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I definitely a north live in the track. If it keeps coming north, you know, we could be in trouble.

TODD: And officials reminding those that stay that when the worst of the storm hits, they will be on their own.

SHERIFF CHAD CHRONISSTER, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA: When you make that call for help, I can't imagine what you would feel when you ask for help and it's too dangerous and help's not coming. Don't be that person.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): And on that subject of 911 calls, on that subject of 911 calls, fire and rescue officials are telling us that once the winds get to 45 miles an hour and higher, they will not be able to send first responders out. If anyone is in a crisis at that point, they won't be accessible by first responders. And we are not far from that point right now.

Jake, we're just like the one both behind me right here, are pretty much going to be impassable within a few hours.

TAPPER: All right. Brian Todd, thank you. Please stay safe.

Let's go to CNN's Bill Weir. He's in St. Pete.

Bill, what are conditions like there right now in St. Petersburg ahead of landfall

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Jake, they're nasty and getting nastier downtown St. Pete behind me, keeping an eye on those four big tower construction cranes, 34 stories are worried about those in 100 mile-an-hour winds so far were sort of gusting less than 50 miles an hour.

We're going to go down to the waterfront here on the St. Pete pier, to give you a sense of the difference depending on where you're standing of a violent physics of the storm. And this one feels different, Jake. I got to say -- then to a few of these, not the least of which is that this is a second of a one-two punch for us from Helene.

I spent yesterday looking at these mountains of debris which are going to be turned into either floating are flying debris in this hundred mile an hour blender named Milton. But we're just beginning to see the waves really kick up on the jetty here at the St. Pete pier. Off in the distance, that's a nice restaurant called Tik, really perilous position right now.

At the yacht club here, most of the boats have been taken out. It was always a few stragglers whether they didn't have the time or the resources to get their vote out of there. They're taking in their chances some of these sailors around here as well.

In Pinellas County, we understand, three shelters have already filled up, but there are 11 more for available for folks. But at this point, wherever you are right now, is where you will spend the rest of this hurricane -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. CNN's Bill Weir. Thank you so much.

We're joined by Sarasota police chief, Rex Troche, right now.

Chief, the track could still change, but it does look as though Milton could come ashore near or just south of Sarasota.

Do you have a sense of how many people evacuated and for those people who did stay in their homes -- is it too late for them to go to a county shelter right now?

CHIEF REX TROCHE, SARASOTA POLICE: Yes. It's really hard at this point to tell how many evacuated. If I was going to base that off the traffic that I see on the street, I think a lot of people evacuated. So that's a good thing.

We're at the point now where we need to really start thinking about hunkering down, right, staying in place, because as I sit here, I'm going to cat five building and the cat five window to my left is shaking. So, cars out there going to be all over the road, right now they really that window for leaving his really gotten tighter and smaller.

[16:10:04]

They really need to think about sheltering in place down, Jake.

TAPPER: You feel safe in your area of Sarasota and that cat five building?

TROCHE: I do feel safe in this building, but there's times when these gusts of winds and we're just at the beginning of it, Jake. These winds are really shaken, these windows really bad here on the sixth floor. So I'll get to a point were all have to rethink even my position because I am on the top floor with potentially the roof coming off this building. That's the type of storm that hurricane really that were looking at.

TAPPER: Sarasota is still, of course, in the process of rebuilding from Helene just a couple of weeks ago, are you worried that some of the structures already compromised are weakened? What might happen to them and what could that look like if Sarasota takes a direct hit from Milton?

TROCHE: Yeah. You know, we talk about the perfect storm. I don't -- we didn't really talk much about Debby. We had Debby, then we had Helene, and now, Milton. Debby, we had a ton of rainfall. There's really nowhere for this water to go to.

Then we had Helene, the structures here paid the price for it, and now we have Milton and we're just going to have a ton of flooding along with this water surge, and these buildings are really in tough shape right now. So we're doing the best that we can to mitigate this, collaborating with our emergency operation center and are different departments within the city.

TAPPER: Is there anything that you need from either the federal government or the state government that you did not get?

TROCHE: I would say, fortunately, we have a great relationship with the state government. Governor Ron DeSantis, I know they're talking with FEMA. Right now, we're getting to that point where once these winds get to 45 miles an hour, Jake, we're going to be bringing our officers off the street.

These people need help. We're not going to be able to come to them with these wins the way they are. After that happens, we're going to wait until this hurricane passes, and then were going to go into recovery mode.

And recovery mode is we start opening the streets or tactical first in teams go out there, make sure that all the debris is removed, the electrical lines are down or removed from the main thoroughfares, and then were going in there and were going to start saving lives.

TAPPER: I'm not sure I've ever seen this number of tornado warnings that we've seen today across the state. Have they impacted your area?

TROCHE: Not that I know of, but I can tell you this, we always focus on the hurricanes, but we really do forget about the amount of tornadoes that are attached with that. So I'm glad that you're bringing that up to the people because that -- we're looking at our little apps that we have on our phones and we're seeing all these tornadoes are popping up. And I've never seen all that read in the past ever.

TAPPER: We've heard a lot from officials about misinformation, rumors, conspiracy theories, a lot of that in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. I'm wondering if that's something that you have encountered that is made your job more difficult.

TROCHE: You know, I haven't seen that person but I can tell you this, that we're doing our best to give out information. So if people follow us, they know that they're getting the real story, the real deal.

We're obviously not going to give out misinformation. We know that that can lead to tragedy. So we have great public information officers. We're constantly putting out content for that very reason.

So people know to come right to the source.

TAPPER: Where should they go if they have working Internet right now?

TROCHE: Yeah. So, they can come to our Sarasota police department. They can go to our Facebook. They can go to our Instagram. And what we've been trying to do is put as much information out because we both know so that a lot of these people passing out this misinformation or simply doing it for profit and not doing it because they care about the people being impacted by this hurricane.

TAPPER: Chief, I want to bring in your colleague, Sarasota County Commissioner Mark Smith right now.

Commissioner Smith, what else do you want people in your area to know or be aware of right now as we all await landfall?

MARK SMITH, SARASOTA COUNTY COMMISSIONER: Well, one thing to do is just be safe. You should be hunkered down right now, shouldn't be on the road. Sarasota County's been working for several days now to get the shelters open, and so everybody should be where they need to be. We have 30 -- 5,300, over 5,300 people in shelters and 11 locations and Sarasota County.

TAPPER: You're a lifelong Sarasotan, Mark. Does this storm feel different than others?

SMITH: Yes, yes. The last hurricane that really hit Sarasota was Donna in 1960. We've had hurricanes brushed the coast. This is a direct hit and so we haven't seen anything like this since I've been in Sarasota and I've been here since 1963.

TAPPER: All right. Mark Smith and Sarasota Police Chief Rex Troche, thanks to both of you.

[16:15:02]

Best wishes. Please stay safe.

Getting fueled to Florida's 7,500 gas stations is a growing problem right now. On top of this hurricane, there are people including the former president spreading misinformation about this storm and about Helene last month. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is headed to the camera. I'm going to ask him about all this as Biden -- and the Biden administration trying to respond to these emergencies.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: As more outer bands of Hurricane Milton start to move in on Florida, all four major bridges that connect counties in the Tampa Bay, Florida area, are now closed.

CNN's Leigh Waldman positioned in Tampa before those bridges closed.

Leigh, give us a sense of how conditions are in that area right now.

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, the road that we're on, you can see some cars trying to make their way through here, but the rain has been consistent here all morning long and this road already flooding, Jake. We've had less than three inches of rainfall today, but we're expecting anywhere from 10 to 15 inches of rain to fall here in Tampa, associated with Hurricane Milton.

[16:20:02] I want you to add that to the expected storm surge that's supposed to pack a punch with this storm as well, anywhere from eight to 12 feet. That is life-threatening amounts of water that could be flooding this area. Now, what's iconic with Tampa is the bay. You can see the bay behind us in the bay is angry, Jake.

The water is having whitecaps on it. You can really -- you can't even make out the buildings behind us those conditions. We could see it 20 minutes ago. We can see buildings off in the distance. You can't see it anymore.

And we keep getting hit with these gust of wind. Now, they aren't sustained wind, but it gusts of wind that we're feeling one now, we have trees all around us that we're keeping our eyes on to make sure nothing breaks off from these trees. But it is a dangerous condition and that's why people were told to get -- get out of here, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Leigh Waldman, thank you so much.

President Biden has been directly involved with hurricane preparations for Milton. He's also addressing the rumors surrounding both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

Here's what he said earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNTIED STATES: For the last few weeks, there has been a reckless, irresponsible, relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies that are disturbing people. It's undermining confidence in the incredible rescue and recovery works that has already been taken and will continue to be taken. It's harmful to those who need help the most.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Let's bring in Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

Secretary Buttigieg, good to see you. As we just heard, President Biden spoke about information. Has there been any specific concrete fallout from this misinformation? Obviously, it's horrible for misinformation to be shared. What have been some actual results that have caused damage?

PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Well, what I know is if you're out there and you hear somebody saying that the 750 bucks for example, that that is what FEMA does to help you get immediate food, diapers, water, if somebody out there says that's all you're going to get, and you believe them, then you might not apply for more funding, which you can and should get and which you deserve, such as one example of how there can be real harm for real people as a result of lies or misinformation spreading.

Look some of it sounds incredibly at so outlandish that you wouldn't really worry about people believing it, like a United States member of Congress talking about whether control. But, you know, a lot of folks, if they hear a member of Congress say something because it's a member of Congress, they -- they might believe it.

And we've got real work to do. You know, a part of how we're coming out at this is by getting good information to people. We're pointing them to trusted, reliable sources of information, which isn't just us, it isn't just the federal family, you know, FEMA, the president, but also local sources like your mayor, the state sources, 511 is an especially important one for good transportation information. If you want to know what routes are available, are certainly directing people toward 511, and the transparency that you saw.

You know, yesterday, I was in a briefing participating in cabinet agencies briefing President Biden on both our response to Helene and our preparation for Milton, a part of me was thinking and I hope Americans understand the level of coordination and the level of seriousness going on.

So I was very pleased to see today, another briefing that was open to the general public and was a televised soup people can see the information that is reaching the president and vice president and hear directly from leaders of organizations like FEMA and the National Hurricane Center about exactly what's going on and what measures they need to take to stay safe and to get on the road to recovery.

TAPPER: So, right now, one in five gas stations in Florida is reportedly out of fuel. Obviously, that fuel is needed for any number of reasons, including evacuations. What's the plan to get more fuel to the state of Florida and how can that be achieved?

BUTTIGIEG: So I know our colleagues at the Department of Energy have been monitoring this. As I understand it, this is likely driven not by supply issue coming in, but by demanded issues and spikes in demand from people preparing for the storm. I know that the governor and industry and the administration have all been engaged in -- in coordination on this. My understanding is the state is also helping tanker trucks get to areas where there had been spot shortages, to help make sure that fuel and energy are available.

Now I mentioned that this is driven by the demand side and not to supply side right now. But I will also say, we don't know how long Port Tampa Bay will be unavailable, but Port Tampa Bay is responsible for about 40 percent of the fuel coming into Florida.

So we are working on coordination for the response and recovery phase both understanding what steps can help get that poured back up and running as quickly as possible once the damage assessments done and understanding alternative sources of ways to get fuel in -- whether we're talking about overland, pipelines that served the state of Florida and other ports that will either come online quicker or will not have had to close because of the hurricane.

[16:25:09]

TAPPER: What is the status of evacuations right now? Are the highways equipped to handle the volume of traffic once the storm starts hitting?

BUTTIGIEG: So we've worked to help the state make sure that the maximum throughput of those highways is available, measures like ensuring that the shoulders are open as travel lanes on I-4 and I-75. Anything past that I want to make sure to defer to the state and local authorities who are going to have the most up-to-date information.

TAPPER: Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio wrote an op-ed for "The Wall Street Journal" today in which he said, quote, the Biden-Harris response to Hurricane Helene, the deadliest storm since Katrina, has the people of the southeast and especially Appalachia paying an extraordinary price for the administration's incompetence, unquote.

I'm not sure if you -- if you read that op-ed. But I'm wondering what your response is to that -- to that suggestion from the senator from Ohio.

BUTTIGIEG: I didn't see that op-ed, but I'll tell you is that everybody that I have been engaging with, who is actually dealing with this issue on the ground -- state, federal, or local, Republican, Democratic or neither, is talking about the teamwork that is going on and the response where everything that anybody is coming to the administration for they are getting.

Certainly, our department has been able to provide 100 percent of the funding that has been requested. We just moved $100 million to North Carolina, $32 million to Tennessee. We know that's just the beginning, that there is more where that came from.

But look, obviously there are different agendas at play right now. But I got to tell you, you know, I've been on the phone, including today than I've been in touch with senators, governors, mayors today and in recent days.

And you would never know from our conversations whether we were a belonging to the same party or different parties. That's not what this is about. That shouldn't be what this is about because I'll tell you, this hurricane doesn't care whether you're Republican or Democrat. It is going to affect so many Americans.

And every American can and should expect the 100 percent support of their federal government, no matter how they voted.

TAPPER: I saw Elon Musk was out there on X, formerly known as Twitter, sharing information, misinformation, and coming at you and you reach back out to him and apparently you had a conversation.

Can you tell us more about what -- what happened there?

BUTTIGIEG: Yeah. Yeah, I saw a tweet that I didn't think was right about the FAA and FEMA. Pretty soon, we were on the phone and determined that while the FAA was certainly not restricting or preventing delivery of Starlink equipment, there was an issue which we were able to work together on and deal with and take care of very quickly. So, to me, it's just an example of how so often picking up the phone

or having a real conversation, not an online conversation, can really help get things on stuck. And look, I will say there are a lot of people, whether were talking about private industry, civilian volunteers working to be helpful out there.

Our role is to make sure we facilitate and coordinate that. One example of that has been a private pilots offering to help in the Helene response. I imagined we'll see something like that in Florida as well in the Milton response.

FAA's role is going to be to make sure that's coordinated and that it's safe to facilitate it in a way that helps make sure that the airspace is safe and available for emergency use. But look, this is a time for people of goodwill to work together, and to seriously address these issues.

TAPPER: Secretary Pete Buttigieg, thank you so much. Appreciate your time, sir.

BUTTIGIEG: Thank you, likewise.

TAPPER: Even at this late hour, Milton's exact landfall could still change and have a devastating impact on millions of Americans. That's what has the experts are worried. We're going to go back to our meteorologist Elisa Raffa, what she's looking for when the next forecast track comes out. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:33:14]

TAPPER: As Hurricane Milton closes in, even the slightest change in the forecast could have a big impact on two very different areas.

Here is the director of the National Hurricane Center, just a few hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BRENNAN, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: So a track of the center to the north of Tampa Bay would push the highest storm surge into Tampa Bay itself. A track five or 10 or 20 miles south would push that higher storm surge say, down to the Sarasota-Port Charlotte area?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Let's bring back in meteorologist Elisa Raffa.

Elisa, explain why this track is so hard to predict compared with other storms when they were so close to landfall.

RAFFA: It's because of the shape of Tampa Bay and because this storm has been doing a lot of wobbling. You see this line, this line shows the history of where the center has been. Look at that little wobble that it did at some point yesterday, then it kind of a straight line, but even just a couple of hours ago, there's another one, there's another wobble, so its been doing these little tracks to one side and treks to the other.

When it comes to the shape of Tampa Bay that is incredibly important. This is the center line forecast for where the eye will go. We've seen the impacts, of course, the entire peninsula because the storm is 300 miles wide at this point.

But when it comes to that exact point of landfall, for the eye, that will really determine where some of the greatest storm surge is. And again, when it comes to the storm surge, that's the highest strongest winds in the eye of the storm pushing that ocean inland, right? And when it's three feet, it gets to the bottom of your house, but a lot of these places again, were looking at 8, 10, 13 feet of storm surge and they take out a lot of homes in this area.

When it comes to Tampa Bay specifically, it's because of the way that the bay is shaped, right? So in Tampa's worst-case scenario, that exact eye would be either right up against Tampa Bay or maybe a little bit to the north. Then you'll have those onshore winds funnel straight into the bay and take the worst the storm surge, most of the ocean straight into the back.

If that eye goes a little bit to the south, again, doesn't have to be by much, right? We're not talking about it, a miss in the forecast, right? We're talking about it just going a couple of miles to the south.

Now, all of a sudden, because of the way that the hurricane rotates, you have an offshore wind in Tampa Bay. So, that sends the water is receding and since the worst of the storm surge into those places to the sound like the hurricane director was talking about you know, into places like Port Charlotte you know, Venice and Sarasota area.

But again, I want to emphasize we are looking at the entire coast, seeing storm surge. What were talking about here is the difference of the -- you know, the 12 feet, the nine feet, you know, some of those bigger, bigger numbers. That's where we're talking about here, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Elisa Raffa, we're going to check back with you when that 5:00 update comes in and just a few minutes.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is in Tampa as Milton's outer bands move in.

And, Isabel, you've been along the waterfront. Give us a sense of how conditions have changed just in the last few hours.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, it's like a rollercoaster ride, Jake. There's moments of just intense winds -- wind gusts, just slapping you in the face this rain of flying sideways, hitting you right in the face and it's serious.

I mean, we're looking at here a storm surge expectation of forecasted potentially eight to 12 feet for the Tampa Bay. This is the Hillsborough Bay which is connected to the Tampa Bay. Here's the Tampa General Hospital, the regions only level one trauma center.

I mean, they saw something unprecedented during Helene and that's the water is actually reaching up to the walls. That was around five to six feet.

If these tracks verify and you're looking at eight to 12 feet, the worst-case scenario, that would be unprecedented significant storm surge for the Tampa Bay area. That's what nobody wants to see.

I spoke with Sheriff Chad Chronisster. He's saying that the water and the debris is what is keeping him up tonight? He's so concerned for citizens here, especially those who have not evacuated. And the debris in particular, he is worried about his first responders.

He's saying that contractors dropped the ball and clearing out all this debris from Helene out of the area. And now he's worried these will be flying projectiles that could harm people or in the water where his rescuers hot, got to go to get access to people they could hit something unexpected. So he's keeping a very close eye on this, but very, very concerned -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Isabel Rosales, thank you so much.

Hurricane Milton is closer to its official landfall. You're going to see -- you see right there, the big mass there of red and purple moving in, right over the Fort Myers and much of the Florida gulf coast, the significance of leadership in a moment like this.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:42:17]

TAPPER: Back in our national lead, right now, residents in Hurricane Milton's path are being told to shelter in place ahead of landfall in just a few hours, a major tornado outbreak is currently underway across the state. It's already caused major damage in residential areas in Fort Myers, Florida.

This afternoon, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with military leaders as part of the, quote, whole of government efforts around the response to Hurricane Milton.

Joining us now, retired U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis. His new book, "The Restless Wave", just hit shelves. It's a captivating read that follows a young naval officer as he faces the bloody first years of World War II.

Thanks so much for being here.

So your novel is a historical fiction, but it also touches on something that I thought would be appropriate to talk about today, which is leadership in incredibly intense trying situations, something you know about as an admiral.

Let's listen to Governor Ron DeSantis earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: The National Guard is deploying 6,000 Florida National Guardsman, as well as 3,000 National Guardsmen from other states. We have 500 tactical vehicles, including 180 high water vehicles, aerial, water and ground National Guard search and rescue teams. This is the largest Florida National Guard search and rescue mobilization in the entire history of the state of Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Nine thousand National Guardsmen, 6,000 from Florida, 3,000 from other parts of the country, 500 tactical vehicles, 100 high- water, 180 high-water vehicles.

What does it take -- I mean, Governor DeSantis, I'm sure has a commander who's running that. For that commander, what do you need to do? What do you need to be like in order to efficiently command that kind of response?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS, U.S. NAVY (RET.): You know, I'm a native Floridian, Jake, and my wife is down there just north of the path of the hurricane. We're both native Floridians.

I mentioned all that because the first thing all of those Floridians need to do from Ron DeSantis down to his generals, to the guardsmen who are Floridians, they need to kind of check their personal situation at the door. They have to be for the larger good.

And number two, they need to rely on that military ethos. And this applies across both the military people in the civilians responding, which is to give it all -- to leave it all in a feel for those who serve. I think those are the two primary things that good leaders need in this moment.

Final thought, you need to stay calm. You can't let a motion of the situation overcome what you're trying to do. That's hard to do when there's a major hurricane bearing down on your home.

[16:45:02]

TAPPER: I was going to say -- I was going to ask you, what's the biggest mistake people make -- make it in situations like that? Is that it, letting their emotions --

STAVRIDIS: Yes.

TAPPER: -- rule their response?

STAVRIDIS: Yeah. You know, I always say the greatest book of leadership ever written and you know this of course, is "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo.

TAPPER: Right. STAVRIDIS: And in it, the Don says at one point, don't make the mistake of hating your enemies. It clouds your judgment. And that's true whether you're enemy is a monster storm or a terrorist organization, or another state actor.

Keep your wits about you.

TAPPER: So this is new study out today from World Weather Attribution, showing the exceptionally warm water in the Gulf of Mexico is supercharging these storms, that supercharged Helene last month. It was made up to 500 times more likely by human caused climate change and it's likely to impact Milton, too.

So you're a native Floridian, as you noted. This is going to, and you also spent a lot of time in open water as an admiral. What is your view of climate change as a national security issue?

STAVRIDIS: It's an enormous national security threat. I'll give you a couple of quick reasons. The first you've already alluded to, when these super storms come or these wildfires out west, all of this natural disasters clearly caused by global warming. When that comes, it takes the military to step in and help.

The problem is you're now taking away for military readiness, national security issue number one.

Number two, in places like the Middle East, when a drought ensues, an agriculture is broken, populations become unsettled. Migration ensued. Conflict results.

And then third and finally, Jake, sea level rising. Distinct from the big storms, the sea levels are rising because of global warming and the melting of the ice caps. So as though sea levels rise, our national security bases, like Norfolk, for example, are going to be slowly taken away from us.

So this is a huge national security threat on every level we ought to pay attention to it for many reasons. But national security, you bet.

TAPPER: How does that frustrate you when you see major political figures like Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, others suggesting that manmade climate change isn't real. Its a hoax, it's just weather. It's, you know, this is nothing that the government should take action to combat.

STAVRIDIS: It frustrates me and I'll put it this way: I'm no scientist. I'm no climatologist. I'm a mariner.

But I've sailed the waters of the world. I have spent a lifetime in and out of everywhere from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

Here's a newsflash. The ice is melting and as it melts, because of global warming, it will create more and more of the kind of national security threats I mentioned a moment ago. It's real and I say that as a practitioner, not as scientists.

Having said all that, I think that science is pretty settled.

TAPPER: All right. Admiral James Stavridis, author of "The Restless Wave" -- thank you so much. It's always good to see you, sir.

STAVRIDIS: Always, Jake.

TAPPER: Last update, the National Hurricane Center expected Milton to make landfall late tonight, somewhere near or the south of Sarasota. How authorities in those specific areas are getting ready for that landfall? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:52:54]

TAPPER: And we are back with our breaking news as hurricane Milton is just hours away from landfall. Let's check in with CNN's Carlos Suarez, who's down in Fort Myers, Florida.

Carlos, that areas already seen apparent tornadoes before the hurricane even makes landfall. What are you seeing right now?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Jake. So, there were two confirmed tornadoes, one out in western Broward and the other just to the north in Hendry County. And now here in Fort Myers, there are reports of two tornadoes that hit earlier today. One of those tornadoes is just on the other side of where we are from across the Caloosahatchee River. This is a part of Fort Myers, Florida, that we are keeping a close eye on because of the storm surge.

Now, video from the neighborhoods where these one of these tornadoes we believe touched down earlier today, showed several homes out there really torn apart, damaged a lot of the debris that covered the streets out there. The good news is that, it doesn't believe that anyone was hurt at either of these two locations.

Here now is one man who talked about seeing the tornado, making its way closer to his home when he grabbed this family and they sought shelter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT HAIGHT, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Started hit trees, and we all started going through the hallway, didn't even make there at time, sort through. I heard a glass crack and sucked the whole roof off and I felt that things certainly sucking up, I grabbed my kid and my wife hunker down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SUAREZ: All right. So, Jake, one of the -- one of the things that were really looking to see how its going to play out over the next couple of hours is the storm surge associated with hurricane Milton. Two years ago, I was here for Hurricane Ian and about ten feet of storm surge kept coming in from the Caloosahatchee River. And if that forecasting currently holds, we expect that number to be

anywhere between eight to 10 feet. So the folks out here are still dealing with the fact that its possible that were going to see this type of flooding even though, a hurricane Milton right now on the track that its on, is expected to make landfall to the north of us -- Jake.

TAPPER: That's right. You just talked about Hurricane Ian from two years ago, one of the costliest weather disasters in the history of the world.

[16:55:03]

Fort Myers took a pretty direct hit.

SUAREZ: Yeah, that's exactly right. So two years ago, we were out here for hurricane Ian when all of this really was underwater, that amphitheater was torn apart. The convention center to my right here was also destroyed and then further down on Fort Myers beach of course, those folks there are still rebuilding two years later, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Carlos Suarez in Fort Myers, thanks so much.

Coming up here at the top of the hour, the National Hurricane Center is expected to put out its brand new update on hurricane Milton and its forecast track. You're not going to want to miss that. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)