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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
Milton Makes Landfall As Catastrophic Flooding Develops; Hurricane Milton Batters Florida As It Moves Onshore; Milton Spawns Violent Tornado Outbreak In Florida; CNN Follows The Developments Of Hurricane Milton In Florida. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired October 09, 2024 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Abby Phillip alongside my colleague, Anderson Cooper, who is in the middle of Hurricane Milton right now in Florida. This monster storm making landfall tonight and it is right now rocking cities on Florida's west coast.
We've got our reporters fanned out in areas that the state that are being tonight. But, first, we're going to go to Anderson in Bradenton. Anderson, take it away. You are now seeing so much wind, so much rain. Tell us what you're experiencing.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Abby, we're in Bradenton. This is a community that was expecting a bad hit, and, certainly, that is what we have been seeing over the last hour. We're right by the river, and the water has really just started about an hour ago right when Kaitlan's program started, really. The water just started pouring over the banks onto the river walk. We moved off from that location.
Basically, our crew is inside. I'm basically using this tree to block any of the, the branches and stuff that have been flying around. The branches you actually see in front of me, I thought it was a tree that got uprooted. It's actually the top of this tree which has fallen, which fell, got ripped off a while, several hours ago.
There have been obviously mandatory evacuations for millions of people here in Florida. A lot of people have heeded those evacuation warnings. We just heard from the FEMA administrator saying tens of thousands of people, I think she said 70,000 or so people, are in shelters right now. That is certainly good news. There are a number of shelters up here in Bradenton and all in surrounding communities. But we are really now in I think what is the worst of this has been thus far, certainly in this area.
And we're checking in with our correspondents all throughout the region. Carlos Suarez is down in Fort Myers. Carlos, how is it there right now?
CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, things have not really got a whole lot better since the last time I spoke to you in the last hour. As you can see behind me, we have lost power here in Fort Myers, in downtown Fort Myers. The flooding at this point really has not stopped. According to our meteorology department, the storm surge here in Fort Myers at this hour is about five feet. And so that number we expect could possibly double through the night and into tomorrow.
This part of Fort Myers Beach, we expected to flood right now. You can't make out behind me a whole lot because there's no power and the winds and the rain. But the Caloosahatchee River runs parallel to where we're going live from right now. And that river really started breaching hours ago. And so at this point, as far as I can see from where live right now, all of this water is being pushed this way by the storm surge that's coming in from the Gulf of Mexico.
And what's happening out here is we're seeing the rainfall, we're seeing the flooding, we're seeing the storm surge. It's all coming together ahead of high tide. And so the concern going into the storm was going to be the surge because of all of this.
Out on Fort Myers Beach and down in Collier County in Naples, things aren't a whole lot better. All right, things aren't a whole lot better there. The surge in Naples, we're told, is about 5.5 feet, and over in Fort Myers, we're told that that number is close to about 4.5 to 5 feet. Again, we expect if that forecast holds that we could see anywhere between 8 feet to 12 feet of a storm surge.
Having covered Hurricane Ian two years ago and been here in Fort Myers, things are not as bad as that storm. But remember, Hurricane Ian made a direct landfall here in Lee County and the storm surge totals for this location where we are right now for Hurricane Ian was ten feet.
And so we're not going to get to that number, at least we don't hope, but, of course, the concern still is that we're looking at eight, nine, perhaps even ten feet of storm surge by the time sun the sun comes out tonight.
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And then tomorrow, at least at midnight, 1:00 in the morning, we expect things to kind of amp up a little bit because that's when high tide is going to happen. And so you got to add that variable into this and you can appreciate, you can understand why you might be able to make out behind me just all of the transformers that are blowing out here.
Anderson, that's kind of the situation from here. For folks that are watching at home, just so you guys know, our two photographers and our producers are on an elevated portion and they are undercover. And so the minute we're done with this live shot, I'm able to run right back inside. Anderson?
COOPER: All right, Carlos, we'll talk to you shortly.
I want to get a kind of an overview of where this storm is. Let's go to Chad Myers in the CNN Weather Center. Chad, yes, what's happening?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, the center has now obviously moved completely onshore. You are on the dirty side now of what is the eye. This should be the dirty side. This is where most of the convection should be right where Carlos is, but all we have now is just onshore wind. The heavy rain is up here because there's a cold front that's going to be at least a frontal system that's going to be interacting with the northern part of this eye. That's why we're getting so much rainfall.
Weather Service just put out somewhere around 16 inches of rain has already fallen in St. Pete and eight inches in just two hours. Anderson, you are right here. You can see the town of Palmetto. You are right next to it right here. You're about to get better because all of this heaviest rain and the wind with it is going to move off to your east. You can begin to kind of see where the center is still here well now on shore.
Zooming out all of the tornadoes we had earlier along I-95 and 101 offshore, all gone now. That's good. But the winds are still with you. You just had a wind gust of 102 and the latest gusts, St. Pete, 84 miles per hour. Anderson?
COOPER: Hey, Chad, could you just repeat that? Did you say 16 inches of rain?
MYERS: Yes. Since the storm started, 16 inches of rain and in the past two hours, eight inches of rain has fallen. Now, that's 8 plus 8 is 16, not on top of the 16. But just in two hours alone, five inches, one hour, and three inches the next, unbelievable.
COOPER: That's incredible. And, I mean, is it too early to know about storm surge?
MYERS: The storm surge is going to be south of Siesta Key, and that's not where you are. You are up to the north of Siesta Key. So, now where Randi is and all the way down toward Naples and Venice and Nokomis, that's where the surge is happening right now. We don't have any pictures there because we didn't send anyone there because we don't want them to be in 15 feet of water, so that's why we don't have images yet. But I'm assuming that that water is going over the barrier islands and into the bay behind it. This all the rainfalls to the north, this is all freshwater flooding, where down to the south, where that wind is coming on shore, that's all salt water flooding, and it's still coming up.
So, don't go outside and hope that this is the end of it. If you're in Venice or Nokomis, or even into Naples, we will still see more wind coming on shore because you're not going to change direction where at least, Anderson, you are going to change the wind direction coming out of the north, and then eventually it'll take a while.
But even though we have a negative surge in Tampa Bay, down almost three feet where the cruise ships dock, it's three feet below where it should be, not up above where it should be. But then eventually the wind will around and kind of fill that Tamp Bay back up again. So, as the administrator said, don't go out there just because the bay is dry. It won't be dry for long.
COOPER: Yes. Hey, Chad, that's really helpful. I appreciate it. And that amount of rainfall is incredible.
You mentioned Venice. I want to go to Jonathan Petramala, who is in Venice. Jonathan, I understand you're seeing flooding.
JONATHAN PETRAMALA, JOURNALIST DRIVING THROUGH HURRICANE MILTON: Hey, Anderson. Yes, the storm surge is really starting to bridge in here. As meteorologist was just saying, we're south of where the eye made landfall. And, hopefully, people didn't let their guard down on the front side of the storm. They didn't see the water, maybe out their windows or out the back doors, because the backside is really when things start to push in, especially in that southeast quadrant of the eye. And so, unfortunately, here in Venice, we are seeing that push in.
We had a shot just a little bit ago. You saw it on the air facing one of these lower lying neighborhoods here in Venice, just to the north of downtown. And you saw the water was about over the hood of a car that was parked in distance. Unfortunately, because the wind just blowing straight across, it's really dangerous for us to point directly towards that shot, so we had to move. That's why we're kind of in a safer place, a little more protected place, to try and protect our glass from the debris that's coming the backside of the storm, the winds, are really directly on shore, which is also helping to push all that water in.
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COOPER: You may have said it. I had a hard time hearing you. Do you have a sense of how much water is on the ground, I mean, like how many inches of rainfall you've gotten?
PETRAMALA: It's not just the rainfall, though, Anderson. It's really just about the storm surge at this point. You can imagine that the Gulf of Mexico is like a bathtub and the storm is a person in that bathtub. And since Milton moved across the bathtub of the Gulf of Mexico, it's pushed the water over the edge. And so that's what storm surge really is. And, unfortunately, that's the west coast of Florida.
And so all of this wind that's blowing directly on shore, the momentum of the storm has pushed in several feet of storm surge, you can see probably at least four feet, possibly up to five feet. But it's going to continue to push in as the storm moves on shore and the momentum carries that water in. So, we're definitely going to see at least five feet. It could get much higher, though, and that's why we're still waiting where we are here in Venice and trying to make sure that, you know, we aren't trapped.
We have to always have a exit plan, which we do. We have high ground just off to the south of where we are. But still very dangerous situation with no -- even though it's moving onshore away from landfall away from where we are, the storm surge isn't.
COOPER: Yes. Chad Meyers was saying that wind is going to continue in around Venice for a while. Jonathan, thank you. I'm going to check back in with you.
I'm going to Bill Weir in St. Petersburg. Bill?
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Anderson, you got to get a load of the wind. We found great little hidey hole in this parking garage on the fourth floor, and you get an amazing perspective.
Chad said the gusts here around 78, 79. But look at that. That looks so much more powerful than anything I've seen. Look at that huge tree limb just blowing through the intersection. The sign on University Boulevard has come down. This is First Avenue, the intersection in downtown St. Petersburg.
And the other thing we've been keeping an eye on, and even some of the folks who are sheltering here said, did you notice the crane is blowing around? That's another one of those construction trains. Oh, you just saw that lightning sort of backlight it there for a second. This thing has moved almost 180 degrees from where it was pointed when the storm began. And the gusts up there must be swinging those things around. The city of St. Petersburg put out actually a warning to just be cognizant of the force four tower cranes downtown, one more thing to worry about here.
But the storm, it's just -- I can't describe. I'm just so gob-smacked by the sheer amount of water that is just coming down in these violent, violent sheets. And we have no idea what -- I'm sure the harbor, which is just around the corner here, is roiling with all of those boats. I was here for Hurricane Ian and saw just the massive damage done to the marine industry as hell (ph). You got to imagine a lot of sailors, a lot of folks who make their living off the sea fishermen and women are stressed tonight about what this is going to do to their livelihood, not to mention the power outages that are going on now, but it has really kicked up noticeably. And we thought it was bad before.
Let's go over here. I'll give you a little more perspective in this parking garage. We're sheltered. But the mist coming in, as you can see, it's so strong. It's starting to flood these upper levels. But we heard this violent noise, and I was trying to figure out the source of it. It's these aluminum pillars of this parking structure that they're being rocked and scraped against the ceiling there. And so you can imagine what this is -- how this storm is testing the construction along the Florida coast. Already some of this stuff is coming loose.
Carlos, take a look over here to the right. This is what I'm talking about here, the pounding and just the sheer force of it, the parking garage across the way, all those car alarms going off as the winds are disturbing those vehicles despite their relative shelter here.
It's interesting. You notice all these expensive cars parked on the big bridges around Tampa Bay because that's high ground and folks looking to preserve their vehicle from saltwater damage, park them up on the bridge, or if they're lucky enough to get into a garage like this, some of the city's opened up all of their parking garages to the public to give them a places to store their cars.
But here's one more look at this intersection of wind and rain, supercharged. Anderson?
COOPER: Yes. Bill, stay with us, because I want to bring in Chad Meyers just to give kind of an overview of what's happening where I am and where you are. Chad, you had said that the window is going to start to kind of die down, I think, here a little bit.
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It doesn't seem like it right now, but I'm waiting for that.
MYERS: No, you're probably still another two hours before you get gusts under 50. But, Bill, have you noticed the wind shift direction? We've noticed over the hours that you've changed positions. Your wind should have been out of the east, maybe east southeast, and now it should be out of the north. Have you noticed that?
He may not have heard me? But that's what happens, when you start to get the northern part of the eye and it begins to move around, you get the east winds for a while, but then all of a sudden you're in the same place, but the storm isn't. So, the wind is going to blow from the north. And so I know Bill really can look at those winds and say, that's greater than 90 miles per hour, and it likely is, Anderson, you and Bill both live in New York, even when the wind's blowing 30 in those wind tunnels of New York City, even though these aren't 90- storey buildings, you could certainly funnel that wind to over a 100, 110 if you get a 90-mile-per hour gust, let's say, at the airport.
WEIR: Yes. That's what it feels like, Chad. It's like, yes, we're in a wind tunnel here and it's got to be that swirl that you talked about, that change in direction that moved these towers around. That's what struck me.
MYERS: Well, we see towers here all the time that kind of teeter and totter and all of a sudden they make people get out of the way. And I know you've seen that in New York City as well, but not with a wind speed of 90 to 110. Anderson?
COOPER: Hey, Chad, do you have any sense of when wind may die down enough for first responders to be able to start moving out and kind of surveying things?
MYERS: It depends on their threshold. Most are somewhere in the 45 to 35-mile-per hour range. When it gets below those numbers, they can go back out. If you're calling 911 and the wind's blowing 70, they're not coming.
So, I think we're probably still for you, probably still two hours from getting below that threshold from the eastern part of Tampa, even up toward Pinellas and maybe even up toward the villages, you may not get out of those winds. You're going to be above 50 miles per hour for the next four to six hours.
COOPER: Well, that's depressing.
MYERS: Sorry, sir.
COOPER: In terms of what you expected this storm to do, or maybe thought this storm might do, how does it compare to maybe the expectations of it? I mean, what surprises you so far about it, I guess.
MYERS: What surprised me so far is that it was a Category 5 for so very long, and I'm not seeing the 10 to 15-foot surge yet, because we don't have pictures. I'm sure it's happening somewhere. But other than that, the storm truly fell apart at landfall, and now the northern part of the eye is the most dangerous, where the southern part of the eye barely has any thunderstorm activity, whatsoever.
Plus, the other big thing is the storms you see offshore, they produced large, large tornadoes like what you would see in Kansas. They produce damage and created fatalities. You don't see super cell tornadoes too often when it comes to a landfalling hurricane. You see EF1s and EF2s, not threes and even possibly fours, Anderson.
COOPER: Bill, I know you got a question.
WEIR: Hey, Chad, let me ask about the -- yes, let me ask about fresh water flooding. I mean, I see the wind is moving the water as fast as it can pool, at least here. But I'm sure there's low lying areas all around these peninsulas that are going to just be dealing with this for days.
MYERS: There are. And the people that are on the canals, those are the ones that are the most vulnerable because that's where the water is going to want to go into the canal. If the canal starts to come up over the top, that's when you're going to start to see some up to the, let's say, the wheels of your car flooding. If we go any farther and start to blow more water on shore and prohibit that rainfall from going offshore, that's when the water gets higher.
Now, in a big city that is not near, let's say, sea level, you could get basement apartments where you actually have to walk down three steps to get there. Those are the people, if there are any in that area, that I would be the most concerned with because the water is just going to fall down those stairs like a waterfall. Some of those garden apartments that we used to rent because they were the cheapest in college, those are the ones that would be the most vulnerable to getting water in them at this point.
COOPER: You know, Chad, the other thing we've been hearing a lot from local officials in a variety of communities is this concern about like sewage system with flooding, which is something I hadn't really -- you know, you don't really think much about obviously in a storm, but it's something obviously for city managers.
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It's a really big deal. They've lowered -- in a number of communities, they've actually lowered the water pressure to try to alleviate some of that potential.
MYERS: Right, that, and, of course, you know, they always don't build gas stations on the highest piece of property either. And if the water is in the gas, you could actually get that mixing of the water and the gasoline. The water that you see is supposed to be fresh water. It could certainly be toxic anyway because of all those things that are on the ground that we spill day in and day out.
So, you really want to still stay out of even fresh water flooding. You certainly want to stay out of river flooding that's coming down the river, coming out of septic systems, whatever it might be, but I don't really want any of you guys to be out there standing in water because we have no idea what's kind of polluting it at this point.
This has happened so quickly. I mean, 16 inches of rainfall in six hours, where one hour had five inches of rain right where Bill is. That's hard to fathom. It's almost a half a foot of rain in an hour.
COOPER: Chad, I'm about to talk to Randi in Sarasota. Can you just quickly tell me what the -- go ahead, Bill.
WEIR: Oh, I'm sorry, Anderson. I was saying it was -- this feels like -- I've been in a couple monsoon storms in Asia, and that's kind of -- this kind of rainfall generally involves very big mountains and giant storm systems. I mean, we're going to talk about just the crazy action of this water cycle. Is this the result of the warmth in the Gulf of Mexico as well?
MYERS: Yes, it is, but also there is a what we call a mid latitude system up there, something that would make rainfall in Georgia. Well, it's kind of sank all the way down into Florida. So, now we have the hurricane moisture bumping up against another system that's trying to come down and that's squeezing it like it would be a mountain.
So, yes, you are feeling what would be a monsoon. You truly are. Monsoon means shift of wind, but monsoon also brings very heavy rainfall and that's monsoonal-type rainfall, Bill, for sure.
COOPER: I want to bring Randi into the into the conversation, but just very briefly, Chad, can you just tell us what the situation around Sarasota is, where Randi is?
MYERS: Randi got the eye. She probably couldn't look up and see stars because there were too many clouds right above the eye. But she went from wind to absolutely calm and now back into the wind. So, Randi being right here, is about to get the west wind. That west wind will start to push the water across Sarasota into Sarasota Bay.
I hope that we don't see Longboat Key and these areas be overwashed so that all of that water gets to where Randi is. Randi's on par ground. She is actually on the mainland, not, of course, on one of the barrier islands. But if we breach a barrier island, with all the water that's puddled out here, 15 feet out here, if we breach that island, all that water is going to go on the backside of the bay and flood a whole lot more people.
COOPER: So, let's check in Randi. How are things?
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Anderson. Exactly what Chad was talking about, it was real calm here and now it's gotten real bad. In fact, I don't know if you can hear them, but we are still hearing the frogs out here now. They came out again while I was passing and everything was calm. They seem to be the only ones who are enjoying this weather.
But we are certainly concerned about the wind of what it seems to be doing to some of the fencing and the areas around here. This fence came down earlier right here behind me here and now it seems to be breaking apart just before we came back on with you. It actually lifted up in the air and it seems to be breaking apart. So, we're -- whoa, we're keeping an eye on that.
Anderson, I should tell you, we're just about 20 minutes or so from Siesta Key, where the storm actually came across and made landfall, just near there. And that is what Chad was talking about. That's the concern that the surge is going to go over those barrier islands. There's no way to get off them right now because the bridge is closed. And once that happens, that water will then come into the Sarasota Bay. We're only about a half mile from the bay right now.
So, we will certainly be taking a look at what happens there overnight and then into tomorrow morning. They're expecting about a 9 to 13-foot storm surge. They saw about a seven ft storm surge when Hurricane Helene came through a couple of weeks ago. So, certainly a lot of concern about what the water is going to do there.
We were on South Shore Drive earlier this morning right at the bay and we moved back because we knew that was evacuation area A, the first area that they evacuate.
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That's a danger zone. Anderson?
COOPER: Do you have a sense, Randi, how many people evacuated from the Sarasota area? I mean, do officials believe that the majority of people heeded evacuation warnings?
KAYE: Yes, they certainly do. They either heated evacuation warnings or they moved to safer areas. We met one woman who had -- actually her husband had ridden out Hurricane Helene on Siesta Key. They had a house there for 25 years. And now they are in a condo building on the ninth floor, which is built to withstand a Cat 5 hurricane. So, they're hoping that's safer.
But a lot of people are people did evacuate, Anderson. Just driving around town here, you can see there's hardly anybody here. The lights are out and all the homes are either boarded up with plywood or they have their hurricane shutters on. There's very, very few people. We saw a couple of people, a couple of cars, but otherwise it seems that either people have gone to the shelter or they saw what Hurricane Helene did to either their home or a friend's home and they got out of town, Anderson.
COOPER: All right. Randi, we'll talk to you soon. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk to a storm chaser who's standing and found some floodwaters. We want to find out where that is and how bad it is. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [22:30:50]
COOPER: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of Hurricane Milton, still very much a very dangerous storm that is hitting the west coast of Florida and moving --it's going to be moving across, as you know, across Florida over the next many hours.
I want to bring you Chad Myers because we're seeing pictures, Chad, out of Venice with a lot -- it looks like some pretty bad flooding. Can you just give kind of an overview of the situation there?
MYERS: Right, that is the saltwater flooding, that is the surge that this storm brought with it. It built the surge over many days as a category four and at times category five. So, down in Venice, they haven't had a lot of rainfall, one or two inches. Unlike you up here where the purple -- the entire area in purple is about a foot of rain, more than 10 inches there.
So, this is that wind that has pushed the sea and the reporter earlier talked about how it's just a sloshing bathtub. Well, we've sloshed all of the water now onto the shoreline and much of it now is going over these barrier islands, possibly cutting new land masses in between or waterways in between and getting sloshed all the way into places like Punta Gorda, places like Port Charlotte, places like Venice -- all of those areas, Nokomis, all of those places that I've actually gone fishing.
Those are now completely flooded with the water still going up and it will go up for many, many more hours before that wind does not blow from the west anymore and it starts to allow that water to go back into the Gulf of Mexico.
COOPER: So, that water is only going to get worse.
MYERS: Yes and it's all salt water. What you see on the pictures there, or you may not be able to see it, but I can. That is all saltwater flooding from the Gulf of Mexico itself. We don't have any significant rain flooding down there. There should be, down there, there should actually be a road there. And it's completely not there.
Now, obviously, on the other side of the road, on the other side of the barrier island, there is usually a bay area or at least a waterway for boats to go up and down. That's where that water is ending up now. So, even if you were on the mainland, just on the other side of that barrier island, now you're getting the water, too. It's not just the barrier island.
COOPER: Chad, I want to bring in Aaron Jayjack who he is in Punta Gorda. Aaron, I can't see your picture but I'm told you are seeing a lot of water on the ground, a lot of flooding.
AARON JAYJACK, STORM CHASER: Oh yes, Anderson -- about an hour ago and an hour ago -- bad flooding but I was able to get out into the --out of the -- five feet or more and I'm basically standing --right now. You could see -- this is the hotel parking lot. We had to move our vehicles high as we could and hotel parking lot here, people are trying to stay put of the storm. They have come here for a retreat (inaudible).
We've seen it rising in the last 10 minutes and I think we still have another quarter to go. In fact, I can feel it rising on my legs right here as I'm talking to you guys. I can feel the water is still coming up and we still have several hours of this until the water can retreat. We're likely to be stuck at this hotel at least for the next 24 I would imagine. It's going to take some time for all this water to retreat back into the harbor, back out to the Gulf of Mexico.
And if we come over here you can see many cars. This whole parking lot, almost the whole parking lot - underwater. And back this way, the main town of Uta Gorda is completely underwater. You can move that, we want power, but maybe you can see here, this is all water for as far as I can see. Many buildings out in the distance here in Punta Gorda currently underwater.
[22:35:00]
And this is a big-time surge event and a big-time surge event that was expected to happen here in Punta Gorda, Florida. A 10 to 15-foot surge event and we're getting at least that 10-foot. I think here where we're at we're probably six or seven feet above sea level and it has come up significantly in the last couple of hours and continues to rise.
COOPER: Wow, I think, that is just, that is so awful to see all those cars underwater. You think, Chad was saying that water is going to continue -- and you were saying that water is going to continue to rise. How far does that go for? I mean, how much of an area of a land mass is underwater?
JAYJACK: We're basically on an island at this hotel right now. We've got a probably a quarter block section of the city here, a quarter city block that is out of the water. It's raised up. Fortunately, I think the hotel will stay out of the water. But everywhere else you go this whole town right now is part of the Gulf of Mexico and it's probably a few spots like our spot around town that are islands like that.
I could see people in the buildings we've lost power, as I mentioned. I was seeing people in the buildings out here in the distance with their flashlights on trying to walk around. I think there is a parking garage over here where someone possibly was up in the parking garage trying to escape the flood waters.
And earlier before the water had gotten too high, we actually saw a car. It looked like this the dam so it didn't have much clearance. They were actually driving up on the sidewalk down the road here where it was a little bit higher so they could try to get wherever they were trying to go. But if you're out right now, you cannot, I mean you can't go anywhere right now.
So, you should not be trying to drive anywhere right now. Punta Gorda, Florida going to the north to see us the key and even further south down to Fort Myers. I haven't been paying attention to what's going on down there but I can only imagine they're also getting a significant surge event down in the Fort Myers area right now.
COOPER: Aaron, I appreciate talking to you. We'll continue to check in with you -- the situation of Punta Gorda. I want to go to, let's see, let's go to Ben McMillan, who is in downtown Bradenton, the same town where I am. Ben, what are you seeing downtown?
BEN MCMILLAN, STORM CHASER: Yes guys, here in downtown Bradenton, it's been extremely violent on the backside of this hurricane as the wind switched around -- with the additional wave -- came through, I didn't see that severe, but we've seen damage like trees coming down. It's large crashes and loud (inaudible). And as you can see, it's very difficult for me to stand (inaudible). I'm still getting battered around here in the streets of Bradenton.
COOPER: I want to bring in Chad Myers, our meteorologist. Chad, can you talk about what -- what you're seeing from - like -- picture?
MYERS: The worst part of the northern part of the eyewall is moving off to the east. So, things begin to calm down for you and for the reporter. Things do get better but it is a very slow process because they're still part of the northern or the western eyewall. This storm was so large that it actually had more than one eyewall itself.
And so, yes, the big one, the middle one, has moved away but you're still here. And that's why even for another few hours, as the secondary outer band begins to move over you, the winds are going to stay right where they are for now, Anderson.
COOPER: Ben, I want to go back to you. Talk about what you're seeing now.
MCMILLAN: Yes, I copy that, guys.
COOPER: Ben, if you can hear me, what are you seeing?
MCMILLAN: Hi, I'm sorry guys, it's extremely hard to hear on here. In the streets you could actually see the power of the wind. We're probably -- to a 125 miles an hour right now. And it's just very, very violent. And this is in between wind breaks, like large buildings. So, if you can imagine being out in the open right now, it would be even more, you know, strength to that wind would be even more dangerous. And you can see again, which shelter -- how much difficult it is --
COOPER: Hey Chad, I just want to check in with you. That sounded like very high wind gust. Is that what you're seeing?
MYERS: Sometimes the radars just don't line up. It's when the radar is shooting a beam at, let's say, even a car, if the car is going across, it's going to say zero miles an hour because the car is not coming toward the radar gun.
And if our radar here isn't seeing that type of wind, well, we don't know that it's there. That's why there's the ground truth. So, if he's feeling 100 miles per hour, I certainly believe that this storm still has it because even the hurricane center is saying that this is still a category two hurricane. [22:42:07]
COOPER: But you think Chad, in the Bradenton area, things are, I mean, it does feel like, I mean, it's still bad out. It's not as bad as it was 30 minutes ago, or even 40 minutes ago.
MYERS: Right, our map has Palmetto on it. But you're right next to Palmetto, because I know you were looking at the lights of Palmetto just across the bridge. There's another still outer band --
COOPER: Palmetto is just across the --
MYERS: Yes, exactly. There's still another outer band. And as you know, Anderson, every time it stops raining, the winds die off a little bit. But then it starts to rain again, mix down that wind, and so there's another batch. This was likely 70 or 80 miles per hour, and that's still another hour to an hour and 15 minutes from you. So, it may go down a little bit, but it's not over.
COOPER: I'm going to check in with Boris Sanchez in Tampa right now. Boris, how are you doing?
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hey Anderson. Yes, the rain just continues to pound and fill up the street here. And on top of that, we are sensing some really, really strong winds. I'm not sure if it's 80 or 100 miles an hour, but I can tell you that it is moving of vehicles that are in this neighborhood.
Speaking of vehicles, there are a few that the water has reached at least up to the axle. Further down the street here, there was a gentleman apparently driving at this time. And I'm not sure if he stopped his car or if his car stopped because of the flooding, but apparently he got out of the vehicle. He started walking. It appeared to be an elderly man.
Our crew tried to make contact with him. It seemed like he was out of it. It wasn't clear that he knew what was going on. He walked further down the street. And as you can see, these are extremely dangerous conditions. The water on this street has started pushing debris further and further up. And if you look that way, you can see the water accumulating.
We're hearing loud banging sounds, the ominous creaking of the trees around us. We've seen branches come down. We've seen the sky light up in blue and green, clearly transformers that are going out. There's a nearby business where the alarm is going off. So, obviously, even as this storm continues to move slightly in a northeastern direction, here in Tampa, we're feeling the effects of it in a very strong way.
We talked about having at least six inches of rain that had fallen about two hours ago. It was expected to be an additional five to eight inches. Once the storm got through, that's two to three inches an hour, which is not common for this area. That's about six months' worth of rain in a matter of a day or so. So, obviously, flooding is a major, major concern. We've gotten several alerts on our devices about flooding. We're going
to keep an eye on the situation here. That elderly man that was walking past this, I mean, that is just unconscionable for that person to be out here putting himself in danger. I truly hope he's headed somewhere to get shelter and to find safety, Anderson.
COOPER: Yes, I was looking around because you're starting out, just as you mentioned, kind of strange sounds you start to hear. I started to hear a few of those, as well. It's, yes, it's a very eerie time of the storm. It's not as violent as we saw, you know, an hour ago, two hours ago, but it is still very dangerous out there, as you point out. But of course, just in terms of water on the ground, how much -- how much are you seeing?
SANCHEZ: Yes, so when it started there was only a couple of inches, I would say that at some parts of this street, it's reached at least up to my ankle. As soon as I stepped out of the vehicle, my entire foot went underwater. And we're actually in an elevated part because as I look down one street and as I look down another, this part is sort of a residential neighborhood.
This is a street that leads to a highway. I can see that the water is now over the sidewalk in some parts of this area. It looks like it's encroaching on some businesses. There's no doubt that this is going to continue to get bigger and bigger. And there's actually a few homes here and I can see one of the cars outside. It's the water is up to the axle on the car.
And again, this isn't over yet. I am a bit north of you, Anderson. So, as the storm moves in a northeasterly direction. We're still feeling a lot of rain, a lot of effects and wind that is just punishing. On top of that, it's starting to get colder. So, I'm starting to get chills out here. It is obviously not a place where you would want someone like that elderly man or another random pedestrian walking around, Anderson.
SANCHEZ: Yes, Boris, we'll check in with you a little -- better. We're going to take a short break. We'll check in also with a number of storm chasers who are seeing some -- some very difficult conditions particularly in Punta Gorda.
[22:45:00]
We'll check back there. We'll be right back.
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PHILLIP: We're back with CNN's live coverage of Hurricane Milton. Anderson Cooper is still with us. We are giving him a respite from the punishing winds and rains that he has been enduring over the last several hours.
But right now, I do want to go to Jonathan Petramala. He is a storm chaser currently in Nokomis that is just north of Venice, Florida. Jonathan, our understanding is that there is a significant flooding where you are. Tell us more about what you're seeing. [22:50:00]
PETRAMALA: Unfortunately, all the areas here just to the south of where Hurricane Milton made landfall, that's going to be the most impacted by storm surge. And that's what you're looking at on the screen right here. This is one of those neighborhoods in Nokomis and it's flooded. Probably surge here got around five and a half, six feet.
And so, you can imagine what that's doing to the homes that you're seeing in the distance. We saw cars that are, of course, water above the hoods. And so that's -- that's really going to be the biggest impact from -- from what we've seen so far from Milton. You add into that power outages, tree limbs down, trees down, power lines down. It's going to be another big clean-up on the heels of Hurricane Helene, a big one-two punch.
PHILLIP: Yes, I mean, you can even see some of the debris and furniture and other items that are outside from the last storm. Jonathan, I wonder about the people. Are there any people where you are? And do you get the sense that in those areas where you're looking at five or so feet of water, that people are not in that water at the moment?
PETRAMALA: So, two things really helped in a strange way. If you look at, you got to look on the positive side of things. And that was Hurricane Helene which brought in storm surge that this area nobody alive had ever seen before.
And so, people sometimes -- it's really people understand something that they haven't seen and so fresh in people's minds that -- then you hear about Hurricane Milton coming and then it goes all the way up to category five and that really motivated folks to get out two or three days ahead of time. You saw the mass exodus where I mean, roads, interstates 75 -- everywhere, north and east out of the Tampa Bay area was just jam packed.
It was bumper to bumper for hours and hours and hours. So, that just showed the motivation that people had. And I don't know if that would have been necessarily the case if we hadn't have had Helene before then. This is my home, so I understand how people kind of think around here. And if they hadn't had that frustration in mind, I don't know how many people would have said, you know what, it's never done that before. It always misses Tampa Bay.
And so, they likely would have stayed. But in this case, it's been a ghost town. It's been a ghost town in the Tampa Bay area for two days. And that's a great sign because people took those warnings seriously on many bases and they left.
PHILLIP: Yes, it is a good sign. And it's certainly not worth the risk. Jonathan, stay with us. I want to bring in Chad Myers in the CNN Weather Center into this conversation. So, Chad, I mean, we're looking at these pictures of Nokomis. It's just in that Tampa area. But there's a lot of water. You're not seeing quite as much rain, quite as much wind. What can this area expect now going forward? MYERS: Yes, this is all saltwater flooding. This is the storm surge
that we have advertised now for what seems like 72 hours. Question, though, for Nokomis -- the water, is it over the barrier island into that back bay? I know exactly where you are. I have caught so many snook, catch and release, right in that exact place where you are. But is it over the top of that barrier island like flooding everything?
PETRAMALA: That's what it appears to be. We can't quite get all the way in. This is on the road out towards Nokomis Beach, the public beach there. And so, we can't quite get all the way in there, but you do see that, you know, as you said, this is saltwater flooding, this is storm surge that has pushed in. It has gone down a little bit, but it did reach probably about six feet or so.
And so, you see a lot of the homes that were flooded out during Hurricane Helene. You see the debris piles outside of the house. You can see this is on the right side of the screen right there. And you see a lot of that debris floating around now and moving up to where the high-water marks were from this storm surge.
And so again, it was a -- in a way, it was a blessing that people had that recent experience with Hurricane Helene, so they did get out of town because, you know, they weren't comfortable anyways. They were recovering from their homes. They were demolishing, trying to recover from that storm and then the one-two punch of Hurricane Milton came in. And so, now, you're seeing the reminder there.
You can kind of see up ahead here the debris that I'm mentioning that kind of was carried in by that storm surge as it rushed in. And this was about the high-water markers that we're getting up to. And so, the water had receded since then, but there still is several feet of water in these neighborhoods.
MYERS: Yes and saltwater flooding is the absolute worst. I mean, fresh waters, you know, not a lot better. But when you get a saltwater flood, you get all of those things, Abby, that are now going to be -- need to be replaced.
PHILLIP: Yes.
MYERS: They can't even be saved. The saltwater just takes and corrodes everything. Like when you go, and you see everyone with a you know, that's a salt person, a salt life. Well, when they get home, they do the freshwater wash down.
[22:55:03]
You know, you can't do that when you got a saltwater flood.
PHILLIP: Yes.
MYERS: It just has to be replaced.
PHILLIP: Yes, I mean, this is utter devastation for these communities.
MYERS: Yes.
PHILLIP: We're talking, you know, half a foot of water here. But there are some areas that are expecting 10 or 15 feet of storm surge. So --
MYERS: Right.
PHILLIP: -- it's absolutely devastating. Chad Myers, thank you. Jonathan Petramala, please stay safe where you are. Thank you very much. We are continuing to cover this storm, which is ongoing. It is now over Florida. Our colleague Anderson Cooper is still in Bradenton. We'll be right back with him and with the rest of our anchors and reporters right after a quick break.
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