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Funeral Held For Yevgeny Prigozhin; Hurricane Idalia Targets Florida. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 29, 2023 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:37]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Escaping Idalia. At least 22 counties order evacuations as the hurricane closes in on Florida. The storm surge could be the worst in decades, as local officials warn people that the time to leave is now.

The hurricane could make landfall as a strong Category 3 storm. Of course, we're tracking all the latest.

And a funeral today for the man who led a failed revolt against Vladimir Putin, mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin buried in a St. Petersburg cemetery. But this won't lay to rest the questions surrounding his death.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And stronger than fentanyl, a potent new opioid potentially even more deadly.

We are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SCIUTTO: Florida's west coast is now bracing for impact.

Right now, Hurricane Idalia is quickly gaining strength over the Gulf of Mexico, expected to rapidly intensify into an extremely dangerous Category 3 storm, before hitting Florida's Big Bend region early tomorrow morning. You can see here the first signs of impact in the U.S. on the coast, folks taking pictures, Idalia's gusty winds whipping up waves at the southernmost point on Key West.

A major concern right now is the risk of a dangerous, life-threatening storm surge. Water could rise as much as 15 feet in some areas. Ten Florida counties are now under mandatory evacuation orders. Dozens of school districts, colleges and universities are closed.

And with just hours left, Governor Ron DeSantis is suspending tolls along highways, warning residents they are running out of time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You will start certainly seeing effects of this in different parts of the state later on today. You still have time this morning to be able to make your final preparations. If you are in one of those areas that's in line for some of the major

storm surge and you're told to evacuate, you have time to do that, but you got to do that now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: And here is a bird's-eye view of the hurricane from the International Space Station, NASA sharing this video of what is just clearly a sprawling storm.

The CNN team tracking every angle.

Let's begin with Chad Myers at the CNN Weather Center.

Tell us. It's getting closer. It's getting bigger, more powerful, all those warm waters churning it up. What's the biggest risk right now?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The biggest risk right now would be landfalling waterspouts, also some pretty big gusts across the Lower Keys.

But this is still about 200 miles West of Key West proper. And then along the southwest coast of Florida, some of those storms could actually make some small spins. This happens on the eastern side of any torn -- any hurricane. You could always get a tornado spin up, likely not big ones, just these small EF-0's and 1's.

But, right now, the winds are picking up, Sarasota now 20 miles per hour. I was watching some video there out of Key West, and the palm trees are ripping there. So that could be at least 30, 35 right now. The storm itself is 85 miles per hour. It is not gaining strength that rapidly yet.

We expect this rapid intensification, up a number of miles per hour over a 24-hour period, sometimes 35 miles per hour over a 24-hour period. But it's the storm surge up here in the Big Bend. Think of this like a catcher's mitt.

This is going to catch all of the water. All of the surge that tries to come up along the coast can't go any farther. It's going to be from Apalachicola all the way down to Cedar Key. That's where the biggest threat will be.

Now, for you, Tampa, four to seven feet. But that doesn't start until tomorrow morning. There may be even water running out of Tampa Bay for today. But then, by tomorrow morning, all the wind shifts back from the West. And then all of a sudden, you start to push that water back in, so 125-mile-per-hour landfall.

When it comes to wind and damage in a big city, Tallahassee, you are in the way, so many big trees, so many things between you and St. Marks. St. Marks is going to get a significant tidal surge, likely 12 to 15 feet in downtown St. Marks. People there just need to be out.

[13:05:04] But for you, Tallahassee, even a 90-mile-per-hour wind, which is in the forecast, will bring down so many power lines and so many trees that that's going to be a terrible place to be. If you don't have to be there. Get away and let this thing -- this is going to be a week or two before we put all these power lines back up.

Here's the forecast radar. So, you see all of these storms coming onshore here. Every one of those could spin into a small tornado. And then across parts of Georgia into the Carolinas with heavy rain.

Jim, I don't know if you knew this, but back before about 2000, more people died because of storm surge per storm than now. Right now, more people die because of flash flooding, because we know to get out of the way of the storm surge, but it's so very hard to get out of the way of the flooding.

What would the people do here in Florida? Where would they evacuate? Up here? Well, you know what? There's going to be flooding there. So that's the rub here. Where do you go from here just trying to stay out of the way of all of the hazards, the wind, the tornadoes, the surge and the like?

This is a long duration. It's going to probably make landfall sometime after midnight, before 6:00 a.m. tomorrow.

SCIUTTO: Yes, that catcher's mitt you described really resonates, because there's no way -- nowhere for all that water to go.

MYERS: Yes. Yes.

SCIUTTO: And we're going to be speaking to the mayor of Tallahassee in just a few moments.

Chad Myers at the Weather Center, thanks so much -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Right now, parts of Cuba are in the dark and underwater after Idalia brushed by the western tip of the island as a tropical storm, some areas getting more than four inches of rain overnight.

Just check out a time-lapse video that we are seeing out of Havana, where the heavy rainfall essentially made Cuba's capital disappear. Look at that. Unbelievable, the visibility just disintegrating there.

We have CNN's Patrick Oppmann with us following this story.

Patrick, I mean, we saw there what happened. Tell us what you're seeing, what you have seen.

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, a glancing blow across the western tip of Cuba, but still leaving plenty of pain.

If you get flooding in your house, if you have trees or electric poles go down near you, it certainly feels like a direct hit. And, of course, Idalia hit here last night as a tropical storm, and then this morning became a Category 1 hurricane, far less powerful than what Floridians are facing, but it caused flooding all across the western part of Cuba.

Here in Havana, we have had heavy rain throughout the morning. It's mostly cleared now. And the Cuban government says they are beginning the process of seeing who has been affected, seeing what communities are still cut off, beginning, of course, the arduous process, the long process of restoring power.

You have tens of thousands of people to the west of where I am who are going to be without power. Brianna, these are still the same people who are recovering from Hurricane Ian last year. So this is a hard-hit region, already people very much impacted by last year's devastating storm.

And this certainly won't help, but not as nearly as powerful as a storm as what Florida is going to face in the coming hours, but quite an impact left here all the same.

KEILAR: Yes, we can see that in the pictures, for sure.

Patrick Oppmann live for us from Havana, thank you.

I want to bring in CNN's Carlos Suarez, who is live for us in Tampa, where the expected storm surge could potentially be a once-in-a- lifetime event.

Tampa sort of benefiting from a bit of a turn with Ian. We're not so sure that's going to happen this time, Carlos. Can you tell us what you're expecting?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Brianna.

So the first rounds of mandatory evacuations have gone out, one out in Pinellas County just to the west of us. That is home to St. Pete, as well as Clearwater. And then there's another mandatory evacuation order that has gone out here in Hillsborough County. That is home to the Tampa Bay area.

And the reason why is exactly what Chad laid out just a few minutes ago, the storm surge associated with this hurricane. We're talking about anywhere between four to seven feet. And so you can imagine that a lot of these low-lying areas in the Tampa Bay area will most likely flood.

You're taking a look at one of the neighborhoods out here in the downtown Tampa Bay area that has been evacuated because of all of this concern associated with the storm surge. We expect, again, anywhere between four to seven feet of this storm surge to move through, most likely tomorrow.

And so, of course, there is a concern that, with all of this water coming into the bay, as well as some of the four to eight inches of rain, that then we are going to see some pretty significant flooding in this part of Southwest Florida.

Across the river out here, Tampa General Hospital, they have already got their floodgates up. We're told that that can handle up to 15 feet of a storm surge. But, as you mentioned, Brianna, this time last year, this part of Tampa was seeing a similar threat with yet another powerful storm off the coast of Florida.

[13:10:03]

However, that storm ended up passing to the south of here. And so the folks out here, they're getting ready. They have got their sandbags. They have opened up hurricane shelters, and they're getting ready for whatever may come their way, although, right now, it does seem that the storm is going to just hug the coast and miss the Tampa Bay area -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Carlos Suarez live for us in Tampa, thank you -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Also in the crosshairs, Tallahassee.

And joining me now is the mayor of Tallahassee, Florida, John Dailey.

Mayor, I know it's busy where you are. Thanks for taking the time this afternoon.

JOHN DAILEY (D), MAYOR OF TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA: Thanks, Jim. Appreciate it.

SCIUTTO: So, we just heard our Chad Myers describe the particular threat from storm surge and just how all that water as it heads up your way has no place to go but inland.

What is the biggest threat to Tallahassee right now, and how are you preparing?

DAILEY: Well, being a Tree City USA and having over 55 percent of the city of Tallahassee under a canopy, as you can imagine, tropical storm winds and hurricane-strength winds, live oaks and power lines do not mix well together.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DAILEY: So, we have been preparing.

We have backup plans to our backup plans. We have called in our mutual aid agreements from as far away as Oklahoma, Nebraska, Ohio, Kentucky, Louisiana. We know that we're going to suffer some damage with our electrical infrastructure, and we are prepared to respond after the storm comes through.

SCIUTTO: As you know, trees are dangerous too.

Are folks listening to the evacuation orders that are in place now?

DAILEY: Yes, our community has really stepped up to the plate and responded. And I'm very proud of the citizens. We are Tallahassee strong.

We know that this is a serious storm. We know it's going to impact Tallahassee. And so, when you drive around Tallahassee, you can see people are gassing up. The grocery stores are full. People are making the necessary preparations, checking on family and friends to make sure that they're safe.

We have opened up our shelters as well, not only for our residents, but be able to take in evacuees from the coastal communities as well. And we are prepared. We're finishing up and getting ready to hunker down for the storm.

SCIUTTO: You mentioned cooperation agreements. When folks have to evacuate, they, of course, have to go to other communities. Sometimes, they have to travel a long distance to do so.

How are those communities responding to your request for help? Are they able to accommodate the folks heading their way?

DAILEY: So, we are blessed to have incredible mutual aid agreements with municipalities from literally all over the country.

Look, when they get hit with storm events, the city of Tallahassee comes to their aid. And here we are facing this storm, and they have graciously decided to come to our aid as well. Again, we have mutual aid agreements with municipalities as far away as Nebraska and Oklahoma and in Ohio. And they are en route. They will be arriving this afternoon. Some crews will be arriving tomorrow.

What that allows us to do, Jim, is not only do we have great men and women that work for the City of Tallahassee Electric -- and we are the largest utility provider in the Big Bend area -- but it's going to allow us to double our force so that, when we talk about restoration after the storm, having that type of manpower is crucial.

And we are truly appreciative of all the communities that are sending help.

SCIUTTO: You mentioned the trees. Tallahassee, of course, surrounded by lakes.

That can present a sort of secondary risk of flooding beyond the storm, the storm surge. How concerned are you about that? And how lasting might that be?

DAILEY: Sure.

For the past week, we have been working diligently to make sure that the entire stormwater system, which is about 450 miles' worth of stormwater of the city of Tallahassee, has been cleaned out, there's no clogs. We have been working with our electric utility as well to make sure that the power lines are clear.

We operate over 4,000 miles of both distribution and transmission lines. So there's been a lot of work behind the scenes by the great men and women of the city of Tallahassee to make sure that we are prepared as well as we possibly can be going into the storm. And then we're going to hunker down.

And then, once the storm moves through, we will be prepared for restoration afterwards. But it is a concern, absolutely.

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, good luck to you, Mayor Dailey, and the people of Tallahassee. We wish you the best in these coming days.

DAILEY: Thank you. Appreciate it.

SCIUTTO: And we will be hearing shortly from the FEMA administrator in terms of federal, national preparations for this approaching storm. Of course, we will bring you those updates and those comments as they come -- Brianna.

KEILAR: In the meantime, the funeral of Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was held privately at a cemetery in St. Petersburg today.

Prigozhin, of course, killed in a plane crash on August 23, two months to the day since staging a mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

CNN's Matthew Chance is at the grave site for Prigozhin.

Matthew, quite a sight to see there. Tell us what you are seeing.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, it's been quite an extraordinary day, Brianna, because the authorities have gone to huge lengths to try and cover up where the funeral was going to actually take place.

[13:15:10]

They have put security barricades and metal detectors outside other cemeteries in St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, the actual funeral took place here, about an hour drive outside of St. Petersburg, the Russian city. You can see we have come here now. We're not allowed into the ceremony -- to the cemetery.

But there's all these security guards, actually members of the National Guard, and there's armed sort of snipers outside the various perimeter points as well. And so they're imposing really tight security on this entire area to make sure that people don't go in, presumably so people don't go in and pay their respects.

I don't quite know why. But, obviously, they're very insecure indeed about that. I just want to show you the closest we can get, though, to the grave site, because if you come a bit over here, you can look through the branches over there into the middle of this quite small cemetery, and you can see a Russian flag.

You can see some flowers there that have been arranged. And there's a very simple wooden cross, which you may not be able to see now, but that's Yevgeny Prigozhin's grave site. It's actually right next door to where his father was buried as well. And that's obviously one of the reasons why this was -- the cemetery was picked.

But I think the other reason is that it's just so out of the way and that the authorities could kind of pretend it was somewhere else, but actually hold it here without much publicity. And that's what they have managed to do.

As I say, though, a lot of security. We're not permitted to go in. For the moment, this is as close as we're going to get -- Brianna.

KEILAR: It's a beautiful place, though, with the trees and a very peaceful area there, notwithstanding all of the armed guards and onlookers as well.

Matthew Chance, thank you so much for showing us that. We appreciate it -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: We are waiting for a key court decision in Georgia, a judge set to rule on whether Mark Meadows can move his case to federal court. That decision could potentially impact the cases of Donald Trump and his other co-defendants.

And this just in to CNN: Francis Suarez says he is out. The Republican says he is suspending his 2024 presidential campaign. We're going to have the latest on that.

And the Hawaii power company facing lawsuits over the deadly wildfires issuing their first strong pushback against claims the power company started it. What they say actually happened -- just ahead.

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[13:21:37]

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: ... as well as other states that are in the Hurricane Idalia.

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to speak with Governor DeSantis. I also had an opportunity to connect with...

KEILAR: We're listening to the FEMA chief.

CRISWELL: ... Governor McMaster and Georgia Governor Kemp to help understand what their concerns were and to identify any unmet needs that they may foresee.

And we will remain in close contact with all of them in the hours and the days to come as Hurricane Idalia makes landfall and moves across these states.

As the president said to Governor DeSantis in his own conversations yesterday, FEMA and the entire federal family are activated to support the people of Florida. The president also quickly approved an emergency declaration in advance of the storm in Florida, turning on the many tools that are available at my disposal to provide the governor any support or resources he may need in advance of landfall and then after.

This allows me to pre-stage people, equipment and resources in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. And I have done just that. We have prepositioned different types of resources across all three states, to include several incident management assistance teams, our urban search-and-rescue teams, our disaster survivor assistance teams.

And they are all ready to pivot to the most impacted areas immediately after the storm passes. We also have warehouses filled with commodities, like food, water, blankets and medical supplies that are ready to rapidly move into the impacted area at the state's request.

But we are not in this alone. We have an entire federal family that is postured to support. Our National Response Coordination Center here in Washington, D.C., is fully activated. And this means that there are several hundred staff from across the federal family that are working together to support any requests for federal assistance.

We have our partners from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who are prepositioned to support any power restoration needs.Health and Human Services is assisting with evacuations from hospitals and assisted living centers. And the Red Cross has 50,000 meals to support the immediate needs, as requested, and has pre-staged shelter support to supplement the 19 shelters that are already opened by the state.

And this is a really important point that I want to talk about next. It's on preparedness. And, again, I really ask for all of your help to help me ensure the people in the storm's path get this message. While we are engaged with our states to prepare for the path of this storm, it's critical that the people that are in the path of this storm are also prepared.

And I know that the people of Florida are no stranger to storms. And I encourage all Floridians to take this storm seriously. This storm is very strong and is expected to strengthen to a major hurricane by the time it makes landfall due to high surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico.

This means heavy winds, high winds, heavy rain and a forecasted 12- foot storm surge in some of the areas along the Western coast. This storm surge, this is one of the highest-risk parts of a hurricane and is especially problematic along the west coast of Florida, due to the underwater geography.

[13:25:04]

The coastal shelf gets shallow very quickly, which increases the amount of the storm surge, putting more people at risk. Very few people can survive being in the path of major storm surge. And this storm will be deadly if we don't get out of harm's way and take it seriously.

So, I ask all Floridians to be vigilant and heed the warnings of your local officials. Have a plan to communicate with your family and your loved ones, charge your cell phones, your batteries, any devices that you may have, and ensure that you are receiving emergency alerts.

And, most important, please listen to the warnings of local officials. If they tell you to evacuate, please do so immediately. And, remember, you don't have to evacuate far. If you are in a storm surge warning area, it could mean just traveling 10 or 20 miles to get out of the most significant impact areas.

It does not mean having to travel hundreds of miles to get out of the storm's path. And, finally, we are all in this together. I ask that you check on your neighbors, especially those who are older adults, people living with disabilities, or may need additional assistance.

But, before I close, I want to provide an update on another topic that has been widely reported in recent days and asked by many of you, FEMA's disaster relief fund, which, as of this morning, has a balance of $3.4 billion.

So, today, I am directing the implementation of immediate needs funding. This means that FEMA will prioritize available funding for critical response efforts to Idalia, the Maui fires, and any other extreme weather events that may come our way without interruption, while continuing to meet the immediate needs of survivors through the remaining weeks of the fiscal year.

I want to repeat, we are prioritizing funding for Idalia, for the Maui fires, and any other extreme weather events that are coming our way without interruption. And I want to stress that while immediate needs funding will ensure we can continue to respond to disasters, it is not a permanent solution.

Congress must work with us on the supplemental request that the administration has made on behalf of FEMA. And you are going to hear more from me on that soon. My primary responsibility at FEMA is to ensure that we are always postured to respond to any disaster and to provide the lifesaving and life-sustaining support when needed.

And, with that, I will take any questions.

QUESTION: Can you relate what your conversation -- what you talked about with Governor DeSantis, and add any details about what coordination you're undertaking with Florida officials?

CRISWELL: Yes, when I spoke with Governor DeSantis yesterday, my main question is always, what are your main concerns? What are the areas that you have the greatest concern about? And do you have any unmet needs or resources that we can bring in?

He shared with me what his posture at the state is going to be and where he has some great concerns. And we are working and embedded with his staff. And I assured him that we have teams working side by side with our colleagues, our emergency management colleagues there at the state emergency operations center to be able to quickly respond as needed.

QUESTION: Following up real quick, I mean, what were those concerns that he had at that time?

CRISWELL: He shared with me the concern, again, about people taking this seriously and being able to evacuate as a result of the storm surge.

He has concerns about the vulnerable populations, right, and making sure that we are providing any assistance we can to help them get out of harm's way.

QUESTION: You mentioned the supplemental request.

After getting a fuller idea of what has happened in Hawaii and with the storm threatening of a severe impact, do you anticipate raising the level of that supplemental request as you start to negotiate with Congress?

CRISWELL: Right now, the supplemental request that we have put in is $12 billion, and that will be a bridge to get us through the end of the fiscal year.

If we continue to see more storms, we're going to continuously monitor very closely the health of the disaster relief fund to determine what more may be needed. But, right now, as the situation stands, the supplemental request will get us through the end of this fiscal year.

QUESTION: In some places, there is a frustration with institutions and authorities.

We have seen that in the wake of some other disasters. Do you have concern about people taking the warnings from public officials, acting on them? And, when we saw with Hurricane Ian, there was a plan -- again, the forecast indicated it was going in one place. It went farther south, and some people did not get out of the way.

So, my question is, given what we don't know, are you concerned that there is any wariness, mistrust, or fatigue about listening to officials in times of crisis like this?

[13:30:00]