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Hurricane Idalia Batters South Georgia. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 30, 2023 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Many of them did stay in.

They were advised that, even if you think the brunt of this has passed, you have got to stay in your house and give crews time to get out and assess some of this, to cut some of the trees away, and to try to clear some of the power lines.

Again, you can't emphasize enough how dangerous these power lines are. They're -- a lot of these are lying on the ground. Some of them could be live still. It's just dangerous to walk around here, yes.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Brian, thank you so much. Appreciate that.

And President Biden is expected to speak on Hurricane Idalia in the next hour. We're going to take you there when it happens.

Stay with us for CNN NEWS CENTRAL, which starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Our breaking news coverage of Hurricane Idalia continues.

The storm is now moving quickly across Southern Georgia as a Category 1. And Idalia is so massive, we're talking 250 miles of the Southeast right now being hit all at once, the city of Savannah now bracing, three to five feet of storm surge expected there. And officials are warning, conditions are going to rapidly deteriorate very soon.

Right now, search-and-rescue operations are under way, as the catastrophic storm surge on Florida's Gulf Coast is actually still rising in some areas, the Big Bend region, that curve in Florida's corner there, seeing the worst impact after the storm made landfall as a Category 3.

And we're getting some stunning new video from Keaton Beach. It's showing the moment as the eye of the storm hit. And this is some of the stunning aftermath, a home completely destroyed, the walls and the roof ripped off. You can see a bed inside of the house.

Florida officials say two people were killed in two separate car accidents during severe storm conditions as well.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: And, in Perry, Florida, as the storm hit, winds topped 120 miles per hour.

This woman caught the moment a tree fell right on her home. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh. No!

(SCREAMING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's OK. It's OK. It's OK. It's OK.

Oh, my gosh. No!

(SCREAMING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's OK. It's OK. It's OK. It's OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Yes, that could be genuinely dangerous.

Right now, we have reporters covering all angles.

Let's begin in Gulfport with Carlos Suarez.

Carlos, tell us what you're seeing there in the wake of this.

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so we're about a half-hour drive outside of the Tampa Bay area. We have been trying to get to this part of Pinellas County the entire morning, but we were unable to cross over from the Tampa Bay area because the bridges have been closed.

One bridge has reopened, and so we were able to get out to Gulfport. As you can see around me, this is what it looks like to be in this part of Pinellas County right now. The flooding goes all along the coastline out here. You can see where all of this water was just pushed in by this hurricane as it made its way offshore here and made its way north of where we are.

I spoke with Gulfport's mayor earlier today. He told me that, right now, the city didn't see a whole lot of wind damage, but they are still trying to figure out exactly what the flooding situation is going to look like over the next couple of hours, because all of this water right now is basically sitting here.

You still have high tide, which is about to move in around 2:00, 2:30 in the Tampa Bay area, and then we still have several more hours. More rain has started to move in. And so, as you can imagine, crews, emergency officials out here tell us that, until some of this water recedes, they're really not going to be able to get a true grasp of just how much flooding damage is out here.

This part of Pinellas County was one of the two mandatory evacuation orders that went out yesterday. That order is still very much in effect, though, again, in the last couple of hours, one of the bridges that connects Hillsborough County, which is home to the Tampa Bay area, has reopened, which means folks can cross over from Pinellas County here, as well as Hillsborough County.

But, guys, as you can see, the folks out here are still dealing with all of this flooding. It'll be several more hours before some of this water eventually recedes. I don't know if -- Gerry (ph), if you can go to your right here, you can see kind of what we have been taking a look at all the way at the far end there.

Some folks have taken to some kayaks to get up and down this part of the boulevard out here. To give you a sense of where we are, this is a pretty popular, touristy part of town of Gulfport. It's lined by a bunch of businesses, restaurants and bars.

A lot of these places, of course, closed yesterday in anticipation of this storm. But, guys, as you can see by -- see here behind me, the folks out here are still very much waiting to dry out -- guys.

[13:05:04]

SCIUTTO: Yes, just the kind of surge and flooding folks were warning about in advance of this.

Let's go to CNN's Brian Todd. He is in Tallahassee, Florida, right in the crosshairs of this.

What have you seen in the wake?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, as soon as the brunt of the storm passed, we kind of fanned out to some of these neighborhoods. And there's a lot of damage on the streets.

I don't need to even tell you. I can just show you this. But, look, this is a pine tree with a lot of Spanish moss hanging on top of it. That makes the tree much heavier. This thing was just uprooted, crashed down. And then here's kind of a look at the danger involved.

It hit a bunch of power lines. Some of them are down. Some of them are dragging on the street. Just walking around these things is dangerous. But I will show you just kind of the sheer violence with which this thing came down, which is pretty jarring, actually.

Taking us over here by the fence, look at this. Look at the root system here, a wide root system. It just completely uprooted. It took the fence off of its moorings up into the air. Luckily, it missed this house.

Here is the homeowner, Abyla Rene.

Abyla, this happened a few hours ago. Can you tell us -- let me swing around here. Sorry. Can you tell us, kind of what did you see, what did you hear when this happened?

ABYLA RENE, TALLAHASSEE HOMEOWNER: Well, we didn't really hear anything. There was a lot of wind and debris probably flying on the outside.

But we came out and we looked because the power was gone. And my husband said to me, he said, "Oh, my world, the pine tree is down."

And I said: "Wow." I said: "OK, let's get the U.S. aid. Let's get that claim in."

(LAUGHTER)

TODD: Well, you have an amazingly positive and cheery attitude. Kind of what do you -- how do you look at this in the broader perspective of things? Look, it missed your house, right? So...

RENE: And I'm grateful for life.

So, we kept in prayer and meditation and hoping for the best, because at least we have life.

TODD: We do.

RENE: And we're grateful for that.

TODD: And you have your kids. One of your children lives with you.

RENE: And we have children, yes. And she's safe. And my husband is safe.

TODD: Right.

RENE: There are people worse off, so I'm grateful.

TODD: True.

Well, thank you Abyla. It was really nice for you to talk to us, and good luck in getting all of this taken care of.

RENE: Thank you very much.

TODD: Again, guys, you have got people over here assessing damage in their yard. There's some people down there.

It's dangerous just to walk around here. Interestingly enough, Abyla and her husband, Kervin, thought that I was the insurance claim adjuster when I first approached them a short time ago. And I'm sorry to disappoint them, but, hopefully, the adjuster is on their way.

KEILAR: Henceforth...

SCIUTTO: Yes. And we were talking to the Tallahassee mayor yesterday, and he was talking about all the trees there as being a risk factor. They were worried about some of them coming down in those high winds, just what we're seeing.

KEILAR: I may call you the adjuster from now on when I see you in the bureau, though, Brian Todd.

I want to get now to Chad Myers at the CNN Weather Center.

That's a big part of the story here, of course, is all the insurance claims and how some of those insurance companies are no longer going to be insuring some of these areas or they have already pulled out.

But, Chad, you're taking a look at where this storm is continuing to track. Tell us what you have your eye on here.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is right now in Southern Georgia, just moved over Valdosta, Georgia, near Vidalia, Georgia.

You may have heard of those onions at your supermarket. But, still, for many people in Western Florida, the wind is still coming off the water here. So this surge may not go down for a while. And if you are at this point in time still kind of getting to high tide, the water could still be going up.

Now, the opposite of it is happening on this side, where Savannah, you're getting wind blown up the Savannah River. Same story for the Copper River. This is the storm itself right now, 80 miles per hour. Rarely do we ever get a hurricane in Georgia crossing state lines from Florida, but there you have it, and then back out here toward east. By Thursday, things really begin to calm down.

This is still in some pretty warm air, not warm water. We're over land, but, still, there's a lot of warm air out here, a lot of humid air. This thing isn't winding down as fast as sometimes they do. There is the center of circulation right now, easier to find here. And you can also see some of the circulation there.

There is Valdosta. You got the eye. I don't think you probably could look up and see clear skies, because the eye is kind of filled in, but you have that going for you. Awful lot of rainfall here. Still some flooding going on. And I think that flash flooding will still be for many, many hours because it has rained so long.

Also back out there, power outages everywhere. It's going to take a long time to get some of these trees off the power lines and such. Rainfall up and down the East Coast could be up to six more inches. That will cause more flooding in the heaviest areas.

So, this is what we're dealing with today. We're not dealing with the Cat 4 anymore, but, still, it still has its moments, and it's still going to have its problems for many people here across the Southeast.

SCIUTTO: Chad, we talked a lot yesterday about the danger of storm surge.

MYERS: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Do we have a sense now of whether it met the worst expectations?

MYERS: I don't think we do, because we don't have buoys or any kind of tattletales there in the way of where the worst would have been. We're going to have to wait and see and see where waterlines are on buildings, on trees to see.

[13:10:04] But the worst that I could find right now is about 10 feet, and that's basically -- they said 10 to 15. So you're in the ballpark. But that is not where the core surge would have been. It would have been north of that one location we have at Cedar Key and then on up toward Steinhatchee.

We don't have those numbers because there aren't elevation buoys to tell us just yet. This will be man on the ground trying to find out those numbers over the coming days.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

KEILAR: And I do want to let our viewers know as well we are awaiting right now a briefing at the White House. It actually just started, but we're waiting to hear from Deanne Criswell, Chad, the FEMA director, about exactly sort of what they're dealing with.

And to your point, as you're looking there at Georgia, this is still continuing. What do you think at this point? What are you -- what are some of your questions right now, as FEMA is looking towards this becoming a big flooding event a little further inland with Georgia?

MYERS: Right.

It's the onshore flow that we still have even for Charleston, for Savannah. Just had a 58-mile-per-hour gust down Jekyll Island, which is kind of a barrier island out in Georgia. So the wind is still pushing water up. We are still seeing people, especially along the East Coast here.

We are still waterlines going up and up and up, especially as we talk about these king tides that we have had, the supermoon. The moon is 18,000 miles closer to the Earth right now, because it doesn't have a circular orbit, 18,000 miles closer than normal. That's about a 5 percent extra pull.

If you go outside tonight, look at the moon. You will notice that it looks pretty big. That is what we're seeing with this supermoon. That makes bigger tides, about one foot, one additional foot on where you should have been with these king tides.

KEILAR: All right, Chad, thank you so much for that.

Let's go to the White House now, where we are listening to the FEMA director.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: ... all of you know, made landfall early this morning.

While we were in there, the president contacted Governor DeSantis to let him know that the federal family continues to be there to support him. The governor expressed that all of his needs are met currently. The president reiterated that. If anything is needed from the federal government, we will be able to support. And we have over 1,000 personnel currently deployed, prepared to support not just Florida, but all of our states that are in the path as needed. While I was in there, the governor also -- or the president also directed me to travel immediately into the area.

And I will be traveling later this afternoon to join Governor DeSantis tomorrow to do assessments and see firsthand what the impacts from this storm are. And I can be able to report back to the president exactly what I see, what we think the needs might be and where the federal family can continue to assist.

Before I touch more on Hurricane Idalia, I also want to address the second reason that I am here at the White House today. Today, I will also join President Biden alongside his Cabinet and agency officials who are supporting the response and the recovery efforts on the ground in Hawaii, as we continue to help the people of Maui rebuild and recover over the long term.

The whole-of -- this whole-of-government approach is what is needed to get the right resources to the people of Maui, the resources and the assistance that they need and that they deserve.

Now, back a little bit to what we know so far on Hurricane Idalia, while it is still too soon to assess the total damages, we know that the storm made landfall as a Category 3, which means over 120-mile- per-hour winds and up to 10 inches of rain in some areas.

Peak storm surge in some places along the coast, it has peaked right now, but it could surpass once they measure over 15 feet of storm surge. And we will get exact numbers as they're able to go in and assess what the total storm surge was.

And, in fact, Idalia is the strongest storm to hit this part of Florida, to make landfall in this part of Florida in over 100 years. But FEMA and the entire Biden/Harris administration, we were prepared and we were ready to support the needs of this storm.

As I mentioned, we have actually over 1,500 federal responders that are on the ground in the affected area. This includes over 300 personnel from FEMA, as well as over 500 urban search-and-rescue personnel ready to support any of the states' requests.

As of 7:30 this morning -- and I know these numbers are dynamic and fluid, but, as of 7:30 this morning, there are nearly 300,000 customer outages for power in Florida. And we do expect those numbers to continue to rise as the storm passes through and goes into Georgia. And we will see power outage numbers for Georgia, South Carolina and perhaps North Carolina.

Our partners at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are prepositioned to support power restoration. And they have over 30 generators that are pre-staged. Additionally, the utilities are preparing for storm impacts, including presaging crews and equipment outside of the projected storm track.

[13:15:02] And the state anticipates a total of about 30,000 to 40,000 linemen in

Florida to begin to assist in the power restoration efforts. People that are still in the storm's path, however, as you heard from Karine, they should not venture out into the storm and remain sheltering in place if your local officials are telling you to do so them.

However, if you are in trouble and you need immediate assistance, please call 911. As you do go out, do not wade in the water. Do not drive through flooded roads and streets. Just remember, turn around, don't drown.

Unfortunately, we see so many fatalities after the storm passes. We want to make sure that everybody is taking the right precautions to keep themselves safe. And, as always, please continue to listen to your local officials as this storm continues to pass over Georgia currently and into South Carolina.

Please check on your friends and your family and your loved ones, especially older adults and people living with disabilities, to see if they have any needs. In closing, I just want to remind people that this is still very much an active situation.

Remnants of the storm are still affecting Florida. As we speak, the storm is over Georgia and moving into South Carolina. People there and in the Carolinas will continue to experience impacts throughout the day today and possibly into the weekend.

Again, FEMA is well-postured with our federal partners to support Floridians during this time of need and stands ready to support other affected states as needed.

With that, I can take any questions.

QUESTION: Thank you.

Administrator, what are you most concerned about over the next day or two, since you just said it's too early right now to assess the extent of damage in Florida?

CRISWELL: Yes, my biggest concern is those people who chose not to evacuate.

And I know that our local first responders, the heroes that are out there in those local communities, are doing an amazing job already of going into the areas where people did not evacuate and helping to get them to safety.

I think that is our priority through the day today, is to make sure that everybody is safe after the storm has passed.

As we go into the next few days, we're going to want to assess what the total amount of damage is and see what immediate needs need to be put forth in order to help support and start the recovery process.

QUESTION: Administrator Criswell, thank you so much. Could you just take us a little bit into that briefing that you had

with the president today? What is he most concerned about? What was he most focused on? Any other direction that he gave to you, other than to fly down to Florida?

And then, secondly, you said that Governor DeSantis is satisfied with the federal response, doesn't need anything additional. Was there anything else discussed on that call?

CRISWELL: Yes, the president's main concern is making sure that we are bringing everything that we have in to support these states as they're having immediate response and lifesaving needs or beginning to start their assessment and their recovery process.

I think it's incredibly important that our governors know that we are ready and postured to bring in all federal resources to support any of their lifesaving and their life-sustaining needs in the very near future.

The conversation with Governor DeSantis was that -- reiterating the fact that we already have over 1,500 personnel there in the area to be able to support, and the governor currently has no unmet needs. But as we begin to assess, right, as the governor assesses and as I get on the ground tomorrow to assess, we will see what additional needs might be there and if any of those resources need to be employed or we need to move more into the area.

QUESTION: Has the president spoken yet with the governors of Georgia or South Carolina as well or any plans for that to happen?

CRISWELL: I believe he was preparing to contact them after I left, so I could come to this briefing.

Go ahead, John (ph).

QUESTION: Thank you, Administrator.

To what extent do you attribute climate change as a cause of this storm and the other weather events that we're seeing over the last weeks and months?

CRISWELL: Yes, I'm not going to attribute the cause of the storm, but what I can say is that we are seeing an increase in the number of severe weather events.

And what we saw with this storm, as we have seen with several of our hurricanes over the last few years, is that they are intensifying more rapidly due to the elevated heat of the water temperature richer in the Gulf or in the Pacific or whether it's in the Atlantic. These storms are intensifying so fast that our local emergency management officials have less time to warn and evacuate and get people to safety.

This is something that we have to take into consideration as we build our preparedness plans, as our local communities build their preparedness plans on how they're going to communicate and prepare their communities for the types of storms that they're going to face in the future.

QUESTION: And, secondly, more specifically, on this storm, do you have any sense, or is it too early now to say, what the cost of recovery will require, will be?

CRISWELL: Yes, it's far too early to even estimate what the cost is.

It's still unsafe in many parts to even go out. That's what's going to happen over the next several days, is to really get a good understanding and initial estimate of what we think the costs will be and what the amount of impact to these communities has been.

[13:20:10]

QUESTION: Just to follow on that, with what you have seen so far, how long do you think it will take to get that full assessment and how long will it take to understand the costs of the recovery efforts?

CRISWELL: Yes, we have rapid assessment teams that have been prepositioned, ready to go out as soon as it's safe to do so. And so those are personnel that will integrate in with the state personnel to go see what the damages are.

But we also use technology, right? We use aerial imagery and satellite technology. And we use our geospatial information to get a better idea, so we don't have to physically put people out there. And it allows us to make these types of decisions much quicker than we have been able to in the past.

And so, again, it will take several days to get a full understanding of what the initial assessment, damage assessment is, but it will take longer to get the full picture of the total amount of impact to these communities.

QUESTION: And, yesterday, you had said that FEMA's disaster relief fund was running low.

With what we have seen from this storm so far, there's also the Maui fires. Do you think there's enough funding? Are you confident there's enough if there's another extreme weather event in the next month?

CRISWELL: Yes, so, yesterday, as I announced, I directed my personnel to implement what we call immediate needs funding, and that prioritizes the remaining funding within the disaster relief fund to support those lifesaving efforts.

I believe, through this effort, we have plenty of funding to be able to support our ongoing efforts in Maui, as well as this event, to include Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, as needed. But we are monitoring it very closely, right? Every day, we are looking at what the cost of these storms are as we approach the end of this fiscal year.

And if we have another storm, we're going to have to closely monitor what impact that's going to have and any other actions we might have to take. QUESTION: Administrator, thank you for being here.

As we do approach the end of the fiscal year, as you just noted, just getting a little bit down the road, these take weeks, months to recover. FEMA's involvement will go on for quite a long time. Back in 2013, when there was a government shutdown, FEMA had to furlough its nonessential staff.

Right now, what potential impact would a government shutdown, as lawmakers have considerations about whether to fund the government, have on FEMA's ability to care for those in both Maui and in Florida?

CRISWELL: I mean, we always want to take account to what our personnel are doing and how we're using our personnel to support these events.

A government shutdown does not impact our personnel that are funded through the disaster relief fund. And so they're able to continue operating and supporting all of the immediate efforts and lifesaving efforts that continue to go on. And we also, for our other staff, can designate our emergency essential personnel to support any lifesaving efforts.

And so we have plans in place, as we have gone through this before, on how we would staff our agency to continue to support those efforts.

QUESTION: If I can follow up about the critical needs assistance that was provided to those in Maui, $700 in payments to individuals there, given the cost of living in Hawaii, specifically in the Lahaina community, is anything being done right now, are there considerations or efforts being made to try to raise that cap, that $700 figure for those who are there?

CRISWELL: Yes, the $700 figure of critical needs assistance is really just that amount of funding for some of the very immediate needs that individuals have.

Every year, the main part of our assistance, which is our individual and household program, adjusts annually based on inflation. This year, it's $41,000 of a cap that individuals can get. That will get raised after the fiscal year.

I don't know what that number is yet, but we do adjust that main portion, the funding that goes to individuals annually based on inflation.

QUESTION: So, $700 is it for now, and then they can pursue those other monies going forward. But, if people have run through that money, right now, they're on their own until they get access to the further assistance coming?

CRISWELL: Yes, and we already have, I think it was 12,000 individuals that registered for assistance in Maui, and somewhere over $15 million that's out on the street.

That number could be higher right now from that other program. QUESTION: Thank you, Administrator.

CRISWELL: OK.

QUESTION: I know that you and the governor and local officials, state officials have all told people they needed to get out of the way of this storm.

So, my first question is, are you satisfied that people heeded those calls, both from you and local and state officials? And then, secondly, you mentioned the search and recovery teams that are sort of deployed and ready to go. What's your assessment so far on what those needs look like if people are sort of stranded right now?

CRISWELL: Yes, so, on the first question, I think many people did heed the warning, but, unfortunately, many did not, right?

We're already getting reports of people that chose to stay, and they're getting calls into the local first responders to come in and assist them. And if anybody needs assist, they should. They should call 911, and those local first responders will come in and help.

As far as the entire footprint of those resources that are available, it's a combined effort, recognizing the capability that the state already has with all of their resources. And we have additional resources that are integrated in with that operation.

[13:25:04]

So, if we need to immediately augment, we have resources that are ready to deploy as soon as requested, without hesitation and without interruption.

QUESTION: Is it clear yet how many people may be stranded?

CRISWELL: Oh, I don't have a number on how many, no.

QUESTION: From the initial assessment, what would you say are the most damaged areas? And what was the response from the population in those areas to the government's instructions?

CRISWELL: I would say that initial reports are in that Big Bend area that have had the greatest impact.

They have experienced the greatest amount of storm surge. They experienced the greatest wind speeds. And so, when we do get out to start assessments, that would be my anticipation of where we would experience the greatest amount of damage and impact across Florida.

QUESTION: And how did people respond in those areas?

CRISWELL: Again, I think many people did heed the warnings, and there was a lot of public messaging that went out there to let people understand that the danger is not just the cone of the hurricane, but it's the storm surge and the water which is creating and causing the most fatalities in these events. But, again, many people did not, as we are hearing about our first

responders going in to support rescuing people from their homes that are now stranded.

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: OK, we're going to wrap -- we will wrap it up (OFF-MIKE) the back and then (OFF-MIKE)

QUESTION: On the immediate needs funding, I'm curious if you have recognized the potential long-term ongoing recovery efforts that could be at risk here.

CRISWELL: So, if I understand, the long-term recovery efforts based on right now or what it looks like going into the next fiscal year?

QUESTION: Going into the next fiscal year. Which ones are at risk here if you do not get the funding you need?

CRISWELL: Yes.

So, what immediate needs funding does is, the work does not stop, right? The projects continue to go under way, our longer-term recovery projects for the variety of disasters that we have experienced over the year.

The obligation or the reimbursement of the funding for those is delayed into the next fiscal year. If it gets delayed into the next fiscal year, then that just starts us out at a smaller balance of what we had anticipated our needs would be for fiscal year '24.

QUESTION: Are there any ongoing efforts, though, that you have identified that would be at risk if it comes to that?

CRISWELL: Again, the funding -- or the work itself does not stop. It's the funding that just gets delayed into the next fiscal year.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) take things back to Hawaii, if I could, Administrator, because there's still a lot of questions among officials in Maui and Lahaina and across Hawaii about who was in charge in the hours as the fires burned and then the hours after.

You're a veteran local emergency management official, state emergency management official, now at the federal level. How do you assess how officials there responded? Are there lessons to be learned, perhaps, for other communities? And is your agency prepared to work with congressional Republicans if they launch investigations, as they say they will?

CRISWELL: Again, I was not there during the response, and so I would be out of line to assess how they responded during the time, because I did not experience what they were experiencing.

What the federal government does is, we come in and we support their efforts, and that's exactly what we did. And we will continue to support their recovery and their rebuilding efforts as they move forward.

QUESTION: Were you being properly briefed by FEMA authorities in Hawaii that would have been working with those officials?

CRISWELL: What I was briefed on throughout the time is, my regional administrator, Bob Fenton, happened to be in Oahu for another meeting, and he was engaging with the team and giving us updates as to the spread of the fire and what the population was impacted and what the potential federal resources would be needed to come help support the initial response and then the ongoing recovery efforts.

QUESTION: And if congressional Republicans want you or other agency officials to testify about what went on in Hawaii?

(CROSSTALK)

CRISWELL: I'm happy to testify on what the federal role was in this process.

JEAN-PIERRE: All right, thanks, everybody. Thank you so much.

CRISWELL: All right, thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

JEAN-PIERRE: ... tomorrow.

CRISWELL: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: We have been listening there to the FEMA administrator, Deanne Criswell, who gave a number of important updates on the track of Idalia, also the federal response, saying that 300,000 customers now without power, though that number expected to rise.

Army Corps of Engineers, as well as thousands of line workers, being deployed to restore that power, but the expectation, it's going to be some time before it's done. She also reiterated orders from authorities there that, if you are under a shelter-in-place order, to continue to abide by that and call 911 if you're in danger.

Then, of course, the advice they often share in the wake of events like this or as the events are still unfolding, which is, don't drive into the water that the danger remains. Flooding remains. There's that saying, turn around, don't drown, as Deanne Criswell repeated there, because the storm may have passed, or the worst of it, but the danger has not.

KEILAR: And we see that time and again, which is, I think people think, oh, I have weathered it. I have gotten through the storm.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

KEILAR: But, oftentimes, of course, so much of the danger comes in the wake of the storm.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

KEILAR: And she was reiterating that. Don't wade in the water. Don't drive in the water.