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Hurricane Idalia Made Landfall This Morning In Florida As A Cat 3; Idalia Now Lashing Georgia After Slamming Florida's Big Bend Region; Interview With Pam Feagle, Taylor County, FL, Commissioner; Gov. DeSantis: Search-And-Rescue Teams Have Been Deployed; Interview With Joe Meek, Crystal River, FL, Mayor. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired August 30, 2023 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And we see that time and again, which is I think people think, I've weathered it, I've gone through the storm.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Yes.
KEILAR: But oftentimes, of course, so much of the danger comes in the wake of the storm. And she was reiterating that. Don't wade in the water, don't drive in the water. If you're in the path of this storm, stay inside.
And she's going to be heading to Florida today, the president -- under the direction of the president where she will be consulting with Governor DeSantis, obviously, making sure that the federal needs are going to be provided there in Florida.
With us right now is Nickie Rucker. She's a resident and a business owner from Cedar Key, not too far from where this storm hit.
Got some of the biggest storm surge that we have seen here. Some pretty devastating images coming out of this area, just catastrophic flooding.
And you did, Nickie, evacuate, which you don't normally do, just to be clear here. But this was a different kind of storm. Tell us what you've been hearing about the impact there.
NICKIE RUCKER, CEDAR KEY, FL, RESIDENT: Well, the pictures state everything. I have -- I was raised there and then I lived in Orlando for 35 years. But anytime there was a storm, I came home because I feel the need to help.
My father was a fisherman. And everything, the fishermen have is in the water. All their money is in the water. And their boats. They trailer boats now, which they never did years ago.
I have a neighbor that has been there forever and many cousins who have lots of money invested in Cedar Keys and their clams. We're the largest clam-producing zip code in the country. And their livelihood is there. They never leave. They were leaving this time. And they're kind of my barometer as far
as I need to go, too. And I left.
SCIUTTO: Yes. Well --
(CROSSTALK)
RUCKER: If that makes sense.
SCIUTTO: No, I hear you, Nickie. This is Jim Sciutto, alongside Brianna as well.
Oftentimes in these storms, you do hear of folks who don't listen to the warnings and stay behind and face dangers as a result. Do you know anyone who did stay behind? As we show these pictures here, I can only imagine the danger that they're facing right now.
RUCKER: What I do know is there's a good many older people on the island and I saw about four or five state trooper cars.
And when my husband was home, one of them stopped by and said that you need to evacuate and that if you do not evacuate, the fire department and ambulance, nobody was coming to save you, to risk their lives because you didn't listen.
And as far as I know, pretty much everybody left, except for a few young, single 30-year-old guys that just kind of know everything and thought they should stay.
(CROSSTALK)
SCIUTTO: We hear you.
RUCKER: But everybody kind of left.
(CROSSTALK)
RUCKER: And I plan on going back tomorrow. Because I doubt they'll let you back on the island because there's a lot of damage there.
I have an office uptown and I'm sure it had three or four feet of water in it. I have two houses. The water got under the house but not in the house, thank goodness.
KEILAR: You are a realtor, to be clear. You sell homes there on Cedar Key.
We were talking yesterday ahead of the storm with your neighbor, Michael Mann, who owns Tony's Seafood there in town.
And one of the things that he was mentioning -- and we've seen this in pictures from other places, which is, look, this is an older town. Some of the construction is older.
There's some wood construction, which is beautiful, but perhaps more fragile. And we've seen the effects of that in other places. Is that one of your concerns? Have you heard about that when it comes
to the damage?
RUCKER: Well, if the tide was as high as they said it was, and with that tremendous surge, uptown, the buildings are probably 100 years old. I have a 99-year-old house that is restored and all that stuff. It's not going anywhere because we repaired it correctly.
But the places downtown, my office is in a very old building. I can't even tell you how old it is. It's been there since I can remember. And people older than me remember it as well.
And it's not in -- it needs updating a little bit. So that would have been -- 15 foot of tide, that would have been gone. And that's what the weatherman was saying. And I totally agree on that.
That's one of the reasons we needed to leave because loose lumber like that, and you're in town, it's just problematic all the way around.
SCIUTTO: Yes. Listen, we're glad you're safe. And as we know, you're going to have a lot to face when you go home. We wish you the best of luck when you go home drying up from all of this and recovering.
[13:35:02]
KEILAR: Certainly --
(CROSSTALK)
RUCKER: You all are doing a great job. Thank you. I appreciate all of your work.
KEILAR: Nickie, thank you so much.
Let's bring in now the commissioner for Taylor County, Florida, Pam Feagle.
Pam, thank you so much for being with us.
Idalia made landfall in your county at Keaton Beach. Tell us what kind of storm surges and flooding you have seen, you're seeing now, and what kind of needs you have. Right now
PAM FEAGLE, COMMISSIONER, TAYLOR COUNTY, FLORIDA (via telephone): Hi. Well, right now, I'm in town and we have not been down to the coast. I'm waiting on an official assessment from down there, just to see what happened.
So I really don't know what kind of surge we had. I have heard through the grapevine that one house was destroyed for sure. Other than that, I'm not sure until we get official word.
We just have so many trees down. Our sheriff has just asked everyone to stay put, stay off of the roads, and until they can clear some of these big trees. And then the other thing for me is, I have not been out of my driveway
because we have a lot of pine trees and oak trees down in your yard, And we cannot get out of our driveway until someone gets here to come them -- get them out of the way.
SCIUTTO: Yes. We were talking --
(CROSSTALK)
FEAGLE: As far as in town, it looks like a disaster zone from the pictures I'm receiving and from the calls that I'm getting. As you said, it looks like a war zone in town.
SCIUTTO: We heard from the mayor, your mayor yesterday talking about the trees. The town loves the trees. Part of the natural beauty there. But at risk with high winds like this.
I wonder, Pam, are you hearing of folks who stayed behind or were left behind who are now looking for rescue at this point?
FEAGLE: Yes. We did have some people -- the sheriff had told us that there were some people who refused to evacuate the beach area.
And so when I checked in this morning with emergency management after all of this sort of passed through, they were preparing it at that time to do wellness checks. Some family members had called and them to check on people.
I just made a call not long ago to see if there are any reports of loss of life or anything. And so far, we don't know of any.
But we have such a -- you know, our roads are just impassable, many of them. They're doing the best they can to get around to do these assessments.
KEILAR: The tree issue is a real one, Pam. Obviously, not just for you. About 50 people staying behind. When are you expecting the people will be able to safely return considering that there are so many trees down?
FEAGLE: Well, right now, I'm told that if you can get to the beach, that you can go. Now property owners, when there's a lot of damage, the property owners have a re-entry card that they have to show because they have law enforcement blocking the roads.
When we've had these hurricanes and tropical storms before, you have a lot of sightseers and we have had looters and so they try to keep all of that out and give the property owners a chance to get back in.
But you know, oddly enough, we're known as the tree capital of the south. As I'm hearing all of these reports, we have so many trees down across all the roads.
And I've had so many people calling me, can you give me help so I can get out. We have our work crews out and we're doing the best we can, but it's going to take a while to clear this mess up. SCIUTTO: No question. And as the FEMA administrator said a short time
ago from the White House, if you are in trouble, please do call 911.
Pam Feagle, we wish you, we wish your community the best of luck in the coming hours and days and we're glad to hear that you're safe.
FEAGLE: Thank you very much.
SCIUTTO: We do continue to follow the latest on Hurricane Idalia. CNN crews witnessing rescues in a city just north of Tampa and we're going to take you there.
KEILAR: And we're waiting as well on remarks from President Biden. He'll be talking about the storm. Stay with CNN's special live coverage of Hurricane Idalia.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:43:49]
SCIUTTO: We continue to track Hurricane Idalia crossing through Georgia now after battering the Big Bend region of Florida's gulf coast.
Both states are now experiencing serious flooding. Parts of Florida saw record storm surges as well. In Georgia, some counties now issuing flash flood emergencies. The dangers are many.
KEILAR: Last hour, we heard Florida Governor Ron DeSantis confirming that search-and-rescue teams have been deployed with help from the National Guard.
We have CNN's Ivan Rodriguez, who is in Crystal River for us.
Ivan, tell us what you have been seeing there.
IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, Brianna, I'm standing in the middle of a parking lot. You can see that water level right below my knee.
We've been seeing over the last couple of hours that water level here in Crystal River begin to increase. And what's concerning is, we have that high tide still right around late afternoon, 4:00 p.m.
The water here has gotten so deep that we've seen two boats now from Citrus County Rescue hit the water.
We've also seen two groups of different people be rescued, pulled out of neighborhoods in here, pulled out with their belongings. We've seen a dog be rescued alongside this group as well.
They're then pulled out to U.S. Highway 19, which is behind me. A lot shallower on that side. Then they can get to emergency vehicles, get any other assistance that they need.
[13:45:08] But these rescues have been ongoing now for more than an hour. We expect that to continue since we can still hear in the distance these boats going up and down the street.
Now I am told that, if water levels rise on this side of the street, where I'm standing, six more feet and cross over Highway 19, homes on that side would be flooded. Really a great concern here.
So much worry from residents, even before landfall, as to the damage that could have been sustained all because of this surge flow. We've seen businesses have been boarded up. A lot of people evacuating and leaving their homes.
But still some that decided to hunker down and see out the storm, now needing to be rescued alongside their belongings.
In Crystal River, I'm Ivan Rodriguez.
SCIUTTO: Thanks so much, Ivan Rodriguez.
We're going to stay in Crystal River, Florida, where Mayor Joe Meek is and he joins us now on the phone.
Mayor, thanks so much for joining us. We know you have a lot to handle, a lot of people to take care of there.
What is your biggest challenge right now?
MAYOR JOE MEEK, CRYSTAL RIVER, FLORIDA (via telephone): Thank you so much. We appreciate you being here in the community and highlighting the situation that we have going on.
As we were concerned about, the biggest issue now obviously is dealing with the storm surge. And we're right in the middle of it as we speak.
Some of the indicators that we're seeing right now is the water starting to recede slightly. However, high tide is not until around 4:00 p.m.
But with that being said, that doesn't necessarily mean the water will continue to rise until then. What we're seeing now is somewhat of a -- the water receding slightly. So that is good news.
The bad news is most of the city right now is under water. We're a low-lying area. Our base elevation throughout our city is anywhere from three to five feet above sea level.
And so we're experiencing a significant surge right now anywhere from seven to nine feet. And so most of our roadways are under water.
As the gentleman was just saying, there's individuals that are being rescued. We have Citrus County and Crystal River Fire and Rescue that are out.
I just stepped off of an airboat a few minutes ago, went through the city. I will tell you that, for the most part, it doesn't appear that there are folks that are -- a lot of folks that are needing assistance right now.
I think a lot of folks heeded the issue. We've been talking about it over the last few days, had a mandatory evacuation throughout the city now for two and a half days. I think people were mostly prepared.
But our biggest issue right now is dealing with the surge. Hoping that it starts to go down relatively soon. Obviously, once the water goes down and recedes, it's dealing with all the issues that's brought about.
KEILAR: It's really good news. And we're hearing this, time and again, that people realize this storm was different. It was going to be historic and they did decide to leave when maybe they wouldn't during other storms.
But, Mayor, I wonder -- of course, we're still waiting as you said for high tide. People aren't going to be, I expect, coming back to their homes. When do you think it will be safe for residents to return and survey the damage?
MEEK: Yes, ma'am. It's really hard to tell. It obviously depends upon how quickly that water recede. And once we get folks in here, especially with our utility, to make sure it's safe from a power standpoint, that we don't have downed power lines or anything like that.
As soon as the water gets -- recedes and gets where we can access the roads, we will take a look at that. And then as soon as that is safe, of course, open it back up to residents to come in.
We're very obviously susceptible to tidal issues. It's not rain/water- type flooding. It's tidal. Once this surge recedes, we should be able to get in there very fast.
To your point, we are very fortunate. I think we're used to dealing with these types of things with storms and floods. But folks this time saw I think the severity of the storm and the track that it was taking and took it serious.
I know a lot of folks throughout the city in the past may not have taken it as serious. But they did this time, which was very fortunate.
We got a lot of folks that got their belongings up to higher ground and that did evacuate. Some, of course, did not. But I think, for the most part, people understood the severity of this.
SCIUTTO: Well, let's hope the water continues receding as well. That can leave damage in its way.
Mayor Joe Meek, we wish you and your community the best of luck.
MEEK: Thank you so much. We are grateful that you all are here covering us and highlighting the issues that we're going through. We really appreciate it. God bless.
KEILAR: All right, Mayor, thank you. President Biden set to speak here in minutes on Hurricane Idalia. We
will bring that to you as soon as he begins. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:53:50]
SCIUTTO: We are continuing to follow Hurricane Idalia as it crosses through Georgia after battering the Big Bend region of Florida's gulf coast throughout this morning.
Both states experiencing serious flooding. Parts of Florida saw record storm surges. Georgia, some counties issuing flash flood emergencies. You see a lot of wind damage as well.
KEILAR: Yes, we've seen that.
Right now, I want to take you to a few miles from where this historic storm first made landfall in Florida.
CNN affiliate, WJXT, was on scene.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VIC MICOLUCCI, REPORTER, WJXT: We have made our way as close to Horseshoe Beach as we possibly can. This is in Dixie County, Florida, in the Big Bend. We're being told it's one of the hardest=hit areas after that hurricane came through this morning.
I want to show now, you have some of the search crews being escorted through. The Florida Highway Patrol is blocking this road. This is the only road to come in and out. Emergency personnel only because it's not safe.
So we can see right there in this road, power lines are down. There's a lot of trees that are down. And there's significant water.
[13:55:00]
This is just one of the coastal towns that got hit really hard. Not just with the winds and rain, but with storm surge.
I was talking with some residents who evacuated Horseshoe Beach. They were speaking with their neighbors saying that the storm surge this morning was at least 10 feet.
It actually knocked out the live cameras. So they weren't able to see it past 10 feet.
But they are very concerned about their property and worried about their neighbors here in the area.
So right now, we are working to get you a little bit closer, trying to figure out the situation.
I did ask a deputy if this is search-and-rescue. She said, right now, they are just working to assess the situation and figure out what's going on and who may need help back there.
Of course, we'll bring you the latest.
For now, from Dixie County, I'm Vic Micolucci.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: Our thanks there to Vic Micolucci, of WJXT.
And of course, that's what authorities are doing in a number of communities, trying to assess who needs help, where the damage is.
Minutes from now, we are expecting an update on both the strength and the forecasted track for Hurricane Idalia going forward. We will have the latest outlook right after this break.
And as we head to break, check out how a reporter from CNN affiliate, WFTS, tried to stand strong during the fierce winds.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED WFTS REPORTER: We've been here --
(WIND NOISE)
UNIDENTIFIED WFTS REPORTER: Here we go.
(WIND NOISES)
UNIDENTIFIED WFTS REPORTER: Wow.
(WIND NOISE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
