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Water Rescues Underway At Assisted Living Facility In Hillsborough Co.; Today: Trump Campaigns In Michigan As Polling Tightens; Obama To Campaign For Harris Today; Tampa Police Respond To Three On House During Hurricane Milton; Milton Forces Suspension Of Treatments At Cancer Center. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired October 10, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:34:39]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: All right, let's get to the very latest on the aftermath of Hurricane Milton and the destruction left behind. Joining us right now is the FEMA Administrator, Deanne Criswell. Thank you so much, Administrator, for coming on. You guys have a lot on your plate today. What is your assessment of how hurricane -- of Hurricane Milton's impact and damage in Florida?

[09:35:05]

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Yes, Kate, I've had an opportunity to talk with the governor today as well as his team and then give the president an update on what we're seeing. And I think what we know for sure is we avoided that worst case scenario that we were planning for. But the fact that they prepared for the worst really made sure that they were able to respond to the impacts that they have experienced.

And the biggest ones right now are the tornadoes that have been reported across the state. I think the last number I had was 38 confirmed tornadoes and the biggest storm surge was certainly in the Sarasota area but not as much as the catastrophic storm surge that they were predicting but still a significant amount. They're out right now doing assessments, the status, and we've pre-positioned resources to be able to come in and help the state with whatever they need.

BOLDUAN: Some of that pre-positioning, when you say that some of the pre-positioning, kind of just in general for first responders, was it Tropicana Field? This -- the Tampa Bay Rays -- the home of the Tampa Bay Rays, the stadium there and the roof was just ripped off as we saw. That was one of the effects in St. Petersburg, making it impossible for first responders and all who are going to stage there to do that.

What do you do with all of that now? And did that impact staging and response? CRISWELL: Yes. From what I understand from the state is that is a typical location that they do stage resources to support response. But they also know what the wind level is that it's rated for. And when the storm shifted and they saw the increased winds that were going to go over that, they just moved them to some of their other staging areas around the area.

No impact to the response here for the first responders. And I think the most important thing is they recognize that it was in that path. It was going to exceed what it was rated for. And it moved all of those responders to safety.

BOLDUAN: Yes, got them out of that danger. So what does it mean now for FEMA and your recovery efforts? When you're talking now, as Milton moves offshore, that you now are dealing with the aftermath and the impacts and destruction from two major hurricanes in two weeks. Now, if you had a moment to kind of take an assessment of what this is going to mean for FEMA resources in the long term, now that you see what Milton has done.

CRISWELL: Well, I think first off, just the fact that the worst case scenario was not realized here in Florida, it means that there's not -- doesn't mean that there's not going to be impact and resources needed, but not to the level that perhaps we couldn't have needed.

We've done multiple catastrophic events like this in the past. That's why we have a layered approach to our staffing. And we plan for this. And so we had moved resources from some of our non-life threatening open operations to be able to support what was going to potentially be needed here in Milton.

And now we're going to continue to work with the state to help meet not just the Hurricane Helene response and recovery efforts, but now Milton. We already had a thousand people in the state supporting Helene as well as the other disasters, Ian and Idalia, that they had the previous years. And so we'll see if we need to bring anything in addition to what we already had to support now what they're seeing for Milton.

BOLDUAN: And last time we spoke earlier in the week, we were talking about one of the things that FEMA has been forced to fight against is misinformation with regard to false rumors being spread and that had to do with Hurricane Helene and the impacts of that.

It's early on, but are you see -- do you know -- are your teams seeing that level of misinformation continue to spread with regard to any difference with the after -- with the impacts of Hurricane Milton? Like what is what would you say is kind of the staff's report of your -- the battle you all have been needing to wage against this misinformation?

CRISWELL: Well, I think, as we've looked from Hurricane Helene, we've had such great support from governors and congressional members, local leaders really helping to push back on that misinformation. And we did see a decrease even though there was still, you know, some voices out there that were still trying to spread these lies, which is really unfortunate and just a distraction to our ability to support the state locals with what they're doing.

I have not had any reports yet of any increase in misinformation as a result from Milton. But I do have a team that watches this closely. And if we find that we need to get out there and be proactive in our messaging to help dispel these rumors, we'll certainly do that.

BOLDUAN: Yes. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, thank you very much. Good luck today and well, far beyond when it comes to FEMA. Thank you so much.

John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Yes, I mean, she's in it for sure.

BOLDUAN: For sure.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, both Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris back in the campaign trail. Trump headed to Michigan where the polls show the race basically tied.

[09:40:07]

Harris goes to Arizona and Nevada, just as tight in the polling there. And it all comes as former President Barack Obama heads to Pittsburgh as some internal jitters begin leaking out from some Democrats.

CNN's Alayna Treene in Detroit. Eva McKend is in Washington. Alayna, first to you, what are we going to see from Trump today?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, John, we're going to see Donald Trump here in Detroit in just a couple of hours -- excuse me, I'm getting a little feedback. He's going to be here in a couple of hours speaking to the Detroit Economic Club at 1:00 p.m.

Now this visit comes as recent polling from Quinnipiac University shows that the race in the blue wall state, that means here in Michigan, but also Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, really tightening those polls. Three of them actually from Quinnipiac showed that essentially Harris's lead in Pennsylvania has been trimmed. Her -- Donald Trump's -- or excuse me, her lead in Michigan has essentially been erased and Wisconsin remains very close.

Now we know that Donald Trump won these states in 2016. He lost them in 2020. And I know that the Trump campaign is really making an all- out push here in Michigan, but also Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as we look ahead to November.

Now, for what he's going to talk about today. When I talked to Donald Trump's advisers, they say that essentially it's really going to mirror that economic speech he delivered to the Economic Club of New York last month. That means talking about wanting to lower the corporate tax rate even further, wanting to slash regulations.

We also know he has vowed to set up a government efficiency agency that he said Elon Musk has agreed to lead. All of those themes expected to be talked about today when he comes to the state shortly. Now, another thing I just want to point out about the Detroit Economic Club is that every single president going back to Richard Nixon has given a speech here with the exception, I should say of Joe Biden, though there is still time.

We know that Donald Trump delivered a speech to the Detroit Economic Club in the lead up to 2016 just before his win in the state. That's part of why he's coming here today as well. His team is calling it a full circle moment.

But, again, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of Michigan for the Trump campaign as they look ahead to November, especially because when I talk to his advisers, they really say out of all the blue wall states, this is the one they feel the most confident about.

And just one other thing I want to talk about is that yesterday Donald Trump was in Pennsylvania, another blue wall state, and we did hear him continue to escalate his attacks on the Biden administration, but specifically Kamala Harris with regard to the federal response to Hurricane Milton, but also to the most recent hurricane, Hurricane Helene.

He continued to really peddle false claims that the Biden administration is not doing enough to help these people. He argued falsely that helicopters were not going to rescue people on the roofs of their homes. All of this as really the Trump campaign is politicizing this federal response.

And of course we know that a lot of local officials on the ground are trying to do what they can to, you know, combat some of this misinformation. John?

BERMAN: Almost universally pushing back against that misinformation. Alayna Treene in Detroit.

Eva McKend in Washington. I might have had that reversed, I apologize for that. Eva, Barack Obama headed to Pittsburgh today. What's the plan there?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: So, John, what we're seeing from Democrats is a divide and conquer strategy with Harris campaigning out west with a town hall in Vegas, a rally in Arizona this evening, and Democrats looking to former President Barack Obama really to boost the energy and engagement among the base in Pittsburgh.

And what this tells us is the campaign is at this stage where they are deploying their most powerful surrogates. Obama typically sent in to great effect in the closing weeks of democratic campaigns. What we're seeing from Harris is her trying to recreate the multiracial coalition that helped President Biden win in 2020. She's not quite there yet.

And it's important to keep in mind, John, in a lot of places, voting has already started. So Obama and other surrogates, they can essentially encourage voters if they can to vote right away. In fact, last week, when we were on the trail with the Vice President in Flint, Michigan, she told voters not to wait if they received their absentee ballots to go ahead and turn them in. John?

BERMAN: Yes, I mean, that is something the Obama campaigns in '08 and '12 really revolutionized, getting people to go to events and vote, then not wait. It's a way to actually turn out the vote literally in the moment.

Eva McKend, thank you so much. And thanks to Alayna as well.

And we are standing by as we're watching these water rescues in Florida. We'll bring you the very latest.

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[09:49:20]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look for ferry and for lining up and the cars get here. We'll start getting done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grab her along (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Outside, in outside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, come on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's going to grab it on my mother (INAUDIBLE), OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE), guys, so.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, it's good for me to shut it. I'm going to shut it down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's OK, Bubba (ph). It's OK. It's OK. You're OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's it. Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got three.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) where you have three people in.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BERMAN: All right, that was overnight in Tampa. Police responding to a tree that was on a house there this morning. What we're seeing across the western part of the state, water rescues. Flooding has encroached on several structures and we're seeing boats pull into buildings and get people out safety. That is in the western part of the state that is seeing some of the worst flooding.

[09:50:06] On the eastern part of the state, a little bit of a different story recovering from tornado damage there. We'll get an update on the ground from there as soon as we can.

Healthcare facilities are awaiting word on when it will be safe to resume treatments that includes Moffitt, the top cancer center in Tampa.

With me now is Dr. Wade Sexton, the chief medical officer at Moffitt Cancer Center, along with Dr. Michael Warren, actually a patient at the facility and his wife, Kelly. Dr. Sexton, let me just first start with you. How did the treatment center fare in the storm? Any major damage?

DR. WADE SEXTON, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, MOFFITT CANCER CENTER: Thank you, sir. We're in the process of assessing different campuses here in Tampa as to damage from structure perspective. We're also in the process of contacting numerous team members who are planning to relieve our hurricane team and assessing their capabilities to respond and serve as our recovery team. But facilities wise, we're still in the process of assessment.

BERMAN: When do you think you'll be up and running fully again?

SEXTON: That's a good question. It'll take some ongoing assessment throughout the morning, throughout the afternoon. We're looking at quickly turning back on more or less our critical operations, particularly for numerous cancer patients, the blood products we need to provide, assessments we need to provide.

We want to get that up as soon as possible. We think some of our campuses will be open tomorrow morning, but again, it's a process of assessment and understanding our capabilities. But the team is really resilient. We're motivated to help our cancer patients, our staff is, and we're going to turn things around as quickly as possible and get up to speed.

BERMAN: All right. Dr. Warren and Kelly, hello to both of you. Dr. Warren, just how you feeling this morning and what was the night like for you?

DR. MICHAEL WARREN, LEUKEMIA PATIENT AT HOSPITAL FOR TREATMENT DURING BACK-TO-BACK HURRICANES: Well, thanks for having us. We appreciate it. I definitely feel like we have some anxiety going on right now because we've both been here, admitted for the past three weeks. Just recently, I got diagnosed with leukemia.

So I started that treatment process and we're just hoping that our house in Sarasota is OK. We're still waiting here for our neighbors to see if we've sustained any major damage there.

BERMAN: So you have no idea this morning, on top of everything, all the concerns that must be racing through your mind how your home is this morning?

KELLY WARREN, WIFE OF CANCER PATIENT UNDERGOING TREATMENT AT TAMPA HOSPITAL: No, we don't know quite yet. We know we're without power like a lot of Sarasota, but we don't know the extent of our damage quite yet. I hope to be able to drive down as soon as, you know, Moffitt gives the OK and all clear to go head down there.

BERMAN: And I understand that your daughter, who's two, was staying with her grandparents, where, in Jupiter. You guys are all over the state right now, and this storm has had such an impact over such a wide area. What was that like for you heading into this, just being in separate places from your daughter?

K. WARREN: That was a whole another, you know, issue on top of everything. We hate being separated from her, especially Michael hasn't really been able to see her much in the last, you know, few weeks. And we sent her over there. We knew she'd be safe over there and everyone is good from the tornadoes on the east coast. So, she was with her cousins and she was in the best possible place.

BERMAN: Have you had a chance to talk to her this morning?

M. WARREN: Yes.

K. WARREN: We did.

M. WARREN: Yes, we pay so much. So she knows I'm here and she'll say, daddy, you're in the hospital. And it's really cute, so.

BERMAN: I mean, look, this is better than --

M. WARREN: We're spending through this weekend. She'll be coming back. Hopefully --

BERMAN: This is better than FaceTime, I mean, right here. So, you know, maybe she's a CNN viewer. Is there anything you want to say to her if she's watching this right now?

M. WARREN: We love you, Ellen (ph). We miss you.

K. WARREN: We love you.

M. WARREN: And we're excited to get back, reunited with you and all this is over.

K. WARREN: Yes. We can't wait to see you.

BERMAN: This is your second hurricane. You said you've been admitted for the last few weeks. That puts you there for Helene, which was what, like two weeks ago?

M. WARREN: Yes. So I was -- yes, so I was here for Helene. Then we celebrated our third wedding anniversary here in the hospital. And then I was here overnight. So --

BERMAN: Listen --

M. WARREN: -- this is our third big major event.

BERMAN: Well, happy anniversary, a. B, no more hurricanes. C, I hope you get out soon and the treatment continues well for you.

And Dr. Sexton, let me just ask you finally, like, when you have this type of disruption, what does that do to treatment for patients like Dr. Warren?

SEXTON: Certainly it creates a lot of anxiety, right? Anxiety with the patient, with families, the need to understand when they can enter the system, access the system, when they can resume treatments. It's on the forefront of our minds and obviously in our hearts.

[09:55:08]

We're dedicated to them. We want to do everything that we can to help them and help our community. And at the same time, we want to make sure that our team members are safe, that they're taken care of. We want to look to them as well and their cares and needs.

So, but we're resilient. We'll be up and running soon. And we anticipate ongoing just tremendous outcomes for our patients who we love and yearn to take care of.

BERMAN: Dr. Sexton, the best to you. Thank you. Good luck getting that facility back up and running again. Kelly and Michael, we are thinking about you. Again, happy anniversary. I hope you get to hug your daughter both very soon. Thank you so much and best of health.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And talk about one word for that family. Resilience, for sure.

BERMAN: Two hurricanes in three weeks. Enough.

BOLDUAN: They are going through plenty and enough.

Thank you so much for joining us today. This is CNN News Central. CNN Newsroom up next.

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