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16 Confirmed Dead, Millions Without Power as Recovery Begins; Obama Slams Trump at Pennsylvania Rally as He Seeks to Boost Harris Support; FEMA Burning Through Disaster Funding After Back-to-Back Hurricanes. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired October 11, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The death toll from Hurricane Milton climbs overnight as we're getting new details of dramatic water rescues.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And in Colorado, a terrifying mine incident. One person is dead. 23 others rescued from a gold mine there. Some trapped six hours, a thousand feet underground.

BERMAN: Barack Obama fires a broadside on Donald Trump about diapers. The joke he told and the one he wanted to.

Plus, what Trump just said about Detroit in Detroit.

Sarah Sidner is out. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. CNN News Central starts now.

BOLDUAN: So, this morning, the death toll from Hurricane Milton is rising once again in Florida. At least 16 people are now confirmed dead and disaster response teams right now fanned out the state. As of this hour, there is also still over 2.5 million without power in the state. The Red Cross is also now working to reunite loved ones.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was absolutely devastating only because we just went through Ian and the same exact thing happened with the tornadoes. So, to see the -- and it actually ripped the concrete right out of the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never, never have I experienced damage or the amount of tornadoes that came to this area. And it was the most frightening thing I've ever lived through.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just don't want people to have to come back to this is what a shame. I prayed to God, Mother Nature would save us and preserve us, but none of us were killed. Nobody died.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And that is what they are thankful for their lives today. That is so sad hearing them the days after. We're also now seeing new video coming in overnight of water rescues, like very dramatic water rescues. One man found floating on a cooler in the middle of the ocean, this coming from the U.S. Coast Guard, truly unbelievable. And the water so high in some places that people were rescued from second floor balconies.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is in Hillsborough County once again for us. What are you seeing there now? What are you hearing from people?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, good morning. FEMA's director, Deanne Criswell, said that Florida dodged a worst case scenario. But for some communities, including here in the university area of Hillsborough County, that's further up north, this was completely devastating.

You can still see all of these dramatic images of this floodwater, flash flooding that came to them, blindsided them really. And we've heard from the Hillsborough County Fire and Rescue that they conducted 500 rescue operations yesterday, one of them along with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office was at an assisted living facility. They rescued 135 individuals, some of which had actually evacuated there for safety out of Manatee County.

So, they came here thinking that they would be safe in a zone that normally does not flood like this and they had to stand in flash waters overnight in the cold, some of them requiring medication, their own oxygen tanks. They can't walk and they were taken back to safety across the state. There's been over a thousand rescues, according to Governor Ron DeSantis.

And, of course, some people lost it all. At least 16 lives have been claimed across the state over in St. Lucie County, where we saw that the outbreaks of these tornadoes, six deaths happened there. The sheriff saying that mobile homes were lifted up by the storm into the air and tossed aside like it was garbage is what he said.

And then, of course, there's a matter of recovery, of turning the page, the power outages, 2.5 million of them across the state, making that incredibly hard. Here in Hillsborough County, nearly half a million people are without power. And across the bay over into the hard-hit Pinellas County, St. Petersburg, that city has restored water to drink, but they're under a water boil advisory until Monday.

So, still a lot going on, rescues probably still going underway today when sunrise comes up. But turning the next page and recovering, that's still going to be a long process. Kate?

BOLDUAN: A long process and a very tough one for everybody, for sure. Thank you so much, Isabel. John?

BERMAN: All right, this morning, a personal call to action and a searing indictment from former President Barack Obama.

[07:05:04]

The 44th president hit the campaign trail for Vice President Harris in Pennsylvania and slammed Donald Trump over, frankly, a lot of things, including his false conspiracy theories about aid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: You have a guy who will just lie about it to score political points and this has consequences because people are afraid and they've lost everything and now they're trying to figure out how do I apply for help.

The idea of intentionally trying to deceive people in their most desperate and vulnerable moments. And my question is, when did that become okay?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, Obama also directed a lot of his message to one group in particular, black men.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is with us this morning. And this seemed like a very focused appearance from Barack Obama trying to do some very specific things.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, a very focused appearance at a campaign office where the former president had some stern words. Of course, as we've talked about here before, the vice president has been trying to shore up black voters. She was trying to do this even before she was the Democratic nominee when it was President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket. But it has also been a weak spot in her campaign. You see the images there of the former president at that campaign office in Pennsylvania.

Here's what he had to say to try to get folks excited, especially in trying to shore up those black voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you're coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for it.

So, now, you're thinking about sitting out or even supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you because you think that's a sign of strength?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, that was a remarkable moment. It was, of course, the first black man to serve as president, offering those stern words, but also this is a campaign that has often talked about joy and being the change. And this was a sobering moment for trying to address what, again, polls have shown is a weak area for the Harris campaign.

Now, of course, he delivered that speech in Pittsburgh. It was an emotional one where he talked about a range of issues, taking -- for example, slamming the former president for taking credit for the economy. He also tried to draw stark contrast between the character of former President Donald Trump and that Vice President Kamala Harris, and arguing that she is ready for the job.

Now, as all of this was ongoing, the vice president was on the other side of the country where she was rallying Latino voters, both in Nevada and in Arizona. So, this is an effort by Democrats to try to shore up their coalition, knowing how critical they are going into November.

And former President Barack Obama being in Pennsylvania, no coincidence. Of course, that is a state that when advisors look at the multiple pathways to 270, is always critical to that path. And so, certainly, in Pennsylvania, the, that issue of trying to get black voters behind Kamala Harris is a critical one for the campaign to try to address and one that, of course you saw there from former President Barack Obama, he's trying to do. Not his only stop, by the way. He's going to be on more stops across the country in battlegrounds in the coming days and weeks. John?

BERMAN: It'll be very interesting to see if he continues to focus on men and black men in particular. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you very much for that. Kate?

BOLDUAN: One person is confirmed dead, 23 others rescued from a Colorado gold mine trapped over a thousand feet below ground for hours after an elevator malfunction.

And Donald Trump bashing Detroit while speaking to an audience in Detroit.

And stranded 30 miles out in the open ocean, more on that incredible story that we were just mentioning and how the Coast Guard rescued a man who was on a, sitting on a cooler, floating on a cooler. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

BERMAN: This morning, new video of an almost unbelievable rescue off the coast of Florida, a man holding onto a cooler in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. He survived winds of up to 90 miles per hour, 25-foot seas. Captain Dave apparently lost communications Wednesday night at about 6:45 P.M., he was eventually rescued at 1:030 P.M. the next day.

The Coast Guard says, quote, this man survived in a nightmare scenario for even the most experienced mariner.

And, Kate, I think the lesson here is this is why you always keep a cooler handy.

BOLDUAN: Yes, a cooler. So you can also have beverages and you can also -- I mean, this is insane. The video is absolutely crazy. I want to know exactly how it was located. And thank God for the Coast Guard.

Look at that guy.

BERMAN: And the cooler. BOLDUAN: John, stop.

BERMAN: I'm obsessed with the cooler. It seems like a good idea for a lot of reasons.

BOLDUAN: We're going to ask that captain that question. He probably is also very obsessed with that cooler from here on out.

Okay. That is a perfect example of why so many communities are in need of help right now after Hurricane Milton. Just look what Hurricane Milton has done.

[07:15:01]

For that help, people look to FEMA. But FEMA might not have the funds that is needed.

CNN's Kevin Liptak following this from the White House for us. And, Kevin, this has been an ongoing conversation. Are the funds there? Does the disaster relief fund have what is needed? What are you hearing?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. And we should say from the outset here that FEMA does have the money that it needs for its immediate concerns. That's according to the White House. That's according to the FEMA director. But there are other pots of money that they are concerned about and specifically when it comes to the Small Business Administration. They're responsible for providing low interest loans, not only to small businesses, but to homeowners and renters as well who are trying to recover from this storm. And what President Biden says is they only have a few weeks of funding left and they need more money very urgently.

Now, FEMA is also burning through its funds pretty quickly. They've already spent almost half of their budget for the current fiscal year, which only began 11 days ago. Eventually, they will need that money replenished as well. And what we heard President Biden say yesterday explicitly for the first time is that Congress should come back to Washington to pass some of this money. He put the figure at several billions of dollars that will be needed for this disaster recovery relief.

What we have heard from congressional leaders is that they aren't inclined to come back to Washington, at least in the near term, to pass this funding. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said that because it will take some time for the federal government to assess exactly how much is needed, that it will be okay to wait until Congress is scheduled to return on November 12th.

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, has voiced his support similar sentiment. But, certainly, they are coming under pressure from members of both parties who are representing these states that have been affected, calling on the leaders to call on Congress to come back and secure these funds. Of course, in the backdrop to all of this, they are the lies and disinformation about government funding, including from the former president, Donald Trump. You have heard, for example, Barack Obama go very hard against that yesterday. We also heard President Biden say very bluntly, directly to President Trump, get a life, man.

BOLDUAN: Kevin, thank you so much for your reporting, as always, Kevin Liptak at the White House for us.

Still ahead for us, Diddy, Sean Diddy Combs, makes an appearance in court in shackles as he learns when he will stand trial for on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.

And breaking overnight, one person is dead and almost two dozen others needing rescue after getting trapped underground in a gold mine. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, 23 people were rescued from a Colorado gold mine after an elevator malfunction left one person dead and trapped others hundreds of feet underground.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov is in Cripple Creek with the latest on this. Good morning, Lucy. What's the latest from there?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. We are still waiting for an update from officials as of this morning. But this was a terrifying six hours for the 11 tourists and one guy trapped a thousand feet below ground in this mine after an equipment failure for an elevator malfunctioned, leaving one person dead.

Now, officials last night were tight-lipped about that casualty. They would only describe it as a tragic accident. But by 8:00 P.M. yesterday evening, all of the people had been safely rescued. They were in good spirits. They had asked for pizza, which was waiting for them up above ground, and as one official put it last night, a big happy ending to an otherwise tragic day.

Now, according to the sheriff, all of this began to unfolded around noon. That's when he got reports of an elevator that was stuck halfway, at about 500 feet below the surface with one of the two groups who were in the mine. We know that the death occurred within the group that was stuck in the elevator. They were rescued very early on in the day, almost as soon as the event broke out. They included two children, four people reported minor injuries. Of course, there was that casualty. And I want to apologize, there's some service trucks passing by us right now.

And just for some context, this is a former gold mine that was active during the gold rush. Tourists are able to go down in this mine cage elevator. It's very rickety, like they're very tightly packed. They go down a vertical shaft a thousand feet, and just for some context, that's almost the height of the Empire State Building. At the bottom, they're able to look around and, and get demonstrations on how mining worked in the gold rush. And so one of the groups was stuck on their return up to the surface. The other 12 people, 11 adult tourists from out of town and their guide, trap down there for hours. Officials initially were looking at doing a rope rescue. But with that height, of course, there's danger with just that. They were able to get that elevator to ensure that the elevator was safe enough to pull them back up four at a time. By 8:00 P.M., all were above ground.

Now, the sheriff teared up when he talked about the emotional impact of this event. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF JASON MIKESELL, TELLER COUNTY, COLORADO: And it really is a big concern of ours to make sure everybody is -- especially a traumatic situation like this with children, you know, it's one of those things you tear up a little bit when you're dealing with kids that have to go through these types of things. I'll tell you, that's one of the things that tugs my heartstrings. But they're safe and that's all we can hope for right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAFANOV: And there are mental health counselors and specialists here to help all of the people who went through that tragedy.

[07:25:03]

The group that was stuck for hours didn't actually know that there was a casualty. They decided not to share that information until they got back to the surface in order to keep everyone calm. And, thankfully, the guide was a mining operations expert, and so they had blankets down there, they had water. This was a multi agency response. The governor had been involved, a lot of first responders here to make sure that we had a safe all unfolded smoothly, John.

BERMAN: Lucy Kafanov in Cripple Creek, it just had to be terrifying, thank you so much for that report.

All right, Donald Trump insults the city of Detroit while campaigning in Detroit. Famed former political reporter Ron Fournier, who lives there, tweeted, Florida racist hates Detroit.

And Barack Obama, Donald Trump and diapers heard at a campaign events. Who changes them and who might wear them?

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[07:30:00]