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Hurricane Ian Strengthens to 155 MPH; Florida Prepares for Ian; New Update on Ian Kevin Anderson is Interviewed about Fort Myers Preparing for the Hurricane; St. Petersburg Feeling the Effects of Ian. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 28, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:30]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A stormy Wednesday morning. I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. We're glad you are with us. There is a lot of breaking news this morning. I'm Poppy Harlow.

We are watching Hurricane Ian as a powerful category four storm barreling toward Florida's west coast with sustained winds of 155 miles an hour. That is just shy of a category five hurricane. The eye of this storm expected to make landfall just hours from now, bringing with it catastrophic flooding and also life-threatening storm surge.

The Florida Keys getting hit hard overnight with tropical storm-force winds causing flooding, major flooding, and power outages.

SCIUTTO: The power of this is just enormous. The hurricane has also sparked tornado activity. One reported overnight in Broward County, ripping trees from the ground. It has also caused heavy damage to planes at the North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines, flipping aircraft like toys.

For the north, more than 2.5 million people are facing some form of evacuation order this morning, but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says that now residents in the crosshairs of the approaching storm need to shelter in place immediately. That, in effect, it's too late to evacuate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): If you are in any of those counties, it's no longer possible to safely evacuate. It's time to hunker down and prepare for this storm. This is a powerful storm that should be treated like you would treat if a tornado was approaching your home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: We have reporters up and down the Florida coast covering this storm this morning.

Let's begin with CNN's John Berman. He's in Tampa, Florida.

John, tell us what you're seeing there, particularly as the latest seems to be the storm coming to the south of there.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That's right, the worst impact will be south of here, about 100 miles or so south of here. But this could be one of the most powerful storms ever to make landfall in the United States. Think about that. One of the most powerful storms ever. And that's just the wind speed.

But this storm has so many other devastating possible impacts as well. Wind speeds of 155 miles per hour now, nearly category five. A storm surge of 16 feet in some places, particularly concern in the Port Charlotte area. Sixteen feet could go blocks, in some cases miles inland. That's well over the roofs of some of these mobile homes and houses that might be on the coast.

And then the rainfall. That's what we've been experiencing here in Tampa overnight. It's been pouring much of the overnight hours into the morning, expecting anywhere from 12 to 24 inches of rain here. Dire flood warnings for most of the entire Florida peninsula.

And as far as hurricane-force winds, you can go up the entire peninsula, yes. It will make impact, landfall, sometime in the next few hours south of here. But then they could feel hurricane-force winds here in Tampa, Orlando and then as the storm moves further east into the Atlantic itself over the next day or so.

So, millions of people right in the path of this storm, could very well be one of the worst storms ever to hit the U.S. coast. Expected to make landfall near Punta Gorda, again, about 100 miles south of here.

So, let's go right to Randi Kaye, who has been there all night, all morning long.

OK, we lost Randi Kaye's signal.

Let's go to Bill Weir, who is also in Punta Gorda.

Bill, I want to go to you because I know the situation there, deteriorating.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: It is, John. We're staying mobile as long as we can here in the car before we hunker down for landfall later this afternoon. But, yes, you can feel it buffeting here as we start to feel it pick up.

We want to give you a sense of where we are. This is the harbor. The Peace River comes just right around my shoulder here and comes into the Gulf of Mexico.

Let's go, Julian (ph), to take a tour.

We wanted to come here specifically because this is very typical of this part of Florida, these canal houses. It's sort of the Florida dream where you go out your backyard and you've got your boat right there, such easy access to the heaven that can be Florida. But, you know, Hemmingway used to talk about, there's the masculine

and the feminine of the sea, lamer and Elmar. And this one, this storm, really seems like the most aggressive (INAUDIBLE) to come to town in a long time and he's ready to fight. So, we want to see any proof of (INAUDIBLE), any proof of evacuation (ph).

[09:05:00]

We haven't seen a lot of cars (INAUDIBLE). But what is staggering and what's emotional to think (INAUDIBLE) over these garage doors here. And having covered so many of these things, the aftermath from (INAUDIBLE) Beach, Florida, which took that hit. And when the sun comes out --

BERMAN: All right, Bill -- Bill signal - Bill's signal is a little shaky right now. We'll get back to Bill as soon as we can.

Look, it's hard to make television in situations like this as the wind and the water starts to swirl everywhere. We do now have Randi Kaye with us, who is also in Punta Gorda, Florida.

Randi, you've been there all night, all morning. What are you seeing now?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we are seeing similar conditions that we were just seeing with Bill. (INAUDIBLE) so the wind (INAUDIBLE) picking up. We're still seeing plenty of rain coming down. We are just at the edge of downtown Punta Gorda.

And let me just show (INAUDIBLE) these boats. There's a guy walking around out there. There are still people who are out on their boats. Some of them were going to stay on their boats that we spoke with. But there, of course, is a lot of concern about the storm surge, talking about 12 to 16 feet of a storm surge here.

We know that the city of Punta Gorda has actually cut off all emergency services now. So if you're in need, you are in trouble, because none of that is going to be up and running again until after the storm. And Charlotte County overall is going to cut off all emergency services when they have sustained winds of 39 miles per hour. They haven't done that just yet.

But certainly a lot of concern about the surge and the flooding here and the amount of rain, because this is a slow-moving storm, how long it's going to sit on top (INAUDIBLE) a lot of (INAUDIBLE) this area.

We spoke to one couple who was riding out the storm on their boat, at least as of yesterday, and this is what they told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Have you ever lived through a hurricane on the boat?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not a hurricane but -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not -- not one this direct. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, not this direct.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've had several smaller ones, several tropical storms. We've survived 80 mile an hour winds and the boat handled it no problem.

KAYE: This could be like 150 mile an hour winds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ah, yikes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, we might be leaving sooner then. We haven't watched the news recently. We ran to the store real quick and then just came back, so.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing's set in stone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

KAYE: All of a sudden you're changing your mind.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: And luckily they did change their mind. We spoke with them (INAUDIBLE) moments ago and they actually decided to get a room here. There's a hurricane room at this boat club or yacht club and they are going to play it safe and ride out the storm there.

But 120,000 people have evacuated -- or were told to evacuate in this county. That's about two thirds of the county. So they are certainly taking it seriously. And the county officials are telling me they're not afraid to increase those evacuations before it gets too late.

John.

BERMAN: Randi Kaye in Punta Gorda. Randi, I'm so glad they made that decision to evacuate. One hundred and fifty-five mile per hour winds, almost no one has experienced that type of hurricane. It could be and will be one of the most powerful storms ever to make landfall in the United States over the next few hours.

Jim, Poppy, again, starting to pick up and rain here. All of Florida -- almost all of Florida is going to feel the impact of this. And the concern here is that impact could be historic.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: John, thank you for being there, Bill, Randi, our whole team and all the crews on the ground bringing us these reports live. We'll get back to you in just a minute.

But our Chad Myers is monitoring all of this from the Severe Weather Center.

Chad, I understand you just got a new update on Ian, is that right? CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Unfortunately, that's another one, 12

to 18 is now the expected surge.

HARLOW: Wow.

MYERS: It's simply because the storm has been in the water and it's been so strong for so long, now we know the bubble under the storm is even greater than it would have been had it stayed 140. And for a while it was at 140, but a hurricane hunter aircraft flew through it and all I can say to that is, thank you for your service, because now we know that it isn't 140. They actually had picked up some winds of 149 and above, aloft, where they were flying, the wind was 187. So, that was a rough ride just to get us, the American public, those kind of numbers.

This storm is still going to make landfall today. We are going to see very, very quickly these storm surge numbers begin to come up. We're already seeing the numbers about 3.5 feet in Naples up, but down in Tampa as the waves are blowing the surge out. Tampa is down a foot and a half. We're already now even - we're not close - we're still only at 3.5 feet higher in Naples. And that's not that far much -- much farther south from where we are. It depends on your wind direction. Are you going east or you're going west. And if you're going west, then all of a sudden you are going to see the surge push in. Fort Myers, the latest gust was 49, Venice, 49, and Sarasota just picked up a gust to 54.

[09:10:08]

Here is the problem. My producer just made this map for me and I thank her as well. Look at the area that will be 110 miles per hour wind or more. This scares me a lot. So I'm glad I have this graphic. But here's the south part of Tampa Bay, all the way up -- moving up toward Orlando, which is only right there, and then back down toward Naples. That area will pick up winds of 110 or higher. And then here, this is all -- this orange, this is hurricane to 110. So, a large swath of area is going to lose power. We already have 104,000 in Florida already without power and more rain going to come down. This is going to be flooding. Pumps aren't going to be working. You know, rainfall coming down to 2 feet. High, high risk of flash flooding today. Same story for tomorrow. And a tornado watch.

Let me show you why. Open this up right here. All of these storms that are coming on shore, here's Palm Bay, here's - I mean there's -- all the way through here, West Palm Beach. Here's Fort Lauderdale. These storms, as they're coming onto the east side, this is the east coast of Florida, they are rotating. And we've already shown you some pictures of what those rotating storms did as tornadoes last night. That will continue today.

SCIUTTO: Chad, up until yesterday, when the expectation was the bulk of this would hit Tampa, we talked a lot about the architecture of Tampa with all those canals that made it particularly vulnerable to storm surge.

MYERS: Yes. SCIUTTO: It's still going to have storm surge, as you note. How about that area to the south that's going to get the bulk of this, the nine to 18 feet. What is the landscape like there in terms of withstanding that sort of surge?

MYERS: When I was in Punta Gorda, right where Randi is right now, I was there in 2004 with Charlie. Let me describe to you what a neighborhood looks like in Punta Gorda. It's a beautiful little home sitting on the ground, not on stilts, and it's sitting on three feet of land higher than the surface of the ocean. And you have a little boat right back there and you go out and you go fishing in the day and then you come back.

Well, we're not going to see 3 feet of surge. We're going to see 12 to 18 feet of surge. These homes will be completely submerged. That's why they were code a, they were in the a zone evac, and they were gone. B zone evac, they should be all gone.

This water is going to be deadly. I know people are going to stay because they want to protect their stuff. You need to protect yourself.

SCIUTTO: Priority number one.

HARLOW: Wow, Chad.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: What a picture you just painted. And you know, because you've been there.

Chad, thank you. We'll get back to you very soon.

We have much more ahead, all this morning, all day here on CNN covering Hurricane Ian now just shy of a category fie storm. We have team coverage across the state of Florida. The mayor of Fort Myers joins us next.

SCIUTTO: Yes, we're going to be bringing you the latest information.

And later, we are in Ukraine. This as Vladimir Putin becomes increasingly desperate to try to reinforce his army amid so many losses. New reports this morning that Russia may close its borders to stop the exodus you're seeing there.

Also, what we know about an attack on a critical gas pipeline in the region. Is Russia behind it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:37]

SCIUTTO: As we speak, Hurricane Ian is barreling toward south Florida at near category five strength. The National Hurricane Center is calling the storm a, quote, catastrophic threat and a, quote, historic one. It is expected to bring between 12 and 16 feet now of storm surge to the Fort Myers area. That's, you know -- Poppy, picture that, that's three times -- two or three times as tall as I am, right, looking at the water as it approaches.

HARLOW: Yes. That's right.

So, let's bring in Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson.

Mr. Mayor, thank you very much. Obviously, we are all thinking of you and all your residents right now.

So, can we address first that great point that Jim made. When you look at storm surge of 12 to 16 feet, what would that do to Fort Myers?

MAYOR KEVIN ANDERSON, FORT MYERS, FLORIDA: Well, you know, as you know, we're situated right on the Caloosahatchee River. And so that will bring a lot of water, a lot of flooding, a lot of potential for flooding I should say. You know, there's going to be some wind damage,, loss of power. But I think what's going to be significant is the storm surge.

SCIUTTO: The initial - and, by the way, there's always some wiggle room, right, in these models as to where the storm is going to hit. But until yesterday the focus had been further north, the Tampa area. Now the path seems to have shifted south. A lot of early warnings and even early evacuations were further north. And I wonder, has that turn in the hurricane's path mean that it's going to hit areas like yours that may be less prepared for it?

ANDERSON: Well, when we prepare, we prepare for the worst-case scenario. It's better to overprepare than get caught short-handed.

SCIUTTO: (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: So, Mayor, we heard from -- we heard from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis just about -- over an hour ago who said for folks in a number of the counties there on the west coast, basically it's too late to evacuate. You have to stay where you are.

And looking at, you know, the different areas he mentioned, that includes right where you guys are. So, what does - what does that mean for -- literally no one else should leave at this point?

ANDERSON: Well, you know, we've got about 14 shelters open in the county. Several thousand people have already gone to the shelters. But those who have stayed -- chosen to stay home, they need to stay put right now.

[09:20:03]

It's dangerous to go out there. There's the heavy rains. There's trees falling down. There's squalls. They're safer where they are.

Unfortunately, when the winds hit between 40 and 45 miles an hour, the response from EMS, fire and police will be stopped. So, you know, those who chose to stay put themselves in that risk. I do encourage them, if they have a - specially a medical emergency,

please call 911. While they may not be able to respond, they can give you advice over the phone and help with some sort of a treatment.

SCIUTTO: That's a good point to make there because I was going to ask you, you know, we always try to -- we always try to focus on news people can use, right? People in the greatest danger area now. But you're saying, if you stayed, and those winds reach -- and, by the way, that does seem to be for a large portion of that state where they're going to reach, above 40, 50 miles an hour, that the best thing to do is call, report your situation, but do not expect rescue. Is that what you're saying?

ANDERSON: Yes. It's unsafe for those teams to try and get to you. As soon as it is safe, they will be responding.

Of course, one of the first things we're going to have to do is get the crews out there clearing the roads.

HARLOW: Mayor Kevin Anderson, we wish you and all of your first response teams as much luck as possible as you -- as you guys cope with what is ahead. Thanks very much for your time this morning.

ANDERSON: Thank you.

HARLOW: We do have much more special live coverage of Hurricane Ian just ahead as Florida braces for catastrophic storm surge and flooding. We'll take you live to St. Petersburg, Florida, where officials are warning residents to ration drinking water.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:26:36]

SCIUTTO: The breaking news, Hurricane Ian is now an extremely dangerous category four storm. What does that mean? That means as it slowly churns towards Florida's west coast, it has sustained winds of 155 miles per hour. It is expected to make landfall just hours from now.

HARLOW: So let's go to our colleague John Berman. He is with us live in Tampa.

John, good morning to you. What can you tell us?

BERMAN: Yes, good morning to both of you.

One hundred and fifty-five miles per hour. That's just 2 miles per hour short of a category five storm, which would make it one of the most powerful storms ever to make landfall in the United States.

And there are really three separate potentially catastrophic threats from Hurricane Ian. Number one, the wind speed, 155 miles per hour. That explains itself. To the storm surge, which could be 16 feet in some areas, particularly the Port Charlotte area, about 100 miles south of here, 16 feet, people being told to evacuate those low lying areas. And then the rainfall, 12 to 24 inches over a huge portion of the state, including here in Tampa. It will tax the systems of this state for millions of people. They know it. The storm just beginning to bear down in some areas.

Let's go to Brian Todd, who's across Tampa Bay from me, live in St. Petersburg.

Brian, what are you seeing?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, I can tell you that the energy and the voracity of this storm has really picked up. As you can see, we're getting hit with rain and wind hitting us sideways. When it starts to hit you sideways, you know you're really starting to get into the dicey parts of the storm. This was not like this about a half hour ago. But you can see, we are really getting pounded here at this pier in St. Petersburg.

You talk about storm surge. We're not going to get it as bad here as they are in Port Charlotte and the areas like that. But look how bad the storm surge is getting here. You see the waves slapping up against the jetty here. We've been hit with waves a couple of times already. We'll start to stroll this way as I point to where this jetty is basically tasked with protecting the city of St. Petersburg from this storm surge. But you can see, it is slamming up against these jetties, slamming up over the jetties and the test is going to be when the storm gets even more intense later today, if we can pan to our - to your right, my left. Our photojournalist, Mike Love (ph), can kind of pan into where you can see the city of St. Petersburg under threat now from this storm surge as it really gets intense here pushing in. The big question, are these jetties and break waters going to be able to protect the city there from the storm surge?

We've also been on the phone with Pinellas County emergency management officials just in the last couple of minutes. What they've told us, here are the things that they're worried about. They're worried about the saturated ground, trees getting uprooted and then slamming into houses and other things. That's a danger.

Also, there are a lot of houses on canals in this area. And if storm surge is timed to high tide, which is going to be in the late afternoon, they're going to have a problem and they're going to go around and start to check on houses when they can. But, John, that's not going to be for many, many hours because the winds have really picked up here. They're well over -- you know, the gusts are well over 40 miles an hour. And at that point, emergency response teams cannot go out. So, at this point, from here in Pinellas County, every other county, officials are saying it across the state, at this point, do not expect first responders to be able to get to you anytime soon if you're in distress.

[09:30:00]

If you have elected to stay, you've got to get your family into a safe place.