Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Biden: Heed Orders To Evacuate, "The Danger Is Real"; Hurricane Ian Strengthens To 155 MPH, Just Shy Of Category 5. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 28, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- not sure exactly where it's going to hit, but it was pretty, getting pretty clear exactly where it's going to hit.

I made it clear to the governor and the mayors that the federal government is ready to help in every single way possible. Now, I'll repeat what I said yesterday, the people Florida, the storm is incredibly dangerous to state the obvious, is life threatening. You should obey all warnings and directions from emergency officials. Don't take anything for granted. Use their judgment, not yours.

Evacuate when ordered, be prepared. The storm one is real, the evacuation notices are real, the dangers real. When the storm passes, federal governments can be there to help you recover. We'll be there to help you clean up and rebuild, to help, get Florida get moving again. And we'll be there at every step of the way. That's my absolute commitment of the people in the state of Florida.

And if you'll forgive me, I want to add one more warning. That's warning to the oil and gas industry executives. Do not, let me repeat, do not, do not use this as an excuse to raise gasoline prices or gouge the American people.

The price of oil has stayed relatively low and kept going down. The price of gas should be going down as well. My experts informed me that production of only about 190,000 barrels a day has been impacted by the storm thus far as less than 2 percent of the United States daily production impacted for a very short period of time.

This small temporary storm impact on oil production provides no excuse, no excuse for price increases at the pump, none. If gas companies try to use this storm to raise prices at the pump, I will ask officials to look into whether price gouging is going on. America is watching. The industry should do the right thing. As a matter of fact, they should move more quickly now to bring down the price of the pump because gasoline is down. The price of gasoline is down a great deal.

There's too much of a delay between the price of barrel of gas and oil and the price of gasoline at the pump. Now, to why we're all here for this historic day, the secretary of agriculture already said anything so I'm leaving. So I apologize you --

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Sorry, go ahead, Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: No problem. You're just listening to the President. So you can see he's speaking at a White House Conference on nutrition, health, and hunger but we wanted to read his comments live on Hurricane Ian. Jim, really reassuring all the people of Florida there after speaking at length, it sounds like with Governor DeSantis yesterday that the full strength of the federal government will be behind Floridians through this and in the aftermath of rebuilding.

SCIUTTO: Yes, he did seem to make a point there saying he spoke to the public and governor of Florida and said that all of Florida's requests for aid has -- had been approved by the President and the White House. And also there, quite strong terms, warning oil companies, fossil fuel companies, not to, what he says, raise prices unduly in response to this and gouge customers. So notable comments there from the President.

HARLOW: Let's turn now to Pinellas County, part of the Tampa and St. Petersburg Clearwater metro area. Also a lot of it, about a third of Pinellas County now under those mandatory evacuation orders.

SCIUTTO: Bob Gualtieri is the sheriff of Pinellas County. He joins us now. First, I wonder we know these evacuation orders have been in place for some time. But we did hear the Florida Governor say today, if you haven't heated them yet, stay put. It's just not safe to move now. Do you have a measure, an estimate at all of how many people stay behind in the areas expected to be in most danger?

SHERIFF BOB GUALTIERI, PINELLAS COUNTY, FLORIDA: Well, we have some concern about the evacuation orders affecting Pinellas County which are mandatory, in effect about 352,000 people. And as of this morning, we only have 4,000 people in shelters. So either they stayed in place or they went someplace else. I can tell you when we had Irma, by contrast, at this point, we have 23,000 people in shelters. So I'm concerned that people didn't heed the mandatory evacuation order and they're sitting in places where they're going to be in peril when we get these winds and rain later today.

HARLOW: Sheriff, one of the big questions has been and you've said this yesterday, if you're not out, you know, we can't come for you, right, there's a point when first responders can't come anymore. It's just too dangerous for them. But there are people who have stayed and I wonder what you're recommendation is to those in their home if they stayed especially if they have children with them, where do they go, what do they do, you know, in you see large apartment building, high structures there or lower sitting homes?

[10:35:15]

GUALTIERI: Well, of course, the most dangerous part of it is the water and shelter in place for wind and evacuate for water. And, you know, we had hoped that they would go but they -- it looks like, some didn't. But that's right, is that part of a mandatory evacuation order means it's mandatory because we are using the best information and judgment tell them to go.

But what we tell them is, is that if you call for help, once we pull our people off the road and I anticipate we'll probably end up doing that year, we do it at 50 miles an hour wind and we're going to get up to 70 or 80 here is that we're not coming. And so they need to get in a place of safety within their home but we're not putting our people in peril when they didn't heed the mandatory evacuation order.

SCIUTTO: Given what we know now about estimated storm surge in your area. Do you know how many homes, what area will be underwater when the worst of it hits there, when the worst of the storm surge hits?

GUALTIERI: Well, right now is that appears and probably won't have anything underwater. We're only expecting right now, which is a lot better than what it was 24 hours ago, four to six feet of storm surge. The areas of opportunity is Tampa Bay, the areas of cities of Oldsmar, Safety Harbor, northeast St. Petersburg, those are the areas that we're most concerned about.

SCIUTTO: OK, well that that's a good update to hear. But I know you are and your team is taking this very seriously as you should. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, it's going to be a busy couple of nights for you. We wish you the best of luck.

GUALTIERI: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: And all those residents there as well.

Well still ahead, our next guest is one of those who stayed behind, sheltering in place in Fort Myers, Florida though that area is under a mandatory evacuation order so why and what's it like there as the city braces for the surge?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:41:47]

SCIUTTO: Breaking news, Hurricane Ian is a big one, extremely dangerous, category four storm, sustained winds of 155 miles per hour that is just two miles per hour short of Category Five. It is expected to make landfall just a few hours from now. That's the eye of the storm there as you can see it churning, bringing catastrophic wind damage flooding and surge. Let's get back to our colleague John Berman. He joins us in Tampa. John, what are you seeing?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, and then there's the rain beyond what you were both talking about 12 to 24 inches, particularly around Tampa, and maybe Central Florida over the next 24 hours. That will be a real problem. The impact of this storm will be felt throughout the entire state even as it bears down over the next hour or two on the southwest coast. Let's check in about 40 miles south of where I am across Tampa Bay to Bradenton our Derek Van Dam is there. Derek, what are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: On the verge of a historic landfall, and the National Hurricane Center really upping the ante with their discussions this morning using words like catastrophic. And when we talk about the storm surge threat, we know that that can move cars and move houses off of foundations, when we're talking about that maximum of 18 feet.

We are in Bradenton, and the winds as you can imagine, are picking up in ferocity. Every few minutes, we get the strong gusts we've had some of the palms from the trees already breaking, snapping off. People are using their vehicles and seeking them up to higher ground enough into safer shelter as well. We spoke to a woman from a harbor that's just down the road from us. It's not safe for us to be there at this moment.

But the water has been exiting the manatee river because of the direction of the wind in anticipation of the storm surge that will move into this particular location where I'm located. So the water level has come down so significantly that the keel of her boat is literally visible from her -- from the bottom of her boat, just incredible.

I want to stress this, this storm is coming and it is very likely that this will be our next billion dollar disaster in the United States. The ferocity of the storm what it has, it just literally from a meteorological perspective. It has that feeling, it has that look. And when we step outside into conditions like this in the mandatory evacuation zone, we know what's coming because we've done this before, John, we've been around the block. We know this. This territory is dangerous.

And for anybody who decided to ride out this storm, it is time to be in your safe place because right now, minutes matter. And the storm is coming. John?

BERMAN: Yes, no question about that Derek Van Dam, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States with a storm surge where you are in South like nothing they have ever seen. As for the water going out here in the Hillsborough River, you can see it too, the water is actually going out into Tampa Bay before it starts to fill back up again. So we'll be watching this, Jim and Poppy, over the next really 24 hours.

SCIUTTO: Be safe there guys, and for all those people stay behind as well. Well, FEMA officials they're using dramatic terms to describe this catastrophic impact on Florida. It's nearly a Category Five storm, that's the highest, most powerful category. And Poppy, folks, I mean, they're worried.

[10:45:14]

HARLOW: So let's bring in Chelsye Napier. She is sheltering in place in what is a mandatory evacuation zone in Fort Myers. Chelsye, thanks for being with us. We're glad to see you're safe. I know you live in your home with your fiance. You've got your cats as well. And I just -- I wonder why you stayed and how you're feeling right now?

You know, we can't hear Chelsye.

SCIUTTO: It's tough. Try again. There she is.

HARLOW: Yes, perfect, perfect. Let's begin. Go ahead.

CHELSYE LYNN NAPIER, SHELTERING FROM HURRICANE IAN: We waited almost until the last minute to evacuate because we don't really know anybody down here, it's just us. So we had a couple opportunities going the Lehigh. But I felt like safer grounds was a little bit better than right in the middle of the storm.

SCIUTTO: So tell us why you feel where you are is safer ground because officials, they had been warning for days that this was coming.

NAPIER: They have. I just -- it's what me and him pick to do and that's what we stuck with it. We're just like, let's just stay home, if anything happens we have everything that we need here, we got food, we got water. As of right now, we still have electricity. So it's all OK for right now. We'll see about later on.

HARLOW: Chelsye, we've been talking on the on the program today to a number of sheriffs and emergency leaders across the state and on one thing they've advised is, you know, go to the interior of your home because these are really high winds as well coming with all of this water. I wonder if you sort of know the safest place to be in in your apartment complex and what questions you might still have about what to do when this thing really hits your area?

NAPIER: We talked about it. We said that we will go into the laundry room because we did hear that more of the pipelines in there will help us say a little bit safer. So we said that we will go there. It's in the middle of the house. There's no doors, there's no windows, and it's just a really small compacted area.

SCIUTTO: I wonder how unusual your decision is there in the area where you are as I understand that you're in an apartment complex have most people stayed, many people stayed.

NAPIER: We hear our neighbors downstairs below us we have -- we see people still coming in and out. They're still leaving. I don't know if they're -- where they're going. But there is still a couple of us still here.

HARLOW: Chelsye, we're wishing you guys and everyone there who did not evacuate safety as you guys go through this storm.

NAPIER: Thank you.

HARLOW: Thank you Chelsye. Good luck and let us know on the other side. OK, well, our team will check in with you. OK.

NAPIER: All right.

HARLOW: Thank you.

[10:48:09]

Still ahead, more than 2,000 flights canceled today in the United States as Hurricane Ian bears down on Florida and there's gridlock as you can imagine across the state, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: We want to measure the power of the storm, just minutes ago the Orlando International Airport shut down its commercial operations as the hurricane bears down on Florida.

HARLOW: This powerful Category Four storm is obviously disrupting air travel not just across the state, also across the country, the danger evident. And these images from the North Perry Airport, that's in Pembroke Pines where winds flipped over several of those smaller aircraft. Let's go to our CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean. Pete, good morning. So I mean, obviously Florida airports just largely shut down. But is this going to ripple for the week across the rest of the country?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Poppy we're likely seeing one of the biggest cancellations events of the year begin to play out just now. In fact the ripple effect not only through Florida but also as far up as Atlanta, Charlotte. We're also seeing cancellations as far north as here at Reagan National Airport. About 40 flights have been canceled so far today. Look at the latest cancellation numbers according to FlightAware. We just crossed the 2,000 flight cancellation Mark nationwide.

The top airports for cancellations, Orlando which closed just a few minutes ago at 10:30 this morning, Miami International Airport which is still open but many flights to the Caribbean impacted, and Tampa International Airport which closed at about 5:00 p.m. Last night the last flight out, Delta Flight 2790, it was bound for Atlanta.

And right now the airport is preparing for things like flooding and power outages. I want you to listen now to the CEO of the Tampa International Airport. He says an army of volunteers will ride out the storm inside the facilities there which are ready to a cat four hurricane. They want to be able to make the airport open again once the storm ultimately does pass.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE LOPANO, CEO, TAMPA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: We have a team of storm riders made up of about 120 employees that will ride out the storm. Once the storm has passed, our team will conduct a damage assessment of our airfield and terminal facilities and determine whether we can reopen immediately or whether we have issues that we need to address as a result of the hurricane's impact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:55:02]

MUNTEAN: Airports up and down the Gulf Coast of Florida have been closed from Key West all the way to Tampa. The next airport to close at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon, that will be the Melbourne Orlando International Airport. We will also see many flights impacted from American Airlines. It will probably have the biggest impact of any of the major airlines because of the storm has a large presence in Miami. It is offering waivers for those who need to change or cancel their flights, also offering reduced fares for those still trying to evacuate Florida by air right now Jim and Poppy.

SCIUTTO: Thank goodness, even smaller weather events have big repercussions nationally, so something like this it's going to hit. Pete Muntean, thanks so much.

HARLOW: Thank you, Pete. Thanks to all of our correspondents on the ground. It is not easy to cover a hurricane certainly one like this and their team was behind the cameras as well. And thanks for being with us today. We'll see you tomorrow. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: Safety the first priority for them and residents as well. I'm Jim Sciutto. Stay with us as we continue this breaking news coverage of Hurricane Ian. At This Hour with Kate Bolduan in a couple of minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)