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Hurricane Ian's Extremely Dangerous Eyewall Moving Onshore. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 28, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

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[13:00:34]

ANA CARBREA, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Thank you for joining us. Happening now the worst of hurricane Ian and moving on shore and this is our first look at just how powerful it is. A high end Category 4 storm nearly a Cat 5 making it one of the strongest ones if not the strongest to hit this area of Florida ever.

The storm chaser who took this video just a few minutes ago says he's now hunkering down because Ian is just so intense. We're talking sustained winds of 155 miles per hour. But the storm surge is what poses the deadliest risk up to 18 feet possible.

Right now, the eye is just miles off the coast. All of Florida is bracing for catastrophic flooding. The governor is set to speak at any moment. We'll bring you his remarks. We also have live team coverage standing by across the state, across the storm zone as in strikes with millions of people in its path.

Let's go first to CNN's John Berman in Tampa where the mayor there is telling people not to let their guard down. I know you've been getting hammered by rain. John sets the scene for us.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, don't let your guard down here and in cities up and down the western coast of Florida. Now the mayor, the rescue officials are saying stay in place the time to evacuate is over. You need to hunker down. And based on that video we were seeing out of Sanibel Island, man the force of this storm is just enormous, perhaps even historic, the most powerful storm ever to hit the west coast of Florida. That storm surge of 18 feet is simply terrifying.

Here in Tampa rain could be the biggest problem. It's been pouring all morning long and they could get anywhere between 12 and 24 inches of rain. And when you think about the storm surge, when you think about the force of the wind and then the freshwater flooding as well, the impact of this storm is going to be enormous over this state for the next few days.

Again, the storm, the eyewall beginning to make landfall down in the southwest. Let's go to Bill Weir who's in Punta Gorda, Florida. Bill, why don't you give me a sense of what you're seeing. BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Ian is coming, Ian in here, John. We just felt a market increase in wind speeds within the last 10 minutes or so. We were grinding about 4050 miles an hour. It's hard to fathom that speed tripling in the next few hours. But we're now we're getting maybe 70 mile an hour gust here.

We're right at the point where U.S. 43 heads across the Peace River here. I'm just in front of the memorial for Hurricane Charley, which in 2004, devastated this town and sent a wake-up call to this community about the threats of living on the coast in a rapidly warming planet.

As a result of that storm, they were the first community in Florida to put in a climate adaptation plan, a sea level coastal resiliency plan that they're, you know, I've been working on for years now. And this will be the test. It's hard to build power lines or building codes for 17 foot storm surge. So that's the crazy variable here right now.

No one has ever seen that. So we don't know what that looks like. But this is exactly what climate scientists have been warning about for a long time. And now we get to see our close, John.

BERMAN: All right, Bill Weir in Punta Gorda. Ian is here he says. Let's go right to Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R) FLORIDA: Don't forget that her en will produce hurricane strength winds and massive floodings, not just where it makes the initial landfall, but throughout the state of Florida, so central Northeast Florida will also feel impacts.

Now while most people in the evacuations did leave, you know, there were some that chose to stay. I was speaking with the sheriff down in Charlotte County. And while most people did leave, they had smaller people that just wanted to hunker down. And at the end of the day, that's a decision they made knowing that they had the ability to evacuate and knowing what the stakes were.

Nevertheless, safety, life safety operations will commence as soon as it's safe to be able to identify people who may be in harm's way and who are need of assistance. And Kevin will, say I'll say a little bit about that. But Kevin will say more. We'll also hear from FWC about their efforts that they have staged and ready to go.

[13:05:00]

If you are still in southwest Florida just please stay inside until the storm passes. It may appear to be calm at some point. You may just be in the eye of the storm and the backside of that will get very, very nasty. This storm is expected to move across Central Florida and exit Daytona Beach sometime on Thursday. We've already seen around the state tornado warnings issued far from where the hurricane is entering in southwest Florida. And those warnings will likely to continue until this finally leaves our state.

So even if you're not in the direct path of the storm, you need to take all tornado warning seriously, and you need to take appropriate precautions if that is happening in your area. The Florida Department of Transportation has just announced that Fort Drum, Canoe Creek and Turkey Lake, Service Plaza's on Florida turnpike are now closed. Obviously they will try to get those open as soon as they can.

We have 200,000 power outages reported throughout the state of Florida. But outside of Southwest Florida, crews are working to quickly restore power. Of course 200,000 is a drop in the bucket for what's going to happen over the next 24 to 48 hours, there's going to be widespread power outages, particularly in southwest Florida.

We have over 100 portable cell towers ready to be deployed into the area. Once it is safe to enter. Once the storm has passed and it is safe to go outside, you still need to be cautious. Avoid downed power lines, standing water, stay clear of downed trees and don't drive in standing water and please, if you're going to use a generator for your home, do not allow that to be inside. The exhaust needs to be outdoors.

Stay out of the way of emergency crews out of floodwaters and away from all downed power lines. Stay off the roads. There's no need to rush back. You're going to have a massive surge of people that are going to be going in to provide, of course, life safety assistance for those who may have stayed in some of the more hazardous areas.

You're also going to have power workers going in. We were just in Lake City, I was thinking we had all these power workers, these line workers from all these different states, I saw him from Texas, Louisiana, all these different places stage. We have a massive, massive mobilization. Their job is to get in there and help to restore services. You're also going to have folks bringing in things like food and water.

So there's no need to rush back in. There's going to be a lot going on in the immediate aftermath. And a lot of people's safety depends on that. You know, if you're on the roads, you're putting yourself in danger and limiting the ability of emergency crews to restore power and clean debris out.

We don't know how much debris is going to be. But there's going to be debris and that's going to make it very difficult to navigate some of these roads. That's why FDOT immediate mission is to clear the roadways so that people are able to go in and access that to be able to help deliver service -- services for people.

In 2019, we were projected to be hit by Hurricane Dorian, which was a Category 5 storm it, fortunately at the last minute it took a northward turn and missed the coast. But we did have a really massive mobilization. This mobilizations exceeded that. This is a really, really significant effort, county level state level federal support. It's really been impressive to see.

Director Guthrie has asked for additional airlift hoists and high water vehicles from DOD in coordination with FEMA. The Secretary of Defense has approved Florida's request for dual status of our National Guard forces under Title 10 to be -- to be provide additional forces, which we very much appreciate. We will also be submitting momentarily a major disaster declaration for all 67 counties who will request that the federal government reimburse 100 percent of the upfront costs for the first 60 days to ensure that we can quickly recover and move forward into the response and recovery part.

And if you think about this storm, we have storms that have been as strong as this hit Florida, Michael, Hurricane Andrew, Labor Day hurricane many, many decades ago. Yes. Have we had big storms that left a lot of water and flooding we had Irma recently.

This is really bringing both to the table. I mean, you're going to have massive amount of power hitting that coastline with really, really strong winds. That is going to do a lot of wind damage. But you also have the storm is so massive, and people kind of comparing this to the track that Charley took in 2004 because Charley was like this was expected to hit Tampa Bay. It turned and ended up hitting southwest Florida.

Charley was strong, but it was a fraction of the size of what we're dealing with here with Hurricane Ian. So, the effects of this are going to be broad. And we appreciate the Biden administration's consideration for the people of Florida during this time of need.

When I was in Lake City, you had massive numbers of linemen but do you have those staged all over the state.

[13:10:02]

There's now over 42,000 linemen and another personnel ready to restore power in 30 different areas across the state, and those linemen and other associated personnel hail from of course many from Florida but from 27 different states. Of course, our Department of Transportation does have 1,200 personnel on standby to perform cut and toss operations understanding how important it is to get those roadways clear as soon as possible.

Supplies will be brought in by plane boat and by high water vehicle. Airports in southwest Florida do have teams behind and they are going to work to clear those runways as soon as the storm has passed. We appreciate the Florida National Guard's really impressive mobilization of over 5,000 folks as well as 2,000 additional guardsmen from other states. They have nine Chinook helicopters ready to go and additional 22 helicopters will be coming in after landfall that will be here within the next 24 hours.

Kevin will talk a little bit more about this. But we have the five search and -- urban search and rescue teams. You'll hear from FWC about what they're doing high water vehicles from Florida Highway Patrol, and of course, our Coast Guard partners.

There is going to be a massive effort as soon as it passes southwest Florida to be able to get out, recon the area and identify areas where there may be a need of rescue services. And some of these counties obviously know where residents decided to hunker down and so they're going to be looking there first. But this is going to be really, really important to be able to get.

I think in hurricane Michael, I mean it took it took a few days to be able to get into Mexico beach. We have the air assets to be able to recon and know where the response efforts need to go.

And so in total, we have nearly 250 aircraft, more than 1,600 High Water vehicles and more than 300 boats of all drafts and sizes, including 250 already in the major impacted areas and nearly 50 that are staged and ready to come in as needed. These includes smaller rescue oriented boats, air boats and larger boats that will be delivering supplies by water if need be.

I want to thank the 26 states that have sent us support, including Tennessee, Virginia, Montana, New York, Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey and Georgia. I just spoke with Kay Ivey from Alabama, and she's supporting sending some Blackhawk helicopters down to help. Governor Bill Lee in Tennessee, fast track the request that we had from Tennessee, we appreciate that, was also able to speak with John Bel Edwards from Louisiana. They've helped us but he said, Hey, we've got a lot of experience in hurricanes recently. So these guys are good. Ask us we want to send more. And so we really appreciate that consideration. And if we need that, we certainly will do that.

We also understand that people that are going to be -- that are displaced are going to need assistance. So the Department of Economic Opportunity has already deployed funding and guidance through community action agencies to help Floridians in need of short term support, like utilities, hotel bills, and transportation if they have been displaced by the storm.

Please continue to monitor local reports, weather reports, be very cautious about going out into hazardous conditions. And then once the storm passes your area, just make sure that you're very careful, because there's going to be a lot of things, a lot of hazards that are going to be down on the ground.

I know there's a lot of people that have reached out. First of all, I want to say thanks, a lot of people have offered thoughts and prayers for the folks that are in the eye of the storm. And that means a lot to us. There's also people that want to be able to do their part. And so I've directed Volunteer Florida to activate the Florida disaster fund where people can donate, it's much better to donate financially, rather than sending items.

We have everything we need in terms of the immediate response needs. But there will be thousands of Floridians who will need help rebuilding and to contribute to the disaster fund, you can visit www.floridadisasterfund.org or text disaster 220-222 Again, that's text disaster 220-222.

For those who want to come volunteer, we have an official volunteer portal at Volunteer Florida, and that's at www.volunteerflorida.org, www.volunteerflorida.org and you can look to see of the volunteer opportunities.

You know, this is going to be a rough patch here for the rest of today and into tomorrow. But you know, we understand how significant this storm is. Yes, there'll be an immediate response. Yes, there'll be things that happen with recovery. Eventually they'll -- there won't be much media attention on this as the as the weeks and months go on. But we understand a storm of this magnitude is going to require an effort over an extended period of time.

[13:15:01]

Those are good folks down in southwest Florida. They've got really great thriving communities. This is not anything anyone wants to deal with. It's not something we certainly ask for. But we're going to step up. We're going to be there for folks. We're going to make sure that folks get back on their feet and southwest Florida comes back better than ever. OK, Kevin Guthrie.

KEVIN GUTHRIE, DIRECTOR FLORIDA DIVISION OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Thank you, Governor. As the governor has said hurricane Ian is a approaching landfall as a Category 4 storm with winds of 155 miles per hour in Lee and Charlotte counties.

At this time, the division has received nearly 1,000 resource requests from our impacted local partners. And 864 of those are either in process or completed. We are working as quickly as we can to address the needs of those impacted areas. This morning, I talked with each and every local emergency manager and the direct path of the storm.

If you're sheltering in place in the path of the storm --

CABRERA: OK, we will continue to monitor this press conference. We gave you the remarks there from the governor who went through a whole bunch of resources and plans to respond to hurricane Ian once it passes through Florida but really right now the most important thing you can do he says is stay inside until this storm passes if you are in Florida do not go outside right now.

He did emphasize that while it is entering the state in the southwest portion of Florida it will have impacts in Central Florida and East Florida as it makes its way across the state and may not be out of Florida until sometime late tomorrow.

We also mentioned the tornado threat that is also impacting people far from where in is entering the state as a category four hurricane winds of 155 miles per hour. He mentioned Charley which a lot of people are thinking about because it was in the same zone were Charley entered in 2004. Also a Cat 4. But he said Charley may have been as strong but it's the fraction of the size as of hurricane Ian.

So let me go out to where already the outer wall of Ian is impacting people and our Randi Kaye is standing by in Punta Gorda right now. Randi, what are you seeing? What are you feeling?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, we are certainly feeling the wind, it has certainly kicked up, we checked with our weather team. Recently we were told there was a 67 mile per hour wind in at the airport in Punta Gorda. It's definitely feels much stronger than it was last hour. The gusts they come and go as you just saw there also quite a bit of rain coming down as well.

We are told that we will be sort of in the -- the eye will be passing over here. We may get caught in the eyewall. But we also may feel a clearing sometime after say 2:00 p.m. which is means that the eye is right over us.

But if you look out there in the distance, you can't see it but that is Charlotte Harbor in the distance. And that's what the real concern is because the storm will push the ocean water right into the harbor, won't be able to contain it all. And that that water may be part of the storm surge that we're going to see here in downtown Punta Gorda where I am. We could see anywhere from 12 to 18 foot storm surge here.

So there's a lot of concern much of downtown obviously is shut down. People were putting up their shutters. They had the sandbags but there is a lot of concern. It's one reason why the governor has called on extra high water vehicles, because there is a lot of concern about trying to reach people after that storm surge.

There were evacuation orders in place about 200,000 people were ordered to evacuate here in Charlotte County. The question is how many of them actually did it on it because they did have no way of checking, nobody has to report in when they evacuate. So it's certainly quite confusing to the officials to know who is where. They have search and rescue teams on standby as well. But certainly a lot of concern here as it's starting to pick up. Ana.

CABRERA: OK. Randi Kaye, thank you for that reporting. Stay safe your crew as well. They're in Punta Gorda. And you can see in our map here hurricane Ian is moving into the state. The eyewall is when it officially makes landfall when it hits, it hasn't hit just yet. Let's go to Jennifer Gray, our meteorologist standing by in our weather center to get better sense of the timing of when that eyewall will arrive. And who's going to feel the worst of this storm, Jennifer?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Ana. Yes, Sanibel Island right here is in the eye as we speak but we have to wait for half of this I to get onshore for them to call an official landfall. But you can see I'll highlight Sanibel Island right here, you can see in the eye. So right around this the eye the eyewall, that's where we're going to see the worst conditions that's where we're going to see the heaviest rain, the strongest winds as of right now. We've also already had wind gusts of over 100 miles per hour on Sanibel as well as in Naples.

We're also going to get incredible amount of storm surge that's going to push in so anywhere from say San Carlos Park, Bonita Springs, Naples Park, they are going to get an incredible amount of storm surge as we speak should be getting it.

[13:20:08]

We've already seen record storm surge levels in Naples topping six or seven feet. And so we are looking at just incredible, incredible damage for these areas. We'll look at the radar here as well. And you can see that's where we're seeing incredible amount of rain, the wind right around that eyewall. That's where those bright orange and red colors are.

Zooming out a little bit, you can see sustained winds 45 miles per hour, Fort Meyers 67 gusts, but this is reaching far and wide, Ana. This storm is the rain shield. And this stretches several 100 miles. We're looking at this across the state throughout the day today into tomorrow, maintain its hurricane strength within that. So we're going to continue to get very gusty winds ingest torrential rain.

We're talking about more than two feet of rain for some locations. You can see these areas shaded in pink, that's 10 to 20 inches of rain. And I would expect some areas to top two feet of rain.

And so not only are you going to have the storm surge issues of up to 12, 17 feet in some locations, you're also going to have the flooding that's going to go along with that. So we have two different issues going on at the same time that's going to create horrible conditions across the state potentially catastrophic in some city.

So here's the flooding, rain threat, high risk in that hot pink area, including Tampa, Orlando. Thiss is going to last through Wednesday, and then on into Thursday as well. So here's your storm surge threat. You can see that that circle right there, that's indicating where the center of the storm is. And you can see the biggest storm surge is going to be that 12 to 18 feet right there right through where that AI comes on and just a little bit to the south, Ana.

CABRERA: Continue to check back with you, Jennifer. I want to go live right now to Fort Myers, Florida, which is just getting inundated with water right now. You heard Jennifer Gray mentioned how Naples was already seeing a record storm surge at south of Fort Myers. And so joining us now is Frank Loni. He is an architect from California, who happens to be in Fort Myers, Florida working right now. He took some videos that we're about to show you.

Frank, thanks for jumping on the line with us and speaking with us. Can you tell us more about what you're seeing?

FRANK LONI, ARCHITECT WORKING IN FORMYERS, FLORIDA: Absolutely. Well, I've never seen something of this nature before. The storm surge is very significant. We're actually seeing cars and boats float down the street. We're seeing trees nearly bent in half.

And well, there's quite a bit of chaos on the streets. And the winds are -- it seems like we have gusts that are well over 100 miles per hour. And I'm sorry that if I'm speaking very loud, because it's very hard to hear due to all the noise of the disaster that's occurring outside.

CABRERA: Wow. It's unbelievable to see these images and you talk about cars and other things that are obviously huge just floating in the streets. So disturbing.

LONI: Yes, We're seeing a storm surge of about five feet high, it seems above the ground level. And it's taking garbage dumpsters and other heavy objects of float. It's very shocking. CABRERA: You say five feet and in some places we're hearing if you get up to 18 feet, the storm surge. So three times what you're seeing there in Fort Myers right now. You said chaos on the streets. What do you mean by that?

LONI: Well, there are quite a few, unfortunately, homeless people that are seeking shelter. And almost it appears that they're trying to find a way into buildings that might be able to afford them some shelter. We are personally --I'm personally in a steel reinforced concrete building. So we have very much confidence that we're safe. We're up on the seventh floor where --that's where you've seen the footage that was taken here from the balcony, looking towards the east side of Fort Myers Beach.

You're seeing in that footage, the bay and not, not the Gulf and the waves that we're seeing on the Gulf side of the island are incredibly high. Something I've never seen before being someone who's come to this location several times and since my childhood.

CABRERA: Do you feel like people understood just how bad this was going to get?

LONI: Well, you know, we were actually here for the aftermath of Hurricane Charley. We had evacuated during that storm and what we're seeing here right now appears to be much worse damage than what Charley did to this island while we, you know, kind of seek shelter and ride out the storm. Like I said, we evacuated for that last hurricane and this one appears to be on much greater strength.

[13:25:02]

CABRERA: What's your plan as far as writing out the storm, then what?

LONI: Well, we know that emergency services are shut down to the island. So we did stock up on supplies, we have water, we have food for days, you know, unperishable food. And our plan is to just -- we're going to stay in this building as long as the storm and winds are -- this extreme. And once things calm down, we're going to head outside and see if there's anyone that needs help. And that we're not going to go do that until it appears to be safe to go outside.

At this moment, if I were to step outside, I would have a very difficult time standing up without bracing myself holding on to a railing or a wall. You basically can't stand up without being tossed and blown away.

CABRERA: Frank, I know that --

LONI: So we're going to ride out until things calmed down, and we're going to go -- I'm staying here with some family members and some friends.

CABRERA: I'm so grateful.

LONI: We're going to go out there and see if anyone needs help once this all passes over, CABRERA: I'm so grateful that you can help us understand what you're enduring right now and that you are safe and your family is safe and friends are safe. But it does sound like an extremely dangerous situation for a lot of people in the Fort Myers area right now. Again, that's where this video is coming to us from.

And Frank, I understand you have limited battery left on your cell phone. So I won't take much more time. But are you concerned about the communications aspect of all of this, given the historic nature of the storm?

LONI: Yes, unfortunately, we lost power to the building that we're in about an hour ago. And they've shut off the water as well, because I believe the public water has been contaminated, you know, from the storm.

So yes, we have limited power and limited battery. We are prepared with some means of charging our phones, but everyone has to share that resource. And generally we're going to be safe and we're going to ride it out without any issues.

CABRERA: OK, Frank Loni, I'll let you go. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us and we'll check back stay safe.

LONI: Oh, absolutely. Thank you.

CABRERA: OK, that was in Fort Myers, Florida. We took you to Punta Gorda, Fort Myers. We're going to continue to take you around the state that's currently being impacted by this Category 4 hurricane as Hurricane Ian makes its way inland. Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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