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Hurricane Ian Set to Slam Florida's West Coast; Tampa Officials Warn Residents Against Riding Out the Storm; Central Vietnam Under Flood Threat as Typhoon Noru Hits; Survey: Employees Say Cost of Living Outpacing Wages. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 28, 2022 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back. This is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Paula Newton. We want to bring you right up to date with our top story this hour. States across the southeastern United States are keeping a close eye on hurricane Ian. A storm surge watch has been issued for the entire Georgia coast and Governor Brian Kemp has issued a state of emergency for all Georgia counties.

Meantime, Ian is expected to make landfall in Florida in the coming hours. That is, as you see it there, between Sarasota and Port Charlotte as a category 3 or maybe even category 4 hurricane. Forecasters are worried the hurricane is -- has potential to be like none we have ever seen. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE RHOME, ACTING DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: As it grows in size and continues to grow in size, it is going to spread a swath of multiple hazards across a good chunk of the Florida Peninsula. If you're not on the direct path of the center, that doesn't mean you're out of harm's way. We have to go back to Wilma to see that type of storm surge. It certainly didn't happen in Charlie. Because Charlie was a very small system.

So, I definitely want people in the Port Charlotte area to not fall victim to that comparison. Charlie was a very small and compact system. The storm surge just wasn't that deep as what we're projecting here. Look at the size of this storm. This is the wind field here in the orange. And as you can see, it's just a very big system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: So earlier forecasts had Ian making landfall a bit farther north. And that would have been around the city of Tampa. Reporter Gloria Pazmino covering the storm -- Gloria.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLORIA PAZMINO, REPORTER: Yes, the rain has already started falling here in Tampa. 2 1/2 million people across the entire state of Florida are under an evacuation order. Officials asking people to take that warning seriously. The storm is approaching. It will make a direct hit here on this part of the state. Officials concerned about catastrophic flooding.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Residents across the sunshine state are bracing for what's expected to be a major hurricane which already caused severe damage in Cuba. Hurricane Ian churning in the Gulf.

For the first time in 100 years a hurricane could directly hit Tampa.

JANE CASTOR, TAMPA, FLORIDA MAYOR: The biggest concern is the water. We are not getting out of this unscathed. And there is going to be flooding throughout the Tampa Bay area.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Tampa could see surge waters as high as seven feet. The storm is likely to slow down over the city causing more rainfall and flooding.

CASTOR: So, we're talking not just the bay but our rivers, our canals. I mean, every source of water is going to be flooded.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Flights halted across much of the state. Dozens of residents lining up to get sand bags in Tampa and Orlando. All of Florida bracing for the storm.

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: The main message I have for everyone in Florida is that this is going to impact everyone in different ways so you need to stay focused.

[04:35:00]

PAZMINO (voice-over): Hurricane Ian already leaving a path of destruction in Cuba. It made landfall as a category 3 hurricane with winds of 125 miles per hour knocking out power and tearing down trees.

PAZMINO: Now local officials here warning about historic flooding, catastrophic flooding over the next couple of days, especially in the Tampa area where we are now surrounded by rivers like the one you see behind me, canals and the coastline. Officials say they're most worried about water moving inland causing damage to property and life.

In Tampa, Gloria Pazmino, back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: And now we go to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri. Pedram, so we heard Gloria talk about, you know, the risk in Tampa. And you've been warning us that the issue is not just how much rainfall they're going to get but it's being caused by the fact this storm is still moving quite slowly through the state of Florida?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is but it's, you know, it's going to strengthen just a little bit more, too. So just before making landfall we could see this strengthen up to a category 4. And Paula, when you look at the coastal region of the western half of the state of Florida, significant storm surge threat on this western periphery. But even on the northeastern side, once the system reemerges across the eastern Florida will see a storm surge threat as high as six feet. So again, it's going to have wide reaching impacts across the state. There's the system itself about 90 or so miles southwest of Naples.

Some of those outer bands already producing very strong thunderstorms across areas of Fort Myers and points just to the south. And of course, if you work your way towards Marko Island, feeling these tropical storm force winds moving ashore as well.

And yes, the system has spawned at least a few tornadoes here in the past 24 or so hours. Additional tornadoes are expected as we typically see with incoming tropical systems. The wrap around flow, the friction associated with these bands moving right over land, will spawn a few small tornadoes. But again, any time you get these in conjunction to a major hurricane making landfall, really makes it a scary situation for a lot of folks in the path of this storm system.

And the system is producing some tropical storm force winds that extends about 150 miles away from the center. So, notice the timing here, whether it be this morning or later into the morning hours, even into the afternoon hours, we're going to have a large area of the state, just about every single person in the state of Florida will have periods where they'll feel tropical storm force winds associated with Ian.

And again, the model guidance has really honed in on areas south of Tampa Bay now around the Sanibel region, around Clearwater, around portions of Charlotte, Port Charlotte where this system could come ashore, again, in the next 8 to 12 hours or so, as a strong category 3 or category 4 system. And eventually reemerge around back of the Atlanta. Make landfall in the state of Georgia later on Friday. But that's just one of the many elements of concern here with significant rainfall being another to add on top of it. Rainfall totals could exceed 20 plus inches for a large area of central Florida in the coming days.

NEWTON: 20 plus inches. Incredible even just to think about that. Pedram, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Now in many parts of Florida fire responders will soon decide when conditions are just too dangerous to respond to calls for help. But in Tampa meantime, police are warning residents not to take risks as that hurricane approaches. CNN's Ryan Young reports now from Tampa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So many people move to the state. For so many, this is their first hurricane. So, as you can understand, they're not sure what to do. Officials have been trying to give them as much guidelines as possible. We went door to door with these officers today. And the first place we were there was at a trailer park and they were trying to get people to leave. And you have to understand, some folks said they did not want to go to shelters because they did not want to leave their animals behind. We can understand that. Others said they had planned to leave later on in the afternoon.

But we could see the traffic getting heavier and heavier moving out of the city. But when you think about this -- we talked to one family that had just moved from Oregon who said, they are scared about leaving their possessions behind. But at the same time this is their first hurricane. Listen to this officer talk about the idea of why it's so important to go door-to-door to make sure they press people, especially in the areas they been asked to evacuate, to leave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE OFFICER: Hello. How are you today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE OFFICER: Good. Hey, we're coming by and letting everybody know that you're in a mandatory evacuation situation. Are you aware of that? OK. Did you get the flyer yesterday with some of the shelters that are available? Yes? OK. All right, well, be safe and make sure to make your plans here pretty soon, OK. All right, thank you.

It provides an availability of information that some people don't have even in the age of cell phones and such where, you know, access to information is usually quick. It's a reinforcement. Hey, you're in an area where you need to evacuate out of safety for the storm.

YOUNG: So, what's the message today? What are you going to tell these residents? Especially here in this unit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE OFFICER: Better be safe than sorry ultimately.

YOUNG: Also, what's behind me. Because obviously at night it's so hard to see preparations for the storm. But behind me at the hospital here, this is Tampa General Hospital and you can see that wall. That's an Optiwall. That's been created to keep the water out.

[04:40:00]

Even in heavy rains here they deal with a lot of water. And they want to keep this level one trauma center open. But you can understand with the amount of rain that is expected here. That storm surge, it's such an important word that could be dealing with so many folks have to deal with, they want to make that barrier is up so the water doesn't get in there.

The mayor talked about today, making sure people did not try to drive through the water because we obviously see that from storm to storm. And today at the news conference she made it very clear what she hopes that people heed the warnings as they get closer and closer to the storm hours.

JANE CASTOR, TAMPA, FLORIDA MAYOR: It's going to be in our rivers. It's going to be in our streams. It's going to be in our canals. It's going to be in our stormwater drains and ditches.

YOUNG: So, we saw folks getting in line for over two hours to get sand bags. And at most sand bag locations they could only get ten sand bags. We also saw neighbors picking up sand bags for each other.

You understand how people feel about their property. But at the end of the day when you're talking about that much water, fear for what people may choose to do and then try to drive out too late. That's something they've been pressing here, especially in the evacuation zones. A and B, they told them to get out earlier today, some people were moving, some people decided to stay.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Our Ryan Young there, and I want to thank him for that report.

Still to come for us, Vietnam is being hit by typhoon Noru's brutal winds and heavy rains. More on the precautions officials are taking to hopefully lessen the storms damage there. We'll have that when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NEWTON: At this hour Vietnam is being pummeled by typhoon Noru. The storm made landfall earlier in the coastal city of Danang bringing heavy rain and strong winds. And it's expected to finally weaken as it moves inland. But parts of central Vietnam, Laos and Thailand could face flooding over the next 48 hours. The storm killed at least eight people when it passed through the Philippines.

CNN's Paula Hancocks has been tracking this storm for us. And it really has been one to reckon with for many parts of Asia.

[04:45:00]

Does Vietnam know what's in store for it in the coming hours?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, it's around about 5 a.m. local time on Wednesday morning that typhoon Noru made landfall in Da Nang, Hoi An those coastal areas. They had prepared. We understand that hundreds of thousands of people had been evacuated from those areas.

And the images that we are seeing in the aftermath of those areas of the storm has moved on, shows that there is flooding. That there have been power lines and trees that are down, roads have been blocked. And we know that this will continue to weaken luckily as it crosses Vietnam and we should say into Laos and Thailand than. But the risk of flooding could last for another 48 hours.

Now when it made landfall, it was a high end category 2. Now this is meaning that it has winds of near 175 kilometers an hour. Just over 100 miles per hour. So, it certainly was a significant storm.

The preparations though meant that some 58,000 boats had been ordered to be put into safe port. There had been a ban on any boats going out into the sea by officials. The Prime Minister had had an emergency cabinet meeting the day before saying, quote, climate change is becoming increasingly extreme and unusual.

And what was unusual about this particular typhoon, is as you say, it did affect the Philippines just a couple of days earlier making landfall on Sunday. But just before that it had seen a rapid intensification to a super typhoon before making landfall in the Philippines, meaning that there was very little time for people there to prepare or to evacuate. Officials say at this point they have a death toll in the Philippines of eight and they have five missing -- Paula.

NEWTON: Yes, There's a lesson in all of these storms in a sense that it's hard to predict, as you said, with the rapid intensification it can surprise many people in many countries. Paula Hancocks, appreciate the update.

Just ahead for us, major airports are meantime closing right across Florida and some oil production in the Gulf of Mexico is now sidelined because of hurricane Ian. We'll bring you more on those stories next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NEWTON: This is the final flight taking off from Tampa, Florida, ahead of hurricane Ian. Airport officials suspended operations there on Tuesday evening. Orlando International Airport will also suspend its operations in the coming hours.

Now according to Flight Aware, there are 1,800 cancellations nationwide -- and that's just for Wednesday -- with many of those tied to airports in Orlando and southwest Florida. Now about 11 percent of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut down as a result of hurricane Ian. Chevron and BP have evacuated workers from their offshore oil and natural gas fields ahead of the storm. Ian though is not expected to pose a major threat to the national supply of oil and gasoline.

But there could be localized supply issues of course in Florida that would be caused by the storm.

Now we're just a few hours away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Here's how U.S. futures are looking. You see it there. Unfortunately, a down picture there as investors still grapple with the threat of a recession and higher interest rates. Now stocks finished mixed Tuesday. The Dow and S&P dipped 500. The S&P 500 dipped. You see it there. Kind of modest losses. The Nasdaq though creeped upwards a quarter of 1 percent.

In terms of what we can expect that was, in fact, its first gain in about a week. The Dow and S&P 500 are now at their lowest levels since November of 2020 and both are on a six-day losing streak. Now Americans are struggling to keep up with that crushing inflation. According to a new survey, 71 percent of employees say their cost of living outpaces their salary. That's up from 58 percent just February. CNN's Matt Egan has our details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Paula, the cost of living is just way too high. Food, shelter, utilities, three things that most of us can't avoid paying for. All three have gotten more expensive. The problem is that even though wages are high, inflation is even hotter. Nearly three in four employees say that the cost of living is outpacing their wages and salary. That's according to a Bank of America survey of 401k plans.

And even though these survey participants are employed, 50 percent say that they are taking action to combat these financial pressures. So, what do they do? About one in five say that they are tapping into emergency savings. Others are working longer hours, looking for better jobs and some are resorting to taking 401k hardship withdrawals.

Now the Bank of America survey found that the percentage of employees who feel financially low has dropped to a five-year low. And this decline was even more pronounced among minorities with about one in three black employees saying they feel financially well off. Taken together, these findings paint the picture of an American workforce that is under pressure. Even though gas prices have tumbled in recent months, inflationary metrics remain high.

Now despite the survey and ongoing strap in financial markets, there are bright spots in this economy. The jobs market remains historically strong. Corporate profits are sturdy. And American consumers continue to spend. But investors and some economists are worried. They're worried because inflation remains very high. The Federal Reserve is going all out to try to get prices under control. The fear is that the Fed is going to end up slamming the brakes on this economy so hard that they slow the economy right into a recession -- Paula.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: And our thanks to Matt for that report.

Now meantime, the International Monetary Fund is calling on the U.K. government to reevaluate the huge tax cuts it announced last week. Now the IMF told Reuters it fears the measures will likely increase inflation and inequality.

[04:55:00]

Markets have been in turmoil and the pound slumped to a record low against the dollar since that announcement. The IMF says a budget due in November would provide the government ways to provide a targeted support and reevaluate tax measures.

Now meantime, the Mars candy company is aiming to widen its reach by introducing a new candy coated character, the purple M&M.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PURPLE M&M SINGING: I'm the new M&M's candy, do I have what it takes, I want to be the best or even pretty good, but be great I'm a little unsure, I have to admit,

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just be yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Great advice there. It is the latest marketing move for Mars. Famous for giving distinct personalities to the different spokes candies in commercial ads. Purple marks their first new character in ten years.

Now you won't find her in your kids normal Halloween candy. The character will appear in stores and on some limited edition packaging. And you can buy purple M&M's online. But you won't find them a regular bag of peanut M&M's. At least not for now. I guess they want to figure out how popular she actually is.

Ryan Reynolds is breaking the Internet again. He likes doing this. The actor made a major announcement on social media Tuesday about the next "Deadpool" film, which included a little surprise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN REYNOLDS, ACTOR: Completely empty up here. And terrifying. But we did have one idea. Hey, Hugh, you want to play Wolverine one more time?

HUGH JACKMAN, ACTOR: Yes, sure, Ryan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Isn't that crazy? Jackman last played the clawed superhero in the 2017 film "Logan." He and Reynolds previously costarred in the 2019 film "X-Men Origins Wolverine." The third "Deadpool" film meantime is scheduled to release in September of 2024. It looks like fun.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Paula Newton. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans is next.

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