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Kelley Zimmerman is Interviewed about Staying at Disney During the Storm; Pete Dimaria is Interviewed about Naples. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired September 29, 2022 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:30:00]
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: That point to climate change as being, you know, a driver and a contributor to that. So, beyond the devastation of Ian, I wonder how concerned you are about what is next given climate change.
VICE ADM. PETER GAUTIER, DEPUTY COMMANDANT FOR OPERATIONS, U.S. COAST GUARD: Yes. Well, we're seeing more storms at greater frequencies and in higher severity. I think this is a case in point. Just, on this one, the historic nature, the combination of heavy rains and winds, and wave action. The storm surge has just been immense there. Very deadly. It's why it's so important for people to listen to their local emergency responders and the state emergency responders, heed the evacuation orders. And, by the way, this isn't over yet. This storm is going to go back into the Atlantic Ocean and it's going to hit again, maybe with high tropical storm force winds there in the Carolinas and Georgia. The folks there need to be just as careful heeding the evacuation orders and taking care because this isn't over yet.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: No question.
Do you have a sense, as you've been looking around, and, listen, we're asking everyone, because the extent of the damage, we can see some from the air, but it's hard to qualify for people how many homes, how many people still in need of rescue. I wonder, based on the calls you're getting, do you have a sense of how many people are still in dire need, but also just the extent of the - the devastation.
GAUTIER: Yes, well, it's a very dynamic situation right now. And we've got to realize, we're only -- sunrise was only an hour and a half ago on the west coast of Florida there. And so we're very much in the early stages of doing these evaluations, moving back in, trying to navigate the damaged structure, the downed power lines and so on in order to get there as quickly as we can and render assistance. But this is going to be - this is going to be a long response. And, you know, once we get the initial rescues done, there's going to be a lot of infrastructure work that needs to be done. That's why I'm here at the FEMA headquarters because this really is a total interagency support response. We're here to support Florida. We're here to support the localities. The Coast Guard uses its own authorities to do search and rescue in the port facility stuff.
Also, we need to be mindful as things goes on. We know that there are going to be oil spills and hazardous materials that are strewn all over the impacted area that we need to take care of, too. And the Coast Guard and the EPA does that.
HARLOW: Vice Admiral Peter Gautier, thanks to you very much and to your entire family of Coast Guard members out helping right now on the ground. Thanks again.
GAUTIER: Thank you.
HARLOW: Well, still ahead, trapped at Disney by this powerful storm. People are taking refugee from Hurricane Ian at Disney. We will check in with someone who is riding out the storm there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you seeing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just - water rising. Like I said, we'll see by this afternoon how much more it's going to rise. But that's mainly what we're just looking for.
Irma (ph) is when we had our highest peak that I've see in my lifetime. And like I say, and it's -- I think we're going to see it again.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:37:42]
SCIUTTO: We are following the catastrophic damage left by Hurricane Ian. It has now weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall as a powerful category four hurricane. But still packing a punch as it moves across the state. The winds at its peak were so strong they tore the roof off a hospital's intensive care unit. This in Port Charlotte, Florida. There's some pictures there. The entire floor flooded. The stairwell -- sounds like a waterfall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. BIRGIT BODINE, INTERNAL MEDICINE SPECIALIST: Everybody's been in house now for the last 48 hours, pretty much. None of us have gone home yet. We've all slept here, taken turns for a few hours here and there. Our plan is to try to get these patients out this morning, obviously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: That is a doctor at that intensive care unit telling CNN that there is still water in the hallways. Patients, luckily, safely evaluated and in their beds. The disruption at this hospital is just one of the many examples of the help needed across the state of Florida this morning. We've got 2.5 million homes and businesses also in Florida without power.
SCIUTTO: Beyond the residents caught in the crosshairs of this powerful storm, tourists on vacation in Florida, they were left scrambling as the storm rolled in.
HARLOW: For the second straight day, Disney World has been completely closed for business. Something that theme park has not done since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March of 2020.
Kelley Zimmerman did ride out the hurricane at a hotel in Disney World, and she joins us now.
Kelley, good morning. Who do you have there?
KELLEY ZIMMERMAN, RIDING OUT STORM AT DISNEY HOTEL: Hi.
HARLOW: Hi. Who's the little one?
ZIMMERMAN: This is Ann Marie (ph). Say hi!
HARLOW: Hey. Awe.
ZIMMERMAN: And this is my sister Ashley (ph).
HARLOW: Hi. Hi. Ann Marie seems content -- yes, always help them -- is that -- give them Pez and that makes them happy. Good job, mom.
What was it like to ride through this?
ZIMMERMAN: Disney is wonderful. And they try to make it a great experience. And so even though things were closed, they were still trying to make it great for the kids and had like the arcades all free in the hotel and just different characters coming and dance parties and crafts. They tried to make the best of it so that the guests would still have a good experience.
SCIUTTO: Yes, we saw pictures as well of Mickey Mouse, Goofy, other Disney characters trying to be out there to keep - to keep people happy and calm.
[09:40:04]
I wonder, was there a point where you felt at risk there, right? The winds, still powerful. The rain still powerful.
ZIMMERMAN: I mean, luckily, we got a little bit of rain and wind, but we felt very safe the whole time and protected. They do a great job. And so we stayed inside if we needed to, if it got too windy. She got a little scared, so she went inside. But my three-year-old son, he was out playing in the park in the rain and didn't want to come into the hotel. He just wanted to be outside and didn't care what the weather was.
HARLOW: That's kids for you.
What are your plans going forward? I mean the strength of this storm is not over, certainly, right? You don't know sort of what's ahead in terms of rain in Orlando. What are your plans for the next few days?
ZIMMERMAN: So, we are planning to go to Mickey's Halloween party on Sunday. That was our big plan. So hopefully that will still be able to happen without any delay. And then we're just going to be patient and wait for the storm to clear so we can go to Mickey's Halloween.
SCIUTTO: Well, Kelley, we're so happy you are all safe and the little one is happy, most important of all. But please do stay safe there.
ZIMMERMAN: Thanks. Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Still ahead, we are going to take you to Naples, Florida, where officials say half of the streets there are not passable because of the high water. First responders themselves underwater. We will talk to the fire chief coming up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Honestly, I'm just trying to wrap my mind around what's going on right now because it is so unbelievable.
If you take a look behind me, this whole bay, there is a dumpster just floating by like a log.
Our news cars that we drove to get here are completely underwater.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:46:34]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm 5 feet, so this water is probably 4 foot at least. You guys did it!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Some heroic rescue efforts throughout this hurricane. First responders forced to rescue some of their own after a fire truck became submerged in floodwaters in Naples, Florida. NOAA's National Ocean Service says that water levels reached more than six feet above normal before Ian made landfall, exceeding a previous record set during Hurricane Irma in 2017.
SCIUTTO: Joining us now is the fire chief of Naples, Florida, Pete Dimaria, certainly knows the situation there.
Chief, it's good to have you on this morning.
CHIEF PETE DIMARIA, NAPLES FIRE-RESCUE DEPARTMENT: Good morning.
SCIUTTO: Speaking in the break, and we've seen the video before, you guys having to push your fire truck out of the station there because the water levels have risen so high. I wonder, now with the loss of those fire trucks, do you have the tools you need to make rescues as people are still in need? DIMARIA: Well, fortunately, we have a couple of reserve pieces of
equipment that we'll put into place to take the place of that one that apparently seems damaged right now. We haven't gotten a mechanic in to just see how bad it is. But, yes, we're going to be able to make rescues still. We have people on the road right now.
SCIUTTO: Great.
HARLOW: You know, we -- I don't know if we can pull up, there's some amazing video of you standing right in front of one of your fire trucks. And one of the things that I thought of is, you know, how do you save these vehicles, your rescue vehicles, what you need to be a first response team in the middle of a storm like this? Could you even evaluate them?
DIMARIA: Yes, well, you know, we built our station in a unique way. We're in a flood zone, but, to get our trucks in and out of the bay, they had to be a little bit lower. So, we're floodproofed in the bays. So, we would normally evacuate in time, but we were responding to incidents right up until when the surge came in. And it came in pretty fast. And so we got stuck in our own bays. And, unfortunately, we had the water come up.
Most of those vehicles will be OK. This one that we see in the video is probably going to be a little damaged, but we're going to try to figure on how to get it up and running as soon as possible.
SCIUTTO: I wonder if you have a sense now of how many more people are still in need of rescue, in Naples, but also in your communications with other fire and rescue in the area?
DIMARIA: Well, we have a list of about 20 welfare checks that we're going on this morning. We have people out there. I've seen about ten of them come back already with most doing well. Some we aren't (INAUDIBLE) we can't find people at this moment, but I'm sure they're going to turn up. It shows like they may have evacuated at the last minute and we just don't know that and their family doesn't know that. So, we're hopeful that everyone got out safely and heeded the warnings when they came in to evacuate when the time was then.
HARLOW: Chief, did people call for rescue in the middle of Hurricane Ian when it was too late for you guys to go out and help them?
DIMARIA: They did. We had a - we had a few calls for help. And when we couldn't get out of the station anymore and some of our personnel left on foot, about chest high surge waters, and they made it about two- and-a-half blocks from the station, rescued a couple and brought them back to the station where they're - they stayed until this morning before they walked back to their house to see the damage they had there. But we kept them and we kept a couple of other people we rescued from submerged vehicles when the water got to deep.
So, yes, the calls were coming in constantly.
[09:50:01]
We did the best we could with what we had.
SCIUTTO: Yes. And with the risk that you and your teams would face.
I wonder, is it frustrating at all that folks stick around and don't - don't heed those - those evacuation orders when they come?
DIMARIA: Oh, we're here to serve. So if they - you know, if they don't evacuate, you know, we certainly hope they heed those warnings. But if they don't, we're going to do our best to serve them and make the rescues that we can. That's just what we do. Our personnel are trained and ready to make those rescues when they're needed. So, certainly we'd like people to listen to the warnings and - but we do the best we can.
HARLOW: Yes.
SCIUTTO: Yes, you do.
HARLOW: Maybe they will next time, having lived through this.
Chief Pete Dimaria, thanks to you, and, of course, your entire team. Good luck.
DIMARIA: Thank you.
HARLOW: We are, of course, here at CNN, staying on top of all of the latest form Hurricane Ian and the destruction this monstrous storm has left. We'll check in with our teams on the ground right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:55:26]
HARLOW: Officials are still evaluating really the full scale and the damage and destruction from Hurricane Ian in Punta Gorda.
SCIUTTO: Yes, it's early. Sun's just come up.
HARLOW: Yes.
SCIUTTO: WBBH reporters Rachel Anderson got a look at some of the damage just as the sun was rising.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RACHEL ANDERSON, WBBH: Now that the sun is finally up, you know, we're really able to see this damage up close and personal.
I want to show you guys something that I never guessed I would have ever seen.
So, this pile of metal over here is an air-conditioning unit. I'm assuming that came from across the street. All this roofing material also came from across the street.
But check this out. This is the top of that air-conditioning unit wrapped around a palm tree.
Now, we're just across the street from the Peace River. So, this just kind of goes to show how strong those winds were blowing in this direction that it wrapped metal around a palm tree.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: They talked about the force of winds like tornadoes, right, Poppy.
HARLOW: Yes.
SCIUTTO: And you see something like that there.
Well, the effects now. Millions without power, one in five power customers in Florida. Homes and businesses flooded. Many forced to leave their homes, their belongings behind. We're staying on top of all the destruction left behind by Hurricane Ian. Live team coverage, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
