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Ian Hammers Florida with Record Storm Surge, Rain, Powerful Winds; Daylight Brings First Look at Destruction Left by Hurricane Ian; Ian's Wind and Rain Slamming St. Augustine Right now. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired September 29, 2022 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour this busy Thursday morning, I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Poppy Harlow. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world.

The breaking news we are following this morning, Hurricane Ian leaving just stunning, devastating destruction in Florida as a hurricane then a tropical storm, still pummeling the state though. 14 million people in Florida are currently under flood alerts, 2.5 million homes and businesses without power.

Right now, first responders are rescuing people that are trapped inside flooded homes. Just last hour, Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis spoke about the devastation that so many people are waking up to this morning.

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GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): There's 1.5 million outages in seven Southwest Florida counties. Lee and Charlotte are basically off the grid at this point.

The amount of water that's been rising and will likely continue to rise today, even as the storm is passing, is basically a 500-year flood event. The impacts of this storm are historic and the damage that was done has been historic and this is just off initial assessments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Well, the risk of storm surge and flash flooding remains a major threat as the storm moves upstate and further north, towns stretching up the east coast from Florida, South Carolina. They're currently in a hurricane watch.

In a few short hours, President Biden will visit FEMA agency headquarters in Washington to receive a briefing on federal response efforts.

We are covering every angle of this dangerous storm as only CNN can.

CNN's Randi Kaye, she is in North Fort Myers, one of the worst hit areas, rescue workers out helping as best they can. Randi, it's been good to have you there. You've been talking to people, sharing with you just how hard it is. I wonder if you could describe to folks what you're seeing out there.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, certainly, Jim and Poppy. It's been a really tough morning for a lot of folks, as you can imagine. We came to this community, the Caloosahatchee River flooded this entire community. We are in North Fort Myers, as you said, and a lot of these homes are just filled with thick mud, lots of water.

We spoke to some people. They said the water just -- it was just a matter of seconds before it got to their shoulder level and it just broke through their doors, broke through their glass windows, it came rushing through. Very, very scary for a lot of people.

And a lot of these -- you can see the water is still pretty deep here. We have seen some rescue crews finally showing up here this morning but it's been a lot of locals helping locals, neighbors helping neighbors. We have seen people in their boats, like this one here, rescuing other neighbors. We've seen them -- we saw one guy come and rescue his gecko that he had left behind when they evacuated. They've come to save neighbors and their dogs. But the power, of course, is still out.

But let me show you this way. You can see here some neighbors here. I saw them waving to each other. They're just happy to see that they're alive and they made it through the storm. But you can see the force of it. If you take a look here, this was obviously just a shed of some sort. And just look at this yard. Everything is just strewn all over the place in this community.

It just happened so fast, a lot of these people told us that they were expecting that this was going to go to Tampa, or at least the Tampa area, certainly not to here. So, they were not expecting such a wind event, such a surge from the Caloosahatchee River.

But here, you see, you can just see what's going on here this morning if you take a look down the street. People coming, maybe some of them did ride it out. Some others did not ride it out and they're just coming to check on their homes, check on neighbors.

How are you folks doing this morning? Okay?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't have a home.

KAYE: You don't have a home left? All right, see here, we have folks telling us, you got to start over, is that right? Where were you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were in the very corner.

KAYE: In the very cornerback there? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

KAYE: How do you feel about your community this morning?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little sad and we'll be all right.

KAYE: You'll be all right. You'll start over?

[10:05:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We'll go to his sister's, yes.

KAYE: it's very emotional for a lot of people. We talked to some folks who did ride it out here. Here's what one woman told us.

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MAURA MECCHELLA, RESIDENT OF FORT MYERS, FLORIDA: I just tried to keep everyone calm the whole time. It was very scary to have the water and the river flowing underneath us all night long. We tried to -- I just tried to keep morale up. We played games when we knew that we were stuck. I wanted to make sure that no one panicked. I was able to get water and food downstairs before the windows broke in from the river.

KAYE: What was it like when that water came rushing in?

MECCHELLA: I mean, everyone screamed because it made a loud popping sound and I ran downstairs and grabbed all our shoes because I thought we probably are going to need those, and the food and water, right, when that happened. Because I knew at that point that there was no going downstairs for awhile. I didn't know how long we would be upstairs.

KAYE: What is it like to see your community basically underwater?

MECCHELLA: I mean, honestly, I live at the beach. So, this was safer than the beach and I'm a little nervous to go back to my home and see what that looks like.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: I mean, you can only imagine what these people have been through, not only the surprise of this water and the force of it coming through their homes but just now what do they do next, that is the question.

We spoke to an 85-year-old woman whose entire home is devastated and she stayed here for it because she didn't think it would hit right here. And it came up so fast, she said she was thrown against the wall by some of her furniture. She had bruises all up and down her arms. And then a nice neighbor came and rescued her with a boat and we saw her this morning and she was on her way to the hospital to get checked out. So, that's what it's really all about.

But you can see there is a lot of work certainly ahead of them here in this community. You can see that power line that's down, still no sign of any power crews, but we did see some fire and rescue here, and I think that is really what this community needs to see. Poppy, Jim?

HARLOW: Absolutely. Randi Kaye, thank you so much for being on the ground and for bringing us this in real-time.

Let's go to our colleague, Brian Todd. He joins us from Port Charlotte, Florida. And, Brian, as I understand, I mean, you are seeing some of the images and bringing them to us that we haven't yet seen because it's just -- the sun has just came up a couple of hours ago. What can you tell us?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Poppy. I mean, you and I and our audience are kind of discovering this together as we sweep down toward other towns in Southwest Florida, like Naples and Fort Myers. We're coming from up north around St. Petersburg.

Right now, we're in Port Charlotte. We stopped to do this live shot and to assess some damage. And take a look at this. Port Charlotte, I mean, the hurricane came right over this area. This gas station just completely ripped apart. He's closed, obviously no gas available, but look at this, I can pick up part of the roof here. This kind of just sheared off from the roof right above me. And as I move over to my left, your right, we can see a gas line over -- it could be a gas line. It's a loose line that is attached to the gas pump.

So, clearly, you know, whether you're going to a gas station, a store that might be damaged or you're home, this is the kind of stuff you have got to watch out for. Look at this cable hanging down. These are all things that present dangers to people, power lines that are loose, gas lines like this, these cables here.

You know, we have officials from Tampa all the way down to Naples and elsewhere in Florida warning residents, do not rush back to your houses so quickly because of things like this. There are still a lot of dangers around. First responders still have to concentrate on rescue efforts.

Collier County officials, we're heading down to Naples, that's where Collier County is. They've said that they've had to do at least 30 rescues. That was the last figure that we got from them. So, the rescues are continuing.

If you go back to your house, if you try to go to some place like this and you get hurt by some kind of a loose power line or something, they are not going to necessarily be able to respond to you. So, those are the kinds of things that people are warning about, Poppy.

And we got a glimpse of this last night. We went to a burned out house in Largo, Florida, just north of St. Petersburg. This thing had just had a calamitous fire because it was caused by a power line that snapped off a transformer there. And the house was completely burned out. We talked to the owner. He said he didn't feel like he could come back yet because it was so dangerous.

Again, people just now, as we have our first hours of daylight the day after, waking up to this, assessing it, coming to places like this, it's just -- it's emotionally devastating for people as well. I mean, just imagine if you owned this store, this is your whole life, right? You come here and you can't function. This is just repeated over and over again in this region.

SCIUTTO: Brian Todd there, thanks so much.

Naples, Florida, officials say half of the streets there are now not passable because they're underwater, like that one right there.

[10:10:01]

Here, a member of the Naples Fire Department had to use an axe to break open a car window, rescue someone who, like so many in these situations, got stuck in the floodwaters on the roads.

HARLOW: Joining us on the phone right now is Dan Summers. He is director of the Bureau of Emergency Services in Collier County, Florida.

And, Dan, look, you've been head of emergency services there since 2003. So, you have seen a lot. Have you ever seen a storm like this?

DAN SUMMERS, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF EMERGENCY SERVICES FOR COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA (voice over): Well, you know, we say thank you, every one of these brings us something different. And, certainly, a baseline for us was Hurricane Irma with those direct winds. In this case, what was most challenging for us is a parallel storm event up until the last minute and certainly our concerns for our neighbors in Lee and Charlotte County.

But as we got that parallel effect, what we have not seen in several generations is really that direct onshore flow, and that is the storm surge. While we did not have the wind event that our neighbors have had, we certainly had the water event that far exceeded anything that we had during Hurricane Irma. So, a different set of challenges but, certainly, we had the right framework to respond.

SCIUTTO: Yes, we were talking earlier with Chad Myers that most deaths in these situations are from the rising water.

I wonder, do you know at this point, as the sun comes up, how many people are still needing rescue, needing attention?

SUMMERS (voice over): Well, your number earlier reported was about right with about 30 rescues, and we're still having areas with some localized -- with some road closures that we're having a hard time getting into. But we are getting in there either by boat or high clearance vehicle.

There is some good news, some preliminary intentions that we hope as we see the road flooding begin to recede. Our goal is to complete any of that search and rescue by dark tonight. So, we're able to do that with boat and high clearance vehicles. We haven't deployed any air assets at this point. So we're hoping, and, again, it's a very fluid situation, that we'll feel really good about search and rescue by dark tonight.

HARLOW: You know, if I'm someone living in an evacuated area who evacuated, I'd want to go home this morning. I'd want to see how my home is, how my business is. But I wonder what your message is for those folks, because as we know after hurricanes, it can be even more dangerous after the hurricane because of the floodwaters, because of downed power lines. What do you say to those folks?

SUMMERS (voice over): Oh, you're absolutely correct, and we can't reinforce that message enough. Be patient. Stay secure. We've got so much assessment left to do. We don't know the status of drainages and canals that are still full. We've got a lot of moving water, a lot of debris, power lines down. And so there's so many unknowns.

And, by all means, if you're in a secure location, sit tight. Be patient. Let us get out there and get some of these early safety assessment and damage assessments done so that we can make sure that when you do come back in, you're in a safe environment. And we try to remind folks, this is going to take time. Be patient, let's don't get too stressed. Let's don't get too overworked at home. Let's don't have any more injuries or accidents or illnesses or fatalities because we're going in too quickly.

SCIUTTO: Well, it's remarkable to watch all the efforts you're doing right now. Folks are going to want to venture out their homes, right, because they're going to have a look themselves, right, and yet there's still a lot of danger. So, I wonder what your priorities are in the coming hours.

SUMMERS (voice over): Well, you know, we got to stick to the basics, and that's completing search and rescue, evaluating our damage assessment. Most of our communication networks for public safety, we were able to restore those late last night. We had a couple of interruptions in public safety.

We also get our utility systems back on, come up with a strategic plan for restoration of power in an organized fashion. And make no mistake, we want to make sure that if we have anything we can spare, as we have done so many times with our partner counties next door who have helped us, we want to make sure that as soon as we address our priorities, we can help our neighbors as well.

HARLOW: Dan Summers, thank you very much for joining us on the phone and for what you and your team are doing, not just today but for the coming days after this devastating storm.

SCIUTTO: Sure.

HARLOW: You have wind and rain from Hurricane Ian now hitting St. Augustine, Florida. Take a look at this report. This just came into us from our affiliate, WJXT.

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REPORTER: You see that FDOT truck just moved out of the way so that the St. Augustine Police vehicle could make their way through but they're not letting anyone else through.

[10:15:06]

So -- and this is probably for a good reason, obviously for a good reason.

I just want to show you what we're looking at here. Just look at the violent waves that are crashing up against this observation area. That water is just plowing over that and is cascading down and all around. I think it is safe to say that this area of St. Augustine is underwater. It is flooded. Just look all the way across. If you look real closely, it's on the way down to the Plaza de la Constitucion. And you see just such winds, such hard rain. It's hitting our backs and it's just really, really strong out there.

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HARLOW: The center of Tropical Storm Ian, it's now a tropical storm but still very dangerous. So, the center of it is moving west right now, west of Cape Canaveral, after this storm produced a 1 in 1,000- year rainfall event in some parts of Florida. That's according to the latest numbers that we just got in.

SCIUTTO: Chad Myers in the CNN Weather Center. So, Chad, what happens to the storm as we see it cross Florida and move on into the Atlantic and north?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It probably gains a little strength back. I mean, you're back into the Gulf Stream, the very warm water of the Atlantic Ocean, compared to the very warm water of the Gulf of Mexico.

That reporter right here, St. Augustine, 45-mile-per-hour gusts. That reporter was actually on the Intracoastal. She wasn't even on the beach. So, that water has already surged into the Intracoastal, and so that water is getting up into downtown St. Augustine, right there. I've been on that strip so many times, like I can't even count. But the rain pushing that water now, pushing the wind and water onshore on the other side of the state with a little bit of surge there.

Now, here we go. There's just been so much rain, 15 inches easy in some spots. All of these purple gauges, rivers at major flood stage and in some spots, record highs and it's still going to be raining for much of the day with that wind coming onshore on the east and then coming onshore in the west from the direction of the wind.

Finally, though, finally, Fort Myers surge is down to almost where you should be at tide level. But here is the problem we have. What do I have right there? That is the Sanibel Causeway. And here's the video of what it looks like now.

I do know that there are people on Sanibel and Captiva, and they decided not to leave, and now they cannot by car or any vehicle because that is the video of bridge A.

Now, last time I went over that, it was a drawbridge. That's been a long time ago. I know I'm showing my age. But they put this new bridge A and it's a causeway kind of a ramp up with dirt moving onto the bridge itself and then the bridge goes higher.

So, let's go back to the graphics here and I'll show you what I'm talking about bridge A, B and C. Here's Fort Myers Beach and this is the causeway, the only way on and off of Sanibel and Captiva. As we zoom in to here, you take a look, and at this point in time right there, that is the toll bridge. Here is bridge C, B and A. And this is the area that is no longer connected to the rest of the causeway.

This is the problem we have now. That entire stretch right through here, here has to be rebuilt. And I've even seen damage there at the toll booth as well. So, a lot of this, you know, so many things are involved in all of these things. We're not going to get all of this over. We're not going to even be able to touch on what's still out there. There is so much damage. We just pick what we get and what we get.

But now, another four to six-foot surge, force of Ana, that would be Fort Pulaski, and also possibly into Charleston. And it can rain in Charleston with a heavy rain thunderstorm. You put four to six feet of surge into Charleston, downtown may be wet. It depends on the tide, but, yes.

SCIUTTO: The only way in. So, a lot of those folks there who stayed behind, only way out, I guess, is by boat now.

Chad Myers, always good to have you on this, thanks so much.

MYERS: Thank you.

HARLOW: Well, still to come, record rainfall in parts of Florida this morning causing significant flooding damage. You have up to 24 inches of rain that's possible still in Orange County, Florida. Officials there calling it the biggest threat to the area. We're going to take you live to Orlando, next.

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[10:20:00]

HARLOW: Welcome back. So, right now, Tropical Storm Ian has become a tropical storm, still though very powerful and dangerous. It is continuing to move across the state of Florida inundating parts of the state with rain.

SCIUTTO: Yes, flooding, lots of flooding.

CNN's Ryan Young, he joins us now from Orlando. Ryan, you're in the middle of the state but still lots of high water.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, lots of high water. And, Jim and Poppy, I can tell you, we just talked to the business owner who owns that framing shop that's underwater there. To see that man stand here sort of in despair to realize that his shop may be gone, you just had to feel for him. You can see the wind sort of picking up from our location. What's been happening is we've been dealing with these gusts, strong gusts from time to time and then it dissipates for awhile then picks up again. The heavy rainfall that we've been dealing with for hours, that is finally sort of going away. This is the first clear moment we've had for several hours over the last 12 hours or so.

[10:25:03]

And, of course, you can't miss that car that's sitting there in the middle of the water.

This is a part of a story that we've been seeing overnight. There are so many areas that are flooded throughout this Orlando area. They got so much water. This has been tremendous. And so at night, you couldn't see this and a woman drove into there.

We have some of this rescue video where there was a reporter from WESH who went out into the water and helped save a woman by carrying her out of that water.

There's another story that we know of where, as we were getting ready for a live shot, this car came barreling down, the woman in back of the car was pregnant and she was trying to get to the hospital. We've seen several emergency vehicles also not know that this road was shut down. They've had to turn around and find other locations.

On top of all that, you're talking about 20 inches of rain in this area. And as you look back here, this is just some of the pockets of water that we've been able to see. As we drove to this location, which was one of the safest for us to stop up at, we saw ponding all over the place.

There are several highways that have also been blocked by water. We'll show you this picture of the turnpike that has been blocked off by water and several on and off-ramps have been blocked because water has spilled out.

So, that's why they're warning people, please do not go out on the roads and try to navigate your way through this. There are downed power lines and 2.6 million people, of course, without power. So, you understand when you compound all this together, it's just not safe to be outside right now. Guys?

HARLOW: Not safe at all. Ryan, thank you very much for that reporting from Orlando.

Still ahead, this --

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything was fine and then all of a sudden --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Another couple of hours, we flooded.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The house flooded. It just started going deeper and deeper. And when by the time we were walking out, we were mid- thigh in water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Daylight has come in Florida but many will be in the dark for days because this storm knocked out a lot of power for millions. We'll speak with Florida Power and Light ahead.

And you can see the challenge for workers trying to restore electricity, roads made impassable by debris and downed trees. We'll give you an update on that, as well.

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