Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Ian Leaves Behind Major Flooding, Widespread Destruction; Tropical Storm Ian Could Become a Hurricane Again; Hurricane Forces Englewood Hospital to Close, Transfer Patients; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Gives Update on Ian. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired September 29, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: And now you have this water sitting here on the streets and people try to go get by, as you can see. Not every vehicle was successful. I hope that white car makes it. It's a pretty small car.

It is treacherous. You really shouldn't be out driving in this weather. Officials say, stay home, don't try this.

There's so many parts of the state that are like this now, even inland from the coast. So if you survive the storm surge and get inland, you're getting the river and freshwater flooding.

Now, this road I'm on right now, or stream as it is now, actually blocks in an apartment complex.

And I spoke to one woman who actually can't get out of the apartment complex, out of the parking lot. Rosanna, she told me what happened during the storm when basically the wind and rain blew a hole through her roof. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Tell me what happened during the storm.

ROSANNA WALKER, NORTH PORT, FLORIDA, RESIDENT: Well, it was really windy, I've never seen it that windy. And it was really pouring out. And all of a sudden -- well, the water was coming in through the door, the top, the bottom, the windows over here. It's in my closets.

All of a sudden, it just started, you know, coming down the ceiling and everything and it was blowing up in the air and I didn't know what was going to happen, you know? So I thought they would send someone today to at least seal it.

BERMAN: Water coming through?

WALKER: Yes, it still is. It's dripping right now. I mean, just everything got ruined. I just didn't want to touch it without them seeing it, but they haven't been by. I could get by because the streets are flooded.

BERMAN: It's hard to get around. Were you scared when this was happening?

WALKER: Oh, god, yes. It was just me and my puppy here. Scared the heck out of me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Cars are driving by. I'm getting a motorboat wake. We haven't seen rescue crews yet, but this may not be the area of greatest need, Ana, which really tells you something.

CABRERA: Looking at how much water, I can't believe that's 10 miles inland. I know you're in a coastal community, but to think that the water is so high so far in. And as you point out, rescue operations are under way all across the state.

John, thank you so much for that reporting and your quick work getting to another area so we can get more eyes and ears on the ground and give our viewers a sense of the level of destruction.

We'll check back.

We're going to take another quick break. We're continuing to await a presser with the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis. We'll bring that live when it starts.

Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:38]

CABRERA: Right now, Ian is a tropical storm and is slowly moving into the Atlantic Ocean where it could regain its strength and turn back into a hurricane.

Meteorologist Jennifer Gray is with us now.

When might this happen and who is still in the storm's path, Jennifer?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It looks like it is going to regain its hurricane strength, most likely later today. Right now, 70-mile- per-hour winds. So we only have about four more miles per hour to go before we're back at hurricane strength.

It's moving at nine miles per hour. It's still moving very slowly.

While it's hard to see the center of the storm, because it has become so disorganized, we see the center here off the coast of Florida. But all up and down the Georgia and South Carolina coast already feeling tropical storm-force winds.

So as the storm continues to track and end up bending back around and impacting Georgia and South Carolina, you'll continue to get tropical storm-force winds throughout the entire duration until the storm makes landfall, not to mention increasing to hurricane-force winds right before approach. So expect it to become a category 1 and then making landfall tomorrow,

sometime around midday, and then just basically shooting inland.

But you have to remember, this is an extremely vulnerable part of the coast. Just like southwest Florida was, South Carolina, portions of Georgia, very vulnerable.

This is a very low-lying area. And if water pushes up places like Charleston, downtown Charleston could be completely under water.

It's going to back up into all of these rivers, the inlets that run through here. So Charleston could see four to seven feet of storm surge. That is going to be significant for this area.

While we paid so much attention to the southwest coast of Florida, as we should, we can't forget to look forward because this storm could cause quite a bit of destruction all along the South Carolina coast, basically from that water inundation, as well as the rainfall, Ana.

We've seen the amount of rain that's come with this storm and we could see some flooding from that as well in the coming days.

CABRERA: Jennifer Gray, you'll keep watching it and we'll check back as you get new information.

We're watching this closely. Hurricane Ian -- Tropical Storm Ian, it's still impacting the east coast right now. And of course, we're going to stay on top of all of it.

At least six deaths confirmed in one county. With the president saying moments ago this could become the deadliest hurricane ever to hit Florida.

[13:40:02]

We'll be right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUJU GURGEL, FORT MYERS, FLORIDA, RESIDENT: Just devastating to see my neighborhood like this. It's not even recognizable. This right here is the sidewalk. This church had beautiful, beautiful trees all around. And it's just gone. Gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:45:15]

CABRERA: Welcome back. We're standing by for an update with the governor of Florida any moment now. We'll break it to you as soon as it happens.

Right now, let's go to Sarasota County that's south of Tampa, and that area still feeling the effects of the blinding rain, the lashing winds we all see in this EarthCam video. That was a big problem yesterday. The storm's impact forcing one hospital to close.

CNN's Carlos Suarez is joining us live from Englewood.

Carolos, what are you seeing on the ground there now?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Ana, that one hospital was forced to close earlier today. And they began transferring their patients to another hospital.

We're live right now at a mobile home community where a lot of the residents are returning for the first time. And this is what they are seeing, just twisted metal all over the place, parts of roofs from these homes out here. What appears to be a part of a carport, blocks the entrance to this property.

On the other side, that mobile home is also missing its roof. And then on the other side of that is a red car that's been parked. The front windshield has been blown out.

This is one of three mobile home communities that we drove by earlier today as we made our way down from the Tampa Bay area.

Folks, again, they are showing up for the very first time and seeing the damage.

We talked to one woman and her mother. They moved in just six months ago, only to realize that everything they own is gone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANE DEBOYER, ENGLEWOOD, FLORIDA, RESIDENT: We started last week, all the things that we were supposed to do to get ready. But Mother Nature was a little stronger than us.

SUAREZ: When you came back, what was your biggest fear, that nothing was going to be here?

DEBOYER: Yes, and actually the biggest fear is that you'll see all your personal effects just gone or all over the place. And that's what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can't imagine it until you see it. The winds that just never stop, everything is going sideways. The rain was so heavy and going sideways, it looked like you were in a heavy fog.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SUAREZ: Ana, every single person that we talked to out here did exactly what they were supposed to do. They all evacuated to somewhere safer. And now they're dealing with the fact that some of them don't have a place to call home anymore.

CABRERA: Thank goodness they evacuated.

Carlos Suarez, thank you for showing us all of that. We send our best to those people. As we wait to hear from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, we just heard

from the president on working with Ron DeSantis. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, how would you describe your relationship and your conversation with Governor DeSantis?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's totally irrelevant, but I'll answer it, OK? Very fine. He complimented me, he thanked me for the immediate response we had. He told me how much he appreciated it. He said he was extremely happy with what was going on.

This is not about whether -- anything having to do with our disagreements politically. This is about saving people's lives, homes and businesses. That's what this I is about.

And so I've talked to him four or five times already. It's not a matter of my disagreements with him on other items.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:51:20]

CABRERA: Let's go live to Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis, this is him in Punta Gorda, Florida.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): -- but a new problem on the runway. We're happy to see the interstates are flowing on I-75 north and south.

We were able to talk with the folks here in Charlotte County at the Emergency Operations Center, Director Sherra and the local officials. We were able to go out and tour some of the areas in Charlotte County and inspect some of the damage.

From the wee hours of the morning, there have been people that have descended on south Florida to be able to offer assistance. So we've seen a number of efforts on the barrier islands to bringing people to safety, particularly in Lee County but also in Charlotte and in Naples and in Collier County.

And you have people, the electrical, the power, they're all here. We have Eric Silagy, from Florida Power and Light, who will give an update on what they're doing. From the minute they could get in here, they've been in here working on being able to get people connected again.

I've talked to two of the major CEOs for the telecom companies about their restoration services. And, fortunately, some of their infrastructure has done OK.

They do more -- or DEM is also putting the mobile cell phone towers to be able to help restore communications.

And we've got an enormous amount of food and water that is either here or is very close on the way.

Life safety, of course, is critical. Anyone stranded on one of those barrier islands, we want to make sure that they're safe.

And I know here in Charlotte, any of the neighborhoods that experienced a lot of wind or water damage, these folks are there. They're working to make sure people are safe. And that is true in Lee and Collier County as well. So that's really, really important.

We also have to stabilize the area with these services. So we've a huge amount of resources that have been brought to bear to be able to do that. And we'll continue doing it. This is going to be a 24/7 operation because we realize how important it is.

We also understand there's a lot of people that have asked what they can do to help the people of the state of Florida, particularly down in this region. And the first lady will talk in a minute.

But we have Floridadisasterfund.org, Floridadisasterfund.org. Or text "Disaster" to 20222. You can make a contribution.

At the end of the day, we got supplies that have been pre-staged that are being used, and that's important. We don't necessarily need people to send us stuff. What we need is to be able to help those relief organizations help the folks.

I mean, there's obviously -- we're surveying the damage now. Some people that have evacuated, they're going to back and look at their homes and see, is there flood damage, is there wind damage, is it habitable?

All of those things, as those happen, we'll get a clearer picture of some of the unique needs that individuals in this region may have. And so your financial contribution can make a world of difference.

And so we're happy so many people -- I think we're over $2 million already within less than 24 hours. I know many more people want to do.

But I'm really impressed with the resiliency we're seeing in Charlotte County. This is not anything anyone wanted to deal with.

If you go back 72 hours before landfall, most of southwest Florida was not even in the cone. And then you have a situation where you're staring down the barrel of a hurricane making landfall at 155 miles an hour.

So the response here and the way people have reacted has been very, very impressive.

[13:55:01]

And we understand this is just the beginning. There's a lot more that's going to be needed to be done. And the state of Florida is going to be good partners with the folks at the local level.

I'm going to let the first lady talk about relief efforts. And then we'll have Kevin Guthrie and then Eric Silagy from FPL will give an update on the power situation.

CASEY DESANTIS, FIRST LADY OF FLORIDA: I just have to echo that we're just so proud of the people of southwest Florida, the resiliency and the encourage and strength you're exhibiting, the people here at the emergency operations center and, frankly, people across the state of Florida.

We just could be not more proud of what you have done to support your fellow Floridians and also the people across the country.

So the governor mentioned a second ago the Disaster Recovery Fund, disasterrecoveryfund.org. You can donate there.

Why that's important, again, because we can take those resources and micro-target them and get them directly to the ground as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

We said tomorrow and this morning, and I reiterate this, we're going to cut through any red tape and bureaucracy because we know people need those funds and they need help. And so we're really committed to making sure that we do that.

The other thing is you can text "Disaster" to 20222. Those funds will obviously go to the same spot and we'll be able to deploy those resources very quickly.

But again, on behalf of the state of Florida, the governor, myself, all the people, the first responders, the EOC, thank you to the people across the state and the country for stepping up big.

We were at $1.6 million less than 24 hours after we launched the fund. That was at 8:00 a.m. this morning. We're well over $2 million as of a little while ago. And I think we'll have even more funds at the end of the day.

And again, that goes directly to the great people here in southwest Florida and all the way across the state. So God bless you.

DESANTIS: Thanks.

And, you know, some of the responders who were ready, the storm is going to go before you can get in there because it's very hazardous. And some of these guys are coming across Alligator Alley like at midnight, like literally knocking on the door of a tropical storm to be able to get in and help people.

So you look at these USAR teams that we've had from Miami-Dade. We want to thank them, thank the National Guard, thank the Coast Guard. They've been able to do a lot of successful missions already.

And it's really been great to see everybody working together. Part of the reason that happens is because of the coordination at the state level.

That's under the direction of Kevin Guthrie, our emergency management director, and he's going to provide an update. KEVIN GUTHRIE, DIRECTOR, FLORIDA DIVISION OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT:

Thank you, Governor.

So I got here first thing when --

CABRERA: That was the Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with an update on the rescue and recovery efforts under way across Florida.

We'll keep monitoring this as major flooding, power outage are still present and a serious danger to residents. We'll keep an eye on it.

A quick break. That's going to do it for me right now. But I'm going to hand it to Alisyn Camerota on the other side.

I'll see you back here tomorrow, same time, same place.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)