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Orlando's Flooded Roadways Keep Residents Sheltering in Place; Ian Hammers FL East Coast, Intensifies as It Heads Towards Georgia & South Carolina; Liston Bochette, (R), Fort Myers Mayor Pro-Tem & Council Member, Discusses Destruction from Hurricane Ian. Aired 2:30- 3p ET

Aired September 29, 2022 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Alex, why did you decide to stay?

ALEX WHITE, ORLANDO RESIDENT WHO DID NOT EVACUATE: A lot of it had to do with -- there weren't many places -- I knew the shelters were open and they're relatively close by, but there wasn't many places we could go with our stuff. I got my dog in here, too.

And the flooding is more than we thought it would be, but I still -- I don't feel terribly, terribly, like, my house is about to float away. It's pretty sturdy. Been through things before. But --

LEMON: This much water, though, ever?

WHITE: This much water? No. Likes like I said, the level is very surprising.

And it came in very fast. I was awake last night and it was still in the road around 6:00. By 7:00, it was up to the first stair down here. So it did rise very fast. But it's been decently stagnant for the last few hours.

LEMON: Has it reached your floor?

WHITE: No, it's not inside yet. All of our -- again, there's other people around. We've all been waving and checking in on each other. We're all mainly concerned about our cars because our cars are shot.

LEMON: Do you wish you had left or --

WHITE: At this point, no. I feel really good seeing all the boats and things going by. And the rescue people started checking on everybody pretty early. So that was super comforting.

I feel like -- they picked up somebody over here, so they've been checking in.

Currently, we're still fine, we're just hunkering down waiting to hear when things are going to start going back down, when the power is going to start coming back. LEMON: So it's going to continue to rain. If it goes up, are you going

to leave at some point?

WHITE: We're keeping an eye on the boats. If they say they're not coming by again, we'll probably take an offer. I know we all look crazy but --

LEMON: Thank you very much, Alex.

Thank you, stella.

Are you OK?

STELLA WHITE, DAUGHTER OF ALEX WHITE: Yes.

LEMON: Nice to meet you. Are you scared?

S. WHITE: No.

LEMON: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

There's also another -- we have another neighbor back here. We're going through there. They're going to push us around to the -- we appreciate it. Thank you so much.

So they decided not to leave. They said water, as you heard, Alisyn, never made it up to their floor. But it's pretty close. If you look at their home, it's within inches of getting to the floor of their home.

They're pulling us over to another neighbor now who we're going to interview.

But again, this is what these rescue folks are doing. I said earlier that it's amazing that these guys, they're risking their lives because you don't know what's under here.

They said, you know, -- we saw that's the lake back there.

And so there are gators possibly out here, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, absolutely.

LEMON: What do you do if that happens?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back in the boat.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: You get out of the way, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Get out of the way. Get in the boat.

LEMON: How are you guys doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good. How are you?

LEMON: I'm great. Thank you for doing this.

Why did you stay? What's your name, first of all?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Patrick and Giovanna.

LEMON: Why did you stay?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By the time we figured out it was flooded it was a little bit too late. We woke up around 6:30 in the morning. We got up around 6:30 in the morning and, by that point, it was too much water and I didn't know how to navigate my way out of here.

So we decided we'd wait it out and see how it worked out. So far, it's OK right now. But --

LEMON: I mean, it's within inches of your floor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We're about 12 inches.

LEMON: They asked you to leave voluntary, the fire department came around on bull horns and what have you. You were at work?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wasn't here for that one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes, yes.

LEMON: Do you wish you had left?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

LEMON: No?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I have two cats here. What good is it for me to leave after.

LEMON: How long have you lived here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A year and a half.

LEMON: You're not from Orlando?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'm from New York.

LEMON: So you've never seen --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

LEMON: Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're welcome.

LEMON: Appreciate it. You guys be safe. If it starts to rain more, you're going to get out of here, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I have to, absolutely.

LEMON: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

LEMON: So, Alisyn, there you go. You heard both lieutenants saying and -- again, as I know, it's tough for people to leave their homes. You've covered these as well. No matter how many times you tell folks to leave, they do it if they want to. And if they don't, they don't want to.

But these folks feel like they are doing OK, that they're not in danger at this point. They said if they have to leave, they have to leave.

But we're going to make our way around and talk to more folks here.

We'll throw it back to you in New York. But this is the danger of what happens during a hurricane.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Don, that was incredible to hear from that mother and daughter. Incredible that the water is not yet in their home, just inches away.

I also don't like to hear there might be gators in those waters as the rescue guys are walking around. That's --

LEMON: It's true, though. We were warned.

CAMEROTA: I believe you.

LEMON: Alisyn, we were warned when we got here. They say do not go any further into that water because there are gators in there.

And I turned to the lieutenant here.

And you said?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, absolutely.

CAMEROTA: All right.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: It's Florida.

CAMEROTA: Yes, good point.

Please tell them that we're thinking of them. And they're doing incredible work.

And, Don, we'll check back in with you. Thank you very much for reporting live on the scene for us. [14:35:02]

LEMON: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: So as you can see there, the threat from Ian is not over. We're going to tell you who is still in the storm's path right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Let's check out St. Augustine, on Florida's east coast, where the downtown streets at this hour are flooded. You see there.

This is also some footage from Jacksonville, also on the eastern side of the state. The waves and wind battling this pier and, of course, people still walking across it.

Tropical Storm Ian could whip up into a hurricane again. It is expected to gain strength as it emerges into the Atlantic Ocean over on the east side.

[14:40:01]

CNN Meteorologist Jennifer Gray is in the CNN Weather Center with the latest forecast.

Where is it now and where is it headed?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's just off the coast of Florida, just off the east coast. Looks very disorganized, especially compared to yesterday and that's because it is disorganized.

It is trying to get its act together now that it's back over open water. And we are expecting this storm to become a hurricane once again today.

So this will most likely make landfall along the South Carolina coast tomorrow as a hurricane. We could be within that 24-hour window yet again of another landfall.

Right now, it's got 70-mile-per-hour winds, gusts of 85. But remember, we already have tropical-storm-force winds being felt all up and down the Georgia/South Carolina coast. So they're already feeling the impacts even though this won't make landfall until tomorrow.

You can see making landfall as possibly a category 1 and continuing inland. This storm will continue carry rain with it. And it will continue to do that across the southeast coast of the U.S. So we could definitely see flooding there.

The other concern, just like southwest Florida, Alisyn, we have a vulnerable coastline here. South Carolina very vulnerable, low country. Charleston floods very, very easily.

Especially if you get a four-to-seven-foot storm surge in this very low-lying area, we could see significant flooding across places like Charleston and the surrounding areas. So that's a huge concern there as we go forward into tomorrow.

So the forecast, wind gusts. You can see it's moving offshore. The winds are really going to start picking up overnight tonight into tomorrow, Alisyn, along the southeast coast.

CAMEROTA: It's just incredible, Jennifer, to see that it is not nearly done yet.

GRAY: It is not.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much for that warning for everyone in those areas.

GRAY: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's look at this video. It shows water rushing into the windows. This is a home on Fort Myers Beach, which was hit so very hard. Aerials show what this looks like here. I mean, just home after home submerged in water.

A local resident there captured the flooding in his home as all of his belongings floated around there.

And then if you take a look at this, these are pictures of Fort Myers -- it's called Times Square, their downtown area. That was before the hurricane. It's a beautiful area for anyone who have ever been there.

And this is what it looks like now. All sorts of storefronts and shops just destroyed. Palm trees, of course, uprooted and toppled. Debris is scattered everywhere.

This area was just being built up. I mean, this was a real tourist hub, you know, two days ago.

So Fort Myers council member and mayor pro-tem, Liston Bochette, joins us on the phone.

Council Member Bochette, thank you so much for being here.

What is the situation in Fort Myers Beach and Fort Myers right now?

LISTON BOCHETTE, (R), FORT MYERS MAYOR PRO-TEM & COUNCIL MEMBER (via telephone): Good day, Alisyn. And from Paradise Lost, we certainly appreciate the focus of the nation on us.

Fort Myers Beach took the brunt and it runs all the way up the river and through our downtown area. Water was part of the problem but extremely, an almost category 5 windstorm shredded the community.

Large parts have no electricity. Large parts have no water. And even the sewer systems, the sewers, the computers that process are down.

We're under 48-hour curfew right now, asking everyone to please stay at home and let the emergency workers do their jobs.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I read that. So the water system is down, and the backup water system is down, and as you say, the sewer system.

What does that mean? Obviously, people can't live like that.

BOCHETTE: No. It's a formula for disaster. We're hoping the cavalry will ride over the hill and help us out.

But a lot of this technology today, the computer system, city hall failed, the generators failed, the Internet, and the backup Internet companies both failed.

So we got quite a communication problem just letting people know what to do.

But the team is working hard at the central emergency center. They're tired, but they're doing rotations. We're doing the best we can in a bad situation.

I've good midwestern and southerner values here. People are chipping in and trying to do their part.

So fingers crossed. But this is a storm we haven't seen in 100 years.

CAMEROTA: Right now, we're looking at drone video of just house after house demolished, basically, there. This is Fort Myers Beach, which was hit so soared.

What's going to happen there? Can these homes be rebuilt? Is there enough insurance money to go around? What happens to all the folks who live there?

BOCHETTE: Well, obviously, it's an insurance challenge. We had this problem over the years of beach fronts not being insurable. The companies simply won't do it. The state has stepped in.

But as bad as we've got it, we're also worried about our neighbors across the river at Cape Coral, Punta Gorda. As bad as we've got it, they might have gotten it worse.

[14:45:07]

We understand the city of Cape Coral, our sister city, is shutting down their whole water system. This is a problem. This is really, really a problem.

You got to remember, Florida doesn't have reservoirs and we depend on storage tanks. When we don't have the generators to run the tanks, it cuts of drinking water, washing water.

And then you can't -- with the sewage problem, it will only become a bacterial problem.

We're moving as fast as we can. No one's got the day off, trying to put all of this back together. But it's a countywide problem.

We haven't had a death assessment yet. Usually, these things are accidents with people going out in the storm or downed power lines. But we're waiting on those reports as well.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Mr. Bochette, you do have your work cut out for you. Thank you for explaining all of that for us.

We're looking at the damage and we can just see the effort ahead. It will take the cavalry, obviously, being called in.

We're thinking of you and your community, and obviously we'll check back with you.

BOCHETTE: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk.

BOCHETTE: Thank you very much. We're going to recover, rethink, and rebuild. We'll be ready for next tourist season

CAMEROTA: OK. We hope so.

Thank you.

Meanwhile, the storm ripped off the roof over the ICU in a hospital in Port Charlotte. We're going to have a live update on what they're doing there next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:51:10]

CAMEROTA: New video just into our newsroom. This is south of Tampa. Just widespread flooding, as you see there. This is supposed to be a roadway.

And this is what appears to be a military vehicle. And it looks like, I don't know, either Guardsman or military personnel having to push it out of the flooded roadway.

I mean this is just one block, just one situation. This is what so much of southwest Florida looks like right now. People having to save each other, save their vehicles, try to get back to their homes.

And as we pull out here -- this is courtesy of an affiliate, WFGS. And you can just see there are cars strewn also throughout this roadway because people couldn't drive through this.

So we also have new images into our newsroom that show homes ripped apart. This is Englewood, Florida. You can see pieces of the home, pieces of siding strewn everywhere.

The damage in the area is so bad that one hospital had to get its patients out to other facilities.

CNN's Carlos Suarez is in Englewood for us.

Carlos, tell us what the situation is. CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, so we are right now at one

mobile home community where families have spent the better part of the day coming back to take a look at just how bad the damage is.

A few families really are just showing up to pick up their items, and then they're leaving.

This is what they're seeing now. You see what appears to have been items from a shed that were torn apart from the side of this mobile home. You can't walk very far out here without seeing all of this debris that litters this entire community.

It's one of three that we have seen since we made our drive down from Tampa.

That car, it's front windshield has been just blown out by debris. The folks here haven't shown up just yet.

We made the drive down from Tampa this morning. On our way in, we saw flooding all over I-75, the major interstate that connects southwest Florida from the south up to the north.

We were trying to make our way due west to get onto the barrier island, but the flooding was so bad we could not make it. Our SUVs were not high enough to get out there.

In fact, there is a part of the road out here, a few miles that way, where folks are literally parked on the side of the road. They're waiting for this water to recede so they can try to get to their homes -- Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Carlos Suarez, thank you very much for giving us a look at what it looks like there.

Now let's go to Port Charlotte. The storm blew off a roof of a hospital flooding the intensive care unit. Look at this.

There were doctors and nurses in there who had to scramble to care for at least 150 patients.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BIRGIT BODINE, INTERNAL MEDICINE SPECIALIST: Very, very quickly we got people out of the ICU. The problem then ended up being that the water gushed down the stairwells, as you see there, and onto other floors.

First, we initially had to evacuate everybody out of the ICU, which, of course, are critical patients. We were able to get them into the PACU, which is essentially the operating room post-recovery area where they can handle the ICU patients.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: We are happy to report that hospital officials say no patient were injured. And they are working to evacuate more patients by the end of the day.

Joining us now on the phone is the commissioner for Charlotte County, Joseph Tiseo.

Commissioner, thank you so much. I know how busy you are.

I understand that you have confirmed six deaths in your county? Is that right?

COMMISSIONER JOSEPH TISEO (R-CHARLOTTE COUNTY, FL) (via telephone): Yes, we have confirmed six. And then I got a update that we're up to eight now, eight or nine.

CAMEROTA: Gosh, I'm so sorry to hear that.

TISEO: Real unfortunate. Very unfortunate.

CAMEROTA: And were they all in the same area or is that scattered throughout the community? What's the situation?

TISEO: Yes, I have not gotten a report on what parts of Charlotte County they passed away in. But I just got a report of the fatality amount of people that passed away.

[14:55:04]

We -- we -- in Charlotte County, the storm came into Charlotte Harbor. And the north and west eyewall hit us pretty big. We did not see the surge that we expected.

And I took a tour of northern Charlotte County -- I didn't get out to west country yet and into the city of Punta Gorda, and we have a lot of localized flooding, a lot of tree damage.

And since Hurricane Charley hit, a lot of the building codes have really improved, and we've gotten a lot of new roofs.

And strangely -- not strangely enough, but I think it's a testament to those new codes. A lot of the newer roofs stayed intact. And a lot of the older homes that did not get the new roofing sustained a lot of damage.

But it was a lot of wind, 12 hours of wind from noon to midnight. It didn't stop. And a lot of trees down.

But we're doing triage right now for infrastructure. Essentially, get the roads open, make sure our water and sewer services, wastewater services, get those up and running.

And we did have two hospitals go down, and we had one that stood up during the storm over at Shore Point, that stayed open. Faucet, had a leak in the roof.

I think that's what your previous person was talking about with the flooding throughout the hospital.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: We're looking at the video of it right now. The hospital just looks basically -- there's a stairwell that we can see, and it's just water cascading down it. They obviously had to get their patients out.

But I know, Commissioner, that you've described your area as apocalyptic.

TISEO: Yes.

CAMEROTA: So what is it that makes you say that?

TISEO: Well, there's -- there's pockets of areas that took the wind pretty hard. I know when I woke up this morning, I had two massive oak trees in my pool. They crashed in the cage.

I got some roof -- I couldn't get out of my garage. I had to get a chainsaw and -- you know, with Hurricane Charley, our neighbors pulled together and formed teams of five or six people, and we all just went to each other's home to get access.

We just chain-sawed and moved debris out of the way so we could get out of the garages and start cleaning up. As we speak, I can look down my street, and cleanup has begun this morning, and it's still going on.

We've been through this before. We've pulled together as a community. And that's what we're going to do.

And we have resources that were pledged from FEMA and the state. Governor DeSantis was down today. I know President Biden is also -- had aid on the way.

We have various staging areas around the county. When I took my assessment this morning, I saw at least 30 FBI trucks staged from a big box retailer.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Yes.

TISEO: You know, so roads are getting open so we can get access, and we've got utility workers on standby. So --

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Understood.

Well, Commissioner, yes --

TISEO: -- you know, over the next few hours it's --

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: We know. I mean, we totally agree that neighbors will continue to help neighbors there, and that's what it's going to take here.

Commissioner Joseph Tiseo, thank you very much for your time. We're thinking of you. Really appreciate it.

TISEO: Thank you so much. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: If you're looking for ways to help the victims of Hurricane Ian, you can go to CNN.com/impact.

We have much more of our special live coverage next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)