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Englewood Hit by Hurricane Ian; Joe Coates is Interviewed about Storm Preparation in Charleston County; Putin Annexed Ukrainian Regions; Peter Robbins is Interviewed about Power in Florida. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 30, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:34:11]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of Hurricane Ian, which is a hurricane again as it barrels towards South Carolina, but in Florida it just caused widespread damage, especially in Englewood, Florida. That is just south of Venice.

I want you to take a look at this destruction to a mobile home park basically ripped to shreds.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Carlos Suarez, he's live in Englewood this morning.

Carlos, you know, it's sometimes hard for people to get a sense of the scale and the gravity of the destruction, the power of these kinds of storms. So, tell us what you're seeing there.

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim and Poppy, good morning.

We are in the part of Englewood, the historic district out here. It is dotted with businesses and homes. And just about every single one of them has been damaged. One of the shop owners here tells us that the roof of the place was torn off, all of that rain, all of the wind got in.

[09:35:02]

And if we walk this way here, you can see the plywood that used to belong to this business right here, the front windshield blown in. It's a realty place out here. All of the damage stretches about this far out. Just glass litters the listings that these people have of homes around the area, cover this entire entrance to the business.

We were in northern Englewood this morning. And on our drive in, this is how things looked. Again, the damage, just widespread. Every single home we came across had some sort of damage to it. The mobile home communities, they're all pretty much just gone.

There was an airport that we drove right by and we saw a plane that had been pushed up against where we believe it's normally parked, but you could see just how strong the winds were that it lifted it up just enough that it was pushed up against a back wall there. And then, in a neighbor's house, there was an RV that was flipped over.

Emergency officials this morning are concerned that folks have started to leave their homes because they've been indoors for the last couple of days. There is not a single traffic light that we saw on our drive coming down south here that has any power. We didn't really see any police officers at any of these intersections.

And so folks, as you can imagine, are a bit testy. Some folks are trying to get gas. They've stopped to ask us if we knew where they could find a place to go ahead and fill up. We only saw two gas stations out by I-75, that's way out east, that had gas. And they were open this morning, but we weren't sure if they had a supply still on hand.

Jim and Poppy.

HARLOW: So much pain. So much destruction. It's going to take a very long time for them to get back on their feet. Thank you for being there, Carlos.

Well, in South Carolina, where we said now again Hurricane Ian is barreling toward, look at that, they're preparing for the worst on their southeast coast. Nearly every part of the state is under a major risk of flooding right now.

With me now is Joe Coates, the director of emergency management in Charleston County, South Carolina.

Joe, thank you very much and good morning.

JOE COATES, DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, CHARLESTON COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA: Good morning.

HARLOW: So, what we're hearing is this hurricane will bring somewhere between four to seven feet of storm surge. It will move on shore just, you know, near or at high tide to make, you know, a bleak scenario even worse. I wonder what that is going to mean for your community.

COATES: So right at lunchtime we have a 6.3 foot high tide, which is going to compound all of our different issues that we have, including the potential of a 7 foot storm surge. So, we're really asking our residents to stay off the road and stay home.

HARLOW: Has something like that happened before, a combination like that at the same time for South Carolina for your area?

COATES: During Hurricane Irma we did have a very similar situation. And we had some major, major storm surge that had not been -- many areas had not flooded before.

HARLOW: OK. So, the governor of South Carolina, Henry McMaster, said that human reaction, those were his words, human reaction is the biggest variable when it comes to how folks there can deal with Hurricane Ian, saying human error could be a real danger. So, I wonder, you know, what your message -- direct message is to

people there watching about what they should not do.

COATES: So, they do not need to go out and drive around in floodwaters. Do not remove barriers and try and drive through the floodwaters. The best thing that they can do is to stay home. We really do not want our residents out and about because eventually the storm winds are going to get up so high where our first responders are going to be recalled back to the stations and we really don't need to try to have to rescue people that are out and about when these high winds come and everybody's gone back to their stations.

HARLOW: There is a new U.S. Geological Survey about coastal change that just came out yesterday and it suggested that Hurricane Ian will cause significant changes to much of the South Carolina and the Georgia coastline. You've got 99 percent of the dunes in South Carolina that are, you know, one of the most beautiful parts of your state that are expected to face some level of erosion from Hurricane Ian. What does that actually mean for your -- for your state and particularly for your county?

COATES: So, we have certain beaches that are notorious for beach erosion. And the Army Corps of Engineers has to replenish those. And it costs millions of dollars to be able to get the beach back to some sort of new normal. It's a very expensive after effect from these storms.

[09:40:06]

HARLOW: Do you get the sense that your residents seeing the devastation brought across the state of Florida may take more precaution now as Ian heads your way than perhaps they would have prior to seeing what it did there?

COATES: So, one of the issues that we have is we have a lot of new residents to the Charleston area that are coming from states and areas that have never had hurricanes. So we're -- we've done our best to try to educate everyone and make sure that they know what the effects are from these storms. And we've just tried to make sure that people heed the advice of first responders and our public officials to stay home and stay off the roads.

HARLOW: Joe Coates, director of emergency management in Charleston County, South Carolina, good luck. We're thinking about you guys.

COATES: Thank you, ma'am.

SCIUTTO: So good to hear from those officials in the midst of this.

Well, still ahead, we are staying on top of Hurricane Ian's path as it keeps going. It's heading towards the Carolinas. Landfall just a few hours away. Our live team coverage continues.

Another story we're following this morning, and this is daunting. Russia's President Vladimir Putin declared this morning that four regions of Ukraine, to be clear, are now, he's claiming, part of Russia forever. This blatantly violates international law. By the way, Russia does not even control those regions, most of them. He now says it is time to negotiate, though, or is claiming it. We're going to be live in Ukraine next.

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[09:46:17]

HARLOW: Moments ago, Vladimir Putin took steps that could escalate Russia's war on Ukraine, announcing the illegal annexation of four seized regions in Ukraine. Nearly a fifth of that country, if you look at land mass. A move that clearly violates international law.

SCIUTTO: He does that, in fact, as Russia is losing more control of those territories.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in one of them, is Kramatorsk, in the area of Donetsk.

Nick, Putin says somehow in the midst of all this it's time to sit down at the negotiating table. At the same time he is saying that these annexations are, in his words, forever, which is a nonstarter for Ukrainians. So, I just wonder how Ukrainians are reacting to this and do they see this as an escalation?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, I mean, they knew this was coming. They knew that these terms were essentially the final product of days of theater we've seen of sham referenda and pieces of paper being signed. So, Ukrainian reaction is, look, don't be distracted by this, we're continuing to prosecute this war on the front line. And they are seeing a lot of success, frankly. Just near where I'm standing in Donetsk, a key strategic town of Lieman (ph), is almost being circled, leaving thousands of Russian troops caught in there. And potentially having a knock on effect across the Luhansk region. Another one of the four areas that Russia now says is part of its territory falsely.

The issue, of course, here is that, as Russia says, all of these areas of Ukraine are now part of our country. Ukraine is taking them back off Russia's faltering military. And it was interesting to hear Vladimir Putin's long awaited speech here. You know, this was a very revisionist view of history, blaming the west for everything. Nuclear weapons, which his officials have been threatening in the background over the past days or sometimes very directly in the foreground were not something he directly threatened to use if these areas were attacked. He did say that the U.S. was the only country in the world who views them and that, quote, they set a precedent, which to many analysts is chilling.

But there was certainly a notion that they would do everything they could to defend these areas. But their conventional forces are deeply faltering. So, the big, I think, policy play we heard from the Kremlin head was the idea of the need for a sudden cease fire and a return to the negotiating table. Ukraine says that's not going to happen. The west recognizes that Russia uses diplomacy often for delays to regroup to pursue its military goals. So it is going to be on the front lines, frankly, where this is all decided.

And Russia is struggling to get those partially mobilized soldiers and it's chaotic mobilization of ordinary civilians to the front line and change things. And so we're likely to see in the days ahead, after the extraordinary pageantry in the Kremlin thee, the four Russia appointed heads of those regions standing on stage in a joint handshake chanting Russia as a Soviet -- former Soviet and current Russian anthem was playing out. Startling scenes.

Despite all that, they're still going to keep losing ground here in Ukraine itself. And that's very hard, I think, for the Kremlin to reconcile, if it's even paying attention to reality. Some signs on that stage in Moscow that maybe the Kremlin head is less attached to it. So, very troubling days ahead here, but certainly a definite feeling of Ukrainian momentum here, Jim.

SCIUTTO: No question. It's an alarming day for Ukraine and for Europe, frankly. Those words from the Russia president.

HARLOW: Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much for being there for us.

And still ahead, nearly 2 million people in the state of Florida this morning are still without power after Hurricane Ian ripped through the state. The question now is, how long will it take to get power back to all of those people. We'll have a spokesperson join us from Florida Power and Light ahead.

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[09:54:26]

SCIUTTO: As Florida tries to figure out how to respond to all the devastation left by Hurricane Ian, close to 2 million people, homes and businesses, customers, I should say, are still without power. Governor Ron DeSantis notes 99 percent of the customers in Hardee County don't have power. Charlotte and Lee Counties, each 85 percent without power.

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CHIP FARRAR, RODE OUT STORM ON MATLACHA ISLAND: Every telephone pole is down. Every restaurant is totaled. The water has receded, but it's left behind four inches of mud and muck everywhere that you walk.

[09:55:03]

There's debris everywhere. I mean, I live across the street from the Blue Dog Restaurant and a 30 foot walk-in cooler that was 150 yards away is now in the middle of Pine Allen Road (ph).

I've been here since 2000, and I've never seen anything remotely close to this, include Charlie.

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SCIUTTO: No longer homes. Just the imprints of homes. With me again today, Peter Robbins, spokesperson for Florida Light and Power - Power and Light, I should say.

Good to have you back, Peter. Thanks for taking the time.

PETER ROBBINS, SPOKESMAN, FLORIDA POWER AND LIGHT: Our pleasure. Thank you for having us, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So, first, when I look at those pictures of towns blown away - blown and wash away, it looks to me, not like a repair by any means but a rebuild. And I wonder, what does that mean for you and getting power back to these people?

ROBBINS: In those situations where is will be a rebuild, clearly it's going to take some time where there aren't even structures that can receive power in those areas.

The good news is, you know, we're -- here we are, we've already restored power to more than half of FPL customers who were impacted by this storm. So, we've restored a million people. We have about a million to go. And that's where our focus is. We have a team of 21,000 people that is now spread out throughout the state to make sure that where folks are in the dark and where they're maybe not as severely impacted, as in some of the other areas, we're actively working to restore their power right now and we're reconnecting people really every minute, every hour of the day and won't stop working until everybody's back on.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

Let me ask you this. Because this certainly isn't the first storm and it won't be the last to come through here. Do you need a reassign, such as burying power lines, for instance? I know that communities - some communities on the east coast have done that. Is that, in the view of your company, a necessary step to reduce the damage from the next storm?

ROBBINS: It's one of the tools in our toolbox when it comes to strengthening the electric grid and providing reliable service for all of our customers. We have a lot of underground lines throughout our system, and basically all new construction is underground. And we have programs where we take existing lines and bury them. So that certainly can help when it comes to wind. It doesn't always help when it comes to flooding. Underground equipment can be easily damaged by flooding, in some cases, and more difficult to access. So, undergounding helps. Concrete poles help. We actively invest in concrete poles and things like shortening the span of wires in between poles. So, we bring a lot of different things to bear to try to harden the grid. But with a storm like this, you cannot be hurricane proof, particularly when you're dealing with a category four or even a category five storm.

SCIUTTO: Sure. So much of this is risk mitigation, not risk elimination.

ROBBINS: Correct. SCIUTTO: All right, timeline. And I'm sure that this is a massively different timeline depending on where your home is, right? If you're in a county like Hardee, where it's more than 90 percent of folks without power, it's different. But can you give us a sense of how long it's going to take to get power back to homes and businesses?

ROBBINS: Sure. You know, in southeast Florida, where we started feeling the effects of this storm really Monday into Tuesday. We are restored here. We still have some customers to get to, but we're almost completely restored in this area.

And then later today we're going to be able to provide our customers in most areas a more detailed timeline of restoration. We're still doing damage assessments in the hardest hit areas where it's just been difficult to access those locations because of flood waters, because of debris. So, those hardest hit areas, it will take more time. And getting that timeline will take us a little longer, but we should have an estimate for most of our customers later this evening.

SCIUTTO: Understood. And I know that they're waiting - they're waiting very, very much for that to come as quickly as possible.

Question for you, for folks who may be watching who are down there, they're eager to get back to their homes, right? They want to see what's left. And I get it. I'd want to do the same thing. But as we showed -- we just showed some pictures there of a live power line in the water. It conducts electricity. What do you say to folks who want to go home now?

ROBBINS: I think you need to sit tight. I really do. I mean I can't speak for every scenario. But I actually have an aunt who lives very close to Englewood who was asking me this morning, should I go back home or not? And I said, sit tight. Most people are without power there. So even if you manage to make your way back to your home, you're probably going to be without power for a little bit. So, check with emergency officials. Check with your local sheriff's office you're your local emergency management officials, read the information that they're putting out and pay attention to it. I don't think they want people ignoring their advice and going into hard-hit areas right now.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ROBBINS: Still a critical situation where we need access for emergency vehicles and power trucks to get in and out.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and you can't always see that danger, right? I mean, in that case there, you see the live wire, but sometimes you don't.

ROBBINS: Sure.

SCIUTTO: Peter Robbins, good to have you on. I hope we can keep in touch in the coming days as you continue your work there.

ROBBINS: Yes, thank you for having us.

HARLOW: It is the top of the hour. We're glad you're with us this Friday. I'm Poppy Harlow.

[10:00:00]

SCIUTTO: Goodness, lots of news this Friday. I'm Jim Sciutto. Welcome to our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world.

Right now, Hurricane Ian - it's back to hurricane strength - 85 mile an hour.