Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Ian Strengthens To Hurricane Again, Takes Aim At South Carolina; Hurricane Wipes Away Homes On Sanibel Island; U.S. Issues New Sanctions After Putin's Ukraine Annexation. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 30, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Tide levels are more than nine and a half feet there in Myrtle Beach. Winds and rain already damaging some areas there in Charleston. The city's airport is shut down. And tornado watches are in effect for parts of all of the -- both of the Carolinas and Virginia.

And, of course, in Florida, we now see more of the pure devastation. The death toll from Ian there. At least 25 people and that number will probably rise. We've all seen the videos of the homes and the businesses destroyed like you're seeing on your screen right now. This is all along Florida's West Coast. And yet it's still hard to describe the full aftermath. All of Lee County is still without running water at this hour.

In Fort Myers Beach, it's even hard to bike through the destruction. The messages from residents there if you can send help, we need it. Sanibel and Captiva islands are completely cut off from the mainland only accessible by boat or air after, as you know, Ian destroyed this major bridge that connects them to the mainland. Many of the homes there are in pieces or completely washed away. The Coast Guard is now going door to door still trying to rescue people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make sure you have a bag for your clothes with ID, cell phones, wallets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Emergency officials will run barges to Sanibel Island to help with cleanup and recovery efforts there. But let's begin in South Carolina. CNN's Nick Valencia is in Myrtle Beach. So, Nick, tell us what's happening around you right now.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Alisyn. It is a little hard to hear because the wind is such a major factor. Just in the last few minutes, these gusts of wind have crept up to about 40 to 50 miles per hour and you know this sustained wind is just almost as bad. Feels almost like you're in a wind tunnel.

And you can see the water behind me. That's because the water levels are so high here in the Atlantic Ocean about 10 feet, according to our CNN weather department, and continuing to rise despite high tide having passed over an hour ago. But really the focus is on this coastal flooding and that was a major concern to the local and county officials and that's what we're starting to see now.

Minute by minute and it seems that this water is creeping closer and closer to the buildings on this beachfront here. Businesses, they did take some precautions. I talked to the mayor earlier. I asked her if she was satisfied with the level of precautions taken by the residents here. There was no mandatory evacuation so she said it's a little hard to tell but she believed that the majority of the residents here in Myrtle Beach did stay. The main emphasis though from the mayor and other officials here are -- is to stay inside at this point as the shore -- as the hurricane continues to move onshore, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Nick, we can see the storm surge -- I mean we can see the tide behind you and we can see all of the water starting to gather around your feet. Why isn't there a mandatory evacuation in that area?

VALENCIA: Well, that's a good question. It's just officials didn't think that the storm would be as strong as it is. They feel as though that they dodged a bullet considering -- hold on here, Alisyn, getting hit by another gust of wind. It's a little hard to keep balance out here. They just didn't feel it was necessary to take that precaution.

And the reason that you're seeing this high tide, even though you know -- the reason you're seeing this flooding I should say even though high tide has passed is because the force of the wind is stronger than that tide. So Ian continues to blow water here onshore. That level here is the highest it's been since 2016 during Hurricane Matthew. So officials here may feel though as if they dodged a bullet especially because we're getting a pause in that rain but the severe weather conditions continue to be a factor here.

There is no road closure so far in Myrtle Beach. Those closures though have happened in the surrounding lower-lying areas. As it stands right now that's the -- that's the most significant concern. Not so much Myrtle Beach but the areas around it, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: And, Nick, is it still -- are they still predicting between four and seven feet of storm surge there, or has that changed?

VALENCIA: Yes, it's even worse than that if you can believe it. You know, earlier this morning, we were seeing about you know six feet, seven and a half feet according to the local emergency management of storm surge. That's more than 10 feet now just because of the force of the winds from Hurricane Ian bringing that water on shore. I mean the waves from our vantage point, we really wanted to get you closer to the beach but you can see behind us here just how aggressive those waves are. We were out here at about 11 o'clock getting whipped around and knocked down by the -- by the wind.

If there's any bright spot in this right now currently is that there's no rain right now as it stands. You know we were getting just hammered by that sideways rain coming in. But these gusts of winds I'm sure you could tell us I'm getting blown around here are continuing to be a major issue here for the locals, Alisyn. CAMEROTA: Nick, I don't want you to get any closer to the beach. My heart is pumping just watching you that close to the storm. I know you're being safe, and we appreciate that but it is -- it's too close for comfort right there.

[14:05:04]

VALENCIA: Yes, you can imagine how my mom feels. She's getting -- she's giving me text here telling me to come inside but you know this is part of our job to -- you know to bring you what's happening here in these elements, to show you what's happening here for the surrounding communities, you know, it's them that are really affected and are going to have to live with the damage and the resources or the consequences, I should say, of this storm after we're long gone, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Nick, take cover. We're going to check in with you throughout our hours. Thank you very much for giving us the report right now. Thank you.

OK, let's go to CNN's Miguel Marquez. He's in Charleston. Miguel, tell us what it's like there right now.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we are experiencing some of the worst of the storm that we have seen so far. The good (INAUDIBLE) for quite some time the National Weather Service along with the (INAUDIBLE) announcing a short time ago, the eye of the storm is just about to make landfall just north of where I'm standing, between Myrtle Beach where Nick is and where I am.

And you can tell that wind is really whipping up. I want to show you how deep some of the flooding is in this area. This is East Bay Street and North Market in Charleston. This is what they're dealing with. Flooding about -- you know, it's up above the ankles, but it's all throughout the area, a lot of trees down, that (INAUDIBLE) the ground is so (AUDIO GAP). The good bit for Charleston is that the tide was not as high as they were afraid it was going to be and the storm surge is hitting farther north, so it looks like Charleston is not going to flood as much as they were concerned with. The winds have been in the 50-mile-per-hour -- gusting up to 50-mile-per-hour in this area.

Fort Sumter, we saw about an 83-mile-an-hour gust. That was the highest of the state so far. But you know it has been by South Carolina standards and storm standards, people are just relieved that they are not seeing the sort of power that Ian pact in Florida, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Well, I totally understand that, Miguel. But I mean obviously, Charleston is no stranger to storms. But Ian is different. I mean, we have all sorts of meteorologists and climate experts telling us that this is an historic storm in terms of the amount of rain that it's dumping and, of course, all the storm surge and flooding, and so is Charleston prepared and sort of retrofitted for all of that?

MARQUEZ: Yes. Like much of the rest of the state there are no mandatory evacuation orders. This is -- it was a -- it was a tropical storm then Category 1, that's something they didn't want me to go through all of the -- of the evacuations so most people are staying home. You can see some people coming through now that the weather is brightening up a bit. But you can see how deep that water is as they go through.

Market Street, by the way, which is a pretty well-known street here, is pretty well flooded all the way down. It's not very deep, but it is flooded all the way down. Most people staying home, heeding those warnings, and right now, they're just warning people if you are in a low-lying area, especially those areas along the coast, they want you to seek higher ground, get out of there, but everybody else, hunker down and just try to enjoy it, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Well, I have to imagine, Miguel, that local officials don't want people driving around downtown past you there. I mean, I understand there's no mandatory evacuation but is there a Shelter in Place order?

MARQUEZ: There is an emergency order that allows police here to shut down certain roads and they've shut down certain areas they know are prone to flooding. There's an area over by the hospitals that have been -- have been shut down for much of the day. The area of -- by The Battery is now shut down. It's not flooding at The Battery, but it's just very windy. There's a lot of trees down there. There's a lot of debris and I think they're concerned that it will start to flood at some point.

Part of the problem here is because you have all that water trapped in the bay here in this estuary that three rivers feed into it. And if that the pressure of the storm and the wind continues, they're just afraid that that water's going to continue to push up onto shore with all the water coming in from the sky as well in the form of rain. They just want to make sure that all of that is behind them before they give the all-clear, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. Miguel, take cover. Be careful. We will check back with you throughout the program.

OK, I think we have some live pictures right now of Myrtle Beach. Yes, it's looking -- this is, I guess North Myrtle Beach. This is looking obviously very bad right now in terms of just how intense the storm was there. You could see it sort of washing out a pier, but it's hard to see because obviously the cameras being battered around and rained on. We'll keep an eye on all of that.

Meanwhile, CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray is tracking the storm force of the CNN Weather Center. OK. So, Jennifer, where is it right now? Has it made landfall?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It hasn't officially made yet landfall, but it is making landfall. The National Hurricane Center will put out a statement, the official landfall statement really any moment from now. So this is making landfall as we speak. We're still getting that onshore wind, especially in places where Nick is, Myrtle Beach, they're getting the worst of it. But I do think that it is peaking. I don't think they're going to get much more storm surge than they've gotten thus far.

[14:10:04]

They've gotten about six feet so far. We have an outgoing tide and so that is helping them. There still have an onshore flow, but I don't think it's going to be able to beat that outgoing tide and get the storm surge level much higher. We're getting that offshore wind around Charleston. That's why you're not seeing as much there. But Charleston is just getting battered with the rain. Good news is all of this is going to push inland. So in the next couple of hours, the rain will be finished along the coast, the storm surge will be going out, and things will be improving.

So this is Myrtle Beach. You can see we're number three for the highest storm surge ever reported. This is above Isaias now, just behind Matthew, and then Hugo of course the storm surge was off the charts. So here's the storm's -- the surge threat is yet to go, according to the National Hurricane Center as mentioned though, I think with the storm winding down now, we're not going to see as much storm surge. The threat for tornadoes though still will remain especially for those outer bands that are reaching say the Outer Banks of North Carolina, even on into Virginia. I think that's where the biggest tornado threat is going to be. This is through 10 o'clock tonight so we'll be on the lookout for that.

But you can see the winds are still gusty. It's going to be breezy throughout the evening. Even once the rain pushes inland we'll still be dealing with some gusty winds throughout the evening hours so any tree limbs could come down, power outages still, that could be a possibility. But, Alisyn, I think by this evening, especially coastal areas will be saying goodbye to Ian and happy about it for sure.

CAMEROTA: Well, that'd be a blessing because, Jennifer, I was just reminded by my producer this is the third landfall for Ian.

GRAY: Yes, like Cuba.

CAMEROTA: So there was Cuba, right, and then Fort Myers, and now Charleston or --

GRAY: And now, Charleston.

CAMEROTA: Yes, or Myrtle Beach. Is that -- I mean how unusual is that?

GRAY: We've had several storms that have sort of zigzags and made multiple landfalls. This one's been really impressive to me just by how well it held together, right? I mean, it stayed very strong all the way across Florida, briefly was a tropical storm before regaining hurricane strength. I mean, this is the storm that would never go away. It maintained strength across Cuba.

Normally, we see rapid weakening with storms over land. I know Florida has a lot of water. We have seen storms actually strengthen over Florida before because of the influence of the everglades and things like that. But this storm has been just incredible to watch. It has been a force of nature. And you see the devastation it has left behind across multiple States and Cuba. It has been very, very sad to watch over the last couple of days, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. Jennifer Gray, thank you very much for telling us exactly where it is right now.

GRAY: All right.

CAMEROTA: We have much more on the hurricane and its current position and its aftermath. Officials in Fort Myers say the disruption is so severe, the streets are still impassable. And overseas, President Vladimir Putin moves to formally and illegally annex four regions in Ukraine. How the U.S. is now responding and what this means for the world and the ongoing war?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:27]

CAMEROTA: Let's look at some new aerial images out of Sanibel Island that show the destruction. On the left side of your screen, you see what the area looked like before the hurricane. So you see beach cottages there lining the shores. and on the right side, you can see they are gone. Right across the bay in Fort Myers Beach, entire neighborhoods are completely destroyed.

Buildings are shredded. Rescues, like the one you're about to see here, are still underway. Coast Guard members spent Thursday looking for anyone who could be trapped and crews rescued 95 people. My colleague John Berman was able to jump on a helicopter to get a fuller look at the devastation there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All that debris just littered everywhere. These were buildings. This was the building right there. There were buildings, restaurants, and what used to be the Fort Myers pier. How far back does the sand go?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It goes straight through to the bayside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, this is 48.

BERMAN: (INAUDIBLE) right there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know.

BERMAN: The empty spots that you see there were home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry.

BERMAN: So these, on this beach here, there used to be homes. You're going to see the empty lots right here. As you see those lots right there, those were homes. Those were hotels. Those were real property 2, 3, 4. 5 stories high washed away. The buildings just ripped off to their foundations and just swept backwards. That's right. When you look to the right side here, is actually boats thrown into the mangroves, vehicles inside the water submerged. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, there's a car in a canal right there too, I think you can see that. Like a jeep. Another car.

BERMAN: This is like Mexico beach. Look at that. I can see the foundation where those houses were right there. How many rescues have you done today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've done dozens. As you can see, look to the front of our -- these are major, major boats thrown into the mangroves.

BERMAN: Where?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boats up in the mangroves right there.

BERMAN: Oh.

[14:20:05]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not just one, dozens thrown everywhere.

BERMAN: How long will it take to get this back?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I look at this, this is not a quick fix. This is not six months. This is long-term. This is long-term. I mean you're talking about, you know, not refurbishing structures. You're talking about no structure left. You're talking about foundations, concrete. You're talking about homes that were thrown into the bay. This is a long-term fix. That it's life-changing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Our thanks to John Berman for giving us that aerial view there. CNN's Randi Kaye is live in Fort Myers. Randi, what about that? I mean, we just heard you know, one of those officials saying this is not a six-month fix. This is going to be long-term. What about in Fort Myers? Can anyone return to their homes there yet, and are there homes to return to?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're certainly trying to, Alisyn. We are just across the bridge from the beach that John was flying over here in Fort Myers Beach. People have been making a steady stream trying to get to their properties all day. We don't know if they're having any luck or if there even is a property. We're actually standing in the San Carlos RV Park. I just want you to see what's left here. Not a single RV over here. There were a bunch parked over there I'm told before the storm. Where they are now? We have no idea. Whether it was the wind or the water but something took them away.

As you take a look here this was all part of the RV park. It's destroyed. There's only one single lone survivor RV there in the distance. I talked to the owner they can't believe that their RV did not disappear like all the others. And then if you look here, this is where they had the washing and dryer setup for people here in the RV park. You can see, of course, what's happened to that. But let me take you out to the street here. This is -- we watch these power cables here. But as we go down the street, you can see the traffic obviously, people are trying to figure out what happened to their property. But take a look over here at this boat. That's Captain Tony's Fishing Adventures. That was actually on the other side in the water during the storm and it was lifted out by the force of the wind and hurricane Ian -- and Hurricane Ian and it just ended up on the water. There's another boat at the backside of it and then there's two more boats behind that. They were 50 tons, Alisyn.

We talked to the owner of one of them. He thought he was going to be safe. He was in the water. He was -- tight tied his two boats together, made of steel, 50 tons, still ended up here on dry land. This is what he told us about trying to ride out the storm on his boat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE STACZEK, RODE OUT HURRICANE ON BOAT: Noisy, windy, a lot of rain obviously. Wasn't just we were we held our own for a long time until about three or so we could -- we actually were able to keep the boat in the slip with the engines. But after that when the tide shifted and came higher and the winds really ramped up and the boat released and then we cruise across the parking lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: He said it was about 3:00 a.m. when all of a sudden he started to feel like he was being carried off somewhere. Luckily, the power lines and the -- and the poles stopped him from going any further. And he's glad he didn't go out to sea but actually came in.

But we do have a shot from our satellite truck. You can see the whole wide picture of where we are. You can see the boats on the street. There's boat on top of cars, there's boats sideways. This is the way it's been. And this is what people need to figure out, what is their next move, where do they go from here, what's left of what they owned, and where -- what do they do next, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Yes, it's -- those are just incredible images that you're showing us, Randi. I mean, obviously, the power of mother nature to move that tonnage of the ship onto land. That's just incredible. Thank you very much for being there for us and for your live report. We do have an important hurricane update for everyone.

Right now, Hurricane Ian has now made landfall. It did so right near Georgetown, South Carolina that's just south of Myrtle Beach where earlier you saw Nick Valencia. Ian's maximum sustained winds at landfall were 85 miles per hour. You can see what's happening in Myrtle Beach right now. So it has made landfall. And after that, it is expected to lessen somewhat but obviously the people in Georgetown and Myrtle Beach there are having to hunker down as it is hitting. We will keep you posted on all of that.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is imposing what they call swift and severe sanctions on Russia after that country illegally annexed parts of Ukraine. We expect a live update from the White House on how they are responding. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:29:28]

CAMEROTA: The Biden administration is imposing what they call swift and severe costs in the form of new sanctions after Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed four regions of Ukraine. Putin signed the formal documents today. And just moments ago, President Biden called Putin's actions a sham and a sign he's struggling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The sham routine that he put on this morning showing the unity and you know, as people holding hands together. Well, the United States is never going to recognize this. And quite frankly, the world's not going to recognize it either. He can't seize his neighbor's territory and get away with it as simple as that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)