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At Least 19 Deaths In Florida Amid Massive Destruction; Ian Becomes A Hurricane Again, Takes Aim At Georgia, Carolinas; Casualties Reported After Explosion At Educational Center In Kabul; Putin To Host Kremlin Ceremony Annexing Parts Of Ukraine; Catastrophic Damage Assessments underway in Florida; Ian May be Largest Natural Disaster in Florida History; U.S. Vice President visits Korean DMZ. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired September 30, 2022 - 01:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:29]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm John Vause in CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. It seems hurricane Ian has not done yet after leaving Florida with a rising death toll. Ongoing rescues are looking much like a warzone.

This killer storm is gaining strength right now category one bearing down on South Carolina with landfall expected later Friday. The death toll in Florida from en stands at 19, a number which is almost certain to rise in the days ahead.

The U.S. president on Thursday warning of a substantial loss of life from him which one official has described as likely the biggest natural disaster the state has ever seen. That has triggered the biggest disaster response in Florida's history. Tens of thousands of emergency workers deployed statewide.

At this hour, more than 2 million homes and businesses remain without electricity. Large areas of the state are underwater. Meteorologist say Ian produced a one in 1000 year rainfall. And after touring some of the worst hit areas, the Governor Ron DeSantis described the storm surge as biblical.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R) FLORIDA: Some of the damage was, you know, almost indescribable to see a house just sitting in the middle of Estero Bay literally was have gotten picked up flown because of the massive wind speed and the storm surge and deposited in a body of water. There was cars floating in the middle of the water. Some of the homes were total losses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Ian is expected to hit South Carolina coinciding with high tide on Friday, greatly increasing the potential for flooding. That says Governor there now warning that human error is the biggest risk the state is now facing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. HENRY MCMASTER (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: We know what's coming. So we -- there's a little bit of wiggle room and exactly how strong the rains and how strong the wind will be. But the biggest variable is human reaction is people failing to take the necessary precautions. That's the real danger that we have is human error.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Over and over again. Florida residents say they were shocked by how quickly hurricane Ian turn from bad to worse to life threatening. CNN's Brian Todd has that report.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Up and down Florida's West Coast residents facing flooded homes, neighborhoods underwater, streets littered with abandoned cars, roofs torn off, boats wrecked, roads blocked by flooding and debris after a stormy night of tearing winds rushing water and last minute escapes as the category four hurricane rip through.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We flooded

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our house flooded it just started going deeper and deeper. And by time we were walking out we were mid thigh in water.

TODD: The Naples Fire Department carrying out water rescues even though some of their own stations were flooded. First Responders even spotted on jet skis. Bill Hogan says the water reached two or three feet in his house. He thinks the boat on his lawn came from two blocks away.

BILL HOGAN, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Which should give you some sense of you know of how much water was here there was at least three feet of water throughout the whole street.

TODD: Fort Myers among the hardest hit from the waterfront to downtown to inland neighborhoods.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) the houses since 1987, pictures memories.

TODD: Fort Myers Beach now a debris field. In Port Charlotte flooding at a hospitals ICU.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got people out of the ICU. The problem then ended up being that this water crushed down the stairwells as you see there. And onto other floors.

TODD: The causeway to Sanibel Island reached in several places. Anyone who stayed there now cut off from the only link to the mainland. More than 2.5 million customers lost power with repair crews just beginning to fan out. Officials warning residents that hazards remain.

SHERIFF CARIME MARCENO, LEE COUNTY, FLORIDA: There are things that could truly hurt you in the water. There can be electricity, there can be downed power lines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please do not get on the road unless it is an emergency.

TODD: And it's not just the West Coast, damage extending well into Central Florida. Orlando saw more than a foot of rain, prompting high water rescues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first trailer here is actually underwater.

TODD: And residents at a nursing home evacuated. in Kissimmee, trapped victims brought to safety with airboats. This family saying they lost everything and were taken out a window. Another woman wishes she had evacuated before the storm.

[01:05:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard the neighbor screaming. I went to look out the window the car was submerge, so we tried to get the vehicle out but it was too late.

TODD: Even in the east, Jacksonville and St. Augustine seeing coastal flooding and strong winds.

TODD (on camera): We've come across scenes like this, with people tossing out their biggest possessions all over the city of Naples. City officials telling reporters that they believe the property damage to the city itself could go as high as $20 million. The damage to personal property like this could be as high as $200 million. And one city official saying that's a conservative estimate. Brian Todd, CNN, Naples, Florida.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

VAUSE: Let's check in with meteorologist Karen Mcginnis for the very latest on Ian's path. So what do you got, Karen?

KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, we know that when Ian moved across Puerto Rico, it wiped out all the electricity across Puerto Rico. It has claimed at least 16 lives across Florida all day long. Here on CNN, we've shown you those pictures coming out of Southwest Florida, then across the Central Florida peninsula. And now there's going to be another landfall more than likely along somewhere along this coastal region of South Carolina. It's called the lowlands for a reason, it is very prone to flooding, especially Charleston, I know Charleston very well.

And they're going to expecting maybe five to 10 inches of rainfall, maybe some isolated heavier amounts. I just want to show you where that rainfall is going to head as it moves up across the central sections of South Carolina, into North Carolina.

But everybody here, this is such a broad rain field that everybody here long coastal Georgia, coastal South Carolina, and into North Carolina and maybe into Virginia will be affected. But now there's a little bit of a shift. It looks like we could split the difference between Myrtle Beach and Charleston. And we could see landfall somewhere there.

Now, we're not going to rule out Charleston completely. And we're not going to exclude some of these other areas. But these have been the target zones that we've been talking about all day long. But the National Hurricane Center gave us an update 11:00 Eastern time. 15 minutes later, we got another update, which had the winds at 85 miles an hour, gusts to 100. Already, we're starting to see the winds really kick up here.

All right, we don't have a clearly defined hurricane. It looks anything but don't underestimate this because we know just how fragile. Even a little bit of rainfall can be in some of these coastal regions, from Waycross, to Beaufort, to Savannah, to Kiawah, to Charleston, to Isle of Palms, Sullivan's Island, then towards Myrtles Inlet and into Surfside and Myrtle Beach, then towards Wilmington. I know South Carolina so well I can name those cities up and down the coast.

And as we go in the forecast for Friday, early morning hours, those winds are going to be ticking up. Tropical storm force winds, hurricane force winds eventually when do we think landfall probably midday 2:00. But that's just about the time we're looking at high tide in the Charleston Harbor. That will be exceptionally bad should that occur.

But this is also going to sneak up as we go into the future forecast coming up for Saturday, some gusty winds here. This system is going to be raining itself out. Very interesting data when it comes to I named storms probably Ian maybe retire because of its severity. But these are all the I named storms that we've seen just since 2000. They've been so devastating. They have been eliminated.

And John, more than any other letter in the alphabet, these I named storms have really produced and wreaked havoc all the way from the Caribbean to the Atlantic. And we have seen such devastation from this and it continues. We'll be back in about 20 minutes with more updates.

VAUSE: Absolutely, Karen. Yes, thank you for that. 20 minutes from now more on hurricane will be watching.

But judging by early damage assessments, the total cost of hurricane Ian will be in the tens of billions. One city alone Naples, just to the south where it made landfall in Florida, the damage to government buildings, vehicles and equipment, as well as the city's Pier $20 million, according to city officials, as for private homes and businesses drive by assessment by the city manager but the damage will add more than $200 million. Whatever the cost recovering and rebuilding is likely to take time. And from all of that, Commissioner Rick LoCastro is on the way from Marco Island. He's one of five district commissioners for Collier County, which includes the city of Naples. Rick, thank you so much for being with us. Once again, when we were talking last night around this time, your biggest fear was sort of the damage caused by that 12 foot storm surge. So now what's your assessment?

RICK LOCASTRO, COUNTY COMMISSIONER, COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA: Well, I spent all day yesterday driving the community in my district. So it's Marco Island, (INAUDIBLE) in a big chunk of Naples falls into district one. And I got to see firsthand the damage.

Folks that didn't evacuate obviously were on hand and they were starting to pull a lot of things out of their houses.

[01:10:02]

But to see the level of water rise, the level of flooding was something I'd never seen before. I mean, you're talking people that had four or five feet of water in their houses. And I heard from a lot of people who are currently evacuated, waited, wanting to know when they can come back. The roads are open, and so nothing's impeding them from coming back. But a lot of them are going to be really surprised, really shocked at the devastation that we've had here do that excessive storm surge.

VAUSE: And when you talk recovery here, we talking in terms of weeks more likely months, do you have a timeline here any idea of how long it'll be?

LOCASTRO: Way more than months, and even when I heard you say that a few officials are giving sort of estimates for damage. Number one, I think it's really premature because I think there's a lot of things that we haven't even seen yet.

I spent some time talking with the senior leadership from our utility companies. And one of the reasons why we all still are without power in most places, I mean, Marco Islands, (INAUDIBLE) Park, I would say the vast majority, vast percentage of my district is still all totally in the dark is instead of repair as you would have sometimes from normal storms when things have been knocked out and transformers, there's so much damage here due to the excessive amount of water, from the surge that you're talking about replacement of major components transformers, major, you know, pieces of our utility system down here just for the power alone, not to mention you know, all the other damage that we've that impacted our community here.

VAUSE: And just to be clear, the power grid wasn't a situation in Puerto Rico where it was in pretty bad shape before a hurricane arrived. What was the power grid like around (INAUDIBLE), around Marco Island, around Collier County is usually well --

LOCASTRO: (INAUDIBLE) around here. But you can only do so much to protect yourself against that type of seawater hit. You know, this is one of those once in a lifetime storms and as I said before, this one was less about wind for us. And it was more about the storm surge. We had recently in 2017 were recently hit by Hurricane Irma which was strong Cat. 4 but that was more of a classic hurricane. I heard your last caller said there's not -- there was nothing classic about this hurricane and that could not be more true.

The high levels of storm surge a lot of times that are estimated and then many times you get much less than what is estimated because they're trying to give you estimates on the side of caution. This hurricane the way that it hit us and we were on that southern-eastern side of the eyes so maybe the I didn't hit us directly but we were on, as they always say, that dirty of the hurricane impacted my community directly and, you know, these are coastal communities These are little pieces of paradise that are all on the water.

So the storm surge was something that was horrific for us and we saw every inch of what was predicted projected and I saw the damage yesterday firsthand throughout Collier County and it's extensive.

VAUSE: That was Rick LoCastro, County Commissioner for Collier County in Florida.

And stay with CNN for continued coverage of Hurricane Ian. We have more on the catastrophic damage and flooding the storm is left in Florida and what's expected next.

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[01:17:22]

VAUSE: Hurricane Ian is gaining strength and shifting slightly to the east, as it hurtles towards the South Carolina coast. National Hurricane Center says the Category 1 storm is now expected to make landfall just west of Myrtle Beach of the coming hours.

This is a monster storm which has already claimed 19 lives in Florida. And the death toll is expected to rise as emergency crews reach areas cut off by the storm. In the ravage community of Fort Myers Beach and official tells CNN there's nothing to come back to. Millions of people across the states still have no electricity. Much more to come on hurricane here but right now, a lot more on our other big stories of the day.

We have this just to CNN. Police in Afghanistan are reporting casualties after an explosion at an educational center in the capital Kabul. No word yet on how many people were killed or injured or what caused the blast. Officials say security forces have reached the area. We'll announce more information as they get it.

The stage is now set for Vladimir Putin to announce the illegal annexation of four Ukrainian provinces after a widely discredited referendum. Just a few hours a signing ceremony we held at the Kremlin with a Russian president will also deliver a major speech.

According to Moscow backed officials in the occupied areas, voters overwhelmingly supported joining Russia. But in reality this sham referendum is meant to give Putin a veil of credibility to illegally seized Ukrainian territory. CNN's Nic Robertson has that report.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voiceover): The outcome never in doubt, Putin's illegal and sham referenda in eastern and southern Ukraine never more than a pretext to annex them to Russia.

KURT VOLKER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: His trying to create a situation in which he claims that now that they are an integral part of Russian territory is engaging in self-defense by defending these territories.

ROBERTSON: Putin did it with Ukraine's Crimea 2014 illegal invasion, illegal sham referendum, illegal annexation to Russia.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: We were ready to do it.

ROBERTSON: And then threats of nuclear attack should its land grab be resisted. It's the same play this time. Last week reupping his new color thread over the referendum regions Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. Not a bluff he says but Putin looks weak his bluff already called.

[01:20:08]

JAKE SULLIVAN, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: If Russia crosses this line, there will be catastrophic consequences for Russia. The United States will respond decisively.

ROBERTSON: Putin is in a corner. Battlefield losses mounting in Ukraine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Defeat is not an option for the Russian leadership. There should be something that can be presented to the public as a victory.

VOLKER: He has staked his legacy as a great Russian leader on taking lands that he believes rightfully should belong to Russia.

ROBERTSON: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Putin plans to conscript Ukrainians from their newly annexed territory to fight for Russia, just as he has done in Crimea.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Ukraine mass punishment for trying to steal our territory

ROBERTSON: Zelenskyy vows to fight back for every inch of his country, specifically, what Putin has annexed. In Moscow, Putin cannot or will not read the reality of what's happening with this disastrous war and is ready to sign into law. His State Duma is a rubber stamp for the fictitious vote, it will have little meaning outside Moscow.

JOSEP BORRELL, EU FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF: Hey, can I speak on behalf of the member states of the European Union, that none of them will recognize this falsify outcome. ROBERTSON: But all this may be part of Putin's calculus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They didn't count on any recognition of the referendum result.

VOLKER: What he must be striving for, is to brandish the nuclear weapons, make all kinds of threats to Europe, and then say, Okay, so let's negotiate a settlement.

ROBERTSON: It's just like the beginning of the war, in plain sight, Putin creates and uses sham laws to get what he wants. His miscalculation now, he's losing the war. He can't dictate terms. Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

VAUSE: More now on Russia's annexation move. We're joined by David Sanger, a CNN political and national security analyst as well as White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times. It's good to see you, David. Good to see you again.

DAVID SANGER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Great to be back with you.

VAUSE: OK, we know how this plays out. Right? The script was written in 2014 for Crimea, but we had no credibility, Putin was no challenge was allowed to get away with it. Will it be the same this time because things are a little different right now?

SANGER: Things are different. And no doubt the Crimea model is one of the reasons that he is following this playbook because he did get away with it. There were sanctions a year later, they weren't terribly strong.

Now, in this case, he's gone through a remarkable setback for his conventional military. He's taking a much broader swath of land. And as Nic's report suggested, no one is going to sort of recognize this or go along with him. I think the risk we're running here is that once this land is formally part of Russia in his telling, then he will say it is covered by Russia's nuclear umbrella.

And of course, once the Ukrainians begin to attack that land as they are tried to win it back and say that it is remains part of Ukraine, you run considerable nuclear escalation risk.

VAUSE: Do you think that the successful Ukrainian counter-offensive sort of hastened this referendum and this annexation moves to be brought forward because happening sooner rather than later?

SANGER: It may well have. I mean, you've heard the United States won (ph) really for the past month and a half or two months at this annexation move was going to happen. There is a school of thought that this will give him a face saving way to say that he's accomplished something despite the military setbacks. And that, you know, in some ways, it might enable him to take a pause through the winter and come back if his military activity come the spring. But certainly there's nothing that we have heard in the past few weeks to suggest that he is doing anything except doubling down.

VAUSE: So yes, when those began back in February, there was all talk of giving Putin an off ramp at this point he doesn't want an off ramp, does he? He's all in.

SANGER: Doesn't see me does that, you know, we've seen absolutely no motion on either side toward a negotiated settlement. Both sides are looking for some form of advantage before they even entertain that thought. For the Ukrainians that advantage is the progress that they're making on the battlefield.

[01:25:00]

For Putin that advantage would be some combination of the land he has declared his own, and the backup of having his nuclear arsenal.

Now, as you and I have discussed before, that arsenal is much more useful to him as a potential weapon than was one that he actually uses. Because once he uses it, he runs a risk that the rest of the world has been standing on the sidelines now joining the sanctions comes down.

VAUSE: Well, the response from the U.S., the EU and NATO will be more sanctions are committed apparently long term weapons supplies for Ukraine. And Putin is in for a subsidy of talking to you from Western leaders. Those are sort of turning off the heat and ice, but it's also Putin will decide to reverse course, after all that is.

SANGER: I can't imagine that he would. He had an opportunity a month or two ago, to as his forces were having a hard time holding onto the land, to basically retreat some and declare publicly that he had accomplished his goals, and that he had taught Ukraine a lesson and call it victory. And of course, the Russian media would have lined up behind him and said, so just as he has, that's not what he chose to do.

If anything, he has made it clear that he is putting even more resources into this. That's what the mobilization is all about, despite the embarrassment of watching much of his male military age population, tried to get over the border to other nations to avoid fighting a war that clearly they don't believe is in their interest. And doubt is in Russia's.

VAUSE: And clearly, what do you make of this admission of mistakes were made by Putin himself by others? He didn't make any mistakes. So we will the others have made the mistakes of the call up of these things troops.

SANGER: It's pretty remarkable. I mean, you don't usually hear Putin admitting to any mistakes. In this case, what he's saying is that his orders aren't being carried out accurately. And then he's ordered that they call up people with military experience. Obviously many of those who have been served with notice that they are headed off into service in the effort to raise 300,000 new troops had no background whatsoever. And I'm not entirely sure how anybody would appeal there into any kind of legitimate authority would appeal the their conscription notice.

VAUSE: David, we appreciate you being with us. David Sanger there.

SANGER: Great to see you.

VAUSE: You too. OK. We'll take a short break when we go back a lot more on hurricane Ian and the tracking the (INAUDIBLE) the path of the storm as it heads for a second landfall, devastating parts of Florida.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:32:25]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: 32 minutes past the hour. Returning now to our top story.

Hurricane Ian, taking aim for the southeastern United States after cutting a deadly path through Florida.

Plus scenes of destruction with debris scattered across the disaster zone. Homes are still submerged from a storm surge that engulfed parts of the state.

Ian's death toll in Florida stands at 19. Officials confirm at least 700 rescues statewide but those numbers expected to rise. More than 2 million homes and businesses remain without power.

Right now, this Category 1 hurricane is churning over the Atlantic and gaining strength. And there'll be a second landfall in South Carolina in the coming hours.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRAVIS GLATKI, EMERGENCY MANAGER, MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA: We've already closed down the beaches. we did that today. It will be IN effect all day tomorrow. We have our emergency operation center opening up at 8:00 a.m. in the morning.

We have up staffed our emergency services and our public works. We're really focused on the water rescue personnel with the fire department. We feel confident that our preparations have gotten us to this point where we feel somewhat secure. The hope is that this is a fast-moving storm. Either way, we are ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The full extent of the damage Ian caused in Florida will not be known for days if not weeks. But when describing the devastation, officials have repeatedly use words like "historic" and "catastrophic".

CNN's Ryan Young has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at this mess.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More than two million people still without power after Ian left behind a wake of destruction in southwest and central Florida.

BRYAN GARNER, FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT: Flying debris, falling trees, tornadoes, life-threatening storm surge and flooding have created significant restoration challenges across the state. And in some cases, the need to rebuild rather than simply repair parts of our energy grid.

YOUNG: As crews rush to restore power, floodwaters continue to rise, leading to water rescues across the Orlando and Kissimmee area. Crews are using airboats to pull people from their water-logged homes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In 2004, we had a hurricane but you know, wasn't that bad. We took off, we evacuate. When we come back, there was water in the streets, but not like this.

YOUNG: The destruction in southwest Florida, massive. Homes underwater, torn apart, and some even on fire. People's entire lives uprooted by Ian.

These images show how powerful Hurricane Ian was when it slammed into southwest Florida as a Category 4 storm bringing with it destructive winds, record rainfall and storm surge reaching 12 feet in some places.

[01:35:00]

GOVERNOR RON DESANTIS (R-FL): You've got a hurricane that's a massive hurricane coming in at 155 miles per hour, producing this type of storm surge, dumping rain, causing flooding.

If you can make it through that, then you probably did it pretty good. And so this is a 24/7 effort to stabilize and to restore.

YOUNG: And Ian swamped this hospital in Port Charlotte from both above and below, forcing hospital employees to move patients.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very, very quickly, we got people out of the ICU. The problem then ended up being that the flood has rushed down the stairwell as we see there. And on to other floors.

YOUNG: Yes. We saw scenes of flooding all over central Florida. Residents say they've never seen the water rise so fast. The rain was unrelenting for hours and people are just hoping to dry out some time soon.

Reporting in Orlando, Florida -- Ryan Young, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Let's get the very latest now on Ian's path. We go to meteorologist Karen Maginnis. It's very important to find out exactly where Ian is, we know that this has been a changing event all evening or morning, I should say. Where are we at now?

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And John, even more changing than we were thinking about 45 minutes ago because of this. We haven't shown this spaghetti models. And they are guideline. You put in information and different parameters, and this is what we are seeing.

All right, here is Charleston. There's one spaghetti model. But the bulk of them? A little further to the north along that north central coast of South Carolina.

Now, don't let your guard down. We have a state of emergency issued for all of South Carolina. So there are definite things that you need to be prepared for. Maybe you will lose electricity, certainly possible. Maybe you'll be so flooded you can't leave the area that you are in. Those are definite possibilities.

But look at this. Now we are kind of shifting that a little bit towards the north. Along the coastline near Myrtle Beach, near Surfside, near Polly's island, and the (INAUDIBLE) inlet, kind of a net week and just even a purple shaded area here that suggests possible, up to 20 inches of rainfall.

Now some of the rainfall totals we've seen in south Florida that has turned deadly now, probably those fatality numbers will be going up. We had about 16 fatalities so far in Puerto Rico.

But now the third landfall, this some time along midday, along that central or northern coast of South Carolina. That looks to be a given.

It is not a classic looking hurricane. It is a Category 1 hurricane. But in the last few hours, we've seen some of this deep convection that seems to be organizing a little bit more. But is still so close to land.

We're not going to see a whole lot of organization here, but it is still pretty warm water. Right now, 85 mile an hour winds.

And before I go, I want to say. If you are watching me, stay until the top of the hour at least. So we can tell you what the National Hurricane Center is telling us. The new update. Does it increase in intensity? Is it more of a shift? Are we going to split the difference between that north and northward, northeastern movement with Hurricane Ian?

This wind field is huge. It is about 600 miles. So it encompasses all of the coastline of Georgia, all of the coastline of South Carolina and much of the coastline of North Carolina.

So, we know that the impacts are there. And environmentally speaking, because this is a low country. In southern, South Carolina around Charleston into Sullivan's Island, into editor (INAUDIBLE). This are fragile areas. Where an inundation of water is potentially catastrophic.

Environmentally, and people wise, we saw what happened in Fort Myers and the Naples area. So devastating when this was a category four hurricane.

Now there is a state of emergency out for the entire state of South Carolina. It looks like that may expand, this is just in time but John I just really want to emphasize, at the top of the hour we will get another update so we can perhaps nail down. Right now the center of this hurricane is about 180 miles to the south of Charleston. So it is fairly close.

But there is still enough time -- this could pick up some more energy. And we are kind of still playing this guessing game with it. But it looks like that South Carolina coast is so vulnerable.

VAUSE: Absolutely. That update is what just under 21 minutes away. it's worth sticking around for.

As you say, Karen, thank you very much.

And when we come back, with ports of the U.S. East Coast forced to close and Congress said they'd have to see what impact will Ian have on already strained supply chains.

[01:39:48]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Right now Ian is over the Atlantic, maintaining wind speed as a Category 1 as it heads to South Carolina. The coastal city of Savannah, Georgia though bracing for a direct hit which now seems unlikely. Still the forecast call for heavy rain, high winds and significant coastal flooding.

Joining me now from Savannah, Georgia is Griff Lynch, the executive director of the Georgia Port Authority. Thanks for being, we appreciate your time.

GRIFF LYNCH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GEORGIA PORT AUTHORITY: Thank you John. Thanks for having me.

VAUSE: You bet. Now let's start with what's on the horizon right now. And it seems that in Savannah where the ports are for Georgia there are is good news, with the track of the hurricane currently but that means there's bad news further to the North and South Carolina. So what's the latest there?

LYNCH: Well yes John. Thank you. First I want to say our hearts and prayers go out first throughout those in Florida and to our neighbors to the North and South Carolina.

[01:44:49]

LYNCH: And what we have got happening right now is the forecast that had previously called for a direct hit of a tropical storm to Savannah. It now changed and shifted east. And it seems as though with each forecast it is moving a little bit further east.

So it looks like a direct hurricane now will make landfall just east of -- north east of Charleston.

VAUSE: So the situation is as far as leading up to this because obviously supply chain issues are what -- a lot of people are concerned about here. They will reduce hours at your ports and other ports in the area. And all the vessels which where imports are now being basically sent out to sea. Right? Is that how it goes.

LYNCH: That is correct. And on Wednesday evening we seized working vessels at about 6:00 p.m. we wanted to make sure we could clear the vessels and get them out of harm's way before tropical force winds arrived and we successfully did that and that's part of normal hurricane planning and you know, any major storm we have a contingency plan in place.

And on the gates side, truck gates and whatnot -- we continue to operate and continuing to deliver cargo to our customers as you mentioned, the supply chain has been a little bit backed up as we all know. And so it's been really important for us to continue to service our customers and we are doing it

And we have shifted slightly but we will continue to do that.

VAUSE: And just when we got to the supply chain. Even though there will be -- Savannah will be spared a direct hit. But there will be others in trouble further to the north with Charleston and other ports. And that impacts supply chains as well.

You don't escape all of this just because the storm has moved to the east right?

LYNCH: That is correct. And look, we mentioned that our vessels sailed on Wednesday and some of those have to return. We do have a backlog and I think what we're pleased about, or hopefully the storm continues and shifts away from Charleston and heads out.

I know it's not likely but for Savannah we will be back to normal operations by Saturday and there has been the destruction now, so we've got -- we've got over combat and get back to it.

VAUSE: You had your busiest month I think last month at the Port of Savannah. So obviously -- yes, go on?

LYNCH: I'm sorry.

VAUSE: I was just saying, your busiest month, I was saying with that in mind, you now have this disruption. How long in terms of days, and weeks. Do you think it will before that works its way through the system?

LYNCH: Listen, I think that's a great question. It will take us several weeks to catch up. We were on a great trend as you mentioned, August was the largest month. Biggest month we've ever had. All-time record. We handled 575,020 foot equivalent units which was growth of 18 percent year over year which is amazing.

And September was going to be double digit growth as well. Obviously, shutting down on Wednesday and losing the last few days of September, we're not going to be there. We may even be down slightly. So it will take a couple of weeks to get back on track and clean all of this up.

VAUSE: It's obviously an expectation now that as the climate changes as the planet warms, these storms will get become more frequent and more intense. So clearly you will be dealing with this problem a lot more in the coming years.

How do you do that? As there are other plans for that long term?

LYNCH: Well look, we've been dealing with hurricanes for many years in the southeast. And I think, all the ports in the southeast are very well prepared for these types of storms.

Clearly when you talk about a category four or five that is very concerning. And not much you can do to prevent damage there. So you know, it is tough to answer that question with every storm. We break out our hurricane checklist and we go through that. We did the best we can to prepare for them.

VAUSE: Well hopefully this time you dodged a bullet. And we will see that everything works itself out for the best. Griff thanks (INAUDIBLE), much thanks to be with us

LYNCH: Thanks John, I appreciate it.

Well, the U.S. vice president visits the DMZ, and as expected, Pyongyang goes ballistic. A live report from Seoul after the break.

[01:48:50[

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VAUSE: Early damage assessments are coming in with one senior Florida state official saying Hurricane Ian maybe the largest national disaster in Florida's history.

The storm brought huge amounts of rain, wind and storm surges leaving catastrophic damage across the state. Florida's death toll stands at 19, 2 million homes and businesses remain without power. Some water systems have completely broken down.

CNN's Don Lemon spoke with first responders rescuing residents in Orlando.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: So you launch here and you don't know what's under this water? How deep it is or what you're going to hit?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely not. At the start of this morning part of the big issues that we had is navigating these waters. Even though we know we are in a neighborhood and you know, the streets dictate where we go.

And we've gotten hidden mailboxes, culverts -- LEMON: The street signs, right here. You can see how -- where they

are. I mean some of them are covered and others are just peeking out of the top here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Ian strengthened once it reached the Atlantic, fueled by warm waters growing from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane. It's expected to make landfall again in South Carolina in the coming hours.

An update now to the explosion we reported earlier in Kabul Afghanistan. Police now say 19 people have being killed, 27 wounded in a suicide blast at an educational center. Officials say it happened while students were taking a practice university entrance exam. For now there has been no claim of responsibility.

Just hours after the U.S. vice president visited the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea, Pyongyang fired two short ranged ballistic missiles from the west coast. A day earlier, two missiles were launched from the east coast of North Korea. Get the message?

CNN's Paula Hancocks live for us in Seoul with the very latest. So it was a very clear message, two at the beginning, two at the end.

[01:54:49]

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, clearly like a book end to the day trip that Vice President Kamala Harris had here in South Korea.

There was also another missile launched on Sunday morning as well. So clearly these missile launches are increasing in number -- number 21 sorry, so far this year. It is the most amount of missile launches that North Korea has ever carried out as far as we can tell.

So there was obviously, a show of displeasure that the U.S. vice president was here. She was on the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone. She stood very close to the demarcation line which goes into North Korea.

She had a briefing and the usual photos at that border. This is really where historically presidents and vice presidents of many countries have gone to show their commitment, defense commitment to South Korea. And we also saw the vice president's looking from an observation post through binoculars crossing to North Korea where she said, it is something to actually see this with your own eyes.

So what we're really seeing is North Korea showing displeasure. Often there is speculation as to whether they are just trying to perfect technology or whether this is a message.

And of course, on this occasion, the speculation is it is a message. There is also naval drills ongoing between the U.S., Japan and South Korea which again, annoyed Pyongyang. So this could well be another reason why they are carrying out the short range missile launches at the moment.

We understand that the presidential office here in South Korea was briefed by the national security office just last week saying that they believe submarine launched ballistic missile tests could be fairly imminent from North Korea.

So this particular naval drill is and anti submarine naval drill. So when you really put all those issues together and you have such a high profile visit to South Korea to the region and you also have these drills with the USS Ronald Reagan. And you see a power -- aircraft carrier in the region.

These are all elements that even on their own would irritate Pyongyang. So the speculation certainly is right that these missile launches were related and were seen as a signal that they were not happy about what was happening, John.

VAUSE: There's a lot happening to annoy Pyongyang right now, I guess Paula. So we appreciate the update. Thank you.

And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.

Please stay with us, my colleague and friend Kristie Lu Stout live in Hong Kong after a very quick break.

Thanks for watching.

[01:57:21]

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