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Death Toll Jumps To At Least 66 In Storm-Ravaged Florida; Possible Levee Break Forces Evacuations Of Sarasota County Neighborhood; Naples Devastated By Monster Storm's Wrath; Putin Orders Annexation Of Ukraine Regions After "Sham" Referendums; National Achieves Says It Still Doesn't Have All Trump WH Records; HHS Declares Public Health Emergency In Two States. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired October 01, 2022 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:32]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Saturday.

The aftermath of Hurricane Ian: The death toll climbs and the misery deepens tonight. Officials in Florida now say at least 66 people are confirmed dead. More than half the fatalities are here amid the widespread devastation of Lee County, home to Fort Myers. The Sheriff there says there have been more than 600 rescues in that county alone.

And near Sarasota that's north of Fort Myers, police officers evacuated a neighborhood early this morning as a levee appeared in danger of collapsing. That threat, a 15-foot wall of water crashing into the neighborhood.

And just a short time ago, the State reopened a 12-mile stretch of Interstate 75 in both directions between Northport and Inglewood. An overflowing river in Sarasota County had forced the closure there.

This afternoon, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said overflowing rivers and lakes have also created havoc in the central part of the State.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): There's also other areas where we may expect additional flooding, and it was interesting, I was touring Central Florida with some of the aerial tours, there was more standing water in Central Florida than there was here in Southwest Florida even though they are a couple of hundred miles away from the initial impact of the storm and the storm surge, just had a lot of water in some of the rivers and inlets overflowing, so it is creating a lot of problems really all across the state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: I want to bring in my colleague, CNN's Jim Acosta in Fort Myers, one of the hardest hit areas.

And Jim, I know you have been out there throughout the day surveying the damage. What do you see in there today? JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Pam, we're in a marina in Fort Myers

right now and you can just see the power of this hurricane and what it unleashed on this area of Southwest Florida. These boats that were just tossed around like toys behind me, they are now resting on dry land in the background behind me, but earlier in the day, we got out on the water.

We went in a small boat with some of the volunteer rescuers that are fanning out across this area trying to pluck stranded residents off of their islands, off of their pieces of property in some of these hard to reach areas.

And we got an up close look as to what this area is dealing with. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: What have we got going on over here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shrimp boats here. They had restaurants. Honestly, a lot of like people are working and not really a lot of home, but a lot of business.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, pretty much restaurants. People that do shrimping and fishing right here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is like four or five boats right here, all the way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right. That's right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are buildings all the whole way. They just don't --

ACOSTA: You heard there stories of the bodies in some of the canals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard that story in the somebody just streaming out of their house on towards the beach, having to get through the second story window and that the water was slipping that way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is just a full road right here that went across of that bridge.

ACOSTA: That's the road right there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the road.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the road.

ACOSTA: And it is gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

ACOSTA: This area is pretty typical of the destruction around here. There is a bridge that's intact just about a block from here. Maybe a quarter a mile, nothing more than that, but the road leading to that bridge is completely washed out.

So, the island that's on the other side of that bridge is cut off right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I live on just a side of it. The people they text me, "Hey, your house is gone. Your house is gone," and I came out here yesterday they let me on.

He stayed right there.

ACOSTA: You stayed?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

ACOSTA: And what was that like?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was bad, man. You know, it was bad. It was just -- there was -- the water came up really, really quick. People on the side of the road were gone, I noticed, like washing paper into a paper shredder.

ACOSTA: They found one of your neighbors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes, there's -- I think they found like, I think three bodies so far in the water. At least, I know there is more, but I mean, who knows? I mean, look. Who knows? Who knows?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And that's in the hard-hit area of Machala, Florida, just one of the areas. I mean, there are so many areas around here that have just been hammered by Hurricane Ian, so many people trying to get back to normal around here it's going to take days, weeks, even months for many of the residents here.

[18:05:08]

ACOSTA: But I'm joined now by somebody who can shed some light on all of this. His name is Liston Bochette. He is the Mayor Pro Tem of Fort Myers, Florida.

And thanks -- thanks very much for being with us. We appreciate it. Let me ask you this, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. What are the biggest needs right now? What are the greatest needs right now?

We've been talking to people all day long, you know, waiting in long lines for gas, dealing with spotty cell phone service, the power is out and so on, but what are you getting from your residence when you talk to them?

LISTON BOCHETTE, MAYOR PRO TEM, FORT MYERS, FLORIDA: Jim, first of all, it's good that you're bringing the spotlight to us. We need a lot of help right now and your news service is going to be beneficial. We think in three terms -- past, present, and future -- nothing we can

do about the past. We got hit and we got hit hard. Present right now is what we're dealing with. You know, there is no tomorrow, it's day by day.

Major issues have been water power, sewage systems, because the computer-driven systems haven't been able to clear the sewage processing, so we could face a problem there.

Things are getting better. Probably 30 percent of the greater municipal area is back on power, Florida Power and Light working hard. But a lot of it is just giving confidence to the citizens that there's a voice out there and that people are listening to them.

I think we're a seasoned group and a very good community, but they just want to hear voices from the State, from the city, even from Washington to say "We've got your back."

ACOSTA: And we've talked to a lot of people who tried to ride out the storm, maybe thought it was going to go up to Tampa or further north, and really got hammered by this hurricane. What is your sense of, you know, when the evacuation orders went out, did that go out early enough? Did people heed the warnings as well as they should have? Are you doing any kind of assessment of this at this point as to how all of that went down?

BOCHETTE: Well, that data is being collected. Obviously, about one time in 10, when they warn you it happens, well, this is that one time, and people did not really evacuate as they should have.

I think we're lulled into -- this is a little paradise corner of the of the world and we got lulled into a passive mindset, it's not going to hit us. Now, we've had no deaths within the city itself, but there are numbers that are in the several hundred that could spread out through this whole area.

Hospitals are up and running. They've got priority water on them. We're setting up medical hotspots and distribution centers around the city, working with our sister cities, and we didn't get the worst of it. There are communities that we haven't even gotten to yet that may be suffering more than we are.

ACOSTA: And I do want to ask you, you know, Federal and State officials, they are going to be watching what we're covering right now in terms of assessing what they need to do, and getting assistance to people down here, if you were to tell the Federal government and the State government, what you need first and foremost, that would be what right now.

BOCHETTE: Very good, and I lived in Puerto Rico for many years and Puerto Rico is always prepared. The papers are filled out before the disaster happens. We need to be proactive and not post -- you know, dealing with it afterwards.

We got caught right in the middle this time, but I think the benefit will be getting our leadership and political scientists to say, "Be prepared so we can help you when you need it." So, it's going to be a little bit of us and a little bit of them.

ACOSTA: All right. Very good. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Appreciate it.

Pam, I'll send it back to you.

But you just get a sense here, you know, just where we're standing right now, this tiny little corner of Southwest Florida and the devastation that was unleashed here. The trip I took earlier today with those volunteer rescuers, you got a little bit more of a taste of what life is like here.

But I just have to tell you how desperate the situation is down here. You have scores and scores of residents without homes, without power, without cell phone service, without food. The Federal government, the State government, they're going to have to get on it if folks here are going to be able to make it over the next several days.

It is just a very difficult situation across this region right now -- Pamela.

BROWN: You're seeing that desperation firsthand. Jim Acosta, thank you for bringing it to us so that we can see it as well.

Let's go about 80 miles now up to the Gulf Coast to Sarasota. That's where we find CNN's Gloria Pazmino.

Gloria, what's the latest there on this levee that forced the evacuation?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam, it was early this morning that Sheriff Deputies here in the Sarasota County area were going around door-to-door warning people that a levee was failing.

The Myakka River and the Peace River have come up extensively, just sending water right into all of these communities, and I just want to show you the area where I'm standing right now. You can see how much water has entered here. This is the property of Veronica. She is the woman that lives here with her family and there is water as far as the eye could see. It looks like a lake.

And I just talked to her a minute ago, she was telling me, this house you see right here. It's been in her family for more than a hundred years. They've never seen this amount of flooding. Some of this came up during the hurricane.

This entire community where we are right now is devastated right now.

[18:10:10]

PAZMINO: One of the hardest things is navigating. There is no GPS. There is no cell phone signal, and people are trying to get around roads that are blocked, several roads are flooded. We spoke with a man on the other side of this community who talked about how not only have they been impacted by this hurricane, but now this water is rushing towards them. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID SARTWELL, SARASOTA RESIDENT: What I hope people realize is this water is continuing to rise, which means at the other end, where all the disaster happened, this isn't over for them. That water is going to continue to rise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Okay, now you can see Veronica and her family have been cleaning up. In fact, there have been a couple of local teenagers that have been helping out with the effort. And you can see they've started to throw out some of their furniture. Furniture that's gotten wet, carpet, et cetera.

But just to give you an idea of the desperation that is happening here. Veronica lives right here behind me. Across the street, is Mayra, she has been walking over to pick up Veronica's wet furniture. She wants to grab it for herself because they've got nothing left inside that house you see there. They have completely flooded.

And so in this moment where people are trying to just come to grips with the destruction that the storm has brought, even just -- even wet furniture is good enough for them right now. So, a really difficult situation here, very hard to get around. People trying to clean up and a river that's just sitting across here threatening to come back up against these homes once again.

BROWN: Yes, very ominous. Gloria Pazmino, thank you for that.

And now let's go about 40 miles inland, that is where we are going to find Arcadia, Florida and CNN's Nadia Romero is there. So Nadia, supplies, my understanding is that supplies arrived there earlier today. What are you seeing?

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pamela. We're seeing a lot of people who are so happy that they survived the storm as we see the number of dead continue to rise day after day. But now that survival, the aftermath of Hurricane Ian is so difficult, so challenging, because this is Highway 70.

You should be able to take this road, clear down through Arcadia, the downtown area and then make your way around to hit Sarasota or excuse me to hit Fort Myers or hit Palm Beach, but you can't right now. The only way you can get through is by boat.

What you're seeing way out there in the water are RVs. Those are big campers that were thrown around by the hurricane. That's what's blocking people to get to the other side, and to continue on to Southwest Florida.

So the only way to get through is by boat. And what we've seen are these airboats just like this one, many of them either by private citizens or by different organizations, by the State, County and local governments that have come out to help ship those supplies. Water, MRE's, medical supplies or just transporting people because there is so much life on the other side of the Peace River. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, everything is across the river. The only store on this side of the river is underwater right over here right now. You can't get to it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything I own is over there. My whole life is over there. All my vehicles are over there. My truck is the only thing that's over here and I've got a dozen cars over there. So...

ROMERO: Yes, and we know that families had been split up simply by this river.

This has turned into a distribution site for people who just can't cross, they don't have a boat. So we saw the Salvation Army, the National Guard, County Emergency Management, bringing out cases of water and boxes of MRE's. People are loading them up.

Because Pamela, it is now day three for many people who don't have power in their homes. And they're just hoping that more help will be on the way as the water here will likely recede --Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Nadia Romero, thank you so much for that.

And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Saturday night.

Still ahead for you this hour: A live report from Naples, Florida where so many have lost so much and crews work round the clock just to clear a path.

Plus, we'll take a closer look at Russia's annexation of one-fifth of Ukraine and how Ukraine's forces are responding on the battlefield.

And then later for you, the National Archives tells the House January 6 Committee it is still missing some key communications from a member of Trump's former White House and says it will continue its efforts to get them back.

Stay with us. We're going to be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:19:02]

BROWN: All right, we want to get you to Naples, Florida now. That's one of the areas hardest hit by Ian's fury.

Our Brian Todd is there.

Brian, while bringing you in, you've been talking to people all day who saw some of the worst of this hurricane. What did they tell you?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, they're just coming to grips with their loss, their personal property loss and the sense that their lives have been disrupted just almost completely. Look at this. This is a pile of just personal belongings that people

from this apartment complex have been taking out to the curb. It's pretty much unsalvageable, most of it. These are beds, tables, chairs, just about everything you can imagine.

One gentleman who I spoke to who lost everything, some of his stuff is in here -- Jeff Tankard. His apartment is uninhabitable right now because everything just got flooded out. Here is what he had to say about his losses here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF TANKARD, HOUSE FLOODED BY HURRICANE: This is my great, great grandmother's rocking chair.

TODD: Oh no.

[18:20:02]

TANKARD: Oh yes. This is a picture, a Hibo that my mom had given us and so...

TODD: Can you salvage anything? I mean maybe the chair --

TANKARD: I mean maybe the chair. But you know, people are saying that, you know, we have raw sewage backup and everything. So it's gross, it's nasty.

It's tough. I mean, you start asking yourself a lot of questions about, you know, what you want to do next? And where do you go? And do you rebuild it? And...

TODD: What do you think? Do you want to stay and rebuild?

TANKARD: We love Naples. We've been coming here for 30 years. You know, I'm not the -- I'm not the boss. I've got to talk to my wife about it.

TODD: Of course.

TANKARD: If we want to stay or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Of course, you have to talk to the wife.

Now as people like Jeff kind of assess their losses here, we have figures that from the City Management saying that personal property losses in this town could get to about $200 million dollars and one city official saying that's a conservative estimate.

Also, Pamela quickly here. I can tell you I have an update on the safety issues here in Naples. I've been corresponding with Tarin Bachle, the Public Information Officer of the Naples Fire Department, as well as the Police Chief, Pete DiMaria. They just texted me this: "We are on our second day of door-to-door search and rescue operations in damaged structures with our local urban search and rescue teams. We have had an uptick of fires caused by power turning on in the area and electric powered vehicles. We are performing rescues of elderly residents stuck in high rises with no food and water." That just came from them a couple of seconds ago.

So that's an update, three days out, Pamela. You've got this, but you've also got people still in danger in this town.

BROWN: Yes, people in dire need of help seriously for their lives. Thank God, those search and rescue teams are out there risking their lives to help others.

Brian Todd, thank you so much.

And let's get the big picture across Collier County, which is home to Naples. We're joined now by Amy Patterson, the Collier County Manager. Amy, thanks for joining us.

So, tell us where do things stand and the rescue and recovery efforts right now.

AMY PATTERSON, COLLIER COUNTY MANAGER (via phone): Hi, there. Thank you so much for having me.

So similarly, we have been working the last several days on the remaining search and rescue efforts, making sure that there are no folks that are still trapped anywhere even in vehicles or in homes, but also be have begun and are getting well through our damage assessment that's being able to get out and look at homes, businesses, and infrastructure that were damaged by the storm and determine how safe those things are or how unsafe they are.

BROWN: Right. And I want to get to that in a little bit about what you're seeing in terms of the damage assessment. But first, I'm going to ask, are you getting the support you need on the State and Federal levels right now?

PATTERSON: Absolutely. Our State and Federal partners are excellent, very responsive.

BROWN: What is the most urgent need in Collier County tonight?

PATTERSON: That's a hard question. I think actually we're in good shape right now. We are continuing to have a nightly curfew to ensure that we can keep our residents and businesses safe, but we are working our resources up through the State and Federal governments, and it is just really a matter of helping our community get back on its feet; again, determine where that damage is and how we move forward.

BROWN: And you had talked about the damage assessment as we began this conversation. Just tell us what you see in terms of the damage assessment and what that portends for the future?

PATTERSON: So, with a storm surge event like this, we have seen widespread damage not only from water in homes, but obviously the power of that water as it came ashore. So, you're seeing a lot of different types of structural damage. Now obviously, the Florida Building Code is excellent and it requires a very high standard, particularly for coastal construction.

So you've seen buildings behave the way that they're supposed to. But also, we're seeing just a lot of property loss, personal items, things washed away. All types of infrastructure damage, spending a lot of time at our beaches, trying to get them back up to clean and then we'll take the time as the sand begins to settle to determine the type of loss that we've had right there on the coast.

BROWN: All right, Amy Patterson, thank you so much for your time tonight.

And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Up next, we're going to turn our attention to Ukraine where Ukrainian troops raise their flag over a key city held by Russians, just one of many significant developments.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:29:16]

BROWN: Today, Russia says it is withdrawing forces from the occupied Ukrainian City of Lyman in the Donetsk region. That's 340 miles east of the capital, Kyiv.

Video shows Ukrainian soldiers hoisting the Ukraine flag near the entrance to the city as you see right here. Their victory comes just a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Russia has annexed -- illegally annexed -- the region along with three other occupied territories.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pam, you couldn't have a more stark frankly revelation as to how detached from reality Friday's rally and speech in the Kremlin by Vladimir Putin actually was by what's been happening on the battlefield just in the last hours here in Eastern Ukraine.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has had to admit that it has withdrawn forces from the strategic railway hub of Lyman.

[18:30:13]

Now, it's not a particularly well known town, but it's become utterly vital to Russia's holding on to occupied territory inside of Ukraine. Ukraine has been moving around it to encircle it and appeared later on Friday, frankly, just as Vladimir Putin was busy declaring where I'm standing and the man itself falsely as part of Russia. We've seen Ukrainian forces really move forward very fast and there

are no questions as to now Russia has admitted its retreat, how many Russian soldiers have been left behind in Lyman potentially as prisoners of war, they've been seen as an utter destruction there as well. And there's a bigger question for Russia too, strategically, they've in the past found themselves lose their main strategic hubs and then collapse in terms of their defense of other areas.

And there are certainly concerns amongst pro-Russian figures and possibly some delight amongst the Ukrainian military that we may be seeing this beginning to happen in other parts of Donetsk and Luhansk. All such a radical undermining of the bombus (ph) we heard from Vladimir Putin, who simply through signing a piece of paper thought he'd annexed parts of Ukraine. They weren't even under his control.

And what it's also triggered is this extraordinary spectacle amongst Russia's own elite of bickering. We've heard the leader of Chechnya, one of the many internal republics of Russia, Ramzan Kadyrov, he took to social media in a lengthy post naming and shaming the Russian commanders in charge of the failed holding on to Lyman, saying how he frankly didn't understand how Vladimir Putin wasn't really familiar with how badly this was going and most chillingly saying if he had his way, he would declare martial law in the border areas of Russia and use low yield nuclear weapons to reverse the trend on the battlefield.

Now, he doesn't set policy in the Kremlin at all. He's simply, I think, using this moment to make his presence felt and criticize the Kremlin, frankly, and its military command. But it shows the horrifying moment we're at where Russia is claiming these extraordinary things in Moscow that simply are not true. It is not controlling more of Ukraine day by day, the opposite is happening.

Its Ministry of Defense is retreating by its own admission, it risks collapse again and yet another area of Ukraine, its conventional forces simply aren't working. And instead, we have this backdrop of the continual threat of the use of nuclear weapons leaving, I think, many ordinary Ukrainians deeply chilled and souring that feeling of Ukraine's advance on the battlefield. Pam?

BROWN: Nick Paton Walsh, thank you.

And let's bring in Susan Glasser. She is a CNN Global Affairs Analyst and Staff Writer at The New Yorker. All right. So Susan, how do you expect Putin will react to these new retreats by Russian forces just a day after his move to annex large sections of the country?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, look, a part of what we're already seeing in Putin escalation is a response to being pushed back earlier this month or, sorry, last month on the battlefield in the Kherson offensive. And so what you're seeing with President Putin, I think, is a playbook that he's resorted to, again and again, in his tenure in office, which is to say, escalation and not dialing it down, but dialing it up.

And, of course, the renewal of nuclear blackmail, nuclear, saber rattling by the Kremlin, itself and its allies, Ramzan Kadyrov, it may or may not indicate a willingness to use nuclear weapons. What it does say is that it's dangerously normalizing a dialogue around the possible use of nuclear weapons. And that in and of itself is just an unthinkable thing in this - in the post cold war era. We've never had a situation that fraught in which leaders of a country, a nuclear country are openly talking constantly about using nuclear weapons.

BROWN: Yes. Like you said, normalizing that, right? I mean, it is so beyond disturbing. And he said in his speech, that there was precedent for using nuclear weapons and referenced the U.S. and Japan. Here's the White House reaction to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I've been clear myself, President Biden has been clear, our administration has been clear that there is a risk, given all of the loose talk and the nuclear saber- rattling by Putin, that he would consider this. And we've been equally clear about what the consequences would be. We have communicated that directly to the Russians.

We do not presently see indications about the imminent use of nuclear weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So what do you think about the White House response to this ratcheted up rhetoric from Putin?

GLASSER: I mean, they've been very specific. Jake Sullivan not only said that, but the other day he made a point of saying that any Russian use of nuclear weapons on the battlefield would be met with a catastrophic response on the part of U.S. and NATO allies, not just a response from Ukraine.

[18:35:00]

That is very general. What they haven't done yet is been more specific in what kind of response. It's not clear whether it would be a conventional military strike, perhaps on targets inside Russia itself. But again, here we are having this, what should be and has up until now been unthinkable conversation.

Meanwhile, facts on the ground suggest more embarrassing reverses for Vladimir Putin and I do think it exposes the farce of his fake referenda and the farce of his effort to create political reality where his military has not been able to do so.

BROWN: Yes. On that note, I'm wondering what your take is on this because it was Russia's Ministry of Defense who announced that the Russian forces had to retreat out of Lyman, because they were encircled, admitting defeat. What do you make of that?

GLASSER: Well, look, the Ukrainians at the same time, are saying that they managed to either capture or kill all the remaining Russians who were in that sector. The fog of war is still on the battlefield, so it's not entirely clear how it's worked. But what we can say is that Russia has suffered another embarrassing defeat, that momentum appears to be on the Ukrainian side.

And we know also that Putin's response to the last defeat in the Ukrainian counter-offensive, which was to mobilize hundreds of thousands of Russian men has significantly destabilize Russian society from within, and you've had up to 200,000 Russian men flee the country, rather than get called up. So Putin's decisions now are destabilizing not only Ukraine, but arguably destabilizing the situation inside Russia itself.

BROWN: Yes. A very different picture than what Putin is trying to put on there in Russia with that propaganda. So I want to ask you about President Zelenskyy of Ukraine condemning Russia's detention of the director of Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant. That's the plant in Zaporizhzhia, which is one of the regions Russia annex yesterday. What do you make of this move by Russia? Why would it do that?

GLASSER: Russia has unfortunately shown its tradition of hostage taking of - in particular, using these nuclear facilities throughout the Ukraine war since February as a way to not only scare Ukraine, but also to scare the rest of the world. I think many of Putin's actions in escalating, and this is a clear escalation, are designed to put political pressure on the west, to pressure their ally, President Zelenskyy to come to the table. But I don't think it's going to work. I think that these are basically hostage taking type terrorist tactics being deployed by a state that is a member of the UN Security Council. This is terrorism.

BROWN: Yes. It's terrorism and that's a really important point. A member of the U.N. Security Council, a state that is growing increasingly desperate by the day, the U.S. is also accusing Russia of sabotaging gas pipelines in the Baltic. How does this fit into Putin's playbook? Of course, as you would expect, Susan, Russia says, oh, we had nothing to do with this. We're going to launch an investigation, but come on.

GLASSER: I - look, the indications are that foul play was involved and that it appears that Russia is certainly the likeliest suspect of this. These are the two Nord Stream gas pipelines to Europe. Again, the goal here is to put additional pressure on Europe to break the unity of the Western alliance that has been supporting Ukraine with finances and with military assistance that has enabled it to fight the war as Russia has invaded their country.

And the goal here is to keep gas prices high, it is to cause Europe to think twice and it's frankly right now to the Putin playbook, I have to say. It certainly reads just like what he would be doing at this moment, in part to change the story from his own military's poor performance on the battlefield.

BROWN: Yes, to deflect. Susan Glasser, always great to have you on, thank you.

And new tonight, the National Archives tells the House Oversight Committee it is still missing some Trump White House Records from various Trump advisors. We're going to have that story for you just ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:43:28]

BROWN: New information tonight in the battle over former President Trump's records. The National Archives now says it still doesn't have all the documents and records it should have from the Trump administration. That word coming nearly two months after the FBI search Trump's Mar-A-Lago home.

CNN Politics Reporter Jeremy Herb is following this. So Jeremy, how did the National Archives realize it is still missing some of these communications?

JEREMY HERB, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, Pam. We learned about this today because the National Archives sent a new letter to House Oversight Chairwoman, Carolyn Maloney, updating them on the status of the Archives' attempts to get all of the presidential records back from the Trump administration.

And in this letter, the archive said that basically, they did not have all the records from multiple White House officials because there were officials who had used their personal email and as - conducting official business in the Archives had been unable to attain those records. Now, the Archivist Debra Steidel Wall, she wrote to the Committee, "While there is no way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should. NARA has been unable to obtain records from a number of former officials and will continue to pursue the return of similar types of presidential records from former officials."

Now, the letter specifically cited Peter Navarro, the former Trump trade adviser and that's because the Justice Department has sued Navarro trying to get back records that he used in his personal account while working on the COVID pandemic response. This letter from chair - to Chairwoman Maloney also mentioned and asked for an update on the efforts to get back records from Trump.

[18:45:05]

Of course, this is coming in the midst of the Justice Department's investigation into Trump's records and declassified documents that he had at Mar-A-Lago. Now, Maloney asked them to try to get a certified statement from Trump saying he had returned everything. However, the archive really declined to address that issue, writing to the chairwoman that those questions should be directed to the Justice Department because of the ongoing investigation, Pam.

BROWN: An ongoing saga for sure. Jeremy Herb, thank you so much.

And you were in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Saturday where huge parts of Southwest Florida remain without power tonight and standing water well is everywhere. And that combo is causing new health concerns. We're going to talk about that after the break.

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BROWN: Well, Hurricane Ian has spun itself out by now, but there are still plenty of danger left in the wake of this huge historic storm. One major concern is standing water that has not yet receded and the worst hit areas. This water is not clean. It contains sewage and chemicals, creating bacteria and viruses, even the air can be harmful.

And in response, the Department of Health and Human Resources has declared a public health emergency in both Florida and South Carolina. Dr. Saju Mathew joins us now. He is a primary care physician and public health specialist.

All right. So tell us, Doctor, how declaring a public health emergency is helpful to medical staff in these affected areas?

DR. SAJU MATHEW, PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN: Yes. Good evening, Pamela. Listen, it's enough to just have to deal with the aftermath of a hurricane. But really what happens is studies have shown that the medical illnesses that you're most at risk for from standing water, as you mentioned, typically happen after these water accumulates.

So what happens is, as you mentioned, flood water actually contains chemicals, but they also contain sewage, so bacteria like E. coli, salmonella, shigella, when I was at the ER a few years ago, I've actually seen something called trench foot. And that is when your lower extremities are exposed to water for prolonged periods of time and the skin doesn't get a chance to dry off. You can actually get gangrene and eventually you might need an amputation. So viruses, bacteria, these infections are actually fairly common from prolonged exposure to contaminated standing water.

BROWN: And that just brings into focus even more how important nurses and doctors are. These hospitals that are still operating in the zones that Hurricane Ian moved through. I want to take a look at some video coming in right now, it's showing an ICU in a hospital in Florida completely devastated by the flooding from Hurricane Ian. Can doctors and nurses still treat patients when something like this happens?

MATHEW: We don't have a choice, Pamela. When you're an emergency room doctor with your staff working tireless hours, you basically work with what you have, even though you have your issues with the hurricane. And something else that I've also seen is when you have standing water, you have mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes then can be a breeding ground for (inaudible) virus. It can also be a breeding ground for the Zika virus, not to mention tetanus infection. So it's also why I tell patients, listen, see your primary care doctor, make sure you're up to date on all these vaccines for tetanus, for pneumonia, also for COVID-19, because remember, you've got stranded people in shelters that are staying there for prolonged periods of time.

BROWN: And I imagine, these are people who are also under tremendous stress, right? They're losing their homes. They may have lost loved ones, can that impact their health when it comes to strokes or heart issues?

MATHEW: Right. In fact, what really happens is you have this, what we call, anticipatory anxiety right before you get the warning, how bad is it going to be? And something that I also realized that sometimes we're unforgiving is we wonder why people stay and they don't take heed to the warnings and leave. That's because, say, an elderly couple that relies on government assistance that might be immobile, they're not able to leave. And if one person dies or something happens to them, that you go into this acute stress syndrome, where you're at increased risk for pneumonia, for heart attacks and for stroke.

And in fact, a lot of the studies say that these disasters or these occurrences actually happen in the aftermath, once the storm has died off. That's when people suffer from all these unfortunate events. And how's the emergency room - the staff going to get to you if there's no pathway to the hospital, so you also have to talk about delayed care for patients with stroke and heart attacks.

BROWN: Yes, just horrible. And we're in a situation like that right now where there are people who need the care, but it's delayed because of where they are. They're in Florida. What can people do to prevent getting sick when there is standing water and there are threats from disease and they're just in a situation where they can't go anywhere right now?

MATHEW: I think the most important thing is to be aware of any kind of open wounds. So if you're walking in contaminated water, you may not know that you've stepped on some type of a sharp object. And that tiny opening could be a nidus of infection for introducing, like I said, tetanus and a lot of other illnesses. So the most important thing is washing your hands, making sure that if you are going to drink water, Pamela, that it comes from a trusted source.

[18:55:05]

I just saw footage earlier with the Jim Acosta show showing people actually the EMS providing bottled water. So it's going to be really important to know where you are, the type of resources that are available to you. And if you have an infection, to watch out for the signs of fever, for the redness of the skin and try to get as much help as possible. Also, one last thing, Pamela, that I tell all my patients is have three months of medication supplies available in the event that something can happen.

Can you imagine a diabetic whose medications have been washed away or their heart medicines, that in of itself can increase your risk for so many different medical issues?

BROWN: Yes, that would just be so terrifying for that person. Really good advice, Dr. Saju Mathew. Thank you so much as always.

And you were in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Saturday. Ahead for you, protests growing by the day in Iran. Students shouting death to the dictator and holding signs calling for freedom at protests across the country today. We're going to have details on this when we come back.

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