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Post-Tropical Cyclone Ian Barrels through the Carolinas; Parts of Florida Destroyed after Ian's Rampage; Volunteers Scour Florida's Barrier Islands for Storm Survivors; Putin Engages in Nuclear Saber Rattling; Iranian Women Defy Crackdowns, Demand Greater Freedom. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired October 01, 2022 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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LAILA HARRAK, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Laila Harrak.
This hour, thousands of Americans in the Carolinas are braving the wrath of a powerful storm. Hurricane Ian is moving inland as a post tropical cyclone. Officials are warning that it is still threatening with heavy rain and wind and floods.
The storm has already caused considerable damage in South Carolina. You can see it ripped through a pier and caused part of it to collapse. It also brought a dangerous storm surge.
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HARRAK (voice-over): It was so bad that this man had to wade through knee-deep water inside of his own home. In Florida, the storm damage is worse; 45 people have died and hundreds of homes are destroyed. One woman struggling to survive was captured in a harrowing phone call.
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HOPE LABRIOLA, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: I am up to my neck in water.
LISBETH WHELAN, FRIEND: OK, all right.
LABRIOLA: I am so cold.
WHELAN: Hopie, I'm losing you. I can't hear you.
LABRIOLA: I love you.
WHELAN: I love you.
(END AUDIO CLIP) HARRAK: Well, thankfully that woman was rescued along with others in the state along with 600 patients evacuated from health care facilities. More help is on the way.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've directed that every possible action be taken to save lives and get help to survivors because every single minute counts.
It's not just a crisis for Florida. It's an American crisis. My message to the people of South Carolina is simple. Please listen to all the warnings and directions from local officials and follow their instructions.
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HARRAK: Authorities are concerned about the Barrier Islands near Ft. Myers, which took the brunt of the hurricane. Many residents chose not to evacuate and are now cut off from the mainland. CNN's Bill Weir went with a group to the island to find survivors that might want to leave.
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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: We see it after every hurricane, that, after the storm passes and the sun comes out, the shock, the anguish really begins for so many people as they assess their losses.
But in that moment, I like to go back to the best tip I've ever heard about covering these disasters. It came from Mr. Rogers, who taught my kids that, in these horrifying moments, look for the helpers.
WEIR (voice-over): After Ian's violent visit, this is what's left of the Causeway Bridge from Mainland Florida to Sanibel Island. And this is the now impassable bridge to Pine Island. So for residents of both, boats and helicopters are the only exit options.
And while Coast Guard Black Hawks and Chinooks buzzed over the Barrier Islands on the grim day after two of the only boats in this part of the Gulf, carry civilian volunteers from the Cajun Navy, those good ol' boys with bass boats and big hearts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give us a name of an individual tell somebody to go pick up we'll try to go get them.
WEIR (voice-over): And a newer outfit known as Project Dynamo, led by a former military intelligence officer more accustomed to saving Americans from Russians in Ukraine or the Taliban in Afghanistan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Americans are in trouble in bad spots -- usually, we do war zones and conflict zones but Hurricane Ian qualifies.
WEIR: And you're named after Churchill's operation.. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.
WEIR: .. to get the British soldiers off the beach at Dunkirk.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Off of Dunkirk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now here we are. We're going to rescue some people off of Sanibel, which is cut off from the world right now.
WEIR: Yes. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, so it's very apropos.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trying to help out if they need help.
Do you need help?
WEIR: You need help?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to get out of here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give us a minute. We will come up there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will come there.
WEIR (voice-over): We follow the cry for help ashore on Sanibel to find a gentleman eager to accept the boatlift but unable to convince his better half.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep going. We're going.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To where?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fort Myers. Fort Myers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bridge is out. The bridge is knocked out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not -- I'm not ready to go.
WEIR: A cursory stroll around this part of Sanibel reveals plenty of hazards, like the hiss of natural gas spewing from a broken tank.
But in one of the most coveted zip codes in Florida, the construction mostly held up, which is in stark contrast to Pine Island.
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WEIR: Look at this one, absolutely flattened, especially the mobile homes of the working class and retirees living in St. James City.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, ma'am, are you OK?
Your daughter called us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can imagine.
WEIR: When their phone cut out early in the storm, the grandchildren of Nancy and Robert Sharon (ph) were so scared, they called the Cajun Navy and Project Dynamo and begged them to go check for proof of life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard that they weren't going to do anything after the beach closed down.
But my granddaughters are in Ohio. And she was crying hysterical when I talked to her before. She's like: "We were thinking that you had gotten hurt." And I said: "No, there's no service. There's no service."
WEIR: Yes. That's the thing. The uncertainty brings so much fear and stress.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I knew it. And that's -- that had me more worried than what was going on at the time, because I knew my family was worried.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's terrible what we're going through. There's a terrible set of circumstances. The destruction is unbelievable. The suffering is going to be bad. Hundreds of people are dead right now. We just haven't found them yet.
So this is true carnage. It's a war zone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, gentlemen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But at the same time, I'm really happy that we can be here to help.
WEIR: It was also so lovely to see Brian and the rest of the guys there show such empathy for the woman who is not ready to leave. He told me he thought she might be in shock. She doesn't fully appreciate how unlivable Sanibel is going to be over the coming days.
And so they will go back and try to get her again the next day. Projectdynamo.org or gocajunnavy.org, other ways you might throw them a couple bucks. They will gas those boats but they'll be out there. And we'll keep looking for the helpers. I'm going to send it back to you.
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HARRAK: Much more ahead, including an interview with the head of the security company who is helping to evacuate victims in Florida.
Plus, Russia pushing ahead with plans to annex nearly a fifth of Ukraine. As soon as the ceremony was done in Moscow, widespread condemnation was quick to follow.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: During the worst of it, you could not see outside. Rain sideways and the hard part was mixing in hurricane weather with high tide. That's what caused all the devastation. We were in the high tide mark when it occurred.
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HARRAK: CNN's Seni Grimak (ph) is with there with an Alaska resident, who was on vacation on South Carolina's Pawleys Island. The barrier island is just one area suffering the impact of the devastating storm.
We are following the latest on Ian as it moves inland after making a second landfall in South Carolina and destroying boats and vehicles and homes and businesses. Ian left a path of destruction in the Florida peninsula. The death toll stands at 45. Officials fear the final toll will be much higher.
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HARRAK: Russia is moving ahead with its plan to carry out the largest forced annexation in Europe since World War II.
At a large ceremony in Moscow on Friday, president Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of one-fifth of Ukraine's partially occupied regions and the West dismissed as shams.
Western nations made it clear the move will not be recognized. The U.S. along with the G7 already pushing for new sanctions on Moscow. The Ukrainian president said Russia will be defeated and it is a farce.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The entire territory of our country will be liberated from the enemy, not only of Ukraine but of life itself, humanity, law and truth.
Russia already knows this and feels our power and sees that it is here in Ukraine that w proved the strength of our values. And that's why it is in a hurry, organizing this farce with the attempted annexation, trying to steal something that does not belong to it, wants to rewrite history and redraw borders with murders, torture, blackmail and lies.
Ukraine will not allow that.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HARRAK: The annexation announcement comes against the backdrop of setbacks and military failures in Ukraine and pushback against Putin's military mobilization. Matthew Chance reports, the Russian leader still says his military will prevail on the battlefield.
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VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA: (Speaking Russian).
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: "Victory will be hours," he shouts. President Putin vowing success in Ukraine soon after announcing a significant escalation in his war.
The invited crowd yelled their support back. But this carefully choreographed fervor is unlikely to be shared by many Russians still fleeing his call to arms.
Earlier from the Kremlin, Putin dramatically raised the stakes, annexing four more Ukrainian regions after his sham referenda showed huge, unlikely support for Moscow's rule.
PUTIN (through translator): People living in Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya are becoming our citizens forever.
CHANCE (voice-over): Putin said he wanted Kyiv to come to the negotiating table but that the fate of the occupied regions was not up for debate.
PUTIN (through translator): The choice of the people in the four provinces, we're not going to discuss. Russia is not going to betray it.
CHANCE (voice-over): His speech framing Russia's land grab as part of an existential battle. Ukraine's Western allies, he said, were determined to weaken his country. He declared any attack on the annexed areas would be an attack on Russia itself, vowing to use all the means at his disposal if Ukraine tries to reclaim them.
The announcement met with dutiful applause from Russia's political elite. But behind their stony glares, they must know how much this war is costing. On the battlefield, Russia is facing its worst setbacks since invading in February, while at home there's been wide protests against the mobilization of Russia's men to fight.
There's also the global condemnation, the U.S. imposing fresh sanctions against Russian officials, with other Western allies following suit. And in Ukraine, President Zelenskyy called Putin's move a farce and said Ukraine would accelerate its request to join NATO.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Today here in Kyiv, in the heart of our country, we are taking a decisive step for the security of the entire community of free nations. Security has no alternatives but determination is needed to guarantee
it. We are taking our decisive step by signing Ukraine's application for accelerated accession to NATO.
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CHANCE (voice-over): But in Red Square tonight, the stage managed celebrations are meant to send a powerful message at home and abroad that, no matter the criticism or the consequences, Putin's Russia is determined to take this path -- Matthew Chance, CNN, New York.
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HARRAK: We would like to turn now Anatol Lievin, director of the Eurasia program at Quincy Institute and author of several books on Russia and he joins us from Washington, D.C.
Sir, so good to have you on the program.
What did you make of President Putin's speech, tenor, setting and pomp?
What did he signal to the world in your assessment?
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ANATOL LIEVIN, DIRECTOR, EURASIA PROGRAM, QUINCY INSTITUTE: He was sending a mixed bag of messages to the Russian people. He was trying to appeal to straight Russian nationalism, claiming that this is Russian territory.
And of course, trying to mobilize Russian support for the war. He was also, I think, basically trying to excuse the failures in the war, which are because of his war. He launched it.
By claiming it is a war in defense of Russian territory. He was then appealing to two international audiences but very different ones. He was using an old Russian line about Russia's civilizational difference and civilizational superiority to the decadent West.
He used that to direct it against the woke culture in the West. This was also an attempt to appeal to the radical Right in the West, especially given their recent successes in actions in Sweden and Italy and to certain Republicans in the United States. But he combined this oddly with an old-style Soviet Communist appeal.
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HARRAK: Interestingly, though, sir, this comes at a time when Russia is looking increasingly isolated on the world stage. I mean, the optics that he presented in that address, it was like a victory speech but, at the same time, he strikingly almost offers the possibility and opening for a ceasefire.
So it is a muddled message there.
What did you make of that?
LIEVIN: It was very muddled but while Russia is not that isolated, if you look at the vote in the Security Council, where not just China but India abstained and did not vote for the American resolution against Russia.
And he wasn't -- yes, I mean, he would now like a cease-fire but one that would leave Russia in possession the territories of Ukraine, which the West and Ukraine said that is unacceptable.
HARRAK: And you said it is imperative for United States and Russia to enter talks. But, sir, it is very difficult to see how there is any path leading to a diplomatic solution or dialogue or ceasefire.
Where do you see a opening?
LIEVIN: I entirely agree with you. I think that a peaceful solution, a peace settlement is off of the table after the Russian annexations. And I don't think there will be a ceasefire until there will be many more battles and losses.
When I talked about the need for talks, I talk about the kind that America had with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It did not involve an acceptance of what the Soviet Union was doing.
Even in the depths of the Cold War, America and the Soviet Union were still talking to each other. They had full diplomatic representation on both sides, because the danger of nuclear war was recognized to be very real. That is the kind of talks I am proposing, not talks for peace settlement.
HARRAK: And you referenced the specter of tactical nuclear arms potentially deployed by Moscow.
Are we looking at a intractable conflict, an impasse that is difficult to overcome because of that potential threat in the background of a nuclear confrontation?
LIEVIN: Well, yes, obviously, this is one thing that prevents the West from getting directly involved in the war. I think that is the real point about Putin and his saber rattling. He is making sure NATO does not intervene directly on the Ukraine side.
You can well imagine, not Russia moving directly toward the use of nuclear weapons but through various stages toward the level of tension, in which some accident could occur, that we only narrowly dodged a couple of times in the Cold War.
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HARRAK: Anatol Lievin from the Quincy Institute, sir, thank you for taking our question and good to have you on.
LIEVIN: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HARRAK: Meanwhile U.S. President Joe Biden said leaks in the Nord Stream pipeline were caused by what he called a deliberate act of sabotage. These are natural gas leaks that were discovered.
And that prompted the investigation that determined powerful underwater explosions occurred just before the pipelines burst in several places. Mr. Biden accused Russia and President Putin of, quote, "pumping out disinformation and lies" but he did not directly accuse Moscow for the leaks.
A massive effort underway to rescue survivors from Hurricane Ian. We'll talk to an expert on the ground in Florida about the challenges.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The water was up to my balcony here. And you could dive right off of the balcony. And water everywhere, stuff floating on it. I will never stay again. If they say evacuate, go.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is this feeling that you are going to die. And my advice to everybody, get out, don't stay. It is ridiculous. Don't follow my lead. Just get out.
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HARRAK: A resident of Ft. Myers Beach, Florida, now wishing he had evacuated when he had a chance.
The storm was powerful and relentless and deadly, at least 45 fatalities have been confirmed so far.
Potential insurance claims for property damage could approach $50 billion. The search and rescue underway in Florida is a mammoth task. The U.S. Coast Guard has rescued over 275 people so far.
But an official says the sheer scale of the damage can make navigating those missions tricky.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we are finding is many of the people are not critically injured and they are not in immediate distress but they are stranded. They are stuck on islands, either manmade islands that have been in there for some time, surrounded by water, but more importantly, those areas where islands were before.
And now they are surrounded by waters.
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HARRAK: This video shows what rescue crews are facing. A Coast Guard team had to hoist this man from his boat after he was stuck in mangroves near Sanibel Island. Crews say they will continue to search block by block until everyone who needs help gets it.
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HARRAK: Let's bring in Dale Buckner, CEO of Global Guardian, a security organization that specializes in evacuation.
Thank you for the time taking our questions.
Can you share what your teams are seeing down there?
DALE BUCKNER, CEO, GLOBAL GUARDIAN: Yes, thank you for having me. As everyone has seen now, the true damage of the storm is obvious. We're in it and been in it since it made landfall near Ft. Myers. We are seeing the devastation you are and probably a little more.
It is a little grittier on the ground. You can see the fuel and oil and engines and wildlife in the water. So it is a little more gritty. But make no mistake, what you are seeing on TV is very real.
HARRAK: Very real and very grim indeed.
What are your main priorities in an evacuation and the important factors that you keep top of mind?
BUCKNER: For us, it is all about speed of response. About last Sunday, we started to prepare; on Monday, we put assets and people in Jacksonville, Florida, Miami and Bradenton and Ft. Myers and Naples.
Ultimately once we knew the final path, we adjusted those assets and then the storm hit the outer islands about 3:00 pm local and by about 7:30 that evening, we executed the first high water emergency response missions to get people out of the homes which were flooded with 3-5 feet of water.
And on Thursday, we did surveys on damage and followed by now -- we have armed agents at businesses, securing those businesses for looting. Then we will go into the next couple of phases over the next few weeks. But this will be a long-term commitment by Global Guardian.
HARRAK: A long-term commitment. I want to talk about that. The storm is one thing but what follows is another.
What do victims need most after a catastrophic storm like Hurricane Ian? BUCKNER: The government has a huge role. And they are doing a very good job here. We have had hundreds of ambulances pass us and hundreds of buses and hundreds of electrical crews.
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BUCKNER: And I think for the most, the areas with the most damages and the people with nothing left, they need to be taken out of the disaster zone and taken to a safe zone and put in a shelter or a hotel if you will.
And they need someone to hold them up. There has to be a safety net here. Parts of the Ft. Myers from that strike are uninhabitable. I think they just need that baseline support. And once that happens, let the government come in and clean up and assess the area and re- establish power.
And then people can then reach out to insurance firms and figure out their status and figure out the next move. But you can't do that from a disaster zone. It is impossible.
HARRAK: When can evacuees return?
And what is your message to people wanting to return to their homes?
BUCKNER: I understand it. I think it depends on where you were in relation to the strike. I think that does matter -- and the level of damage. If you are on the outer periphery, I am in Naples, south of Ft. Myers. The gas stations are open again and hotels are on generators.
And I believe in the next 48-72 hours, you will see Naples down to about 20 percent of the homes without electricity. They will be in good shape. North of Ft. Myers, same situation. But if you are in Ft. Myers and you have near total destruction, this is a rebuild, not a refurbishment.
It's going to have to be rebuilt from the ground up, the electrical and water and sewer systems. I think it does not make sense to go in for at least 3 to 4 weeks. Again, let the hazards get out of the way and let things get cleared out and get rid of the things that can hurt you or threaten your life.
Then it will make sense to go back into that area and assess whether you will rebuild or simply move on.
HARRAK: Dale Buckner with Global Guardian, thank you, sir, for taking our questions. We appreciate it.
BUCKNER: Thank you.
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HARRAK: To find out how you can help the victims of Hurricane Ian, go to cnn.com/impact. You can find out ways to help.
Much more to come on tropical storm Ian and the impact it is having on people hundreds of miles away.
And protests in Iran are continuing, sparked by the death of a woman in police custody. We'll have more after the break.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hold on, hold on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no --
HARRAK (voice-over): You're looking at a large wave crashing into a pier and injuring several people in Florida on Friday. Experts say this was an ocean surge generated in part by Ian as the storm was hitting Carolinas hundreds of miles to the north.
Right now Ian is moving inland and it's threatening thousands with more storm surge and heavy wind and rain. We'll bring you more information throughout the hour.
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HARRAK: Now we are getting a remarkable look at the utter destruction Hurricane Ian left in parts of Florida. These high resolution satellite images show what Ft. Myers looked before. On the left was a sunny tropical paradise. On the right, a gloomy scene of destruction, houses turned to rubble and streets littered with dirt and debris.
For the second time this year, Burkina Faso's government has been thrown overthrown in a coup. The military announced the dismissal of previous junta chief, President Paul-Henri Damiba.
Now the new leader is army captain Ibrahim Traore, who has suspended the constitution, closed the borders and declared a nightly curfew. The announcement caps a day that began with gunfire in the capital, an explosion near the presidential palace and interruptions during state TV programming.
Anti-government protests in Iran show little sign of slowing down. Two weeks after erupting over the death of 22 year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country's morality police.
I am joined by CNN's Jomana Karadsheh in Istanbul.
There are no let up in the protests in Iran.
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, and the internet blackout is making it very hard for us to assess how big and widespread these protests remain.
But we are still seeing video trickling out of the country and information coming out slowly out of the country. And if you piece it all together, what we do see is an image of remarkable determination by these protesters in different cities across Iran.
[03:45:00]
KARADSHEH: Still defiant and determined and taking to the streets with these really bold chants, calling for a regime change. And women removing their head scarves. And this is all happening in the face of the widening and intensifying crackdown by the government.
You know, the government has for the past two weeks dismissed protests as a foreign plot to try and destabilize the country, describing the protesters as rioters. So clearly not willing to address the grievances of the thousands that are taking to the street.
And what that crackdown looks like, Laila, over a thousand people have been detained. But that figure is likely an underestimate. according to the United Nations, they are concerned that thousands are detained.
And that includes high profile Iranians, celebrities and musicians and athletes and artists, people who spoke out in support of the protesters detained over the past few days. And then the protesters themselves, mass arrests. It is not just
people being taken into custody and detained. According to Amnesty International, they are dragged off the street. Women without their head scarves are dragged by their hair.
We saw video and Amnesty said that some women are being sexual assaulted, groped by the security forces. Then you have the mounting death toll. A lot of concern that at times security forces have used live rounds and shot directly at protesters, according to Amnesty International.
The death toll between 40 to80 people; likely an underestimate. CNN can't independently verify the numbers. But we are getting information from different organizations.
And the biggest concern is, the more determined the protesters are, the more likely the government will unleash more brutal force to try to crush them as it has done in the past.
HARRAK: Jomana Karadsheh, thank you so much.
Next a warning from South Korea for their neighbors to the north. They say Kim Jong-un's missile tests are undermining the safety of the entire world.
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HARRAK (voice-over): Take a look at this dramatic rescue. We are continuing to monitor the impact of Hurricane Ian. A sheriff's marine unit plucked two people from a sailboat. It was just one of the hundreds of rescues by land, sea and air in Florida during and after the storm.
Many people were stuck in their homes or stranded on the rooftops. Early estimates put damage from Ian high as $47 billion.
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HARRAK: North Korea test-fired two short range ballistic missiles early Saturday after conducting multiple similar tests in the past few days. Pyongyang launched missiles before and after vice-president Kamala Harris visited the demilitarized zone on Thursday.
South Korea called it a serious provocation. Senior international correspondent Will Ripley joins us live from Taipei with more.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Laila, you heard strong words on the Armed Forces Day in South Korea from the South Korean president, who is known to be hawkish on North Korea.
He vowed, determined an overwhelming response if North Korea uses nuclear weapons. North Korea has made a law declaring themselves as a nuclear weapons state. That is why the call by president Yoon and the Vice President Kamala Harris made.
They said it is not happening, at least from their perspective. The North Korea contacts that I worked with over many years, perhaps under president Trump, North Korea maybe considered the denuclearization.
But since talks fell apart in Hanoi when Trump walked out, things never fully recovered. North Korea is now not so silently bolstering its nuclear arsenal and ballistic missile capabilities.
We saw it, with this being the 22nd ballistic missile launch. And sometimes they launch more than one. These are not necessarily short range ballistic missiles. They have assessed what they described as irregular flight paths.
They may be making a turn in midflight, which means their trajectories are very unpredictable. These things travel low to the ground and almost under the radar. If they can make a turn, it is difficult to shoot them down and potential a dangerous weapon North Korea is developing. This is the fourth launch just this week, 22nd this year.
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RIPLEY: This is an unprecedented pace of ballistic missile testing. As a result, you can see the response from United States and Japan and South Korea, holding their first trilateral submarine exercises in five years. They are worried that North Korea is trying to launch these missiles
from submarines that can go up to the shores of Japan, where there are U.S. troops stationed. So although the eyes of the world are focused on Russia and Ukraine, there is still a very serious threat and a growing threat on the Korean Peninsula.
HARRAK: Will Ripley, thank you.
That wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. We'll have more coverage after a quick break. Stay here.
