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Parts Of Florida Destroyed After Ian's Rampage; Post-Tropical Cyclone Ian Barrels Through The Carolinas; Putin Engages In Nuclear Saber Rattling; Iranian Women Defy Crackdowns, Demand Greater Freedom; World Central Kitchen Feeding Thousands After Hurricane. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired October 01, 2022 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, residents across Florida and South Carolina now face the tough task of cleaning up and starting over.
Women across Iran fight crackdowns and demand greater freedoms.
And World Central Kitchen is already on the ground in Florida, feeding those affected by Hurricane Ian.
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BRUNHUBER: It's 5 am in Florida. And with daylight will come more of a sense of damage. In Florida at least 45 have died and countless homes have been destroyed. But in the middle of all that devastation, we're often seeing inspiring scenes like this, a local reporter saving a stranded nurse who was pleading for help.
He waded through the flooded street and carried her to safety on his back. On Pawleys Island in South Carolina, the storm washed parts of the pier away. Authorities are still assessing damage and working to restore power.
Brian Todd is in Naples, Florida, with a closer look at the damage there.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing left, zero.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The full extent of Hurricane Ian's destruction now coming fully into view.
Aerial damage assessments showing coastal Florida neighborhoods with roofs torn off, homes flattened, house after house either flooded or wiped out, some buildings with nothing left but the concrete slab, remote locations like Pine Island and Sanibel Island cut off from the mainland.
These before and after images showing just how hard Sanibel was hit.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): So the only way to access that is either by sea or by air.
TODD: So far, more than 700 people rescued, the governor says.
This car in Orange County was filled with water, up to the seats when the passengers were rescued. The Coast Guard making rescues by air from flooded communities along the coast. Here, a rescuer is lowered into the water, finds a woman in a house surrounded by water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make sure you have a bag with a dry pair of clothes, with IDs, cell phones, wallets.
TODD: A basket is lowered, she climbs in, clutches her pet crate and she and her pet are hoisted to safety. Volunteers pitching in as well, using boats to evacuate survivors stranded by the floodwaters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The surge was higher than nine feet.
TODD: Harrowing stories from the deluge still emerging, including from the survivor who took this video.
RADU MARGINEAN, NAPLES RESIDENT: Initially, the water pushed me up the stairs and then it sucked me back down, as well. I got completely submerged underwater, all above my head.
TODD: Among residents returning to survey the damage, distress and determination.
How do you feel about all of this?
A.J. BLACK, OWNER, OSTERIA CAPRI: I feel it was time for a remodel.
TODD: That's a good outlook.
Can you rebuild?
BLACK: Yes.
TODD: Even inland, in places like Orlando, floodwater still high today.
DESANTIS: What we saw in Central Florida was more standing water than what we saw in Southwest Florida, where the big storm surge came in.
TODD: Authorities warning residents of lingering dangers.
What's the biggest danger that the community is facing right now?
CHIEF PETE DIMARIA, NAPLES FIRE DEPARTMENT: We have multiple, multiple dangers out there, downed power lines that might be reenergized. Just try to stay home, try to stay safe and call us if you need us. TODD: The death toll now over 40, more than a million customers still without power. Some could take days or weeks to restore.
And the figures on property losses remain staggering. According to the property analytics firm CoreLogic, Ian could have caused more than $47 billion in insured losses and that could make it the most expensive hurricane in the history of the state of Florida -- Brian Todd, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: And after making landfall near Ft. Myers, the storm then swept across central Florida and dumped enormous amounts of rain. Residents in an Orlando neighborhood say they often get standing water after a heavy rain. But the situation there is more than they can deal with now. CNN's Ryan Young has their story.
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RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is really the situation in Orlando. Neighbors are frustrated by what they see. Look all around. You can see the flooding that has taken over this neighborhood.
We got on this boat because neighbors are helping neighbors. They're trying to get out and see if they needed to get on a boat. Some of them had to be rescued yesterday.
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YOUNG (voice-over): That was emergency service, firefighters, that was the National Guard.
But a day later, they're wondering, where is the help from the government?
They're hoping more people will come into this neighborhood to provide them critical need. Obviously they need power, they need to get to their medicine and they need to assess the damage to their homes.
Now these folks are no stranger to this sort of situation. In fact, over and over again, after every hurricane, their streets flood but not normally this high.
We've seen homes with the doors wide open, people coming back to rescue their pets. As we talked to several people, some of the pets did not make it. And this has been heartbreaking for them. Nobody wanted to leave their loved ones or their pets behind.
There are some older people who live in this neighborhood. They decided not to leave. There are also people who don't trust that people won't come in and loot. So they didn't leave, either. You can see the situation on the ground. And you can their frustration in this woman's voice as she talks about the fact that no one is here to help.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Their front doors are open. Some of their trunks are open. Some cars are slid in the road. And it just don't make any sense. We have to catch a boat. Somebody come and picking people up, taking them to get food and stuff.
I'm about to cry. I don't want to cry. Just to see people up and down, the dogs paddling in the road and everything is just, it's just sad. It's scary. And we want to move.
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YOUNG: Yes, you can hear her frustration. She's hoping someone will see her on TV and provide this neighborhood some much needed help -- Ryan Young, CNN, Orlando, Florida.
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BRUNHUBER: Russia is pushing ahead with its plans to annex nearly a fifth of Ukraine. But as soon as a ceremony in Moscow was done, widespread condemnation was quick to follow. That's ahead. Stay with us.
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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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BRUNHUBER: Well, you heard him there, a resident of Ft. Myers Beach, Florida, now wishing he'd left ahead of the hurricane when he had a chance. And he's not alone. The storm was powerful, relentless and deadly. At least 45 fatalities have been confirmed so far.
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BRUNHUBER: And a preliminary estimate of potential insurance claims for property damage could approach $50 billion.
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 annex of one-fifth of Ukraine.
The move follows so-called referenda in partially occupied five regions that the West dismissed as shams. But as Putin signed the annexation documents, Western nations made it clear that the move won't be recognized.
The U.S. and Britain and other G7 members are already pushing for new sanctions on Moscow. Ukraine calls it a farce and says Russia will be defeated. Here is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The entire territory of our country will be liberated from this enemy, the enemy not only of Ukraine but also of life itself, humanity, law and truth.
Russia already knows this. It feels our power. It sees that it is here in Ukraine that we proved the strength of our values and that is why it is in a hurry.
Organizers of this farce with the attempt at annexation tried 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.
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BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, Ukraine has been making more progress on the battlefield. Nick Paton Walsh has more on that.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: After a tumultuous day of rhetoric from the Kremlin, Ukrainian forces appear overnight to continue making gains around Lyman.
Perhaps while not at this stage entirely complete, certainly causing a degree of panic among pro-Russian commentators. Essentially, once the thousands of Russian troops in that town are fully encircled, they may have to surrender and it may have a rolling impact back toward further inside Luhansk.
That's one of the four areas that Vladimir Putin yesterday said are part of Russia as indeed where I'm standing. That speech from the Kremlin at times divorced from the reality of how poorly Russian forces are doing on the ground.
We heard today that the death toll from one of the more startling acts of Russian brutality over the past weeks, a rocket strike outside the town of Zaporizhzhya, which hit a civilian convoy of people trying to deliver aid to occupied areas, that death toll has risen to 30.
And 88 people injured, utterly staggering, frankly, that in an area which, on Thursday night, Russia declared was part of Russia in their opinion.
Zaporizhzhya, the first thing they would do the next morning is launch a rocket strike like this against civilians.
The United States, though, conscious of what they refer to, the nuclear saber rattling from Vladimir Putin, the backdrop to his at times absurd-sounding claims that all of these areas of Ukraine, which still are being fought over, still partially occupied by Ukrainian military forces, who are on the advance that these are parts of Russia, the backdrop to that of nuclear threats that Vladimir Putin has made.
The U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin saying that they have not seen specific indications that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons. So clear messaging from the U.S. trying to calm the febrile atmosphere around that particular threat.
But at the same time, too, we're also hearing from Ukrainian officials that the director of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant may have been detained by Russian forces. So the backdrop of the threat of some kind of nuclear incident always in the background here.
None of that, all of the rhetoric heard from Moscow can distract from the fact that the Ukraine forces continuing to be moving forward and Russia's conventional army, despite the recent partial mobilization, still isn't holding ground here -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kramatorsk, Ukraine.
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BRUNHUBER: There's pushback against Putin's military mobilization, as Matthew Chance reports, but Putin still says his military will win on the battlefield.
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VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA: (Speaking Russian).
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: "Victory will be ours," 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 --
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CHANCE (voice-over): -- 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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BRUNHUBER: President Putin has said nuclear weapons could be used to defend Russian territory, which Moscow now claims includes nearly a fifth of Ukraine. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin condemned the saber rattling in an interview with CNN. Here's what he had to say about the prospect of Putin following through on his threats.
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GEN. LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: To be clear, the guy who makes that decision, I mean, it's one man. There are no checks on Mr. Putin. Just as he made the irresponsible decision to invade Ukraine, he could make another decision. But I don't see anything right now that would lead me to believe that he has made such a decision.
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BRUNHUBER: So for more analysis, we're joined by Lawrence Freedman and America's professor of war studies at King's College in London.
Thanks, so much, sir, for being with us. We really appreciate it. Let's start with what we heard, with more nuclear threats coming from Russia, the U.S. warning of a severe response.
Is this pushing the infamous nuclear doomsday clock closer to midnight?
LAWRENCE FREEDMAN, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: I don't think so. I mean, it's already got quite close. And, certainly, Putin wants to create this air of nuclear menace, as everybody said. Putin in the end has made reckless decisions already and might make more.
But the thing to keep in mind, I think, this really does not help him win the war. It doesn't help the politics and it would condemned around the world. It doesn't really help him militarily. The other things he's done, like mobilization, are more serious as an attempt to try to win the war.
BRUNHUBER: So if it doesn't help them militarily, it might help him, let's say, diplomatically, if these nuclear threats are trying to threaten the West into a deal.
But as you mentioned, annexation as well, how important are the annexed areas as potential bargaining chips?
FREEDMAN: The problem is, he hasn't presented them as bargaining chips. He's presented the annexed territories as now being forever Russian. One of the main consequences of yesterday's speech was to make diplomacy even more difficult than before.
And as Zelenskyy said, they can't see either negotiating with Putin at all, given things he says and now does.
So one of the problems with this argument, that we need to somehow to negotiate now because of these threats, is he hasn't offered a negotiating way forward. Meanwhile, though, he may present himself as negotiating, as your reports have indicated.
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FREEDMAN: He's -- actually his negotiating position is weakening as Ukrainian forces liberate more territory.
BRUNHUBER: In the meantime, we've seen the mobilization efforts continuing. We talk about those troops being potentially ill-equipped, poorly trained, not to mention suffering from a lack of morale.
But can they still make a difference on the battlefield, maybe even turning back the tide of Ukraine's advances?
FREEDMAN: I think we shouldn't dismiss all of these troops as being hopeless or being a drag on the effort. Some will be trying, some will be capable. Very few will be fully kitted out.
I think this is part of the Russian strategy that identifies lines that they can hold defensively, so, by the time you get to the spring, they will have had a chance to train more of these men into a decent force.
That might work but, instead, what Putin has seemed to have done is demanded of his commanders that they hold all the territory that they can. That's a consequence of the annexation decisions because it's all now Russian territory that's being lost.
They've ended up wasting the resources they've tried to take or now to hold positions that actually will defeat them. So it could have made a difference. It might still make a difference. Instead, it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. But so far, it hasn't been bound up with a strategy to make it a real credible route to victory.
BRUNHUBER: I want to get your analysis on the latest on the battlefield. We're following the Ukrainian army's progress in Lyman, where they're encircling the Russian troops.
How crucial would the fall of that city be?
FREEDMAN: Well, first of all, it's an enormous political blow to Russia and Putin. And logistically, it means the supply to other areas being defended dries up. And it loses -- numbers are anything from 2,000 to 5,000, say 8,000 Russian troops are caught up there.
And now they really can't get out, without putting themselves in enormous danger from Ukrainian artillery. It seems that the Ukrainians are mounting but interested in storming the area, they can hold it while they're already moving on to take more territory, to liberate more territory.
So I think it's pretty bad news because this is the most thinly defended part of the front for Russia. And Ukraine is now able to take more advantage of this. And they may even move to retake cities such as Sievierodonetsk, that you may recall, was the scene of the horrendous long battle in the summer.
That's with the Russians taking the city at great cost, which it now sees as being vulnerable.
BRUNHUBER: So with the string of setbacks and the unpopularity of mobilization, which has even forced Putin to apologize, do you think, quickly, that Putin will pay a political price here?
FREEDMAN: The problem is, if he doesn't pay a political price, it's hard to see at the moment how this war ends. So you have to look at that audience in St. George's Hall, the claps as they listen to him, thinking about how long they can go along with it because, unfortunately, as long as he's in power, I feel the catastrophe will continue.
BRUNHUBER: We'll have to leave it there. Thank you for speaking with us, Lawrence Freedman, appreciate it.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: Many people on Florida's Gulf Coast depend on large boats for their livelihood. Coming up, we'll show you how the hurricane wiped out entire fleets in just a matter of hours. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Millions of people in Florida are just starting to pick up the pieces after Hurricane Ian ripped a path of destruction across the state.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): The storm's fury tearing off the end of this pier on Flagler Beach. Pieces of the pier still scattered along the waterfront.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This chunk of the pier just floating down the waters. It's -- you don't think that's ever going to happen, you know. But Mother Nature.
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BRUNHUBER: Some neighborhoods around Flagler Beach got nearly a foot of rain. The local sheriff said some people have to be rescued because of high water.
The search and rescue efforts are a mammoth task. The Coast Guard rescued over 275 people so far. An official says the sheer scale of the damage can make those rescues tricky. Listen to this.
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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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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Slow it, slow it, slow it.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): An incredible rescue there. This video gives you some idea of what rescue crews keep coming across, people trapped in vehicles surrounded by deep water with no way out until help arrives. First responders say they'll continue searching until everyone who needs help gets it.
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BRUNHUBER: After pounding Florida, Ian made a second landfall in South Carolina. Officials there are now assessing the damage. CNN's Nick Valencia is in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
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NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The worst of the hurricane appears to have come and gone here in Myrtle Beach.
And though Hurricane Ian made landfall just south of us, it brought significant damage here in and around the area, particularly in North Myrtle Beach to the Cherry Grove pier, which was just wrecked by the heavy rain and significant wind that came with Hurricane Ian, portions of that pier floating into the Atlantic.
Now there was concerns here from local officials for localized flooding, especially along the coast.
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VALENCIA: Some residents did get water inside their homes. And there was at least one rescue in the county.
Here along the coast where we were standing just hours ago, was underwater; all of that water has receded back into the ocean but the wind here continues to be a factor.
And perhaps the most dramatic scene that we saw throughout the day on Friday, there was a shrimp boat that seemingly appeared out of nowhere in the Atlantic, just getting hammered by those choppy waves. And initially it wasn't clear if there was anyone on that boat.
We did talk to the Horry County sheriff's office, who said it was yesterday -- or rather Thursday -- that the crew was evacuated by the Coast Guard. It was anchored down. But because of that severe weather it drifted ashore here.
Actually one person was arrested trying to climb into that boat. The cleanup continues in Horry County, in and around Myrtle Beach. And there's going to be a lot to clean up in the coming days-- Nick Valencia, CNN, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
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BRUNHUBER: Ian caused similar damage at Pawleys Island. A fishing pier fell victim to the category 1 storm. Wind pounded to the structure until it finally gave away. And the mayor said there's lots of cleanup ahead.
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MAYOR BRIAN HENRY, PAWLEYS ISLAND, FLORIDA: We've got quite a mess on Pawleys Island and we need to make sure it's safe. And we need resources from the state to make sure that we can get the island cleaned up in an expeditious fashion.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): And a sign that the worst appeared to be over, the police department tweeted out this photo of a rainbow as the storm moved out.
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BRUNHUBER: Sport fishing is a huge draw for many people, who will travel to Florida's Gulf Coast but it will take a while for those businesses to get up and running. CNN's Bill Weir is there to show us a mangle of boats, messes and debris left behind by the storm.
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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: These are shore birds and pelicans walking across wreckage in what used to be San Carlos harbor. It's seen better days, as you can see.
This is the destructive path of Ian. It came raking across here. A lot of the businesses here, of course, have to do with recreation here in paradise, kayak rentals, bait shops, completely split open by the wind.
But what's most striking about this particular spot is the boats that have been tossed into the mangroves across the street here. We have a bit of a bottleneck of human activity because this is the road to Ft. Myers beach. And the sheriff's department's not letting anybody on.
If you haven't seen any pictures of Ft. Myers Beach, this is why. There is a first and former law in Florida that's supposed to give us access when there's a state of emergency. But you got to feel for the sheriff's deputies just trying to manage the crowds here now that are piling in.
You've got journalists, first responders. You have residents who are just curious who are coming by. And that's creating this huge pile. But this is what I wanted to show you. This is across San Carlos Boulevard.
And just get a load of this. Just wanton, indiscriminate destruction. I think about how a family saves up their whole life to buy a boat. Or if you're a fisherman, you dream of being a captain one day and how perilous that is even in a good year sometimes.
But now what this will do to the maritime businesses around here, the insurance, the marine insurance companies that will have to deal with the aftermath of this. And this is what I really wanted to show you guys.
Look at this. I will always remember the sight of Captain Greg's boat, the Crackerjack, which is now parked on top of this Chevy Suburban. You can hear the alarm going off inside the boat to alert the captain
that something's wrong. It's heartbreaking in this setting. And then you've got laundry baskets up in the mangroves there, another bait shop over here.
And then you find stuff like this. Look at this. Just a random -- this is Nicholas Rollins' (ph) MGM Rewards card just sat down by the most violent storm to hit this part of the coast in history. And meanwhile over here, you have the beeping of earth movers as they try to shove these grounded sail boats out of the way.
As we learn in Irma and Maria, cleanup can be as much of a man-made disaster as the hurricane itself, if not properly managed.
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WEIR: We can only hope that all available resources will manage to un-jumble this mess as soon as possible for these poor folks.
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BRUNHUBER: Incredible. Coming up, despite harsh crackdowns from authorities, protests in Iran continue, sparked by the death of a woman in the custody of the country's morality police. We'll have a live report after the break. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: After the nightmare of Hurricane Ian, thousands in Florida now face the monumental task of trying to get their lives back on track. At least 45 people have been killed in the state.
And a massive search and rescue effort is still underway for stranded survivors. Ian is now a post-tropical cyclone, dumping rain on Virginia and the mid-Atlantic states.
Anti-government protests in Iran show little signs 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. This despite protesters being met with harsh crackdowns. I'm joined by CNN's Jomana Karadsheh in eastern Turkiye.
Jomana, they're dealing with protests.
What's the latest?
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's quite remarkable, Kim, and we're continuing to see women taking to the streets, despite the intensifying government crackdowns on the protests.
But I have to say, it's very, very difficult for us to judge how big, how widespread these protests are because one of the main government tactics that we've seen in the past and, again, being used during this protest movement is they are restricting the internet.
There's an internet blackout in much of the country. Communications blackout as well. They're really trying to contain the protests that way, as well as containing information, getting out of the country, activists and journalists getting images to the world.
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KARADSHEH: But we are still seeing video information trickling out of the country. When you piece it all together, it paints a picture of a really determined generation of Iranians, continuing to take to the streets of different countries, in different cities across the country, despite the government crackdown.
And really bold demands and chants that we're seeing, Kim, continuing with "Death to the dictator." They want to see the downfall the Islamic republic, the kind of thing you've never seen before in the country.
If you look at what the government is doing, it's dismissing all that's going on as a foreign plot to try to destabilize the country. They're describing the thousands of protesters as rioters.
And the crackdown, so far, according to the government figures, they say more than 1,000 have been detained but the number is very -- it's likely much higher than that. The United Nations, one expert saying they believe it could be in the thousands.
I mean, just over the past days, we've seen high-profile arrests by the government, detaining artists, well-known Iranians, artists, poets, 28 journalists, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists.
And then you've got the protesters who are getting rounded up. And really disturbing reports, according to Amnesty International, where they say women are being dragged by their hair in some operations. We've seen some video to show that.
Amnesty also saying some of the women have been sexually assaulted, groped while getting detained. And again, that hasn't stopped the protesters. It hasn't stopped the women coming out on the streets, still and removing their head scarves.
In addition, you've got the concern about the rising death toll. We don't really know how many people have been killed so far. Estimates are anywhere from 40 up to 80 people coming in from different organizations, human rights groups, state media, as well as opposition groups.
We can't independently verify the numbers from outside of Iran. But there's a lot of concern about the use of lethal force and live rounds in confronting these protests. Amnesty International and the United Nations saying this must be investigated.
A lot of concern that that death toll is only going to rise as these protests continue. And we don't really know the extent of this crackdown, really, with the internet blackout going on in the country.
And the biggest concern, Kim, is that, the more determined these protesters are, the more you see the protests going on, the concern is that the Iranian regime is going to unleash more brutal force, more than what we've seen so far, to try and suppress these protests.
Back in 2019, you had protests over the increase in fuel prices and, at the end of that, it was estimated up to 1,500 people were killed.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. That's true. Listen, really appreciate the update on this very important story, Jomana Karadsheh in Istanbul, thanks so much.
All right. We want to take you now live to the Iraq capital, Baghdad. Scuffles have broken out between protesters and security forces as thousands gather. AFP has reported they're marking three years since nationwide demonstrations erupted against endemic corruption.
The country has been mired in gridlock since elections in October last year failed to bring in a new government. Now those barriers that you can see there, they have been set up by security forces.
And they're blocking access to the fortified green zone that houses government buildings and diplomatic missions. So we're going to stay on top of the story. We'll bring you more on these protests as soon as they become available.
Brazilians vote tomorrow in one of the nation's most divisive presidential elections in years. The incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, trails Lula da Silva, who was president from 2003 and 2010.
A poll says two-thirds of Brazilian voters fear being physically attacked because of their political views. Guns have been banned near polling stations. And Brazilian soccer player Neymar released a video endorsing Bolsonaro. He flashes two fingers on each hand, symbolizing Bolsonaro's candidate number 22.
Chef Andres' World Central Kitchen is on the front lines in Florida providing fresh meals to those who need it the most. We'll bring you the good work he and his team are doing straight ahead. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: In times of crisis, Chef Jose Andres and his World Central Kitchen are often among the first to lend a hand. It was founded in 2010 with the goal of providing fresh meals to survivors after disastrous.
Now Chef Andres is on the front lines in Florida, helping people impacted by the storm. And he spoke to CNN about what he's seen on the ground and how World Central Kitchen is helping out. Here he is.
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CHEF JOSE ANDRES, WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: We go out in the communities, bringing water, bringing food sandwiches, hot meals. In the last few days, we've done more than 60,000 meals already. And we only do this because we have a lot of restaurant partners.
We have kitchens in Tampa, Ft. Myers; you know, we are used to using the infrastructure. That is good to do what we do with everybody that may need potable water.
Now we have teams there that, when we drop the food and the water, they're helping us not only to serve in a central location, so people know we go every day, but also reaching those communities that they don't have cars or they are even further away.
So we began creating the systems where entire community comes together, and they become volunteers on their own right. Every day you keep organizing, you began positioning food trucks in places.
You began having different restaurants, that from those restaurants, you start being smart in the way you do distributions, to hospitals --
[05:55:00]
ANDRES: -- to fire stations to the communities that they are in very bad shape.
At the end, I always say that we are the biggest organization in the world because every restaurant, every warehouse, every person, every cook, every one belongs to World Central Kitchen.
What happens?
They don't know it yet. But in the moment, we show up, they see that the big problems have very simple solutions. When the community comes together. You see, food and water should never be a problem.
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BRUNHUBER: And if you would like to safely and securely help people affected by Hurricane Ian who need food and water and shelter, go to cnn.com/impact to find ways to help there.
Before we go, the longest living president in history is celebrating his birthday today. Jimmy Carter turns 98. The peanut farmer was elected the President of the United States in the 1976.
His achievements in office were overshadowed by a struggling economy and the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran. The former president has been married to Rosalynn Carter for more than three-quarters of a century. And they rode in a parade last week in a peanut festival in Plains.
Happy birthday.
That wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. And CNN "NEW DAY WEEKEND" starts after a quick break. Please do stay with us.
