Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Idalia Slams Florida, Now Soaking Carolina Coast; Pyongyang Fires Two Ballistic Missiles Into The Sea; Russia Sees Conflict's Biggest Drone Attacks At Home; Kyiv Reports Most Powerful Bombardment In Months; Surviving Near The Front Lines In Zaporizhzhia Region; U.S. Intel: Russia, North Korea Pushing Ahead With Arms Deal; World Leaders Condemn Military Coup in Gabon; Western Cuba Trying to Recover from Idalia; One Killed by Palestinian Authority Security Forces. Aired 12- 1a ET

Aired August 31, 2023 - 00:00   ET

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

COMMERCIAL BREAK

[00:00:38]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Coming up on CNN. Idalia is not done. Along with heavy rain, flooding, and storm surge, a tornado watch is in effect for parts of the USA. Send in the drones. A wave of Ukrainian drones, the biggest since the war began, strikes deep inside Russian territory. Eight coups and four years. The president of Gabon, the latest West African leader, ousted by the military.

UNKNOWN: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.

VAUSE: Thanks for joining us here for CNN NEWSROOM, we begin with tropical storm Idalia which continues to weaken at this hour moving overland away from Florida's gulf coast. It made landfall early Wednesday with maximum sustained winds of over 200 kilometers per hour.

A high end category three hurricane, the most powerful storm to batter the region in at least 125 years. Idalia is now heading northeast along the Carolina coast, bringing heavy rain, floods, and a new threat of tornadoes.

The national weather services reported a weak tornado touched down in Goose Creek, South Carolina, tossing this car into the air and causing minor injuries but no other damage. But in the neighboring state of Georgia, police report a falling tree instantly killed one man.

At least one person died in weather related car accidents in Florida, and insured property losses in the state estimated at more than $9 million. Emergency crews have already searched about 75 percent of the storm zone.

Residents are asked to remain indoors and avoid downed power lines. Hundreds of thousands of people across the Southeastern U.S. are without electricity, right now. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis says most schools and hospitals shuttered by the storm will reopen in the coming hours.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON DESANTIS, FLORIDA GOVERNOR: We clearly have significant damage throughout the big bend region, but the response has been swift and people are getting help accordingly. There is, of course, a lot of debris to clean up, but we will get working with that with the local communities to make sure that the roads are cleared and people can go back to their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Let's bring in CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis at the CNN Weather Center with the very latest on where tropical storm Idalia is right now, where it is heading, and where the threat remains. Thanks Karen, where are we at right now?

KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: John, we are seeing a dying hurricane now. This is tropical storm intensity. Just 24 hours ago this was looming right around the Big Bend area, Florida.

And the path of destruction that Idalia has taken has been broad and wide and very intense, with numerous people reportedly without power all the way from Florida into South Carolina. South Carolina and North Carolina right now are bearing the brunt of Idalia.

60 mile per hour winds are about 100 kilometers per hour and racing off towards the northeast but, as you can see, there is a lot of deep convection associated with what is left of our tropical storm now.

What we anticipate is that it will begin to exit that central coast of South Carolina, but that convection is so broad that it impacts this broad area from the Piedmont to the Low Country region. For the Low Country, because it is so low, we are seeing significant flooding because it is just ringing itself out along these coastal areas.

Well, there are tornado watches out for some of these coastal regions. It looks like South Carolina now is excluded from that, but into North Carolina the probability of some of those outer bands moving on shore and firing up a tornado certainly exists.

Now, most of these tornadoes would be on the weak side, but that does not mean they are not capable of producing some damage. Alright, so here is the wet weather right now. With a couple of these thunderstorms producing quite a bit of lightning.

If you live in that Wilmington area or the outer banks, it is going to be a pretty rough couple hours with very heavy downpours and an additional four to six inches of rainfall likely, really filling up those rivers and streams.

Right now around Etta Stone, Savannah, and Charleston, the rain is not quite over yet, but Charleston recorded its fifth highest tide there. The highest being during hurricane Hugo during 1989, terrible. But there you can see a closer look, right around Kingstree into Myrtle Beach, Conway, Florence and Wilmington, that is where we are seeing the heaviest precipitation now.

[00:05:05:]

So, prepare for the potential for more continued flooding as well as additional power outages and the possibility of an isolated tornado. John, back to you.

VAUSE: Karen, we appreciate the update, thank you for all of that. Live now in Charleston in South Carolina. Ben Almquist is the director of emergency management. Been on the job there for just a couple of weeks, so we appreciate you being with us, sir.

BEN ALMQUIST, DIR. OF EMERGENCY MGMT., CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: Yeah, glad to be here.

VAUSE: What is it like there right now? What are conditions at the moment? I guess the worst has passed in terms of the rain, but what are you still facing, what are you still concerned about at this point?

ALMQUIST: So, the tide waters have started to recede, which is a good thing for us. We are still expecting high winds to come through and a couple more rain bands. Of course, we know that can produce some tornado activity, so we are certainly not in the clear as of yet.

VAUSE: According to the national weather service in Charleston, at 7:20 pm local time, about five hours ago, a major coastal inundation was reported at Edisto beach in downtown Charleston. Water breached the Charleston Battery. Dunes are breached at Edisto with water flowing under homes and onto roadways.

Then about 30 minutes later there was a local media report saying Charleston Harbor, the water level there was nine feet above mean water level, as Karen mentioned, the fifth highest on record. That was at about eight pm local time. So, around the same time as the high tide came in. So, what was the worst of the flooding? How much damage did that do, and how accurate have the forecasts been for you?

ALMQUIST: So, there is always going to be some variance with the forecast. It just gives us a general idea of what to expect. We normally see localized flooding when we have a seven foot tide or higher. And about twice a year, we see what we call king tides, that come in at an exceptionally high level.

That just so happened to be what we faced as the storm was coming in, so that is what created the additional water level for us. We saw a lot of flooding in the normal areas that we expect to see it, and of course a little bit further into the city away from the coast then is normal.

VAUSE: Earlier, the mayor of Charleston called on residents to stay in and hunker down. Here he is, listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN TECKLENBURG, MAYOR, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: Let's not put our first responders at risk. Let's just stay in Wednesday evening, early Thursday morning, let this storm pass.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: For the most part, was that advice followed? And would you say, overall, this could have been worse and that somehow it just wasn't as bad as everyone had expected and that is a good thing?

ALMQUIST: Well, as far as our citizens go, they did an outstanding job listening to the message. We have had very few situations where we have had to go out and get people. Of course, we know we are always going to have something like that that takes place.

As far as the conditions, it is actually about what we expected. We knew that there was going to be significant flooding and we prepared for that. So, we have seen about what we expected there.

VAUSE: We love it when a plan comes together, even when that plan is for something bad, I guess. Ben, as we said, thank you so much for being with us. Appreciate your time, appreciate the work you are doing as well. Thank you, sir.

ALMQUIST: Thank you.

VAUSE: In Florida, many residents are facing a massive cleanup after the region bore the brunt of Idalia's destructive power as it made landfall as a category three storm. Much of the low coastal city of Crystal River has been left under water after being hit by a devastating storm surge, which one official said has decimated the city.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino is there. She joins us now live with more on the situation and the cleanup ahead. This is going to be a really tough couple of days, weeks, even months?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, John. The cleanup here is just getting started. As you can see, we are standing in a little bit of floodwater here. I have been at this intersection all day today.

It is sort of incredible to watch. This water has been moving in and out of this area, but the water actually is finally receding. It is receding back into that direction.

That is where the Gulf of Mexico meets the river, and when those two bodies of water came together during the height of the storm earlier this morning, they pushed all of that water into this area where we are, right now. City Hall, here in Crystal River, had about eight feet of water when the storm surge came in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAZMINO (voice-over): Hurricane Idalia pummeled Florida's gulf coast, bringing winds of up to 125 miles per hour. The gusts strong enough to topple trees by this house in Parrish, Florida.

UNKNOWN: no. PAZMINO (voice-over): The powerful category three hurricane making landfall Wednesday and unleashing heavy rains and triggering record- breaking storm surge.

UNKNOWN: We just knew that storm surge would be coming and, mixed with that high tide, that was the scariest part.

[00:10:04]

PAZMINO (voice-over): Streets along the coast swallowed by water.

MICHAEL BOBBITT, CEDAR KEY RESIDENT: These are all little old school Florida villas, and they were just picked up and carried into the gulf. So, that was heartbreaking to see.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Hundreds of thousands of homes are without power in Georgia and Florida, and the widespread flooding forcing major highways, like U.S. 19 in Citrus County, to close.

MIKE PRENDERGAST, SHERIFF, CITRUS COUNTY, FLORIDA: This flood has shut down major portions in my county right now. Due to the storm surge that we're seeing.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Several thousand homes along the coast in Pasco County are now underwater.

UNKNOWN: We have water at least 18 inches or higher that has gone into these homes.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Idalia turned north east to Georgia as a category one hurricane and then a tropical storm, unleashing heavy rains and strong winds. All of Georgia is now under a state of emergency.

UNKNOWN: It is a dangerous storm, people need to prepare.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAZMINO (on camera): So, this water receding is certainly good news. We just took a ride around the area here to get a sense of how the streets are doing. A lot of the water has receded, so this is going to help in the cleanup effort, especially as we get first light in the next several hours.

I do want to tell you about rescues that happened earlier in the day here. The local sheriff's department told us that they carried out 76 water rescues of residents here who were trapped inside their homes. So it just gives you an idea of how dire the situation was here earlier when the storm was hitting early morning.

And now, as I said John, the cleanup, the recovery, the assessment of the damage is what lays ahead for this community and so many more along the western portion of the coast in Florida. They are just trying to wrap their heads around the destruction and the devastation that Idalia has left behind, John. VAUSE: Thank you. But Gloria, what about the people who have been forced to leave their homes? How much longer will they be having to stay in emergency shelters or away from those homes? Is there any idea when they will be able to go back?

PAZMINO (on camera): Yeah, we actually have some good news on that front. There is a curfew. It is not mandatory, as you can see there are still some vehicles that are on the road. The curfew lifts at six am local time, so that is when officials here are telling us that people can start to return home to assess any possible damage they might have sustained.

Also, the shelters are going to be closing tomorrow, so that certainly means that for people who evacuated and who heeded those orders to get out, they are now going to have a chance to get back home, assess the damage, see how things are doing, and start the recovery process.

Certainly, one of the first steps in what could be, as you said, a long road ahead because often, when we see these storms, there is the flooding, the damage that comes in, the cleanup, and that all takes a significant amount of time, John.

VAUSE: Gloria, a very, very long day for you, some great reporting. We really appreciate you staying up, being with us and bringing us the very latest. Gloria Pazmino there, Crystal River. Thanks so much.

Two major storms are bearing down right now on China. Super typhoon Saola is expected to approach Hong Kong late Friday. Right now, currently southwest of Taiwan. With sustained winds of 240 kilometers an hour, the equivalent of a category four hurricane.

Meantime, tropical storm Haikui is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon over the next 24 to 36 hours as it passes south of Okinawa, Japan. Currently projected to make landfall on Sunday morning in eastern China, that is the equivalent of a category one or two hurricane.

We will take a short break. When we come back, Russia is now seeing the invasion of Ukraine coming back home in a big way. But it pummeled Kyiv with the most powerful strikes in months in retaliation. More on that story in a moment.

Also ahead, celebrations on the streets of Gabon after the military stages a coup in the central African country, and arrests the president. Details after the break. Stay with us, you are watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:16:16]

VAUSE: North Korea has reportedly fired two ballistic missiles late Wednesday, describing it as a tactical nuclear strike drill. Pyongyang says the lunches are a response to the U.S. deploying what it describes as strategic assets, part of this month's joint U.S. and South Korean military drills. The ballistic missiles landed in the waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FUMIO KISHIDA, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Since the start of this year, North Korea has been frequently and repeatedly launching missiles. These actions are a threat to peace and stability, not only for our country but to the region and the international community. It is absolutely unacceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: This missile launch comes from the north hours after South Korea says the U.S. flew a B-1B strategic bomber over the LA sea, all part of the U.S. South Korea joint military exercise. Russia claims to have shot down more Ukrainian drones and missiles on Wednesday just hours after reporting the biggest wave of drone attacks on its territory since the war began.

Moscow says six of its regions came under attack Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. It also says almost all of the drones were intercepted, and there are no reports of casualties. But the Russian state media says the raids temporarily shut down all four airports near Moscow. Meantime, Ukrainian officials say the capital came under the most powerful bombardment in months which left two people dead and three others wounded.

Ukraine says it shot down dozens of drones and missiles near Kyiv as well as across the country. With us now is retired U.S. army colonel Liam Collins. He is co-author of Understanding Urban Warfare. Good to have you with us, thank you for joining us.

COL. LIAM COLLINS (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Thanks for having me.

VAUSE: I want to listen to a spokesperson for the foreign ministry and Moscow talking about the latest drone strikes on targets inside Russia by Ukrainian forces. Here we are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA ZAKHAROVA, SPOKESPERSON, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY (through translator): The actions of the Ukrainian regime will not go unpunished. It is clear that the Ukrainian drones were not able to fly those distances without assistance from western satellite information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: These latest Ukrainian drone strikes, six regions, military transfer planes were damaged earlier, a number of long-range Russian bombers have been damaged or reportedly destroyed by Ukrainian drones.

A train station in Kursk was recently hit. There has been a string of these attacks, obviously upping the ante here in many ways on these attacks on Russian soil. And each time, the Russian response has been a bit like we just heard there.

Kind of angry with threats and outrage, but not a whole lot more. Is there any reason to believe that it is likely to change anytime soon? Can they make good on those threats that Ukraine will pay?

COLLINS: No. If you have seen every time that Ukraine has conducted one of the strikes, oftentimes to some degree of success, the response by Russia has simply been to launch a significant drone and missile strike on Ukraine, and what we saw is their retaliation was a total of one of those drones and missiles getting through.

So, Ukraine was able to down 97 percent -- over 97 percent of those incoming missiles, and that ratio has only gone up from the beginning of the war when they were shooting down 60 percent. And, so they are up to over 95 percent. So, Russia really has no ability to respond.

VAUSE: So, with these escalating drone strikes by the Ukrainians on Russian targets, and that muted response by Moscow, Max Boot, who writes for the Washington Post, makes this point, recent experience suggests that for all his bluster, Putin is rational enough not to escalate a limited war that he is already losing into a wider war with NATO that he cannot possibly win.

[00:20:04]

So if we work from that premise, why is the Biden administration still sort of playing from the old handbook here, playing it safe? Let's not, you know, escalate or cross the red line with Putin. Why not go all in, supply the F16s, the long range attack missiles? Is there an argument here that playing it safe isn't really the right option? In fact, it could be dragging out this conflict longer than it needs to be?

COLLINS: Without a doubt, we should be -- the West, it would be in their best interest to supply Ukraine with as many arms and ammunition as possible, as he said, or as Max Boot said, there is no way that Russia could expand this, right?

It took them 10 or 11 months to take Bakhmut, a tactically insignificant city, throwing everything they had at it. The last thing they are going to do is expand it into the Baltics here against NATO. And so the best thing is to supply those arms and ammunitions to Ukraine so that they can defend their territory and their sovereignty.

VAUSE: Yeah, and one thing that is happening is that, because this Ukrainian counter offensive, which had so much expectation, and it has stilled in the east, and it is sort of underperforming, if you like. There has been some progress in the south, though.

That is where Ukraine's foreign minister says having entrenched on the flanks of the village of Robotyne, we are opening the way to Tokmak and eventually Melitopol and the administrative border with the Russian occupied Crimea.

How crucial could this moment be for the Ukrainians? Is this the moment when maybe that counter offensive, in the south at least, starts gaining momentum? And how dependent upon is that on the Ukrainians being able to hold off the Russians in the east? Are they stretched too thin at the moment? COLLINS: I mean, first of all, attacking a prepared defense, and as prepared as that defense is in the south and the east, right, that is an extremely challenging operation. Probably the only two things harder is riding an amphibious assault or a river crossing against contested territory. These are very complex operations that involve synchronizing all of the assets, right? Armor, engineers, artillery.

And so it is a very challenging operation. I think there were unrealistic expectations based off of what Ukraine was able to do last fall, and some people expected Ukraine to repeat that with this counteroffensive, which was just not realistic. And so, that is where they are at right now. Ukraine did lose a lot of good fighters over the last year, and so did Russia.

But it makes it that much harder to conduct this really hard, breaching all of these obstacles. And so, they are related, they have to have some success in the east to really hold down Russian forces and Russian assets there so that they can then get a penetration in the south.

That is really what we are seeing play out now, and the question is, will they be able to achieve that penetration where they can really make some kind of success, or is it going to stall out and they are going to have to wait and try again next year?

VAUSE: And just very quickly, that gets us back to this question of the F16s, of long range missiles. How much easier would it be for the Ukrainians right now if they had been armed with the latest technology and the stuff which they have been asking for?

COLLINS: Without a doubt, if we had seen Ukraine throughout the war, right, the west is providing very incrementally, fearful that Russia would escalate because there was constant rhetoric that they would. They never have, at any point during the war when they said they were going to do that.

And so, yeah, the smart play would be, give Ukraine as much as they can because then they would have it. If they would have had all those assets at the beginning of the conflict, they would be in a much different position right now.

VAUSE: There is a good argument to be made here, just let them go, let them have at it, and wrap this thing up sooner rather than later. Colonel, thank you for being with us. We really appreciate your time sir.

COLLINS: Thank you.

VAUSE: In a town south of Zaporizhzhia, the front lines are just a few kilometers from the front doors of several hundred Ukrainian civilians. Many are elderly, all of them are living under constant shelling, relying on the kindness of neighbors as well as the emergency services to survive. More details now from CNN's Melissa Bell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): the waters for the animals left behind. Svetlana draws some each week as she waits for her own supply. Or rather, her village's. It is too dangerous for emergency services, so she will carry it the rest of the way.

SVETLANA (through Bell): I can't abandon the people, she says, the elderly. And she quotes a Soviet era saying, if not you, then who?

BELL (voice-over): But even in the center of Stepnogorsk, there are not many people left. The Russians are only five kilometers away.

BELL: Residential buildings like this one have been on the front line of this war for nearly a year and a half. The shelling, say the few residents here, is day and night. About five to six hundred civilians left in this town from several thousand before the war. So far, they say that the counteroffensive hasn't made things much worse in terms of the shelling, nor though, they say, has it made things any better.

[00:25:04]

EEYORE SAMSONENKO (?)(through Bell): It's dangerous every day, says Eeyore Samsonenko (?). Overnight, the roof of that house was hit, there was shelling yesterday afternoon, and a building was on fire just the other day.

BELL (voice-over): As we inspect the damage done by last night's artillery fire, a Russian drone inspects us, exploding just as we leave. But little fazes the local emergency services, who have been showing us around.

MIKOL AMELIKEN (?)(through Bell): People are used to the war, says Mikol Ameliken (?), before a shell interrupts him.

BELL (voice-over): Those emergency services cannot get to, rely on people like Svetlana. She will now walk with what you can push on her bike for more than an hour towards enemy fire. But with her dog for company, she says, she is never afraid. Melissa Bell, CNN, Stepnogorsk, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: According to new U.S. intelligence, Russia and North Korea are moving forward quickly with talks over a possible weapons deal. The Biden administration says it is concerned that the prior states are in the midst of negotiations after the Russian defense minister visited Pyongyang last month. We are told a second Russian delegation has been to North Korea since then to try and move the deal forward. The U.S. envoy to the UN calls the negotiations shameful, a violation of security council resolutions approved by Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UN: The United States is now able to share that Surkov's visit was more than just a photo op. Russia used this visit to the DPRK to try to convince Pyongyang to sell artillery ammunition to Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It is believed that ammunition will be used in Ukraine. North Korea, though, denies reports of an arms deal with the Russians. The United Kingdom has joined France, the United States, the United Nations, and the African Union's Peace and Security Council, condemning Wednesday's military coup in the central African nation of Gabon. But on the streets of the capital, many are celebrating. The man being carried on the shoulders of the crowd is the general who led the coup. This was later named as a transitional leader. Meanwhile, President Ali Bongo, whose family has ruled Gabon for more than 50 years is now under house arrest. Details now from CNN's David McKenzie, reporting in from Johannesburg.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALI BONGO ONDIMBA, GABON PRESIDENT: I am Ali Bongo Ondimba, president of Gabon, and I am to send a message to all friends that we have all over the world to tell them to make noise, to make noise.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is an extraordinary appeal in english. Just hours ago, Ali Bongo seemed untouchable, now he is under house arrest, because of this. In this season of coups, a group of army officers making a now familiar announcement.

UNKNOWN (through translator): I have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime. The general elections of August 26th, 2023, as well as truncated results, are canceled.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): On the streets of Libreville, celebrations, shouts of liberation from some, and a scene replayed over and over in recent months. The coup leaders say that the just concluded polls were not transparent, and said that Bongo's leadership threatened, quote, "Chaos." International observers were not allowed in, and the internet was curtailed. from former colonist France, a well practiced response.

OLIVIER VERAN, FRENCH GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: France condemns the military coup that is underway in Gabon, and France is closely monitoring the evolution of the situation on the ground and reiterate its desire to see the results of the election respected, once it is known.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): Gabon, at the latest in a cascade of coups on the African continent, if solidified, it will be the eighth in Central and West Africa since just 2020. Most of them, former French colonies, but each of them a different cocktail of power plays and discontent.

In Gabon, the citizens have lived under a dynastic regime for more than 50 years. Omar Bongo ruled for more than four decades. Much of that time spent in France, a critical ally. The elder Bongo members of his family and confidants were accused of eye watering corruption. Often linked to OPEC Member, Gabon's significant oil wealth. Ali Bongo took over from his father in 2009. He has been praised for conserving Gabon's vast forests and taking innovative steps to develop carbon credits to combat climate change. [00:30:09]

But he's faced growing discontent from many, with violence breaking out after disputed polls in 2016 and an attempted coup three years later.

But these scenes have wider consequences. Many fear that Gabon is not the last domino to fall. African Union and international actors have failed to effectively counter recent military takeovers. And Bongo's faith and house arrest remains tenuous.

ALI BONGO ONDIMBA, GABON PRESIDENT: I am calling you to make noise, to make noise, to make noise.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): David McKenzie, CNN, Johannesburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN, before Florida people, Idalia battered Cuba. The very latest from the communist island, in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Right now to our lead story. Idalia still packing a punch as it pushes across South Carolina, bringing strong winds and heavy rain. Idalia has weakened to a tropical storm after slamming into Florida as a Category 3 hurricane early Wednesday before moving across Southern Georgia and now the Carolinas.

In Charleston, flooding has closed several roads across the city, as water rushes onto roadways. Officials are urging people to stay indoors.

Idalia also unleashed heavy flooding across Florida's Gulf Coast, from Big Bend all the way down to Tampa -- to the Tampa area. The U.S. President has promised federal assistance for states hit hard by the hurricane and says this latest natural disaster is more evidence on the devastating impacts of climate change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think anybody can deny the impact of a climate crisis anymore. Just look around. Historic floods, and I mean historic floods; more intense droughts; extreme heat; significant wildfires will cause significant damage like we've never seen before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And before Florida, Idalia hit Cuba. The West of the island was hit by some very heavy rain. Thousands there lost power. Our man in Cuba is Patrick Oppmann. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Idalia brought so much rain to this part of Western Cuba that, if I've been here during the height of the storm, residents say I would have been completely underwater.

The flood waters are now receding, but you can see behind me that there's still some homes in the distance there that have been cut off by the heavy, heavy rain that Idalia brought to this rural part of Cuba.

[00:35:12]

Residents say that officials had to come in the middle of the storm and rescue a lot of people from these homes. Dozens of people, they say, were up on the roofs or in danger of being swept away by the floodwaters.

Miraculously, no one was injured. No one lost their life, although obviously, there is new damage to people's homes, people's property, that's always very tough to see, particularly in a part of Cuba where people appear to have so little.

There is something of a silver lining, though, to the storm for Cuba, and that is residents tell me that they have been experiencing severe drought this summer. And so the heavy rain will actually help with that.

Idalia did not hit this part of Cuba as strongly as it is hitting Florida. Came in as a tropical storm and gain strength and left as a Category 1 storm. And that's why we don't see as much damage here for the most part.

Trees have not been knocked down. Power lines in some places, power is being restored. Hundreds of thousands of people were without power. That is slowly being restored.

All the same, though, people in this part of Cuba are used to hurricanes. It's part of life here. And they say that, with months -- with months left to go in his hurricane season, they're not letting down their guard just yet.

Patrick Oppmann, CNN, the town of Isabel Rubio, Cuba.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: In Jerusalem, a man was shot after -- and killed, after allegedly stabbing another man at a Jerusalem train station in what Israeli police are labeling a terror attack.

Israeli police are crediting an alert officer for, quote, "neutralizing" the man with a knife on Wednesday evening.

Police say the panel was witnessed by the border patrol officer, who was on a train. He then got off the train and fired on the suspect, killing him.

The suspect has only been identified as being from East Jerusalem. The 25-year-old stabbing victim was taken to the hospital, and is said to be in moderate condition.

Meantime, at the West Bank, Palestinian security forces and militant fighters reportedly were in a brief gun battle last week with at least one Palestinian man killed.

CNN's Hadas Gold has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HADAS GOLD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This was a rare clash between Palestine authorities, security forces, and militants in the West Bank.

And it resulted in the first Palestinian to be killed by Palestinian Authority security forces this year.

And the reaction from the militant groups has also been harsh. It highlights the widening gap between the official Palestinian institutions and the militant groups which hold increasing sway and power, especially in the Northern part of the West Bank where this happened.

Now, violence has been surging across the occupied West Bank over the past year and a half, with the Israeli government saying that the Palestinian authorities' lack of action compels the Israeli military, they say, to conduct regular raids across the West Bank to tamp down on militant activity.

So what happened was that a gun battle erupted in the town of Tulkarem after Palestinian Authority security forces say that their forces entered the refugee camp there to remove what they called hazardous materials and barriers, including some that were near a school. And that they then came under fire from armed youths in the area.

A local journalist told CNN that the forces entered the camp to remove unarmed IEDs that were put in place to target Israeli forces if and when they were to enter the refugee camp.

Now, security forces say that they took, quote, "necessary measures" to control the situation.

GOLD (voice-over): Now, the man killed was identified as a 22-year- old, Abdel Qader Zaqdah. His brother told CNN that he was an electrician and claimed that he was not associated with any militant groups.

GOLD: But the militant groups have called this, like Hamas said, a crime against our people. And the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is associated with the Fattah Party, which is the dominant party in the Palestinian Authority, they accused the Palestinian Authority forces of assisting the Israelis and announced that official security forces from the Palestinian Authority were now, quote, "prohibited" from entering the Tulkarem refugee camp.

The militants also warned that the Palestinian security forces would be treated, quote, "like the occupation." Meaning the Israeli forces if they came into the camp.

Hadas Gold, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: When we come back, one of the most senior and powerful Republicans in the U.S. Congress, Mitch McConnell, suffers what looks like to be another disturbing health episode on camera, raising questions about his health, as well as his future in office.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:41:33]

VAUSE: For the second time in weeks, concerns have been raised over the health, as well as mental fitness of 81-year-old Senator Mitch McConnell.

The former Senate leader, current minority leader, spoke to answer a question on Wednesday, appearing to freeze while speaking to reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thoughts on running for reelection in 2026?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): What are my thoughts about what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Running for reelection in 2026.

MCCONNELL: Oh, that's --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you hear the question, Senator? Running for reelection in 2026?

All right, I'm sorry, you all. We're going to need a minute. Senator.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: A spokesperson for Senator McConnell told CNN he simply felt light-headed and paused for a moment.

Apparently, he was checked by a doctor after the incident and later attended a fund-raiser in what we're told was a great mood.

The last time that senator appeared to shut down on camera was late July, months after he fell at a Washington hotel and suffered concussion.

I'm John Vause, back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. But first, WORLD SPORT starts after the break. See you back here in about 17 minutes or so. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:45:31]

(WORLD SPORT)

[01:00:00]