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CNN's Breaking News Coverage of Hurricane Helene. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired September 27, 2024 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."

We begin with breaking news as we track Hurricane Helene. It's now the strongest storm to ever make landfall in Florida's Big Bend, sweeping across the coast hours ago as an extremely dangerous category four hurricane with winds of 140 miles per hour. Now, the effects have been felt far from the center of the storm. The mayor of Clearwater told me his community has been inundated despite being 100 miles from the center.

Now, Helene is weakening now, but has knocked out power to more than a million and a half homes and businesses in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. At least three people have been killed as the storm continues to pummel the southeast, two in Georgia and one in Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We have had a report of a fatality on the roadway. Car driving on I-4 near Ybor City in Tampa was hit when a sign fell onto the highway. So that just shows you that it's very dangerous conditions out there. You need to be right now just hunkering down. Now is not the time to be going out.

We know that travel on the roads can be hazardous and we typically, unfortunately, will have fatalities in every storm from that. When you are out on the roads in the middle of one of these storms that is very, very dangerous. So please do not do that. Stay put. Also, if you're sheltering in place, know your surroundings in terms of trees. You are going to see trees that are going to get knocked down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Now we're getting word about 40 people who've been rescued from rising water in Pasco County, just north of Tampa, and rescues are still underway. Officials in another Florida county told people who didn't evacuate to write their name and birth date on their armor leg to be identified if needed. All right. I want to go to CNN's Ivan Rodriguez, who's live in

Tallahassee, Florida. So, Ivan, even though the eye has passed where you are, looks like still plenty of wind and rain. Take us through the latest.

IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, absolutely that eyewall has passed but we're still feeling some of those backwinds the outer bands from the hurricane. The rain has calmed down since the last time that we spoke. We always knew that was going to happen it was anticipated that right around that three o'clock hour, the rain would get a little bit less. The wind however is going to stick with us here possibly for the next couple of hours until it continues its trajectory a little bit more North.

In terms of power outages, you mentioned that across the state of Florida alone, 1.3 million customers are without power. Here where we are in Leon County, it's right around 72,000 customers without power. Now the population here in this county is about 300,000. So it's a good amount of people here who are experiencing power outages.

From where I'm standing, a bit of a hill here good vantage point behind me of the city here of Tallahassee and you can still see a lot of buildings with their lights still on here on this street where I am. These street lights have flickered on and off now for a few times as well.

But you know at this point some good news here for the people of Tallahassee. We were expecting a direct hit in the hours leading up to that historic landfall as a category four hurricane. It moved a little bit east. So we were on that west side of Hurricane Helene.

Great news here for a lot of folks, but as the sun begins to come up, we're going to see some of the damage that was left behind here, specifically in Tallahassee. A big effort moving forward will be power restoration. And we know crews aren't going to be able to do that until all those roadways are clear. Then they'll be able to get to that important work.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. So I guess plenty of folks, they're breathing a sigh of relief that they weren't directly hit as bad as they thought, but still plenty of worries. I imagine especially for young people who might be out of state, students for example. I know Tallahassee is a huge college city. How did students see out the storm?

RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely, you talk about a college town here in Tallahassee, Florida State University, a FAMU also here in the Tallahassee area, and you look at all those students right from out of state as you mentioned, maybe experiencing a hurricane for the first time, scary situations.

[03:05:06]

FSU, specifically, we know that the students who remained on campus, they actually went to a conference center that was equipped to withstand hurricane conditions. They have hurricane shutters in that conference center for example, also generators to be able to power air conditioning make sure the students are at least comfortable when they are sheltering in place throughout this storm.

So good news there for the students as well, parents across the country probably also very worried for their children who are here in this Tallahassee area. But you know even though it is passed, we heard from governor DeSantis there earlier. They still officials aren't wanting people to be out and about until it really is safe, until that sunlight comes out and we are able to see the full extent of what was left behind here by the hurricane.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Appreciate those updates. Ivan Rodriguez in Tallahassee, Florida. Thank you so much.

Want to bring in CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar. Alison, before we went on air, you were showing me some pictures of flooding here in Atlanta and that was before the hurricane proper is hitting. Is that where it's headed right now? Are we going to be here?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, so it's really headed up towards say like making Georgia and then eventually into Atlanta. And again, you have to have some perspective for people who don't know these are hundreds of miles away from the water. These are not beach communities.

So again, just to know how far away they are, we've just got the hourly update now down to 80 miles per hour. That's still a category one hurricane. Again, this is what we expected as it continues to make its way inland. It's going to weaken. The interesting thing though is just how far inland it's been able to maintain its hurricane status.

Again, you can see here is that center of the storm will continue to slide. It's going to start to make its way a little bit more in a westerly direction here in the next 24 hours. But by the time it gets to Macon in Atlanta, it will still be a very high end tropical storm with those wind gusts up around 60 to 80 miles per hour.

Then it will stretch up into Tennessee and Kentucky. There's going to be the problem is it just sits. That means it's going to have a long period of time where it can drop a tremendous amount of rain.

Here is a look at the radar. Again, you can see a lot of that really heavy rain is on the northern side of this. So a lot of the areas south in Florida finally starting to see things dry out now that this thing has really taken off in speed. But the worst is really yet to come for portions of Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, as well as Kentucky, especially in terms of wind and rain.

We also still have the potential for tornadoes. You're talking cities like Charlotte. Charleston, Savannah, Columbia, even down through Jacksonville, Florida. A lot of these still go for at least another three hours before they expire, but some of them may be extended beyond that especially as we continue to get some tornado warnings.

Here's a look at the rain that has already fallen. You can see from this map, again, this widespread area here that's the yellow color, at least about four inches of rain that's a hundred millimeters has fallen. But when you look at some of the orange and the red colors there, now you're talking six to eight inches has fallen and we're going to be adding more on top of it.

The green color right through here, these are all areas under a flood watch, meaning conditions are capable of seeing some of those flooding. The red color indicates active flooding that is ongoing, Kim. So we've got the flooding component, the tornado component and still the wind component, even though it's made landfall, we are still expecting impacts the next 24 hours.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. Alright, we'll stay on top of it. Thanks so much, Allison Chinchar. I Appreciate that.

Well, Florida's Wakulla County is on the coast just south of Tallahassee. Models of Hurricane Helene's impact predicted a storm surge up to 20 feet in the area. Now, even though the strongest part of Helene has now passed and weakened. People are still being advised to shelter in place. And one county official told CNN there were fears that storm surge could push water 20 miles from the coast.

And joining me now is Captain Jeffrey Yarbrough from the Wakulla County, Florida Sheriff's Office. Thank you so much for being here with us. So just take us through how bad was it when it passed through?

CAPT. JEFFREY YARBROUGH, WAKULLA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Thankfully, we actually were able to skirt kind of the worst of it and the most dire predictions that were given for our community given the fact that the storm shifted eastward as it came in. The storm surge predictions that we were given yesterday or the day before yesterday never really materialized because of the side of the storm that we ended up on.

BRUNHUBER: Alright, so that is good news. I understand for you guys the plan was to hunker down there in the sheriff's office. Is it still too dangerous for first responders to move around outside or because you kind of missed the worst of it, are people doing rescues and responding and so on?

YARBROUGH: Yeah, so in the last 30 to 45 minutes, our deputies and first responders have started going out. We didn't really deal that we know of with a lot of flooding or storm surge issues. So we're dealing with a lot of downed trees, trees and power lines and we're currently working on kind of marking all that and flagging it so that we can get begin to get the roadways opened up and get people back moving and coming home as they see, you know, see fit.

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BRUNHUBER: Yeah. How far away is that? Because a lot of people must have left to underline how serious you guys were taking this. I understand this was the first time in more than 30 years that you ordered countywide evacuations, right?

YARBROUGH: Yeah, and it does appear that the evacuation order was heeded by the majority of the citizens here and we certainly appreciate that. We're not going to know the full extent of property damage and or even the full extent of the downed trees in our community until the sun comes up. But we're working to get that taken care of as quickly as possible.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. So what are your priorities then sort of once the weather really relents and I assume things are easier to see?

YARBROUGH: Getting the main thoroughfares through our community opened up so that other assistants could come in such as the power companies, National Guard, other third party organizations that may, you know, that can come in and offer assistance. So the main goal is to get those main arteries opened up and then we'll work into residential areas working to clear those areas next.

BRUNHUBER: With all those trees down and so on, are there lots of folks without power right now?

YARBROUGH: Yeah, a large portion of our community is without power currently, but thankfully that appears to be some of the worst effects that we're seeing countywide. I haven't been made aware to this point of any large scale property damage or any injuries or anything that associated with the storm so far.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, I mean, just looking at what was predicted and sort of what actually happened, obviously you're not fully out of the woods yet. And as you said, you'll have to see, sort of, once day breaks the full extent, but you must be really sort of breathing a sigh of relief that you weren't hit as bad as you thought.

YARBROUGH: Yeah, very much so. You know, we're very thankful that the community heated our warnings, but we're also extremely thankful that it turned out the way it did. Unfortunately, our neighbors to the east of us took the brunt of the storm, and this is their third major storm in almost a calendar year. And that's unfortunate, but our community has largely skirted the worst of it.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. Still good to know that so many people were listing and sort of getting people out of harm's way is probably going to help things come daybreak when you need to get the first responders and all the power companies in there and everything. Certainly hoping that you get a rapid return to normalcy as fast as possible. I really appreciate you taking the time this morning to speak to us. There's so much going on. Captain Jeffrey Yarbrough in Wakulla, Florida. Thank you so much.

YARBROUGH: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: While cameras capture the extreme effects as Hurricane Helene makes landfall in Florida, we'll have more of the dramatic footage when we come back. Stay with us.

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(VIDEO PLAYING) BRUNHUBER: Live video was taken from a surveillance camera at a residence in about miles from Tallahassee. And it shows just how ferocious Helene was as it made landfall with heavy rain and wind making landfall as a category four hurricane and a CNN team on the ground captured these images also from Steinhatchee and In addition to the torrential rain, the unprecedented power of the storm brought destruction to the areas, extremely heavy winds brought down trees and flung debris through the air as you can see there.

Now Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is urging residents to stay indoors and off the roads. Significant storm surge from Hurricane Helene is causing hazardous conditions across the state. DeSantis also says Florida has resources in place to immediately respond to the aftermath of the hurricane. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DESANTIS: The state is ready as soon as this storm passes and it's safe to do so, to commence search and rescue operations. We have 3,500 National Guardsmen standing by, we have our State Guard standing by, we have State Troopers standing by, and they will be active if need be. And I know we have a lot of our local first responders are going to be ready to be able to be on scene as well as needed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Helene made landfall a few hours ago as a category 4 hurricane in Florida's Big Bend region.

And storm chaser Logan Parham joins us now on the line from Perry, Florida. Thanks so much for being here with us. So I understand that the hurricane made landfall around where you were near Perry. So what was that like?

LOGAN PARHAM, STORM CHASER (on the phone): Yes, so it came in right here on the Gulf Coast. We actually ended up in the dead center of the eye. So we actually had a temporary calm. You can see the skies, a couple of stars, but clear skies. It was pretty intense.

Honestly, the back eye wall was a little bit on the less intense side, nonetheless gusty, but a lot drier. However, that first eye wall was really, really ripping. Definitely some pretty intense gusts through there. So a couple moments, yeah, it was a little bit dicey, but nonetheless, we got into that eye and we got through it.

BRUNHUBER: So in terms of, you're talking about the wind and gusts and so on, I mean, did you see any damage?

PARHAM (on the phone): Oh yeah, we, so unfortunately, the Taylor County Sheriff's Office here, they're not really too fond of storm chasers for whatever reason, or anybody for that matter, it doesn't seem like. So we're just kind of hanging out in the same spot that we've been at however I did drive around just a little bit right during the eye and right after the back eyewall calm down and there's a lot of damage there was a tool shed in the middle of a road just flipped over signs laid out. Lots and lots of tree damage, power lines all over the place. So just you cut a standard hurricane damage on, I think maybe, daylight might reveal more. It's just too dark right now without power to kind of determine anything else.

[03:20:04]

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, you can understand how the authorities wouldn't want civilians sort of driving around in these conditions. You were talking about sort of standard hurricane damage. Obviously, you've been through a bunch of them. How bad was this compared to what you've seen before?

PARHAM (on the phone): Yeah, quite a number, quite a number. The wind- wise, I think wind-wise this definitely was closing in on the type of wind that we saw with Hurricane Ian, for example. Maybe not quite to that extent, but definitely nearing those types of speeds, especially in that first eyewall that was just quite the blast.

Definitely worse than Adalia, in my opinion. Adalia was a pretty rough storm, but this would be the benchmark storm for this region, the Big Bend, for probably quite a long time. And nonetheless you know very historic impact for this area especially.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah and we can only hope that there won't be a huge financial impact. We know that Adalia cost a lot of damage and recovery you know will take a long time. You know what do you expect in terms of just how long it will take to get everything back including power and so on?

PARHAM (on the phone): So Florida is an amazing state. We always make sure here that we get going back to normal as soon as possible. And usually they do a pretty good job of that around these areas. So I don't think it'll take too, too long. Power outage wise, I think that may be a while just because this storm had such a large wind field and it also was moving very quickly.

So those winds were spread out over a huge area and they had the ability to move farther than just coastal or near coastal areas. So these winds move deep into the state of Florida, even into the state of Georgia, and causing some serious power outage issues.

I have no clue yet on the condition of towns out there toward the coast, like Steinhatchee, Horseshoe Beach, those types of areas. But I do know the surge was really bad out there. So tomorrow we'll be doing, you know, helping with recovery efforts and getting to the bottom of what exactly these areas will need.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, just before you came on, we were showing some pictures from Steinhatchee. It looked pretty hectic with stuff flying around everywhere there, and we're seeing pictures of storm surge and so on. Just as a storm chaser, I mean, I imagine you must be used to it. You sort of ride through these as a matter of course, but I mean, do you ever get worried, you know, as we're seeing the pictures of just how bad the winds were and so on, I mean, just as a visceral experience. I mean, it just must be awesome to experience that the power of nature, but frightening as well.

PARHAM (on the phone): It is -- it is it can be a little bit frightening. I think honestly a big part of it is just the nerves. The nerves are going into it. That's the main thing. But once you get there, usually you want to have a good game plan, a vehicle, you know loaded with supplies. Anytime you chase a hurricane, especially you want to have at least three days to a full week's worth of supplies with you.

Just having a good game plan, having a spot that you can shelter, a plan A, a plan B, all the way down to Z, that way you're ensuring that you're protecting yourself and others around you, all the way through the journey of a hurricane. So, it is a very crazy experience.

However, you know, that it definitely had quite the number of them now so the one thing I can say that I can't trust enough and I think hopefully a lot of the United States now and hopefully the world understands about the storms especially after what Helene done is that no storm is the same as another.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah exactly right. Listen, there's still plenty of after effects flooding and down power lines and so on. So do stay safe out there. Storm chaser Logan Parham, thank you so much.

PARHAM (on the phone): Absolutely. Thank you, guys.

BRUNHUBER: Well, Helene is moving north after landfall, now rolling through southern Georgia. And officials say Helene has already turned deadly, killing two people here in Georgia, caught in a tornado related to the storm. Another person was killed in Florida when a sign crashed down on their car in the Tampa area. Officials in Georgia's Lowndes County are urging residents to shelter in place for now as power outages skyrocket in the area.

Now, forecasters say Helena is still dangerous even though it has weakened to a Category 1 storm. Earlier, a top official from the National Hurricane Center explained what people could face in the coming hours and days.

[03:24:52]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE RHOME, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: You got to be ready to go for a long period of time without power. This part of the country has a really dense, beautiful tree canopy. Those trees sort of are like sails, if you will. They catch the wind and they come down really easily. And then with all this rain, especially this pre- existing rain, that makes the roots sort of softens the soil and the roots of the trees can't hold as well as they would normally.

So we're just going to have widespread trees down and power outages so people have got to be ready to take care of themselves, take care of themselves for several days without power. Somehow we got to get people to realize that these aren't just an interesting phenomenon. They're very, very deadly, especially with this setup that we talked about with this pre-existing rainfall. We're probably going to lose a lot of lives in this setup with this much flooding potential.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Alright, still ahead. Hurricane Helene may be weakening, but it still poses life-threatening danger. This aftermath will be felt for a long time. Our coverage continues next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."

We're closely tracking Hurricane Helene, which despite weakening, still poses life-threatening danger to millions of people in the southeastern U.S. Now the storm is moving quickly northeast over the state of Georgia and towards the Carolinas. Residents face torrential rain, rapid flooding and possible tornadoes in the coming hours ahead.

The storm is blamed for at least three deaths in Georgia and Florida, and rescues are ongoing. Officials are bracing for unprecedented flooding and catastrophic damage in some areas, and the sun rises in just a few hours. Helene made a historic landfall late Thursday night, hitting Florida's Big Bend region as a massive Category 4 hurricane larger than Katrina in 2005.

[03:30:00]

NASA captured this view from space.

CNN's Ivan Rodriguez is live in Tallahassee. So listen, I understand that you're getting some updates now about damage there. What more can you tell us?

IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well look Kim, right now damage here where we are in Leon County doesn't seem to be very extensive not when we're comparing it to other hard-hit counties throughout the state of Florida. Here specifically conditions in terms of whether they've really calmed down a lot. The wind is the only thing that's left behind but at this point it just comes in terms of waves. It might be a little strong and then it might calm down for the next several minutes.

The rain has been gone now for at least 30. But when I am looking around into other counties throughout Florida, they're beginning to report some early damages in those early assessments coming in. To highlight a few, for example, Suwannee County, sheriff officials there say, quote, "we're fearing for the worst when the sun comes up." They're in that county.

They're saying that there is extreme destruction reported in the area. Extensive damage they say reported along the western side of the county trees falling on homes. Also, causing a hundred percent outages throughout that county, Sarasota County as well. We're talking about bridges that are not passable because of severe flooding. The mayor of Sarasota, we heard from them and they say that they haven't seen anything like this since they've lived in Sarasota for the last more than 20 years. So really when the sun comes up, we're going to see the full picture here of all the damage that was caused throughout the state of Florida. And we know it is going to be very extensive. We've seen images of storm surge in some communities, very high, flooding homes.

So it's going to be a very hard situation for many families in these communities, without the state of Florida and all of this is what we're talking about as the hurricane continues its path northward heading in to Georgia and all the destruction we could possibly see in that area as well.

BRUNHUBER: All right. I appreciate that update, Ivan Rodriguez in Tallahassee Florida, thank you so much.

I want to bring in CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar. So listen, we knew that the number of people without power throughout the hours would be going up, and I just saw an update on the numbers. What more can you tell us?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, yeah, and that's going to be one thing. It made landfall. It's not over yet. We're going to start to see certain things actually get worse before they get better, and power outages is one of them. So this is the recap of the actual event. Again, you can see the landfall for this particular storm was along the Big Bend region at 11, 10 p.m. local time there.

The wind speed at landfall was 140 miles per hour, so a category four storm there. It has since weakened to a category one storm. Power outages are going to continue to expand though. So again, as we mentioned, even though it's made landfall, some of these numbers are actually going to get worse. We're now up to 1.8 million customers without power. And I want to keep note too, notice. States like Tennessee, Kentucky have yet to really see an increase and those are going to come as we go later into the day today.

Yet a lot of the numbers in Florida are not necessarily going to go down very quickly. It could be days before some of these folks end up getting their power restored. So here's a look at where the storm is right now. Sustained winds of 80 miles per hour still gusting a little bit higher than that. Again, you can see the storm continuing to slide up into portions of Georgia, taking with it those hurricane force winds.

So you're still going to see a lot of these very gusty winds, not just there, but say like Macon, Augusta, even Atlanta, going to look at some of those wind gusts around 60 to 80 miles per hour before it finally slides up into Tennessee and Kentucky when it does it's expected to just kind of meander there for a little while that means it could have a lot of time To dump a tremendous amount of water.

We talked about the winds because it's so strong so far inland look at some of these numbers now obviously the highest was at landfall the town of Perry picking up a wind gust of 99 miles per hour. But other states, not just Florida, but also Georgia looking at some

of these at least hurricane strength wind gusts. So 75 miles per hour or even higher, but keeping note that some of these are several miles inland. These aren't alright there on the water.

Rainfall totals have also been pretty significant so far in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, all of these areas looking pretty intense. For most of these areas, it's at least a month's worth of rain. Some communities have had two months of rain, including a city like Asheville, North Carolina, which has also picked up a tremendous amount of rain in just the last 48 hours.

Here's a look at the radar. We also have a tornado warning in effect across one portion of South Carolina.

[03:35:00]

That has been kind of the pattern over the last 24 to 48 hours. It's going to continue to be the pattern for the next 24 hours. That's why you have a tornado watch in effect for portions of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. This includes cities like Charlotte, Charleston all the way down into Jacksonville, Florida.

Most of these are still in effect for another two and a half hours, but some of them are likely to be extended. It would not surprise me if some of these continue to go out several more hours through the morning because the potential is there.

This is the risk for severe weather going forward today, especially after say about seven or eight o'clock in the morning, Charleston, Charlotte, Raleigh, Norfolk, Virginia. All of these areas have the potential, Kim, for some tornadoes as we go through the rest of the day. So certainly something to keep a close eye on.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely. Now, listen, talking to various officials throughout Florida, some were saying, listen, we're breathing a sigh of relief. It wasn't as bad as we thought. Others saying, you know, this is literally the worst we've ever seen. It's tough to say now because we haven't seen the full extent of the damage, but just what's your sense of how this compares to other recent hurricanes.

CHINCHAR: Right. And so one thing to note too is that you get these wobbles with the hurricanes and sometimes even if it wobbles say a good 20 or 30 miles. That can make a huge difference. So one community may say, oh man, we got lucky. It wobbled a little bit farther east. But the community then that it wobbled closer too ends up taking a little bit of a harder hit.

So you're going to see that, and I really don't think we're gonna get the scope of that damage and which cities were hit hardest until we get into daylight hours and we can really get a better understanding of this. But yes, some of these areas, Kim, were hit last year by Adalia and the year before by Ivan. So again, you've got some of these areas that it's been back to back storms year after year.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, really unfortunate. All right, we'll have to leave it there. Thank you so much, Alison Chinchar. I really appreciate it.

Joining me now with more, I want to bring in Cole Waschko, Public Information Officer for Sarasota County, Florida Emergency Management. Thank you so much for being here with us. So as we were just hearing there from Alison, it's in passing through Florida now coming up here to Georgia. So where you were at its worst, how bad was it?

COLE WASHKO, SARASOTA COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (on the phone): Sure. Sure. Well first, Kim, thank you very much for having me on. You know this storm, obviously it was predicted by the National Weather Service to really just be a gigantic storm that really was going to bring a lot of wind and a lot of rain and we're still seeing that as the storm is moving on northeast.

But you know, once we saw the predictions from the National Weather Service, we knew that it was time to strap in and we immediately activated our JIC, our Joint Information Center, as well as our Emergency Operations Center.

And we immediately started staging emergency response equipment, public works and our public utilities department started making their ways to different spots throughout the county to really prep their different operations, their different procedures, and really just make sure that we were prepared for this storm.

But it really did dump a lot of rain and throughout the county we're seeing at a minimum of six feet of storm surge, which is exactly what was predicted by the National Weather Service.

BRUNHUBER: Wow. So six feet of storm surge. You were talking about the wind, the rain. What is the biggest threat or concern right now?

WASHKO (on the phone): Sure, sure. Well, you know, obviously I think what's most important is you know, first is lifesaving operations, right? It's we care about our community members. We care about the residents of Florida. And that's always going to be the most important thing. So really right now, that's our focus at this point is the lifesaving operations.

But obviously, you know, once we get into tomorrow morning and we get some more daylight and that water recedes, we can really start to get our hands on, you know, what are we dealing with? What does this damage look like? And how can we best help our community, you know, get back up on their feet?

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. You'll have to wait for daybreak to really do that damage assessment, but so far, just with what you've seen, how does it compare to other storms, say to Hurricane Adalia or Ian?

WASHKO (on the phone): Sure, sure. Well you know obviously you know we live in Florida and we are no strangers to these hurricanes. Unfortunately it's just the price for paradise they say. But you know all these storms every storm is different. Some storms are rainmakers, some storms have a lot of storm surge or they have heavy winds.

So, you know, this storm really, it's a lot of people are saying reminds them of Irma and Hurricane Michael. So we really just tried to, you know, take as much precaution as we could. As soon as we saw these predictions come in, and we started putting out messaging for evacuation centers and evacuating certain levels throughout our county, just to make sure that our residents really understood what we were going to be up against.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. Adding to the difficulties, of course, there's something like a million customers without in the state. What is the power situation there where you are?

[03:39:58]

WASHKO (on the phone): Sure, sure. So we still do have some community members throughout the county that are without power just like in many other counties throughout Florida unfortunately. But again you know as tomorrow comes around as that daylight presents itself and those water levels proceed, recede rather, we can you know really get our team members out there, members of our public utilities, you know some of these different utility companies can come out as well.

And I know that we have, you know, different volunteers and such from even out of -- out of state as well as some of our other local resources and federal resources that are really all going to be in together as one team one community and you know help get this power back online and help build our community back up.

BRUNHUBER: Still, a long way to go even though the storm itself might be passing by what is your message finally to folks out there right now in your community?

WASHKO (on the phone): Sure, sure. Well my main message would be, you know, even though we're not working on we still have a storm around but you got to stay where you're at, shelter in place, do not go walking through those flood waters. You know, there's reports of -- of down trees, down power lines, et cetera.

And you know, when you're walking around in these waters, you may not know what them. And we really just want our community members and, and all of Florida to stay safe, stay vigilant and stay updated. There's a plethora of information, both from Sarasota County and many of the other great counties in Florida. And I just highly recommend that community members, you know, keep that knowledge and stay safe.

BRUNHUBER: Alright and I'll just echo that message to your community members and to you yourself, Cole Washko. Stay safe, really appreciate you joining us. Thank you so much.

WASHKO (on the phone): Yeah, thank you so much, Kim. I really appreciate it.

BRUNHUBER: Alright. And we'll be right back. Please do stay with "CNN Newsroom."

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BRUNHUBER: This is "CNN Newsroom." I'm Kim Brunhuber, in Atlanta. We're keeping a close eye on Hurricane Helene this hour, but we want to look at some other major stories now.

[03:45:05]

Israel appears to be sowing confusion over the U.S.-led efforts to secure a 21-day ceasefire with Hezbollah. After the U.S. announced the initiative, Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered the military to keep fighting. The IDF continued its heavy aerial bombardment on southern Lebanon and also carried out a strike on Beirut on Thursday. Now the prime minister's office says it will continue discussions on the proposal.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is following developments from Abu Dhabi. Paula, lots of confusion here. So do we know where things stand?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kim, this was a ceasefire proposal that the U.S. just announced and there's 10 countries across the world behind this proposal as well. And the way that senior U.S. officials were putting this to us was that this had been seen by both sides, so by Hezbollah and by Israel, that it was an optimistic reception that this was going to be publicized.

But then we did see the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu throwing cold water on it. There were reports that there was an imminent ceasefire to be signed and he rejected those through the Prime Minister's office, saying that they are simply incorrect. Also pointing out that he's pushing the IDF, the Israeli military, to continue what they are doing in southern Lebanon, to continue fighting with full force.

Now there was some confusion among the Biden administration. At these comments, there was somewhat of an assumption that it may have been more for a domestic audience. The fact that the far-right elements of Netanyahu's coalition did not want this ceasefire to go ahead. He has in the past had to make certain announcements and decisions, it's believed, to try and keep that coalition together. And the more far- right elements could potentially walk if this ceasefire were to go ahead and that would collapse his coalition.

But there has been clarification from the Prime Minister's Office saying that there are discussions, that this is an ongoing process. So it doesn't appear to be as imminent as we may have believed it to be about 24 hours ago.

We do hear from the Prime Minister's Office that Netanyahu appreciates the U.S.-led efforts. And we also know that Netanyahu is currently in New York. He postponed his trip because of what is happening in the region, but he is now in New York.

He will be speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday. He's one of the first speakers, so Friday morning in New York we will hear from him. And we are likely to hear more about what is happening in Lebanon against Hezbollah. We are likely to hear from the Prime Minister about what is happening in Gaza as well.

So these discussions are still ongoing behind the scenes, but what we are hearing from the Israeli military side is that they are preparing potentially for a ground offensive. We have heard it from numerous military officials, the defense minister, the chief of staff of the IDF, the head of the Air Force, that this that we have seen in over the past few days and the past week in fact, has been an aerial bombardment preparing for a potential ground offensive. Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right, Paula Hancocks, I really appreciate the updates. Thanks so much.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to meet with former President Donald Trump today at Trump Tower. Now that comes on the back of the Ukrainian leaders meeting with President Biden, where the two men focused on new allowances for weapons on the battlefield to achieve victory. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Today we have a new support package, $7.9 billion. This will be a great help and I raised with President Biden the plan of victory. Today we are preparing to discuss the details to strengthen the plan.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Let me be clear, Russia will not prevail in the war. Russia will not prevail, Ukraine will prevail, and we'll continue to stand by you every step of the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Now Zelenskyy also met separately with Vice President Harris, their sixth meeting since the war began.

And former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba is poised to become Japan's next prime minister. Members of the Liberal Democratic Party selected him in a runoff election a short time ago. The 67-year-old political veteran was making his fifth and final bid for the office. He's known as a progressive and has been sharply critical of his own party. Ishiba has called for establishing an Asian version of NATO.

Hurricane evacuation warnings have been issued, but some people aren't going anywhere. We'll have more on Hurricane Helene coverage after the break. Stay with us.

[03:50:00]

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULES CARL, RIDING OUT HURRICANE HELENE: You know, it's not easy. Like you said, it's tough. You weigh a lot of different factors before you make the decision. And of course, my husband and I, since last Monday, have been going back and forth on whether we should be trying to get out of here or stay. But we feel like as big as this storm is, and with at least the knowledge that we have with storms.

We'd rather be in a town where we know our elevation, we know our weak points with our wind and our water and that kind of thing and have resources. And we've got friends in town as well, which are basically like family here. This whole town is like family. So between that and our pets, we just felt like it would be wiser to stay, knowing our grounds here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: That was Jules Carl, who's hunkering down with her husband and three kids in Steinhatchee, Florida. She says this is the seventh hurricane she's ridden out since moving to the state a decade ago, including one last year when she was pregnant.

Now, Helene is moving through the Southeastern U.S. now a Category 1 storm. It slammed into Florida's Big Bend coastal area with 140 miles per hour winds, the strongest hurricane on record to hit the region. Officials in at least one county have asked residents who didn't evacuate to write their name and date of birth on their leg in order to identify them.

[03:55:07]

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JOHN LOUK, TAYLOR COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGER: We just need to ensure that in the unlikely event that fatalities happen, that we can do the job that we need to do when we begin our USAR operations. We sent out information on social media for folks to send us an email if they are not evacuating to let us know where they're at, how many people are in the home, that sort of information. And it's just very disconcerting that so many people have not heeded the warnings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Now currently, Helene has winds of 90 miles per hour. It's expected to continue causing damage as it passes through central and north Georgia in the coming hours.

Officials in Lee County in southwest Florida posted this dramatic video on social media. It shows Marine deputies performing a boat rescue in Fort Myers Beach on Thursday. Sheriff calls a resident, the sheriff rather says, a resident called emergency services asking to be saved from rising waters at his home, Marine deputies were able to get him using the rescue boats. The resident is said to be doing well.

And Helene is creating travel nightmares for some airline passengers. Close to 1,300 flights coming into or originating in the U.S. were canceled yesterday, while more than 5,800 were delayed according to the tracking website FlightAware. The most affected airports are in the Southeastern U.S. Most of 600 flights so far have been canceled today, with over 300 delayed.

I'm Kim Brunhuber, in Atlanta. Max Foster will have more of CNN's breaking news coverage of Hurricane Helene right after a break.

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