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Hurricane Milton Leaves 15 Dead, Millions Without Power; Barack Obama Campaigns for Kamala Harris; Trump Campaigns in Detroit; Israel Strikes Beirut Killing 22, and 28 Dead in Central Gaza. Iranian Envoy Seeking Support From Gulf Arab nations; 2024 Nobel Peace Prize Winner To Be Announced Soon; One Person Dead, 23 Rescued From Colorado Gold Mine; Death Toll Rises To 15, Millions Still Without Power. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired October 11, 2024 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST: Hello and 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." Hurricane Milton leaves a path of destruction that could take years to recover from. We'll hear from officials on the ground in Florida.

Barack Obama on the campaign trail trying to close the deal for Kamala Harris's 2024 presidential campaign.

And Israeli strikes hit central Beirut's residential neighborhood. Witnesses say they got no warning.

We begin in Florida where millions of people are dealing with the lingering dangerous conditions in the wake of Hurricane Milton. Search and rescue efforts are ongoing. More than 24 hours after the storm made landfall, Milton has led to an infrastructure crisis in the state with some areas lacking clean water and electricity while extensive flooding damaged roads and buildings.

Many people have lost everything. Milton unleashed and extraordinary storm surge and torrential rain and spawned a swarm of tornadoes before moving offshore over the Atlantic. More than two and a half million homes and businesses are still without power. Roughly a thousand people have been rescued so far.

Hurricane Milton whipped up more than 30 reported tornadoes, often so quickly that residents had little time to react. At least nine tornadoes plowed through St. Lucie County, including three in less than 25 minutes. Milton hit Florida as residents were still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which made landfall less than two weeks ago. CNN's Randy Kay reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNKNOWN: It's really hard to see. It's kind of spooky to see all the damage.

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT KEITH MORRISON (voice-over): Hours after Hurricane Milton moved off the coast of Florida, Floridians are surveying the extensive damage across the state. There were a number of confirmed dead in St. Lucie County, over 100 miles from where the storm made landfall, following tornadoes spurred by Milton.

UNKNOWN: The tornadoes we saw develop yesterday in Milton were really kind of supercharged compared to the typical tornadoes you see in a hurricane environment.

KAYE (voice-over): New drone footage shows Milton's destruction on the west coast of Florida where the hurricane made landfall as a Category Three storm. The storm's monstrous winds ripping the roof of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg to shreds and downing several cranes in downtown St. Petersburg.

UNKNOWN: Things can be replaceable, but life cannot.

KAYE (voice-over): Just hours after the sun came up, water rescues taking place in Hillsborough County where massive flooding due to the rain, not the storm surge, trapped people.

CHAD CHRONISTER, SHERIFF, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA (via telephone): I just happened to be on the airboat for that one. Now, there's over 200 rescues we've done and are still actively conducting. He was frantically wailing his arms. We went over and it literally was like the scene of the Castaway movie, how he's hanging on for dear life. His mom evacuated him to a safer area last night. He was walking home, didn't realize the water was going to get as flooded as deep as it did, and he's not a good swimmer, hence the rescue. And he was visibly shaken.

KAYE (voice-over): In Fort Myers, Robert Haight says he got his pregnant wife and kids to a safe spot just moments before a tornado bore down on them.

ROBERT HAIGHT, FORT MYERS, FLORIDA RESIDENT: I saw the tornado coming. I yelled for my wife to look at it. It's cool. Kid, wife come look at it. Started to get close, hit trees, and we all started going for the hallway. Didn't even make it there in time. Started to (inaudible) and I heard a piece of glass crack and suck the whole roof off and I felt the thing suck me up. I grabbed my kid and my wife and hunkered down.

KAYE (voice-over): Another Fort Myers homeowner says the storm ripped his home apart in a matter of minutes.

UNKNOWN: All this, this happened like instantaneously. Like these windows blew out. That was about probably right here when it happened.

KAYE (voice-over): One Tampa business owner braved floodwaters to assess the damage to his commercial property Thursday.

UNKNOWN: I don't know what to say, it's a lot. Born and raised here, never seen nothing like this.

UNKNOWN: With Helene, for the first time we had storm surge and took on water in the 20 bottom units. Now with Milton here, we've lost the brand new carports. Our dock is destroyed.

KAYE (voice-over): While many evacuees are hoping to soon return home, hard-hit Sarasota's chief of emergency management is urging people to hold on a little longer.

SANDRA TAPFUMANEYI, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT CHIEF, SARASOTA COUNTY: Still dangerous out there, so we're asking for residents just to stay put. You know, we know a lot of people evacuated, which we appreciate but we need some time to clear everything for so that it's safe for them to return.

[02:05:02]

KAYE (on camera): And we made our way to Siesta Key where Hurricane Milton made landfall and this is what we found just at one of the homes here. All of this had been stacked up were told by neighbors from Hurricane Helene. They had cleaned out their home from the damage after that hurricane and now it is all over their yard. There are mattresses. There are suitcases. There's a television. There's trees down And this is what you find all over Siesta Key.

The streets are flooded. Some streets are blocked. There is -- all of the destruction from Hurricane Helene is in the streets. It is really a sight to see. And many people here say that they're afraid they can't stay here. They just don't believe that unless you have a fortress, that it is survivable for a hurricane. Randi Kaye, CNN on Siesta Key, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: CNN's Isabel Rosales rode along on the air boat as officials help people trapped by floodwaters in Tampa in Hillsborough County.

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ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm on an airboat right now with Sheriff Chad Chronister and we are seeing people like right there if we can push in, you know, up on the second floor of these apartment complexes. We've been seeing people wading through the waters. Let's switch the camera over here to my other side. Do you see right there? Cars underwater. This is all from torrential rainfall. This is not storm surge. This is not an evacuation area.

This is something completely unexpected for this area. Let me introduce you to Sheriff Chad Chronister. Sheriff, 33 years ago you were a rookie. This was your district known as University Area. Now it's Uptown. Have you ever seen anything like this?

CHAD CHRONISTER, SHERIFF, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA: This is where I started. This is where I fell in love with. This community. I've never seen flooding like this. We had people that evacuated here to make sure they were safe. They listened. They came here 135 elderly disabled individuals that we rescued earlier. They came here. They were evacuated from Bradenton to stay safe.

This is a neighborhood that doesn't have a lot. They have very little and the very little they had, they've lost everything there. We have water four feet up into the first floor here. This is a heavily Latino community. Their church is gone. Their cars are gone. Again, they don't live paycheck to paycheck. These are people that live day to day and they have nothing.

ROSALES: I can tell because I've known you for many years. You're getting choked up right now. What are you going through?

CHRONISTER: Your heart shatters for these people. We did a bunch of rescues. We took them to a shelter. The female that you saw that we passed, she was waving me down. I made her promise to me if it got too deep or she got tired, we'd come back and get her. She broke down and hugged me for five minutes. She goes, I don't have a lot. I take care of my grandmother. I evacuated my grandmother and I'm left with nothing. We've lost everything. We have no furniture. There was five feet of water in there. I mean, how does this not shatter your heart?

ROSALES: The assisted living facility. I saw those residents out. A lot of them evacuating with no shoes, their feet on the concrete, they were cold. They went through so much, hours of waiting in the water. What are the stories that you're hearing?

CHRONISTER: Yeah, you're exactly right. They were literally living in four to five feet of water. And these are individuals that can't walk. They're sitting in chairs and four feet. The panic started to sink in and they're like, hey, we got to get out of here. They thought the water would subside and it didn't. It's not like storm surge where it got worse. But these flood waters, 16 inches of water, and this is the results.

And heavily saturated area, the flood waters that we were talking about that we were so worried about. This water has nowhere to go. Their homes are flooded. They have nowhere to go.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Officials in Tampa say first responders found residents of an assisted living facility in flood waters up to their waists At least 135 people were rescued from that site.

Well, Florida may have dodged a worst-case scenario, but it was hit by what one official called a one-two punch of back-to-back major hurricanes less than two weeks apart. I want to bring in Ashley Giovannetti, the public information officer for Pinellas County Emergency Management in the Tampa Bay region, and she joins us by phone.

Thank you so much for being here with us in such a chaotic time for you. Just to start, what is the latest right now, first in terms of ongoing search and rescues? ASHLEY GIOVANNETTI, PIO, PINELLAS COUNTY, LARGO, FLORIDA (via

telephone): Well, as you said, we really got hit by a one-two punch. First, Helene, then Milton. Milton produced over 18 inches of rainfall and gusts over 100 miles an hour in Pinellas County.

[02:09:54]

We did have some law enforcement here, conducted several rescue missions including a major water rescue at an apartment complex where they pulled 430 residents from flooding. The flooding reached to the second floor balconies. It was a serious situation. You know, we didn't see in our area, the storm surge that we had seen in Helene, but we were really hit hard.

You know, our utilities crews are still busy clearing roads, repairing infrastructure and working to restore services. So many of our residents remain without power. We're talking 75 percent of customers in our County were without power. And some residents are without water service.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, and I understand you're starting to get water back in now, but that is complicated by what you talked about, the lack of electricity, and you need that for the pumping stations, is that right?

GIOVANNETTI: Absolutely. And kind of just overall is what we need going forward is just kind of empathy for our residents. As you talked about, we have residents that, you know, we're wading in flood waters barefoot, you know. So we need this empathy. They just went through two major hurricanes in our area and so many have lost their homes, their livelihoods and now they have to find a new place to call home. Some it'll be temporary; they'll be able to get to their structures and some permanently. Some lost everything, their full livelihoods.

So we are -- we're so grateful for our state and federal partners who are stepping up to help build back our community but it's going to take time and really, we want to thank all of those that are reaching out to help us because it really was a one-two punch.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, and you know that apartment complex for example that you mentioned they said that that will be unlivable. So many people have lost their homes. As you say, you know, people have been hit by this one-two punch. Some of those people who are in emergency shelters, I mean, they've been there since Hurricane Helene.

GIOVANNETTI: Yeah, we had some residents who never left the shelter. They just went from one hurricane to another. We are doing everything in our power to get those who are still in shelters into a temporary or permanent housing situation. But it's going to take time. And we really, really thank our state and federal partners for helping us and helping us kind of merge these two hurricanes into one full recovery response.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. So I understand you're starting to lift some of the evacuation orders. Almost all the bridges have reopened. People are going back home. But obviously, there are still plenty of road hazards, and especially considering that some of the hospitals are still closed. I was listening to the sheriff and he was saying, you know, they have those intersections with no working lights and people are just blowing right through them. So, what are you advising residents right now as they're sort of trying to get back?

GIOVANNETTI: First and foremost, give your neighbors grace. But then secondly, be cautious, be safe on the roadways. We have a lot of lights, as you said, that are still out. We still have a lot of power out in our areas. There are signs torn apart. We have billboards that have nothing that say anything on them anymore. And we have infrastructure that's gonna take a minute to get back.

So just have grace for your neighbors, look out for each other and make sure, you know, you're using those lights and those roadways as a four way stop. And, you know, just stay safe. If you see a downed power line, if you see a tree in the road, find another route and make sure that you're using your generators safely. But just overall, make sure you are being cautious as we all recover together.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. Your message there, stay safe and that applies to you as well. We wish you the best as well. Ashley Giovannetti with Pinellas County, thank you so much for being here with us. Appreciate it.

GIOVANNETTI: Thank you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The idea of intentionally trying to deceive people in their most desperate and vulnerable moments. And my question is, when did that become okay?

Donald Trump is a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago. You've got the tweets in all caps. The ranting and the raving about crazy conspiracy theories. The two-hour speeches, constant attempts to sell you stuff. Who does that? Selling you gold sneakers and $100,000 watch, and most recently, a Trump Bible.

[02:15:04]

The reason some people think, I don't know, I remember that economy when he first came in being pretty good. Yeah, it was pretty good, because it was my economy.

(APPLAUSE)

We had had 75 straight months of job growth that I handed over to him. Real strength is about helping people who need it and standing up for those who can't always stand up for themselves. That is what we should want for our daughters and for our sons, and that is what I want to see in a president of the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Well that of course, former U.S. President Barack Obama delivering his most personal and furious critique of Donald Trump yet. He kicked off a 27-day campaign sprint for Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday, headlining a rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Obama highlighted the experience and values that Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, bring to the table, urging people to get out and vote.

Meanwhile, Harris was campaigning in Arizona and Nevada on Thursday. She courted Latino voters in a Univision town hall in Las Vegas, outlining her plans on immigration reform and border security. And she also slammed Trump again for tanking the bipartisan border security bill earlier this year, saying he just wants to run on a problem instead of fixing it. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: When I am elected president, I will bring back that border security bill and I will sign it into law and do the work of focusing on what we must do to have an orderly and humane pathway to earn citizenship for hardworking people. I think it is a false choice for people who would say you do one or the other. I believe we must do both. I believe we can do both. And my pledge to you is to work on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: And Harris praised late Senator John McCain during her Arizona stop and told the crowd that the presidential race will be tight until the very end. CNN's Jeff Zeleny has more.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Kamala Harris traveling to Arizona to make the case that every day between now and Election Day is the time for her supporters to get to the polls. During a speech on Thursday night in the suburb of Phoenix, the vice president made an explicit case against former President Donald Trump, zeroing in on health care reform and abortion rights. She said it was time to turn the page.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: America is ready for a new way forward.

(APPALUSE)

And ready for a new optimistic generation of leadership for our country.

This is not 2016 or 2020. The stakes are even higher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: With only 26 days until November 5th, Vice President Harris is barnstorming the battleground states, but Arizona fits squarely in the middle of that. The 11 electoral votes here serve as something of a backup plan for her Blue Wall strategy of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. There is no question with early voting already underway, the vice president is trying to bank some support in a state that President Biden narrowly won by fewer than 11,000 votes just four years ago.

She believes the issue of abortion rights, which is also on the ballot here in Arizona could carry her to victory. But there is no question, former President Donald Trump traveling back to Arizona for a rally of his own this weekend. Arizona will be close until the end. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Chandler, Arizona.

BRUNHUBER: Former President Donald Trump spoke at the Detroit Economic Club in the Battleground State of Michigan on Thursday. He unveiled tax break proposals for Americans living overseas and those trying to buy a car. He also compared Detroit to a developing nation. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I don't think anything that we're talking about today is high on our list. The whole country is going to be like, you want to know the truth? It'll be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she's your president. We're a developing nation, too. Just take a look at Detroit. Detroit's a developing area, a hell of a lot more than most places in China.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Trump criticized the U.S. economy and called Harris dumber than hell, saying if she's elected, the U.S. will lose wealth and power. Despite Trump's false claims about the economy, new data shows the U.S. inflation continued to drop in September. Consumer price index was 2.4 percent in September, down from August.

Rescue crews are searching the rubble in central Beirut after deadly Israeli airstrikes. New criticism over putting civilians in harm's way.

[02:20:00]

Plus, Palestinians in Gaza, inconsolable after strikes on a school and clinic. What the Israeli military says was hidden inside the buildings. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: Rescue workers are searching the rubble in central Beirut, where the Lebanese Health Ministry says at least 22 people have been killed in the latest Israeli airstrikes. More than 100 others are wounded. Hezbollah says a senior official in charge of the group's domestic and international affairs was the target, but he survived.

[02:24:57]

Witnesses say the strikes flattened a four-story residential building packed with recently displaced people. The attacks on densely populated central Beirut are rare for Israel, which has mainly targeted the southern suburbs. Amnesty International is criticizing Israel's evacuation warnings for

civilians in Lebanon as misleading and inadequate. The rights group says Israel isn't providing information on safe evacuation routes or locations where people can seek refuge. No comment from the IDF.

Israel's prime minister says Lebanon is nearing the abyss of a war that could bring the kind of destruction seen in Gaza. But some parts of southern Lebanon have already been reduced to rubble. CNN's Ben Wedeman reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You have to walk carefully through the rubble, all that remains of three buildings in Tyre demolished by Israeli bombs. Neighbors say the bombing killed at least five people, including women and children.

(On camera): The Arabic spokesman for the Israeli military will occasionally, over Twitter or X, put out evacuation orders for specific buildings in Beirut before they're struck. Here in Tyre, there have been no warnings.

(Voice-over): For 35 years, Baha (ph) has run a small clothing shop next door, now in shambles. History is repeating itself, she says. A three-story building fell over our heads during the 1982 Israeli invasion. This ancient city is just 12 miles or 19 kilometers, from the border with Israel. Most of the residents have fled north. Those who stayed behind live under constant threat.

It was terrifying. The missile hit and it collapsed, says 70-year-old Miqdad (ph), describing another Israeli strike that destroyed multiple homes in Tyre's old city. For more than half a century, every generation has witnessed destruction and death. We're used to it, says Miqdad's (ph) neighbor, Youssef (ph). We're used to wars. We've seen wars. Going back to the days of the Phoenicians, Tyre has looked to the sea, now a forbidden zone.

Israel has warned people to stay off the beaches and fishermen not to take their boats out. So in Tyre's port, Abu Ibrahim (ph) sits and smokes his water pipe. We go to sea so we can eat, he tells me. Now we can't. How can we eat? An old man, deprived of his sea. Ben Wedeman, CNN, Tyre, Southern Lebanon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Iran's president is scheduled to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Turkmenistan in the day ahead. The talks follow an Israeli security cabinet meeting where officials tell CNN a vote was expected on how to respond to Iran's missile attack last week. Iran launched around 200 ballistic missiles last Tuesday, targeting Tel Aviv and military sites. Most were intercepted by Israel and the U.S., although some got through.

Iran's foreign minister is on a diplomatic mission to enlist the support of Gulf Arab states ahead of the possible Israeli retaliation. He visited Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. A regional diplomat tells CNN the United Arab Emirates won't allow its airspace to be used for any attack against Iran.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reports at least 28 people have been killed by an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza. The aid group says dozens of others were wounded at the school, which was being used as a shelter. The Israeli military claims terrorists were operating a command and control center at the site.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMAD JUNDIYEH, WITNESS (through translation): We were sitting in peace getting water from Al-Shamayr Square (ph). Some people were cleaning, others were sorting things out. They gave us no warning. They didn't tell us anything. Two missiles fell on us. One missile directly followed by another, which caused this huge destruction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Gaza civil defense officials report a separate strike killed at least six people at the clinic housing displaced people in northern Gaza. The IDF told CNN it wasn't aware of a strike on the clinic which said a targeted strike hit Hamas terrorists nearby.

A new U.N. report accuses Israel of a concerted policy to destroy health care facilities and target medical personnel in Gaza. Experts looked into the death of a five-year-old Palestinian girl who made headlines in January when she called emergency workers to rescue her.

Investigators say Israeli security forces prevented an ambulance from reaching the car where she and her family died. The report also accused the IDF of attacks on health care facilities and says Israel killed, detained and tortured medical personnel. The report says the siege of Gaza reduced the availability of life-saving equipment and medications.

[02:29:59]

Severe shortages of energy and supplies led to the collapse of the health care system and lack of treatment led to avoidable deaths and complications. Now, Israel has said it doesn't target hospitals and accuses Hamas of hiding inside and underneath medical facilities.

The trail of destruction from Hurricane Milton is still being assessed in Florida, but there are signs some things like the Tampa airport may soon return to normal. Details coming up.

Stay with us.

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[02:35:03]

BRUNHUBER: In just about two and a half hours, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is set to be announced.

Last year, Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi took home the metal. All right, to talk about who could take home the award this year,

we're joined by Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute, Oslo.

Thank you so much for being here with us again. Good to talk to you.

So, every year, you make a list of who you think would make a worthy winner. We have that list here. If we can pop that up, so I want to go through them quickly here.

So, first, in the context of the fact that so much of the world will be voting this year, you've chosen an organization that observes elections.

HENRIK URDAL, DIRECTOR OF THE PEACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, OSLO: Yes, exactly. This is the super election year. And so on top of my list, election up service make that spot, and I think the OSCE office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights that are overseeing elections in the whole world would be a very worthy candidate for such a price. We're seeing that democracy is on decline everywhere in the world. And so underscoring the importance of elections in stable democracies says a precondition really for peace and stability would be, I think, very appropriate this year.

BRUNHUBER: Democracy is in decline and war, unfortunately, on the rise with. So many ongoing, the conflict in Sudan is often overlooked, but there's a group responding to that conflict that you're picking. So explain who they are and why you pick them.

URDAL: Yeah, exactly the war in Sudan is one of the most serious humanitarian situations that we have in the world and it's not getting the attention that it needs. So, Sudan same urgency response rooms is a grassroots organization, it's youth led and it's local and it's providing basic services, shelter, medical care, food, and water to the population in Sudan that is -- that is under pressure and this is the 75th anniversary of the 1949 Geneva conventions focusing on protections of civilians in war.

And so, a price ice to an initiative like the emergency response rooms, I think would be both very appropriate and important in terms of highlighting the need for supporting structures like this in a situation of war.

BRUNHUBER: So, again, responding to a situation of war here. The next two, I want to put those two picks together.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza and the International Court of Justice, there's been a lot of backlash against the idea of rewarding those two organizations because they're perceived certainly by many in Israel as organizations that in the case of UNRWA have included a few employees being members of Hamas, very few confirmed it should be added, and the ICJ criticized as being biased and targeting Israel.

So why did you pick them? URDAL: So advice, it's important to say its a humanitarian

organization and said lifeline for nearly 6 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, but also in the neighboring countries. And it has staff over 30,000 and it's true that there have been allegations of ties at some of their employees. At the same time, it says very clearly that they have a zero tolerance policy, all those who are associated with militant organizations are dismissed, and it's important in conflicts like the one in Gaza that were seeing now, that were not politicizing the role of humanitarian organizations, this is an important U.N. organization providing absolutely essential support to a population in need and that's why I think it is important to highlight that we need to protect the offices of humanitarian organizations and advice and important such organization.

When it comes to the International Court of Justice, this is, of course, the primary U.N. arena for solving conflicts peacefully between states. It has ruled in a number of different cases, including both in Ukraine, saying very clearly that Russia needs to immediately suspend military operations in the country. It also has said that Israel has responsibility to prevent acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip, but it's in court that is also engaged in a number of other has major conflicts in recent in we solving them peacefully. And as such, it would speak very much to the part of Alfred Nobel's testament that refers to Peace Congress.

So I think that would be very appropriate candidate.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. We only have about a minute left, but I did want to ask you this before we go, there was one idea expressed by the director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute does, because there's fighting ranging in the Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan, as we discussed, many other countries, on a scale that we haven't seen before since the end of the Cold War in his words, that this year, no one should win, has been done before.

[02:40:05]

URDAL: Yeah.

BRUNHUBER: Would certainly send a strong statement. What do you -- what do you think about that?

URDAL: And that hasn't happened since 1972. I think they will assess that the prize should go to the person who's done the most are the best for peace and not giving out the prize would mean that there has been no important contributions to peace. And that is fortunately not the case. I think, you know, in times like this, we need the peace prize more than ever.

BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll have to leave it there, but always appreciate talking to you and we will find out who the winner will be in a couple of hours.

Henrik Urdal, thank you so much for joining us.

URDAL: Thank you. BRUNHUBER: And I want to thank all the viewers for joining me. I'm

Kim Brunhuber. "WORLD SPORT" is next. For our international viewers and for everyone in North America, I'll be back with much more on Hurricane Milton in just a few minutes.

Please do stay with us.

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[02:45:36]

BRUNHUBER: Incident inside a tourist mine in Colorado and nearly two dozen people had to be rescued. The group became stranded when an elevator malfunctioned during a tour of the gold mine. For roughly six hours, they were stuck at the bottom of the cold deep mine, which is about 1,000 feet below ground. The temperature was about 50 degrees.

Those trapped did have water, blankets, chairs, and a radio, but no access to bathrooms. No word yet on what caused the accident. The county sheriff told reporters what happened after the group was rescued.

Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON MIKESELL, TELLER COUNTY SHERIFF: They all came up very safely for the time. So we can get them through the surface and they're all in good spirits. We fend them pizza. That's what they wanted. So there's a good news story at the end of this, and that's really what were hoping for today and our prayers are with and just the trial that were able to go through with the first response honors to make sure this happened was great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: People in Florida continue to assess the damage and losses after Hurricane Milton left a trail of destruction from the gulf coast, on the western side of the peninsula, through the Atlantic Ocean on the east. The death toll from the storm now stands at 15 across six counties and more than 2.6 its million homes and businesses are still without power across the state, according to poweroutage.u.s.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says nearly 1,000 people have been rescued since Milton made landfall Wednesday night, more than 100 animals have also been brought to safety. The Tampa International Airport is expected to reopen to the public in the coming hours. And over the next 48 hours, tens of millions of gallons of gasoline and diesel will be delivered to south Florida. But some storm-weary residents are considering whether they want to rebuild.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have lived in Florida since 1989.

REPORTER: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never, never have I experienced damage or the amount of tornadoes that came to this area. And it was most frightening thing I'd ever live through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, the Biden administration is praising the federal governments response to the back-to-back disasters of two hurricanes and pushing back hard against the rampant flow of misinformation about the storms.

Here's President Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To all the people impacted by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, despite that misinformation and lies, the truth is we're providing the resources needed to rescue, recover, and rebuild.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Sadly, we have seen over the last two weeks since Hurricane Helene. And now in the immediate aftermath of Milton, where people are playing political games suggesting that that resources and support is only going to certain people based on a political agenda. And this is just not accurate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: While Hurricane Milton was making landfall on Friday, it spawned numerous tornados across southern Florida. Experts say these twisters were quote supercharged compared to the ones typically seen during hurricanes.

CNN's Jason Carroll has more.

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JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've been tracking Milton's wreckage throughout the state to try and get a better assessment of its path of destruction, and what is already clear, much of the damage occurred from a record number of tornadoes.

Some of the tornadic activity caught on camera in places like St. Lucie. St. Lucie hit with nine tornadoes, three of them striking in just 25 minutes. Florida had the most tornado warnings ever in a single day, at least 126 issued by the National Weather Service, and at least 15 confirmed touchdowns.

This is what it looked like, for example, driving through places like Fort Pierce today. You can see that there are destroyed buildings everywhere, debris still on the ground.

Weather experts say these tornadoes were different. They say they were supercharged, meaning that they were more powerful and lasted longer once they were on the ground.

We've also heard so much about storms surge, places like Fort Myers and Naples, for example, experienced more than five feet of storm surge. Water flooding the first floors of businesses and homes.

By day, for example, this is what it looked like places like Punta Gorda, there were boats all over the place on land where they should not be, places like in a park, on sidewalks, once again, showing the power of storm surge during its worse.

And now, an overview of some of the flooding and its aftermath.

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Keep in mind, some spots in Florida saw a months-worth of rain in a single day, more than 18 inches in St. Petersburg, more than 14 inches in Clearwater Beach. Rescues like this one taking place today, for example.

This teenager got stuck in the water, needed some help getting out. He thought he could make his way through but ran into trouble, needed rescuing by the Hillsborough County sheriff's department. He's going to be okay.

There's also aerial footage from that very same sheriff's department showing more people being rescued. They were also trapped in their homes, needed help getting out this morning due to those high floodwaters. And while this was definitely not the worst-case scenario there in Florida is still so much destruction and loss of life.

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BRUNHUBER: Mayor of Clearwater, Florida, says residents of flooded apartment complex lost everything. First responders found people trapped in neck deep water when they arrived, the apartment complex was outside of the evacuation zones, leading to many residents hunkering down there. More than 500 people were rescued.

The Clearwater mayor spoke with CNN's Anderson Cooper.

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MAYOR BRUCE RECTOR, CLEARWATER, FLORIDA: Of course, we had Hurricane Helene just two weeks ago, and the storm surge was devastating for us for that. Million are barrier islands. So we were really worried about getting people evacuated from those high risk areas. And we did. We got a lot of folks off.

This hurricane was so different, though. We didn't really experience the storm surge. What we experienced was flooding in areas where people were not prepared for flooding. People like Sheriff Chronister said an area that was a non-evacuation zone and people who are very economically vulnerable. So that was this apartment complex that our first responders bravely got in and save 500 people from today.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yes, I mean, that's -- we're showing some of the video of that apartment complex in Clearwater. What more can you tell us about it? I mean, how long did that go on for?

RECTOR: Well, they were calling for help during the hurricane. It's -- and I really feel for those folks because they weren't told to evacuate so they weren't expecting it. But we couldn't put our first responders at risk during the storm. But just as soon as they could get out there, first responders are amazing people. And they got out there right before sunrise.

When they saw the situation, they had people neck deep, chest deep. They had this first floor, which they weren't sure if there were people still alive in there or not. So it was an overwhelming task. So they pulled in the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, two other Florida County Sheriff's offices and state agency from the state of Florida to scour the whole building, do a search and rescue operation. And eventually they ended up removing 500 people.

COOPER: Wow. So where do they go now?

RECTOR: Like -- very much like Sheriff Chronister just said, these are folks who didn't have much and they've lost everything. You see the vehicles in the parking lot. They've lost the vehicle, all their personal belongings. They don't have the money to go get a place on their own. So, we've moved them to temporary shelters.

But this -- this apartment complex they live in is probably uninhabitable. We're going to have to work very hard to find a permanent place for these folks to transition to.

COOPER: Do you have a sense of just how much damage there has been? I mean, kind of the -- how much it's going to cost, how long it may take to recover?

RECTOR: Well, we were on our heels after Hurricane Helene. We probably -- and this is Mayor Castor will tell you and Mayor Welch in St. Petersburg, we probably in each of our cities only had about 20 to 25 percent of the debris removed from Helene. So, we've still got lots of debris to get out. And now we've got folks without of electricity, as you pointed out during this program, that we've got to find a way for elderly folks to be comfortable for maybe as long as a week or two, and also to have food. So, it's going to be for the next two weeks a significant relief effort and just taking care of people.

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BRUNHUBER: A dramatic rescue off the Florida coast hours after Hurricane Milton blew across the state. Have a look. This footage is from a U.S. Coast Guard chopper teams found the owner of a fishing boat clinging to a floating soft drink cooler, 30 miles off the coast. It took eight hours to recover him once he was located.

The Coast Guard command center chief said the man survived a nightmare scenario, even for the most experienced sailor. And it was thanks to his life jacket, emergency locator beacon and of course, that cooler.

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He was flown to Tampa General Hospital for treatment.

An intense solar storm is making the northern lights visible much farther south than usual. People up and down the eastern United States are getting a stunning light show. Have a look at those pictures. Now this image was captured in New Jersey, even when auroras can't be seen with the naked eye photos of the night sky can capture intense colors. Now further up the coast in Maine, a woman captured this video, curtains of color up here on the sun's energy, interact with the earth's atmosphere.

In Massachusetts, meteorologists say, Thursdays weather was perfect for a light show and stunning images have also been seeing this week in Canada, England, Germany, and Finland.

All right. I'm Kim Brunhuber in Atlanta. The news continues in a few minutes, please do stay with us.

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