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Gov. Ron DeSantis Holds Hurricane Idalia News Conference. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 30, 2023 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: A press conference from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The latest updates on resources, on where things stand as Hurricane Idalia, now a category four storm that's been rapidly intensifying over the course of the last several hours, approaches imminently landfall on Florida's gulf coast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the surge is coming. It's coming over the wall right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: You are now watching breaking news coverage for the category four storm Hurricane Idalia.

I want to take you now to Governor Ron DeSantis, who is having his press conference down in Tallahassee.

Take a listen.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): -- Big Bend region of Florida. The National Hurricane Center expects storm surge to reach up to 16 feet in some areas of the big bend region. That level of storm surge is life- threatening.

Do not go outside in the midst of this storm. If it's calm where you are, it may be because you are in the eye of the storm, and those conditions will change very, very quickly. So, wherever you are, hunker down and - and don't take anything for granted here. This is a very, very powerful storm.

There will be impacts far beyond the eye wall, and those will extend to places like Tallahassee, as well as places like northeast Florida. We have already had 11 tornado warnings, and there are more tornadoes possible, even and especially in the very outer bands of the storm. So, these are places that are way outside the cone that you see on the TV screen. So, please keep in mind, those are very, very dangerous situations. When the storm passes, do not drive in flooded streets and assume that

all downed power lines are still hot and live. And there's going to be people working to - to remedy that. And we've got a lot of people staged. But that is very hazardous in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

We currently have 54,000 households that are out of power throughout the state of Florida, but there have been over 100,000 households that have already been restored through hard work all through the night. And those restoration efforts are ongoing. Any place it's safe to do, people are there working to get that done.

As soon as it's safe to do so, when the winds die down to a sufficient level, search and rescue efforts will begin. We have eight urban search and rescue teams staged, ready to go, 33 ambulance strike teams, 5,500 national guardsmen. We also have the Coast Guard on standby should that be necessary.

There will be an immediate effort to restore power to people who lose power. There's 30,000 plus linemen stationed and ready to go to commence restoration efforts for local municipalities and electric co- ops. Please accept mutual aid. These are folks that can come supplement your efforts. And, again, the goal is just to get everybody back online as quickly as possible.

There will be a lot of debris from this storm. There's going to be a need to have all hands on deck to be able to do. And, accordingly, our Florida Department of Transportation, we have 650 pieces of heavy equipment and trucks staged for cut and toss operations post storm. We anticipate there to be a lot of debris, a lot of downed trees, a lot of downed power lines and there's going to be a need for this. We also have 1,100 generators staged for - for traffic signal restoration. We anticipate that that's going to be a problem in a number of communities as well.

Fuel. We have 1.2 million gallons staged. We're also arranging more fuel to come in by truck just to make up for whatever may not be coming in through the normal course of business with things like the Port of Tampa being closed.

[06:35:02]

And so there's a lot of fuel that has been arranged to be here and our goal is to not have any major fuel interruptions.

In terms of communications, there's 500 plus StarLink internets ready for deployment to places that need to be. There's already been almost 250 that have been deployed. So as affected areas need that connectivity, Florida Division of Emergency Management is going to work to provide that.

MATTINGLY: We just lost the feed of Governor Ron DeSantis. He is giving updates on what is now a category four storm from Tallahassee.

We will take you bake to him as soon as we know -- we're going to take you back to him right now. We have the feed back. DESANTIS: Do not run that generator inside your home. Do not run it

inside your garage. It must be run outside your house. It needs to be at least 20 feet away from doors and windows. And you have to point the exhaust away from your home. We do not want to see any fatalities as a result of misuse of generators.

So, there's a lot of people that are - that are on deck right now. There's going to be a lot of efforts as this storm passes. But this thing is hitting really within the next hour and a half most likely. It's going to make landfall. It is a major hurricane, as we have been saying. It was likely to be for the last couple days. And we just hope everybody stays safe. Don't put your life at risk by doing anything dumb at this point.

This thing's powerful. If you're inside, just hunker down until it gets past you. You don't want to be messing around with these winds. There's going to be things flying all over the place. Obviously, if you're in a place that's close to the coast and you see that surge, that's going to be legitimate surge. It's going to be a big, big deal, and it's going to be very, very dangerous.

And there we go with our - with our power here. We're back.

So I'm going to have Kevin Guthrie come up. We'll also hear from Major General Haas, Admiral Schofield, and then one of our Leon County commissioners, Christian Caban, will be here.

So, Kevin.

KEVIN GUTHRIE, DIRECTOR, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Right on time, five-second delay, and kicked those generators in. So, thank God that's working.

As the governor said, the storm is here. It is here now. It is just off the coast of the Big Bend. Looking like Keyton Beach is going to be the location in which we have landfall.

Stay off the roads. If you're sheltering in place at home, stay inside your home. If you're at a shelter or a hotel, please do not leave at this time.

Conditions are deteriorating outside in the - in the impacted areas. Shelter, again, as we've said, shelter in place as safely as you can, where you can.

We are seeing two to three foot of storm surge in the Tampa Bay area. We're seeing about four foot of storm surge right now at Cedar Key. Because of this high tide, because of the high tide which is coming, the tide is starting to come back in throughout the -- all the way from Tampa Bay all the way up through Apalachicola Bay. Storm surge will dramatically increase over the next couple of hours.

We're seeing a lot of tornado warnings. So far there have been 11, as the governor has said. Of the four or five that have happened since about 3:00 a.m. this morning, at least three of those by our meteorologists have indicated radar indicated tornadoes. In other words, they have seen debris in those rotations. But that will all be confirmed by the National Weather Service local forecasting offices throughout the day.

We will begin - we will obviously see more tornadic activity as the day goes along. If you are in a tornado warning in your area, get to an interior room, free from windows, consider putting mattresses and things over your head, even to include helmets. We can replace a lot of limbs, but we cannot replace your head, obviously. So, please protect your head, cover your head at all costs.

There will be also life-threatening winds in the big bend today. We could see gusts over 100 miles an hour. We could see sustained winds well over 130 miles an hour as we have this cat four landfall. All of these are life-threatening conditions, so please do everything you can to stay safe where you are because first responders may not be able to reach you during the storm.

You need to be prepared to take care of yourself and your family while you're sheltering in place. Ambulances, search and rescue teams, other first responders will get to you just as fast as we possibly can once the winds die down to a point where we can respond to you. We do not want you putting first responders at risk unnecessarily.

In southwest Florida, as the governor has already mentioned, we've already restored over 100,000 accounts with power.

[06:40:03]

I want to thank the men and women of our utilities, both -- or all three independent owned utilities, Municipal Electric Associations and Cooperatives, really appreciate the hard work that they've been doing. Even here in Tallahassee, as I was coming back to the USC (ph) in the early wee morning hours, you know, Tallahassee Electric was out restoring power here in the capital region. So, again, very much appreciate what they're doing.

We will continue to respond as we can. As, again, as I said, we've already started responding to issues in southwest Florida. I talked to Representative Adam Botana from Fort Myers Beach this morning at about 3:00 a.m., and he has said it's very Irma like conditions. Not a lot of storm surge. Not a lot of damage. But certainly not Ian. But he said it's very reminiscent of what they experienced in Hurricane Irma. So, we're happy to hear that and appreciate him giving me a call to giving me a ground truth.

We are here. We are ready. We will deploy our response and recovery teams just as quickly as we possibly can. You know we like to move very quickly here at the division. We are ready to provide the needed support to our big bend communities, as well as communities with standing impacts from the other bands of the storm. Under the governor's leadership, we have certainly amassed a great team here at the division and -- with state agency heads that have moved bureaucracy and red tape to get things done to where we're restoring 100,000 accounts in less than eight hours.

So, please rest assured, we will do whatever it takes to help our communities recover from Idalia.

I've got General Haas - or we have General Haas here this morning. Again, John, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you and your team. Admiral Schofield, the same way. I appreciate everything you guys are doing.

They have helicopters ready to go. As soon as they're going to be able to get back into this area, they are going to be flying. They're going to be in the area. So, again, thank you for both of you being here.

Governor.

MAJ. GEN. JOHN D. HAAS, ADJUTANT GENERAL OF FLORIDA: Good morning. And, Governor, thank you again for your leadership and your continued support of your Florida National Guard.

Director Guthrie, thank you again for your tremendous work and the work of your team to protect our Florida citizens.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to those in the affected areas of the storm that are being -- those that are being affected already.

As I mentioned yesterday, the Florida National Guard is fully mobilized with over 5,500 soldiers and airmen ready to support hurricane response efforts. We expect that throughout the day we will be actively engaged in a multitude of missions, including search and rescue, damage assessment and route clearance. In addition, we continue to man the state logistics response center and many other logistic and staging areas throughout the state of Florida, as well as support the 26 county emergency management operation centers with liaison specialists.

The Florida National Guard currently has on hand 2,400 vehicles available, including high mobility and high-water vehicles, 14 rotary wing aircraft with additional aviation assets coordinated with our neighboring states through a mutual aid agreement, and 23 small water craft to support search and rescue operations and delivery of supplies to flooded areas.

Your Florida National Guard is prepared to accomplish any missions required by the Department of Emergency Management, and we stand ready to support our neighbors and fellow citizens in need.

Thank you.

REAR ADM. DOUG SCHOFIELD, COMMANDER, SEVENTH COAST GUARD DISTRICT: All right, good morning.

Governor, Director Guthrie and fellow Floridians, the Coast Guard is standing the watch to support our state and federal partners. Our highest priority is always saving lives.

We prepositioned 15 aircraft and more than 25 cutters and 20 flood response teams prepared to respond in the wake of this storm as soon as conditions safely allow. We have prepositioned aircraft in Miami and West Palm Beach and they'll be the first ones to respond in the wake of the storm. Yesterday, these flight crews conducted over flights of the western Florida area up to the big bend area, and made call outs to mariners to seek shelter, as well as to really familiarize ourselves with the landscape pre-storm arrival. So, we're ready to go.

We're also assembling our flood response teams from both inside and outside the state so we can assist both the Florida team and FEMA with the urban search and rescue. We're also ready to launch aircraft for urgent maritime search and rescue in the vicinity of Tampa and the big bend area as the storm passes.

[06:45:00]

Our second priority is the reconstitution of ports and waterways, really critical to our marine transportation system. So urgently needed so that resources can make it to the communities in need. We expect to begin overflight damage assessment of the west coast of Florida at first light as soon as this storm passes and safe flight conditions allow. We will follow in the wake of the storm to also assist with impacts on the east coast of Florida.

We also -- our buoy tenders and units will conduct port assessments and reconstitution efforts with our aides (ph) to navigation teams and the Army Corps of Engineers. Depending on sea conditions and port conditions, we hope to have those cutters near shore in the next several days.

Our third priority is environmental response to address pollution, or contamination concerns as a result of the hurricane and the storm surge flooding. The marine environmental response to mitigate and clean up potential pollutants and damaged infrastructure will be a long, committed effort.

We're adding the response phase of this operation. This is one of the most critical and certainly the most dangerous of our operations in response to the hurricane. Because these are dangerous conditions, we need to ensure that our aircraft and rescue crews can operate safely, especially as they may encounter downed power lines, surging and receding flood waters and other visible and subsurface hazards.

Our crews are really highly trained and fully equipped to meet this challenge. Once again, our highest priority is to save lives here for fellow Floridians. If you need assistance but are in a safe location, we ask you to communicate your stress for first responders by dialing 911 or calling on VHF radio channel 16. And definitely stay where you are. We will come to you.

If you don't need assistance, we ask you to stay put in safe shelter. Please allow the emergency responders to do their job safely without interference.

Thank you to our local, state and federal partners working together in this hurricane effort. We really appreciate the partnership.

Thank you. CHRISTIAN CABAN, LEON COUNTY, FLORIDA, COMMISSIONER: Good morning. My

name is Christian Caban. I'm a Leon County commissioner. I'm here today to assist in the briefing of our community on the impacts of Hurricane Idalia.

Leon County residents, Hurricane Idalia has moved slightly east of Leon County. This storm will have a lasting impact on surrounding communities. This is a historic category four storm, predicted to have life-threatening storm surge, hurricane-force winds and heavy rain.

Leon County residents, you should expect downed trees, blocked roads, power outages, flooding and overall dangerous conditions. Now more than ever you must stay informed and follow all emergency orders. Everyone must shelter in place until this storm has passed. Please continue to follow Leon County on social media, our website, and local radio station WFSU. I encourage everyone to try and hunker down and stay safe until the storm has passed.

Once the storm passes, we may have many people without power and there may be lots of debris in the roads. Public works, along with its partners, will be working 24/7 on the recovery effort of restoring power and clearing roads. Many roads will be blocked by trees or flooding. Waters are dangerous to drive on. Please do not use roadways unless it is safe or an emergency. Stay home if you can. Please give first responders time to clear the way and restore power.

Folks, Leon County staff is the best of the best. I'm thankful and confident that our team will be working around the clock to restore normalcy to our community. I'd also like to thank the governor and state staff for their ability to respond quickly in assisting not only Leon County but our neighbors on the gulf coast as well as we prepare for impact this morning.

Thank you and God bless.

DESANTIS: So, we are going to have the full landfall impacts very, very shortly, within the next couple hours. Most likely probably by 0800 it's going to make landfall on Florida's big bend. So, please hunker down wherever you are. Don't mess with this storm. Don't do anything that's going to put yourself in jeopardy. And there will be a lot of help coming on the back end of this storm. And we're ready to go.

We -- as soon as it's safe to do so, you're going to see all these different assets deployed. So, stay safe.

Any questions?

QUESTION: Do you feel like the state and residents here are prepared for this strength of a storm, you know, potentially a category five?

[06:50:01]

I know we're in category four.

DESANTIS: I think they're -- I think if you look at the counties, I think that they mobilized very quickly. I think that they've been very clear about the storm surge threat and all these zone a's across the gulf coast and probably more so than any storm that I can remember in recent years. So, people understand. You know, we've said from the beginning it was going to probably be a major hurricane. And that's what it is. And so we're here, and we're ready, and we're going to work hard on the back end to make sure everyone gets back up on their feet.

QUESTION: Is the message to shelter in place for all 49 counties that are under the state of emergency?

DESANTIS: So, it's -- if you're in a part -- there's counties where the storm's passed, so there may be some outer bands. That's not necessarily saying shelter. It's saying, if you're in the path of where the eye wall is going, you know, at this point you've got to hunker down. And so those big bend counties, as we get into north central Florida, you know, you're in - you're in jeopardy at that point. And so it's really those places where it's going to hit the eye wall, where the eye wall is coming in to be able to not mess with it. It's going to be a significant, significant impact.

QUESTION: Any concerns about the hundred that decided to stay on Cedar Key?

DESANTIS: Well, sure. I think that it's a hazardous situation. If you end up with storm surge that even approaches that 16 feet, the chance of surviving that is not great. You would need to be maybe even like on a three-story building because it is going to rise very, very highly. So -- but I -- there were some people -- now, most people did heed the warning, but there were some that just -- that's just -- that's what they wanted to do. And so once this passes, there will be rescue efforts done, and done if need be, and hopefully it's not necessarily, hopefully they knew what they were doing and they have a spot. But it's - you know, it's potentially very, very hazardous when you're talking about really anything even approaching ten feet. But when you start talking about potentially 16 feet, that is a huge, huge deal.

QUESTION: Yesterday the expectation was that there would be 40,000 electrical linemen in state to respond to the restoration effort. Did we reach that?

DESANTIS: What are the - well, we said up to. We said probably between 30 and 40, and that's where we're at?

GUTHRIE: Yes, we're between 30 and 40.

DESANTIS: Yes.

GUTHRIE: I -- we haven't talked to the crews this morning, because they're actually out in the field doing what they're doing. So, we're not so much worried about the numbers right now as much as we are getting the power restored. So --

DESANTIS: Yes.

Oh.

QUESTION: Do you - do you think that Florida caught a break here in the fact that we're -- this is in the big bend and not areas like the Tampa Bay area?

DESANTIS: Well, it's not a break for the people that are in the pathway. So, I think it's -- anytime you have it, it's difficult. You know, if you just look at the way Florida is cut, to have something go in this big bend, and it's going to be to Georgia relatively soon, whereas we've had some hurricanes, I mean like Ian, it rams in the southwest Florida and then it cut across the entire state and really impacted many, many millions of people.

So, you don't want to get hit at all. You want it to be as modest an impact as is humanly possible. And I think that there's different paths that some of these storms have taken. Ian was one that was a really bad path just because it impacted so many people. Like, you know, people saw the images of Fort Myers Beach, and, obviously, that was a catastrophic -- those were catastrophic images. But, you know, you would go hundreds of miles away and you had major, major flooding, you had erosion on the east coast of Florida in places like Volusia County, the beaches and things like that. You had structures falling down because of that. So, it had massive, massive impacts.

And so any time you do this, you know, you would want it to impact as small amount of places as possible.

QUESTION: What do you think about Trump? You know, he's a resident here in Florida and he hasn't commented on Idalia at all yet.

DESANTIS: It's not my concern. My concern is protecting the people of Florida, being ready to go. And we've done that. And, look, we -- in Florida you just have to do this. I mean this is something we've put a lot of time and effort into throughout the course of each year knowing that there's going to be time where you're going to have to activate it.

Now, we had a major one last year. One of the most expensive on record. We were hoping not to have any this year, that maybe we would get off lucky and -- but that just didn't - it wasn't in the cards. So, you deal with it. But that's - that's been our focus, getting all this stuff ramped up.

I think the counties, by and large, I think, have done a really good job with this, and, you know, there's going to be things that are going to happen over these next few days that are going to require a lot of support and we want to be there to be able to support folks.

So, we'll be back with doing some more briefings. And then as soon as this storm passes, I think we'll probably end up trying to get on the road and figure out where the - where the damage, the worst damage is, and get down there, and see what we can do to be able to help those folks.

[06:55:09]

Thanks.

MATTINGLY: Well, you've been listening to Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida state and local officials giving a briefing on the latest on the preparations and the latest on what is now a category four hurricane, a major storm, that according to DeSantis could make landfall or will make landfall by around 8:00 a.m., about an hour and five minutes from now. He warned those in its path, particularly in the big bend region, to hunker down, to, quote, "not do anything dumb" at this point. This is very real. The storm surge is a big, big problem. The winds are very dangerous. There is preparation.

There are certainly a number of state, federal and local assets prepared for the aftermath, as was laid out by all of his top officials. But it is very clear that in this moment, just an hour before landfall, at what his emergency management division director said would be about Keyton Beach, Florida, in that big bend region, it is time to be safe, hunker down and get to a safe place.

We are going to have much more on this coming up, including President Biden, who his federal resources have been deployed in the area as well. My colleague Betsy Klein at the White House says he will be speaking about this publicly this afternoon when he convenes his cabinet. Obviously FEMA playing an enormous role on the federal level as well. So you've got federal, state, local, and, obviously, residents as well. We'll be talking to all of them over the course of the next several hours.

Again, this has been a rapid intensification of a major storm with no precedent in hitting this region where it is headed, the big bend region of Florida. We are going to keep you updated throughout the course of the next several hours. You just heard from Governor Ron DeSantis, as he said, significant, significant impact. That impact coming within the next hour or so.

We'll be back with more. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: The breaking news we're following this morning, you're looking at it, or at least parts of it in Tampa, Florida, it is Hurricane Idalia. It is now an extremely dangerous category four storm and it is expected to make landfall along Florida's west coast very soon.

Governor Ron DeSantis, just moments ago, saying around roughly 8:00 a.m., one hour from now. Forecasters calling Idalia, quote, "dangerous," "life-threatening," a "once in a lifetime storm" that could bring catastrophic storm surge of up to 16 feet in some places.

Sara Sidner is standing by live in Crystal River, Florida. Also part of team coverage, Bill Weir in Steinhatchee, Florida, Derek Van Dam, who's been in Tampa throughout the course of the morning, Brian Todd and John Berman are in Tallahassee, where we just saw DeSantis and the power go out of that press conference as the outer bands of the storm start to hit that city.

[07:00:06]

I want to starting, though, with Sara Sidner in Crystal River.

Sara, it has been intensifying.