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CNN This Morning

Hurricane Milton Slams Florida, 3 Million Without Power. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired October 10, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, just before 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at Hillsborough County, Florida, in the Tampa area.

[05:59:37]

Police beginning search-and-rescue efforts ahead of daybreak officials in Tampa are all expected to hold a news conference any moment now to give an update. We will, of course, bring that to you live as it happens.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's Thursday, October 10. It's wonderful to have you with us. But we do continue to cover this difficult breaking news this morning.

Hurricane Milton hammering Florida with life-threatening floods, extreme wind, and deadly tornadoes. In St. Petersburg, a one-in-1,000- year rainfall, the storm dumping at least 18 inches of rain on the area.

Stunning footage from the Tampa Bay Rays baseball field. The roof of the stadium ripped off by the storm. It had been housing thousands of first responders.

And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CRASHING SOUND)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey! (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- taking the building.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A crane collapsing into the side of a building, leaving debris in the road.

Currently, more than 3 million people are without power across the state. The powerful storm slamming into Florida's Gulf Coast as a Category 3 hurricane before weakening to a Category 1 as it made its way East across the state.

Dozens of tornadoes touching down across Florida, including in St. Lucie County, where the sheriff says multiple people were killed. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF KEITH PEARSON, ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FLORIDA (via phone): Our area's not used to seeing any kind of tornado activity. We had one tornado pop up. It actually struck our sheriff's office, taking out a 10,000 square-foot red (ph) iron structure that was housing all of our emergency equipment in preparation for Hurricane Milton.

Shortly after that, maybe 20 minutes later, all of our alarms have gone off. All the messages came out there. Our deputies reported at least visually seeing six tornados on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Until the sun comes up this morning on Florida, the full damage from Hurricane Milton is still unclear.

Let's go first to Isabel Rosales. We find her in Plant City, Florida where water rescues are going on right now. Isabel, what's the latest?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kasie, I am in Plant City. This is the Eastern portion of Hillsborough County. This is an area that is not used to seeing flash flooding like this, not at all. This is inland.

So, what's happening is that people are waking up this morning blindsided, surprised to find themselves suddenly trapped.

Like we saw at a Holiday Inn not too far from here. I mean, look at -- look at this. Look how high the floodwaters are and how it's raging in some areas here by -- I think this is a creek right here.

So, the Holiday Inn, we were just there, where an amphibious vehicle from HCSO, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's office, just picked up two customers there who were trapped, had some mobility issues. They couldn't get out, because the entire parking lot, the hotel was surrounded by these floodwaters. Cars were under the floodwaters.

So, they put them in that vehicle and got them out into dry land, into safety.

HCSO is now going through so many of these calls, trying -- to see who is in need of help and -- and ordering them by priority.

We know that in the Northern part of the county, there is an assisted living facility with 100-plus patients, people that are using wheelchairs, people who cannot -- they're bedridden and need help. They're in complex medical situations.

So, we know that there's another vehicle out that way, providing them help as we speak right now.

So, the sun, Kasie, is not even up, and we're starting to get our first understanding of the aftermath of Milton. And of course, the biggest priority is getting these -- to these lives and rescuing people and getting them into safe situations -- Kasie. HUNT: As you note, of course, these were people who had done what they were asked to do, because it was so far inland. As you just spoke, a couple of minutes ago with the sheriff there of Hillsborough County.

Isabel Rosales on scene for us. Isabel, we'll be back with you throughout the hour. Thank you very much for that report.

Let's go down to Clearwater, Florida, which is dealing with a one-two punch.

The city saw record storm surge from Hurricane Helene. Now of course, the fallout from high winds and flooding, rain from Hurricane Milton.

Joining us now is Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector.

Mr. Mayor, thank you very much for being with us this morning. What can you tell us about what your residents are facing at this hour?

MAYOR BRUCE RECTOR, CLEARWATER, FLORIDA: I feel like we've received a direct hit from the hurricane. And when you combine the two hurricanes that came, through: terrible storm surge, which we've talked about two weeks ago; and then last night, hurricane-force winds and heavy rain, which caused flooding in places which normally don't flood in Clearwater and throughout the county.

And then you saw the wind damage just South of here in St. Petersburg on the baseball stadium. And as I drove my car a short -- short distance from my hotel to city hall this morning, there were trees down everywhere.

Many of the trees damaged by wind, as you might expect. But also, we had trees collapse because the ground was so wet and saturated that the trees collapsed.

HUNT: So, Mr. Mayor, what can you tell people who are just waking up this morning who may unexpectedly be needing help to do at this point? And what are your first responders doing at this hour?

[06:05:07]

RECTOR: We're reaching out, and we're -- we're going to make -- return any calls that we get, hopefully. And I haven't heard yet that we've had to, you know, rescue anyone from a dangerous situation yet.

But we had a lot of elderly who were in shelters, and I'm sure they are very uncomfortable. And I'm sure with their medical needs and being in an uncomfortable place, that our firefighters, our EMTs are working very hard this morning to assist them.

HUNT: All right. Mayor Bruce Rector of Clearwater, Florida.

Mr. Mayor, thanks very much for your time this morning. We wish you and all your residents our best.

All right. Let's go now, live.

RECTOR: Thank you for having me.

HUNT: Of course.

Officials in the city of Tampa are going to be holding a press conference very shortly to give an update on the damage. We're going to bring that to you soon.

In the meantime, we're going to continue our breaking news coverage of Hurricane Milton.

Next, well, we're seeing scenes like this. Roads in Fort Myers Beach looking more like rivers overnight due to storm surge and flash flooding.

And in just a few hours, Governor Ron DeSantis and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell plan to hold a press conference to give an update on the damage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right. Welcome back. Officials in the city of Tampa now holding a press conference with an update on the damage from Hurricane Milton. Let's listen in live.

MAYOR JANE CASTOR (D), TAMPA, FLORIDA: Any trees or wires down, call in and report those. And we will get them fixed as quickly as we can.

We survived through Milton. We can't lose anybody in the aftermath. So, please be careful out there.

Next, I'm going to bring up Chief Barbara Tripp.

BARBARA TRIPP, FIRE CHIEF, TAMPA, FLORIDA: Thank you, Mayor. And once again, as the mayor stated, good morning. Just want to thank all the first responders who have started responding to calls.

As the mayor stated, we had over 100 calls that came in. We are -- responded to calls, and within that timeframe, we had a couple of fires that took place within the city of Tampa.

Our crews are out there assessing those fires and making sure that there's no other damage to any other structures and nearby.

Throughout the night, some of the calls that was coming in, like she said, was downed power lines, minor medical calls and a lot of fire alarms.

Each one of those calls will be evaluated, and our crews will respond to those calls.

Now, we talk about damage assessment. It's that time to let the experts get out and do a damage assessment to the areas before you go out. We don't want no one to create any more injuries, to be able to pull the first responders into the area to respond. Some of the conditions we won't be able to get to. We still have

flooding in certain areas. And once again, we will not be able to get the responders to those areas.

[06:10:07]

Power is out throughout the city of Tampa and many residents. We know a lot of residents have generators. We want you to follow the manufacturer's instructions when you start the generators. It must be in a well-ventilated area. Please do not put it in your garage or inside your home. And do not let the generator get wet.

Only plug in the important appliances that you need to plug in for safety.

And do not use candles, especially unattended candles. Candles does cause hazards, fires. And once again, we don't want anyone to cause any additional disasters that's going to cause the first responder to respond. And if they cannot get to your location.

We want you to be vigilant when it's time to turn your power back on, when TECO give the word that your power. Because we do have certain surges that take place and can cause other fire hazards. We want everyone to be safe.

And as the mayor stated, let us get out, do the assessment before you go out and create more damage or injuries or situations where we won't be able to help you.

Now I introduce Chief Bercaw.

CHIEF LEE BERCAW, TAMPA POLICE DEPARTMENT: Thank you, Chief Tripp.

Our city has endured a lot. And it's -- our city is a very resilient city. After preparing for Hurricane Helene and recovering from that, we were preparing for Hurricane Milton.

And I want to commend everyone out there that heeded the emergency evacuation order. Definitely saved lives.

And as you know, over a dozen police officers have lost their homes, but still came to help the city during Hurricane Milton.

As Chief Tripp mentioned, she had a rescue of a house where a tree fell on it. We also had a rescue earlier in the evening last night. We were dispatched to a call where 15 people were in a house where the tree had fell on the house and water was coming in the house. There were children in the house. And we were able to get officers out there safely and rescue 15, including young children, and take them to the Piso (ph) Elementary School shelter. We will provide video of that later for everybody to see.

That's just one example of the hard work and the great first responder efforts that are out there saving lives.

It is imperative that everybody stay inside and do not drive out on the roads. We have hundreds of calls of power lines down. We have trees down. And we are out there actively making the city and the streets safe. So, please stay indoors until we give you the all clear.

And again, we are in this together. We will be safer together if you heed our warnings and stay in and stay off the road.

And next, I'll bring up Mirabel (ph) for our Spanish translation.

MIRABEL (ph), TRANSLATOR: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

HUNT: All right. We are continuing to listen in to this briefing from Tampa officials here on the latest on Hurricane Milton.

But we want to go now to the National Hurricane Center, where we find Michael Brennan, who has been tracking the latest for the storm.

Michael. Good morning to you. It's not -- you were with us, of course, yesterday morning, as well.

Help us understand what we saw from this, because it seems as though Tampa was spared the storm, the worst of the storm surge that was predicted. But of course, they're now dealing with flash flooding further inland than expected, as well as this damage from wind, including ripping the roofs off that baseball stadium.

MICHAEL BRENNAN, DIRECTOR, NOAA'S NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Yes. I mean, unfortunately, Kasie, we've seen Milton play out pretty much as expected as we went from landfall through the substantial impacts, we've seen all across much of central Florida overnight.

Yes, you're right. With the center coming in South of Tampa that pushed the worst storm surge down into places like Venice and down into Sarasota County. But the flooding -- the flooding that you saw in the Tampa area with 18 inches of rain in St. Petersburg, greater than 15 inches in some locations, really -- it puts a lot of water everywhere. Anyway, regardless of whether it's coming from the bay or from the sky.

And then they got into that Northwestern eyewall where we saw some really intense winds, and they were in that eyewall for quite some time.

And you've seen the damage. You've seen the wind damage, with gusts 90, 100 miles per hour across portions of central Florida.

Still substantial winds ongoing along the Florida East coast this morning. It's still a very dangerous situation across much of Florida.

It's important to remind people that we lose a lot of people after storms in these types of major hurricane landfalls. So, we want people to be safe in that post-storm environment. Don't go out and about. It's dark. There's damage. There's flooded water. There may be power lines down. Don't be going out until your local officials tell you it's safe to do so.

HUNT: Yes. A really critical reminder. [06:15:02]

What are you watching for, especially in terms of -- and we saw some significant tornado damage in Port St. Lucie. Reports that people have lost their lives. What -- what maybe -- what may we still be looking for there?

BRENNAN: Well, the tornado threat has largely passed, I think, at this point, but you know, what we're looking for this morning is, you know, sustained hurricane-force winds and the hurricane-force gusts along much of the East Coast of Florida. Still seeing storm surge this morning, heavy rainfall. There's ongoing flooding.

So still, multiple hazards playing out that are going to continue at least through the morning and into the early afternoon hours.

HUNT: All right. Michael Brennan at the National Hurricane Center. Sir, thank you very much for all you do every day and especially today. Thanks so much.

BRENNAN: Thanks.

HUNT: All right. We're going to continue our breaking news coverage as Hurricane Milton marches across Florida.

Up next, the roof of Tropicana Field, home to the Tampa Bay Rays, blown off during the peak of the storm. The facility was housing thousands of first responders.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:13]

HUNT: All right. Welcome back to CNN's live breaking news coverage of Hurricane Milton, which has been churning across Florida overnight.

Now, more than 3 million customers reportedly without power at this time.

We just heard a breaking news update from the mayor of Tampa, Jane Castor, as well as other officials there in Tampa, the Tampa Bay area.

Tampa was spared the worst of the storm surge. But officials there did want to warn residents to stay inside as search-and-rescue operations continue, as the sun comes up here. They don't want people out in the streets, putting themselves at risk as they try to repair power lines and deal with other hazards.

Let's go at this hour to our Victor Blackwell, who has been up through the night covering this storm from Orlando, Florida, where of course, it churned through after making landfall just South of Tampa. Really, very close to Sarasota. Punta Gorda, Florida.

Victor, tell us what you saw through the night and what we expect as the sun starts to rise. VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, through the night we saw some pretty strong winds, and we saw some heavy rain just like the rest of the state.

Now, the peak we saw from the winds was about 74 miles per hour. That registered at the Orlando International Airport. And gusts were, at it -- the worst, consistent around 40 miles per hour.

You can see now that the wind has almost stopped. There's just a soft breeze. It's not even really registering in these trees behind me. And just a drizzle.

But that could change at any time, because two to three inches more of rain are expected for Orlando and central Florida over the rest of the day.

So, this event, as it relates to the flooding that's potential for this part of the state is not over.

We just checked in. You talked about those more than 3 million customers across the state who are out -- without power. Here in Orange County, that number here is getting closer to 100,000. At 93,000 right now. Just about 90 minutes ago, we were at less than 50,000. So those numbers are piling up here in Osceola County. Less than half that number at about 35 to 40,000 customers without power.

I just spoke with a woman in the lobby here at the hotel who had just, you know, woken up. And she had now just checked her socials, called her neighbors. And she's from the Sarasota area. And so good news for her that her power, although was out that they didn't lose -- the trees didn't damage anything. So, she's got good news.

And you see that the wind now picking up again and maybe the rain coming with it when these bands come in on the backside what's left of Milton.

But so far for Orlando, we're waiting for an update. They're holding for a little later this morning an Orange County, as well, to give us a clear, fuller picture of those calls for help after the flooding, the trees down, and some of the calls they're responding to.

Overnight, they took a few hours' pause, because the winds were just too strong to get the vehicles out. But they are out now. And we'll get some -- some info from them about what the legacy of this storm will be for central Florida.

HUNT: Victor, I know that there was a lot of discussion ahead of this storm about how this might impact the theme parks. A lot of people know Orlando is the home of Walt Disney World, of Universal Studios. I know you had said earlier in our broadcast that you spoke with a couple from -- a family from the United Kingdom who was stranded here.

Do we have any updates on the parks themselves in terms of damage or what else have you heard on that here as this has unfolded?

BLACKWELL: Yes, the parks, they shut down. Starting about 1 p.m. yesterday, the Disney parks started shutting down in phases and throughout the afternoon, they shut down, as well. And likely they said at the start of this that they'd be closed today. So, Wednesday and Thursday a closure.

We've not had any reports of any significant damage or flooding from the park, so we expect there will be an update or an all-clear from them on the backside of this weather event.

But at this point, we've not heard from Disney, from Universal, from the others here, SeaWorld, any reports of any major damage.

HUNT: Victor Blackwell for us this morning. I'm sure we'll be back with you shortly, Victor. Thank you so much for being there.

Let's turn now, though, to Hillsborough County, Florida. Sheriff Chad Chronister, who we, of course, spoke with yesterday as this was bearing down.

Sheriff, thank you so much for being with us this morning. I know you had spoken to my colleague, Isabel Rosales, just a few minutes ago, really, about search-and-rescue operations that your team had underway at a hotel and also at an assisted living facility.

[06:25:09]

Can you give us an update on how those missions are going?

SHERIFF CHAD CHRONISTER, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA: Yes, they're going well. I have to tell you what: there's so many trees and power lines down that we have to literally cut our ways into these neighborhoods to be able to assess just how damaged they are.

We're on the East side of the county. It's high and dry. It's our agriculture part where we grow all our berries. They've never seen this type of flooding. Two to three feet.

I don't know if you can see over my right shoulder, but there's so much rain now, so much flooding, so much water that's gone in the drain now that there's actually a whirlpool that's been created.

Up on the North end of the county, again, another dry portion of the county, it was so deep that assisted living facility that we needed to do some rescues that we needed our air boat.

Back out here to the East side of the county, with our sheriff (ph) -- you can see over my left shoulder our amphibious vehicle. We did a rescue there. We're going back and forth to a hotel.

Out here, they've lost power. They're standing in two to three feet of water. And as you can imagine, they're quite traumatized.

HUNT: I'm sure. Sheriff, what is your message to those who seem to be safe, are OK, right now at this hour, but are waiting to get outside and assess the damage?

CHRONISTER: Please be patient with us. These roadways are too dangerous. Coming out here, we had to change our route three different times because of downed power lines. It's too dangerous.

I know everybody wants to try to get out. Please, we will give you the all-clear. I'm giving you -- and a warning. I'm pleading with you. Hang tight for just a little bit longer until we can assess what's safe and unsafe.

HUNT: And Sheriff, how would you characterize this? I mean, you've seen storms before.

You mentioned, obviously, that this is an area of your county that doesn't typically see flooding. But I also know that they're -- the worst of the storm surge did seem not to hit Tampa Bay, as many feared.

How does this stack up to other disasters you've worked through?

CHRONISTER: Yes. Last storm two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene, with seven feet of storm surge. And there was a lot more damage.

And there's a lot of flooding in South Tampa around Dana Shores, around where the airport is in a South portion of our county. That's the usual suspects where they flood. But we've never seen this kind of flooding.

We were spared. Our prayers were answered. We didn't get this ungodly storm surge that's so deadly. But we have a lot of flooding and almost 600,000 people without power.

HUNT: All right. Well, Sheriff Chad Chronister doing the Lord's work. We'll let you get back to it. Thank you very much for your time this morning. I appreciate it.

CHRONISTER: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. Let's go now to Sarasota, Florida, where the mayor of Sarasota, Liz Alpert, joins us.

Madam Mayor, thank you very much for being with us this morning. I know Sarasota, in many ways, took the brunt of Hurricane Milton.

What are you learning about those who represent -- your residents at this hour?

MAYOR LIZ ALBERT, SARASOTA, FLORIDA: Well, from our first team -- just you know, our first cursory look, the biggest thing that we've seen so far is the Westbound bridge going out to Lido Key -- the small bridge, not -- we've got two different bridges. The sort of small bridge is compromised. And so, we have to keep that shut down until the FDOT can assess that.

So, we have not been able to get out on the island. And, you know, from what we can see, there's water out there.

But the mainland is actually not bad. The coastal areas seem to be pretty dry. I'm in a building just across the street from the bay, and the -- the water actually did not come over the sea wall and onto the road and didn't come under our buildings. So that was good news.

But they're telling me we've got tons and tons of trees down everywhere, large trees. Lots of -- lots of vegetative debris. But did not get any calls for rescue and don't see a lot of property damage.

Now, again, it's dark, it's early. Power is out. There's no streetlights where I am. There's no stoplights where I am. And, you know, a lot of -- that's why I'm kind of halfway in the dark here. Part of my -- some of my lights work, some of them don't.

And so overall, we're hoping it's much better than we thought, but you know, again, we can't get to the barrier islands yet to see what's happened out there.

HUNT: Yes, that's certainly concerning.