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Laura Coates Live
Helene Makes Landfall, Officials Warn of Unsurvivable Storm Surge; 2 Dead in Georgia, 1 in Florida as Helene Slams into Florida. Aired 12-1:05a ET
Aired September 27, 2024 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR: Turned deadly. We just learned at least three people have been killed: one in Florida, two in Georgia.
[00:00:07]
The storm ashore at 10 miles South of Perry, Florida, less than an hour ago, where winds up to 140 miles per hour are lashing the town as we speak.
Those extreme wind snapping power lines all across the region. More than a million people are already without power in Florida and also Georgia.
One utility company warning that Helene will cause, quote, "significant damage" to energy infrastructure. The wind, that's just one of the dangers in a storm that spans -- spans more than 400 miles.
The storm surge is inundating streets in Clearwater, Florida, near Tampa. Some places this could see a surge as high as 20 feet.
Now, up to a foot of rain or more could cause potentially catastrophic flooding all across Florida and the Southeast region.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is warning people the worst isn't over yet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): You need to be right now just hunkering down. Now is not the time to be going out. Not only are we seeing it hit landfall here in Northern Florida, you're still seeing surge and water rising and parts of Florida far South from the Big Bend area.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: Let's go to Derek van Dam, who joins us from Apalachicola on the Florida Panhandle. What are you seeing right now?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: OK. So, you know, we were spared the worst of what Hurricane Helene had to offer, but there's no doubt in my mind that people who decided to ride out the storm have (AUDIO GAP)
COATES: We're starting to lose sound for him. We're going to come back in just a moment and get back to what's going on. Apalachicola spared temporarily, but he's expressing the concern about what's happening around the region, as well.
Let's go to Chad Myers right now.
Chad, this storm, it made landfall. It's a Category 4. It's already turned deadly.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. And now Perry, you are right in the middle of the eye. Literally, you may be able to look up and see the sky.
The eyewall did make landfall, the center of the eye. Then made landfall there to South of Perry. And now the center of the eye is right there.
And now we're actually going to see Berman here pick up a little bit of wind as Tallahassee gets on the West side of what's now an expanding eye. And that's really what's going to happen. We're not going to get this tightening of the eye. Sometimes we can when we get something called a brown ocean.
Brown ocean is really a very warm, saturated ground. And it looks like ground, but it's really maybe a swamp or a bayou. That's not going to slow down a storm.
This, now, this land, land here is actually going to cut off the moisture from the hurricane's potential and slow the thing down.
But we've had so much rainfall, Laura. We've had three to ten inches of rainfall in what's called a precursor rain event. It rained before the hurricane even arrived up to the North.
Now this is a saltwater flood. This is the 15- to 20-foot saltwater surge. The wind pushing on land now, taking all of that water that is here, pushing it into Cedar Key, pushing it into Steinhatchee. This is what I'm really concerned about, because we're seeing those water levels rise very quickly. And we know people didn't evacuate.
So yes, Cedar Key, 7.9 feet of surge so far on top of what your high tide should be.
Here's where the rain is still going to fall. Look how much rain has fallen here. We have seven to ten inches already in Nashville, another three to four inches here.
Nashville is where the storm is actually going to stall. This is going to rain for a few days over Nashville, making Atlanta, you're going to see the rainfall. And now we even have flash flood warnings just really almost all the way up and down I-75.
This is what we expected it to do when you have hurricane warnings to the North of Macon, essentially in the Southern suburbs of Atlanta.
Hurricane warning means that this storm is going to go by. It means you're going to get hurricane conditions. And they're going to get that to the North of Macon, Georgia. I do know that there are an awful lot of people here on the road, at
least earlier. Now you need to truly be off, because the wind on I-75 and I-10 is certainly going to get well in excess of 80 to 85 miles per hour.
So far, we're kind of piling up 80s and 90s for wind speeds, but we know that this storm was 140 somewhere. We just may not have any kind of an anemometer there to actually see what it was.
[00:05:04]
Because a lot of the area from Cedar Key, Steinhatchee, all the way up to and around, almost, to Apalachicola is a National Wildlife Refuge. Not a lot of people live there. I guess that's some good news except for the wildlife.
But really, 15 inches of rainfall has already fallen. And it's still raining.
One last thing Laura, to worry about tonight. Make sure you keep your radio on. If you are in yellow, orange, or maybe even into the green, there's a potential for small tornados, but they spin up quickly. And they've already done some damage already today, even though they're small: EF-0s and ones. Doesn't take much if it hits your house, or your RV or wherever you're living. So, keep that in mind.
COATES: Hurricanes, tornadoes. Chad Myers, we will definitely stand by and continue to follow what's going on. Thank you so much.
And I want to go back right now to Derek van Dam. He's in Apalachicola.
Derek, I think we have your sound. And of course, we're hearing about you being spared the worst of it, but that doesn't mean you're out of the water -- out of the -- in the clear.
VAN DAM: No, definitely not. We still have several hours to go before the storm completely clears. It'll be gusty. We'll get the occasional rain gust.
But really, spared the worst from what Hurricane Helene offered just 50 miles to my East. And my heart breaks for the people who are going through what is undoubtedly the worst night of their life.
This storm came in so -- so powerfully. It really took advantage of that abnormally warm ocean waters. And it's going to leave a path of destruction that is going to be tough to see once we get first light in the morning.
You know, there's this extreme wind warning -- and new extreme warning has actually just been issued by the National Weather Service.
And I want to read you this, because they've got it in bold and in -- and highlighted. They say this is an extremely dangerous and life- threatening situation. Places in Madison County, Northern Taylor County, take cover now.
Treat these imminent extreme winds as if a tornado was approaching and a moot -- and a moot -- immediately move into a safe room of your house or your shelter.
So, this is what people are dealing with if they chose not to evacuate.
Here in Franklin County where I'm located, there was mandatory evacuations, but there were certainly people who decided to ride it out and will honestly say they got lucky.
But that is just not the case for so many others who are now plunged into darkness. We're fortunate to have power here still.
But as this storm makes its rampage Northward, I-75, I-10, these are the areas you do not want to be on the road. Chad was talking about it. These are some of the regions that have these extreme wind warnings.
And think about the amount of truckers that drive up and down North and South and East and West over those areas, getting buffeted by 100- mile-per-hour hurricane-force Category 2 winds. That'll topple, jackknife 18-wheelers in a heartbeat.
There's going to be trees down. There's going to be power down. We have already reached a million customers without power, and that number is going to continue to climb exponentially.
And you know, as this storm interacts with an approaching front, that we have been discussing for the past couple of days, it is going to squeeze out all of the tropical moisture that it carried in from the Gulf of Mexico.
And you guessed it. It's going to form and deposit that in the form of heavy rainfall. And that's ongoing.
And I'm really worried about those mountainous regions up in the Southern Appalachians, Western North Carolina, Western portions of South Carolina, even portions of Georgia into the Piedmont. These areas are getting unprecedented and historic amounts of rain.
This will cause life-threatening storm -- water levels. And there will certainly be swift-water rescues that are either ongoing now or will begin shortly overnight.
Just at my house alone in Atlanta, we've had 8.5 inches of rain since yesterday. And the bulk of the rain still has not arrived yet. So, this just gives people an understanding of how much water will fall from the sky as this storm rings itself out across the Southeastern U.S.
We talk about the storm surge threat here along the coast, the extreme winds, Laura, that are battering these coastlines. But this storm will be felt well inland. And, you know, I think it's pretty safe to say that this will be yet
another billion-dollar plus U.S. weather disaster for the year of 2024.
COATES: My God. Derek van Dam, please stand by.
I want to go now to CNN correspondent Ivan Rodriguez, who is in Tallahassee.
Ivan, give us a sense of the conditions there right now.
IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Laura, here in Tallahassee, it's been raining consistently for the last several hours now. I'd say within the last hour, we're seeing a little bit stronger rain.
[00:10:08]
But also looking at that trajectory from Helene, we were really on that West side of that hurricane eye.
So, a lot of good news here for people in Tallahassee. But as you mentioned there, with Derek, as well, we're not necessarily in the clear just yet.
Where I'm standing right now is a bit of an elevated hill. I have a good vantage point of the entire city. In terms of power outages here in Leon County, we know there's about 130,000 customers without power. That's pretty low when you compare it to the entire state of Florida, with more than a million customers without power.
But I say that because looking out, I still see a lot of buildings in the surroundings here in the background with power on. These streetlights here behind me, for example, they did flash on and off very quickly. We do have some lightning and thunderstorms in our area here, as well.
But the winds themselves haven't been a massive factor just yet. Maybe that's something that we feel a little bit in the future here in the coming hours, but it hasn't been anything massive like what we were expecting, about you know, up to 110 mile-per-hour winds. We haven't really felt that just yet.
Again, another good news there for Tallahassee.
But I did want to bring up what we heard from Governor Ron DeSantis. And that's one confirmed fatality in the Tampa area. He mentioned that one car driving on Interstate 4 in the Tampa area, the driver was killed after a sign fell on that car.
In Georgia, we're also learning that two people are dead from a tornado related to Hurricane Helene, as well. The mayor of Alamo, Georgia, confirming that.
Alamo, Georgia, is about 75 miles South of Macon, Georgia, which we know is also going to get hit hard by Hurricane Helene, as well.
So, a lot still to come as Helene makes its way Northward.
COATES: Now, a deadly Category 4. Please stay safe, Ivan Rodriguez. Thank you so much.
I want to bring in CNN correspondent Carlos Suarez. He is in St. Petersburg, Florida. Tell me what's going on there.
CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Laura, so many hours after the storm stayed to the West of us and continued on North. And we are still dealing with some rainfall at this hour.
And we're dealing with a significant amount of flooding. We are in a neighborhood in the St. Petersburg area that really has seen some pretty significant storm surge.
And one of the more interesting things in the last hour or so, we had a line of storms move through and some rain. And whereas the last time we joined you, the water was coming in from the bay, it's now coming from atop the hill.
It seems like this water that's pushing down on an already saturated part of the neighborhood that we're in is contributing to yet more flooding in this particular part of the St. Petersburg area.
As you can see behind me, or as much as you can, because there's not much power out here. It is just littered with debris. A lot of this, we believe, came from a pier that is a few feet from where we are that broke in half.
And so, we believe some of this is some Styrofoam and as well as some concrete that was further up the road when we first got here earlier tonight.
As some folks were talking about just a few minutes ago, the governor announced a death here in Florida in Ybor City. That's in the Tampa area. One person died. Apparently was driving their car when a sign fell on. And so that's at least one of the confirmed fatalities.
And at least one injury that we know of that has taken place kind of in the Tampa Bay area.
But again, right now as we head into the 12:30, 1 a.m. hour, we expect that a lot of this flooding is going to be here through at least 5 or 6 in the morning. That's at least what our team of meteorologists are telling us.
And we're about to hit high tide right now. So, this is probably the most that the water is going to accumulate out here. There had been some concerns that, if we had more rainfall and some more storm surge, that things might get a little bit more dicey once we hit high tide.
But we're about to hit that point right now. And then low tide will be in the morning. And then once we're -- there's daybreak out here, Laura, we'll get a sense of just how much damage there is across Pinellas County and, of course, what the recovery effort is going to look like once folks are able to leave their homes, if it is safe enough for them to do so -- Laura.
COATES: A good reminder again, Carlos Suarez, as the governor said, be wary of the standing water that might be there, as well, in the morning.
And of course, what could be contained in the water and those downed power lines, at the very least. Stand by, please.
Hurricane Helene now a Category 4 storm bearing down on Florida. Flooding, downed power lines, debris, all of which complicate potential rescue and even recovery efforts.
Let's get right to Greg -- Craig Fugate on the phone. He's the former FEMA administrator. Craig, thank you for joining us.
[00:15:02]
You've lost power, and now more than a million other people in Florida, as well. What are people up against as this storm continues to bear down on them tonight?
CRAIG FUGATE, FORMER FEMA ADMINISTRATOR (via phone): Well, you know, right now, we're worried about the strong gusty winds, trees coming down, some isolated tornadoes.
But the best advice Governor DeSantis said. This is stay home, stay inside. Don't go out until these winds pass.
And so, I'm in Gainesville. We're still getting gusts, tropical-force winds. I'm hearing winds coming down, bouncing off the roof.
So, right now, it's just really stay -- if you're somewhere safe, just stay there and stay off the road. You know, I would expect power outages are going to be measured in days to weeks for a lot of folks. But the biggest thing is get through tonight, so you can start your recovery tomorrow.
COATES: When, it comes to the response here, what is the most urgent resource people are going to need from all the wind, all the flood damage, and of course, considering the power outages that you say may be a case of days and weeks to restore?
FUGATE (via phone): Well, first thing is going to be search and rescue. We've got a lot of people that may not have evacuated, as you reported earlier, these coastal areas. There are going to be people that are cut off.
Big issue is going to be getting roads open tomorrow. You can't really get the utility crews in there until they can get the debris off the roads.
And that will start the process of getting power back up.
FEMA has moved a lot of resources. And again, I think, you know, everybody's focused on Florida now. We're talking about Georgia. This is going to be a multi-state, multi-day event. So, for FEMA, they've been basically getting ready for different phases and resources that are going to be needed across this area.
COATES: I'm glad you mentioned just the scope and breadth of this storm now, traveling in places like Georgia. We heard about Nashville and rain, as well. And of course, other areas of the Southeast region being battered.
This 20-foot storm surge, though, one of the words I keep hearing tonight: unsurvivable. Can you put into context how dangerous that could be?
FUGATE (via phone): Yes, I've kayaked this area. Everything from the Aucilla River down to Cedar Key. I know this area very well. It's flat, very shallow. That water has nowhere to go but up an in.
And the -- you know, we talked about it as deadly. Well, the two major causes of deaths will be drowning and crush injuries: blunt trauma from cars and propane tanks and the walls of buildings crashing into people.
And so, this not only is going to be very dangerous, it's going to be a very difficult operation to get back in there. Most of these roads are 20 to 30 miles that you have to drive down to get these communities, will be flooded and covered with debris.
You're going to have a lot of hazardous materials that have -- everything from flooded gas tanks to propane tanks that have broken loose. So, it's going to be dangerous for the responders just to get down there, much less for the people that stayed.
COATES: And as you mentioned, and I first, I always think about the people who have left and those who were unable to leave for whatever reason they felt they could not.
Can you speak to the risk, though, more broadly, of first responders, who are under the pressures around it right now as the eye of the storm is over land, particularly in that Big Bend region of Florida?
FUGATE (via phone): Yes. I mean, for most of the people that haven't been through this, you know, you're used to being able to call 911 and get help. And for most of this area, you're not going to be even get help. The rescue workers are staying in places that are safe.
We've lost a lot of communications. In fact, the other than my phone, my only other way to get information is by radio.
So, for a lot of these communities, they don't have information. Most of their communications are going to be down. So, it's going to be a huge operation to support that.
And, again, make it easier for the responders. Stay inside, stay safe, so they can get to the people that need help immediately.
COATES: Craig Fugate, thank you so much. Very wise words. I hope people are safe in the communities that they're in right now, hunkering down.
Ahead, we'll talk to a storm chaser who is riding out Hurricane Helene. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:23:39]
COATES: Our breaking coverage of Hurricane Helene continues. The storm made landfall in the last hour as a potentially catastrophic Category 4 storm.
I want to bring in storm chaser Adam Lucio. He is in Perry, Florida. And the eye is right over the town, right now.
Adam, the conditions, they have drastically changed or just the last hour, what are you experiencing right now?
ADAM LUCIO, STORM CHASER (via phone): Right now, we're still experiencing relatively calm winds. We're getting some occasional gusts as we wait for that backside of the eye to approach.
But it's still relatively calm, compared to what it was about half an hour ago. A very large eye.
COATES: Tell me about what happened about a half-hour ago. What were those extreme winds like?
LUCIO (via phone): It was definitely very windy. We were getting gas, pushing 90, 100 miles an hour, easily.
The damage isn't as extreme as it could be. A lot of sheet metal blown, some sheds tipped over, blown apart. Downed trees, downed power wires, things like that.
COATES: You're an extreme storm chaser. How does this compare to what you have seen in the past? And how confident are you that this eye of the storm, when it passes, the same level of damage free or relatively low damage will continue?
LUCIO (via phone): Well, we're always hopeful that the backside won't be as intense.
It reminds me a lot of Idalia last year, which hit the same town, Perry. I was in Perry last year for Hurricane Idalia.
[00:25:00]
And the damages is pretty comparable to that. It made a huge mess of everything. And we're hoping the backside of the eyewall won't be as intense, because things have already been damaged. And then the backside just makes it worse when structures are already compromised.
So -- you know, so we're hoping that backside of the eye wall isn't as strong. COATES: You know, there has been a lot of warnings that have been issued for people to stay in place, not to go on the roads, to heed the warnings.
Are you seeing people around? Are you seeing drivers? Are other people, especially during the eye of the storm moment, trying to assess damage, dangerously so, by the way?
LUCIO (via phone): I've seen only a handful of other drivers. It's mainly storm chasers in town right now. But, we spotted only a couple locals checking things out.
It looks like most people heeded the warnings, and they evacuated, which is good to see. We haven't seen too many people walking around.
COATES: That's a good thing, Adam, we'll see you. Keep us posted while you're chasing this storm. Thank you so much.
Look, there are still about 100 people who are still in the town of Cedar Key, Florida. That's a barrier island that's getting hammered by Helene storm surge.
And one of those residents is with me now, Bobby Witt, a lifelong Floridian and a boat captain.
Bobby, you are riding this storm out on a boat. What are you experiencing right now?
BOBBY WITT, BOAT CAPTAIN; Yes, hello. Yes, ma'am. It is a rough ride. Real rough ride.
COATES: How hard are we talking? My God.
WITT (via phone): Well, a little hard to stand up in the boat. It's rocking and rolling so bad.
But the wind has eased off just a little. And now the tide's come in. And I'm seeing a lot of water.
COATES: How high are you experiencing this water? Can you estimate how high this is? How much farther higher above your boat?
WITT (via phone): Well, the boat goes on up. I'm looking down at everything now. I'm looking down at the world. I'd say it's at least a ten-foot surge, something like that. Maybe more.
It's -- it's a lot of water.
COATES: Why did you decide to ride out --
WITT (via phone): So, I know the town's --
COATES: I'm sorry. Go ahead.
WITT (via phone): Well, I know the town's got to be flooded if it's doing that right here. And like I say, the winds we had a couple of hours ago were, I'm sure 100, 100 mile-an-hour or over. It's just incredibly bad wind.
COATES: The wind, this surge, and you're on a boat. Why did you decide to ride the hurricane on that boat?
WITT (via phone): Well, to -- to keep it safe and to keep an eye on my property here and try to save as much of my business as I can. It's a water-based business here. And just -- that's what I've done my whole life. I've been a waterman my whole life.
And that's what some of us do stay with their boats, protect them.
COATES: It's your livelihood. We understand that and thinking about what things look like. You know, Cedar Key had been hit by a powerful hurricane just last year. And you rode that one out, too, and said that was the worst storm you had encountered. Is this one worse than that?
WITT (via phone): I think so. I don't know. Maybe I'm saying that every time, but this was a bad one. And it's still windy. I mean, it's still -- I don't know what it is -- 50, 60-mile an hour winds, but nothing like it was. But yes.
No, it's been a bad storm.
COATES: Bobby, what -- you stay safe where -- we are thinking about you and all the people who are making their living and their lives as waterman, as well, around the community. And it's just how unsafe of a condition you must be in right now. Please, try to stay as safe as you can.
WITT (via phone): All righty. Thank you very much.
COATES: Thank you.
Hurricane Helene made landfall just about ten miles South of Perry, Florida, which is where my next guest is. I want to get right to Aaron Jayjack. He is also a storm chaser in Perry, Florida.
Aaron, just moments ago, we obtained this video of power that was going out in a Perry, Florida. neighborhood you were there right now. What are you seeing?
AARON JAYJACK, STORM CHASER: Yes, I'm here in Perry, Florida. You're actually showing my livestream right now. I'm livestreaming to YouTube on my Jayjack Storm Track channel. And we just got absolutely hammered by that eyewall of the hurricane.
And it came into Perry, Florida, here.
Now Perry, Florida, last year was also hit by major Hurricane Idalia.
[00:30:00]
And now again, this year getting hit by a number of major hurricanes. We had intense wind gusts here, hurricane-force wind gusts, well over hurricane-force, approaching that Category 3 Category 4 strength, causing frequent power flashes, frequent power flickers. Stuff flying all over the place.
And then we entered the eye of the storm. The eye came through here. We had that calmish eye.
We could see birds flying around in the eye. We could see lightning flashes in the eye. A little bit of calmness, strong winds, and you could see those power flashes right now. You guys are showing that video of big-time power flashes with sparks flying everywhere.
And now we have entered that backside of the storm right now. A little bit drier.
So, the front side, we were getting hit by heavy rain, strong winds, strong reign. And now, we're just getting the occasional strong wind gusts.
But still very dangerous to be out here in Perry, Florida right now. Fortunately, seems everybody has stayed indoors. People are hunkered down, keeping themselves safe, keeping their families safe.
And we should be out of the worst of it very shortly here. Probably in the next hour, the storm should rip up Florida. This is a fast-moving hurricane.
In fact, I'm very impressed with how well Perry, Florida, has stood up to this hurricane. And it's likely due to Idalia coming through last year, kind of pruning the trees, taking out any kind of weak infrastructure that has not been repaired and made stronger.
So, I suspect the worst impacts of this hurricane are actually going to be locations to my North, approaching the (UNINTELLIGIBLE), Georgia, area and points Northward. And never probably ever seen winds this strong as -- as they are about to experience here overnight tonight across the East -- Southeast part of the United States.
COATES: Isn't that fascinating, to think about the storms that have come in the last year or more, may have prepared the area not only in preparation for those infrastructure, but also trying to prove out what may have been weakened structures that could have fallen this time.
Are you seeing a lot of damage this time around, compared to what you did see with Idalia?
JAYJACK: No, and I have definitely had -- at least, it's dark right now, right? We have lost power. I'm actually surprised we have a bit of calm right now where we do have power. I'm not sure if they're running on a generator or whatnot.
But the rest of the town of Perry appears to have lost power. But you know, I saw much more significant damage. And here in Perry from Idalia last year, a -- also a Category 4 storm, but weakening as it made landfall. But again, as I mentioned, I think, you know, this area has never seen
a hurricane as powerful as this one right now, sitting Helene hitting here. And so, I believe Idalia, like as I mentioned, it took out anything that's week.
And even though it's a stronger hurricanes, stronger winds, not nearly as much damage as we saw last year in Idalia.
COATES: Aaron Jayjack, thank you so much. Stay safe, please.
Up next, a man braving Hurricane Helene in his kayak after his home got flooded. We'll speak with him next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:37:27]
COATES: We're back with our continuing breaking news coverage of Hurricane Helene, making landfall last hour in Florida.
I want to bring in Matt Heller. Now first, here is a video of him sitting on a kayak in his flooded living room in Tampa Bay, Florida.
Matt, I understand your power just went out, as well. What is going on. We're watching this flooding in your home.
MATT HELLER, TAMPA BAY, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Yes, the storm started really slowly. And then all of a sudden -- I live on the water here, and the storm just kind of came in. And it's been rising and rising since.
According to our tides, it's going to keep rising until about 3 a.m. So, we've got our fingers crossed that the boat stays intact. We just lost power. We've got a couple of battery packs, so we're hoping that carries. us through.
And I'm talking to you guys on candlelight at the time being.
COATES: Wow, I mean, how long did it take for that flooding to reach that level in your home? Were you talking a matter of minutes, hours, what?
HELLER: It just came out of nowhere within probably an hour-and-a- half. It went up about four feet from nothing.
COATES: Wow.
HELLER: We didn't think we were going to get hit by the storm. It didn't even really rain all today. And then just the wind and the storm surge. It's just -- the home's flooded before.
We've had, you know, an inch of water here or there, but nothing like this. This is definitely the biggest, biggest flood we've ever had.
And so, it's kind of a bummer. I self-insure, but I moved all the cars out of the way. I'm just hoping that the boat holds on now. So, it is what it is.
COATES: That -- I love your attitude and positivity in this. I would be pulling out my hair going, I'm sitting in a kayak, four feet of water. You've got a positive attitude.
Let mee ask you this, though. You know, is the water still coming into your house?
HELLER: Yes, it's still rising.
COATES: Really?
HELLER: Yes. Yes. The wind -- I keep checking the weather apps and checking CNN for the weather. And I don't know. It's just getting worse and worse.
I'd like to say I could go to sleep. I have a headache for some reason, but I don't think I can sleep. So, I'm just up watching.
COATES: It's not for some reason. Your house is flooded right now, Matt. I think we can identify the cause of that particular headache. I'll tell you. I don't even have a medical degree on this.
But I just wonder. I mean, I -- my heart is going out to you and so many people this must be representative of, who are having this flooding inside their homes. How do you even begin to clean up something like this?
HELLER: It was saying -- according to the tide app, the water is not going to recede until about 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.
[00:40:03]
So, I'm sure it's still going to be up. I don't -- I don't know. I've never dealt with such a cleanup like this. Can't say I'm looking forward to it.
But again, we have our health, and we lost -- we lost -- we lost the power for now, but we're still kicking. So, Florida things.
COATES: Why did you decide to stay and ride this out? You didn't think he was going to hit this area?
HELLER: You know, yes, we've -- we didn't think it was going to be this bad. Typical famous last words. And, you know, they told us -- you know, we thought it was going to go West and stay out in a Gulf. And we just didn't expect this much storm surge.
But it was kind of like a really perfect storm. Pardon my pun. With the wind and the tides. So that's where we're just getting this incredible storm surge right now, although the hurricane didn't hit us, and the rain didn't hit us. We're just still getting blasted here.
COATES: You own a business there, as well, I understand, selling car horns. What do you know about your merchandise?
HELLER: Oh, I don't even -- so, we lost -- I was checking the cameras at work, as well, but now we lost Wi-Fi and power at the office.
I'm -- we're in an older warehouse. I've been saving up for a new roof over the past year, so we have -- we were moving product around and merchandise from the spots that could potentially leak. We'll see.
I was in the office all day until 6 p.m. I'm going to go in tomorrow, of course. I've been checking on my employees and just, you know, hoping everyone stays safe. And, you know, we will rebuild.
COATES: Oh, my God. I mean, you -- I understand you had a friend, as well, who says that his house was destroyed. What are you hearing about that?
HELLER: Yes, my -- my best friend, Shane Krugman, he lives over in St. Pete area. And he said his -- his whole, you know, two levels are underwater there. He said he had over 12 feet of water.
So -- and he's also self-insurance. So, I feel terrible for my buddy Shane. I feel terrible for all my neighbors. But we're all in this together, and this is what living in Florida is.
So, we'll all team together and try to rebuild, hopefully.
COATES: Somehow, there's a TED talk or a motivational speech about the purple kayak, Matt. And your -- and your optimism about what's going to happen.
I have to ask about the purple kayak. Did you just happen to have it?
HELLER: Yes.
COATES: Why the purple? I love it.
HELLER: It was my escape plan, you know, in case stuff got too hairy. We could get out. So, we have the -- we have the two kayaks. I didn't think I was going to need it in my living room.
So yes, I was floating around almost. Yes. I'm surprised the power state on as long as it did. I have my little security cameras everywhere, so I'm going to compile all that together. Should be some -- some funny video.
But yes, it's a bummer.
Also, because of the elevation of the home, we're hooked up to a septic system, not the sewer. So, the water is really nasty. I came upstairs and showered everything off. And but shortly after, the power died. So, we're all good, made it in the nick of time.
COATES: Well, Matt, I'm so glad that you are safe. I certainly wish you and your community the best and safety. What an unbelievable moment. This storm that powerful to have four feet of water in about an hour in your home. Stay safe. Thank you.
HELLER: Yes. As a Floridian, we take it for granted. I mean, I was in -- I was in South Florida in Fort Lauderdale for Hurricane Andrew in 1992. And you just never -- you know, there's a lot of crying wolf.
And you think it's not going to be as bad as it is. This one was really bad. So -- and we didn't think it was going to be bad.
COATES: Well, here we are, and again, glad to see that you're safe. Thank you so much for letting us know what you're experiencing and what your community is, as well.
HELLER: Yes, sure. Thanks, guys. Have a great night.
COATES: Hurricane Helene, it's now moving North and is set to pass right over parts of Georgia. And it's already turned deadly.
I want to bring in Bo Dorough, the mayor of Albany, Georgia. Also with me, the Albany, Georgia, fire chief Cedric Scott.
Mayor Dorough, I mean, you are right in the path of this storm. And while we're talking to people who the storm may have passed temporarily, it has yet to reach you. How has your community prepared, Mayor?
BO DOROUGH, MAYOR OF ALBANY, GEORGIA: Well, she's got to be the individual who could best speak to that, but we've been hammered time and time again. And we're very proud of our capacity to prepare for natural disasters.
We've been on red alert for the entire week. And as your last guest just mentioned, he assumed that model was correct, that -- and he would be secure.
Our good fortune is somebody else's misfortune. And by that, I mean, it appears that the path of the storm will actually be somewhat to our East whereas the models that we had seen earlier in the week had the storm coming directly over Albany (ph).
As a result, we were anticipating winds of over 70 miles an hour. It looks like there'll be less than 50 miles an hour. We were anticipating rainfall of six to eight inches, and it looks like it might be as little as three inches, but the chief would have the most up-to-date information about that.
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COATES: Well, let me ask you, Chief, about that and the preparation, knowing what one prepares for and then what is ultimately possibly going to occur.
How -- what is it like on the ground right now in terms of trying to match the expectations and what you're seeing?
CEDRIC SCOTT, FIRE CHIEF OF ALBANY, GEORGIA: Well, it is. It gets to be very stressful in trying to assure that we -- we make the right decisions. And what we have is we have are our training, years of experience, and dealing with emergencies or weather emergencies.
And so, what we do is we prepare for the worst. We put a state of emergency in place, through -- through our mayor and chairman, put a state of emergency in place.
We opened up a shelter. The shelter is open now. And we have some 125 people taking shelter tonight as taking into consideration the dangers and the effects of Helene coming through our community.
So, that shelter is in place. And we were able to get people out of homes that they thought may not be as stable to withstand. We also made sandbags available for our residents, as well.
We have experienced some -- some power outages. We've seen the rain begin to come in and kind of go out on us a few times. The wind has picked up a bit, like the mayor said. And were still looking at a window of time still ahead of us, with certainly not -- not out of harm's way.
And we want to stay vigilant. And we want to encourage our citizens, just because it appears that the rain and wind that we were expecting at those very higher size, maybe close to Category 1 winds, perhaps that may or may not come our way. We're still watching it very closely.
But we want our citizens to still take it serious. We want you to stay in. If you don't have to go outside, stay inside. We put a curfew in place this evening in Albany and Dougherty County from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
We did that for the protection of our citizens. So, we've taken a number of precautions to be ready. As I mentioned, we've had quite a bit of experience with this, but it still doesn't make it any less stressful.
We continue to worry about our citizens, our residents, and trying to make sure that we assured that we provide them all the information we can so that they can be as safe as possible.
COATES: We certainly hope your community will be.
Mayor Bo Dorough, thank you.
Chief Cedric Scott, thank you, as well. Stay safe.
SCOTT: You're welcome.
DOROUGH: Thank you.
COATES: I want to go back to CNN correspondent Ivan Rodriguez.
He is in Tallahassee. How is it where you are?
RODRIGUEZ: Laura, that rain has still been coming down continuously. We are seeing a couple of cars here on the road, might be media, driving around here, as well.
The wind hasn't been a massive factor here in Tallahassee, but there are those moments when the wind comes in really strong. And then it dies down just a little bit. Where I'm standing, I have a really good vantage point in terms of power outages. I can still see some buildings in the vicinity here in the background with power on.
But when I take a look at the county and the power outages that we're looking at here in Leon County, there's 130,000 customers, about, without power.
And when you look at the population of Leon County, it's a little less than 300,000. So, putting that into perspective, it is a good amount of people here and homes without power.
Now, we do know that there are about eight shelters throughout the county that are open to the public. About 1,700 people are currently staying in those shelters. About 200 pets also.
But it really does paint a picture in terms of all the power outages currently now and the power restoration efforts that are going to take place starting tomorrow after it's safe for those crews to get out onto those roads.
Now, I'm not seeing anything drastic in terms of trees or power lines down. So that might make the work a little bit easier. For those crews tomorrow, we know the city here in Tallahassee was very prepared. They even tripled their workforce to get on power restoration early -- Laura.
COATES: Ivan Rodriguez, thank you so much. There is a lot ahead on that.
Let's go back to Derek van Dam. He's in Apalachicola.
Derek, what are you seeing right now?
VAN DAM: Well, conditions have largely quieted down here, and we're thankful for that. And we managed to escape the storm without the broad impacts that are being felt to my East.
[00:50:05]
I mean, for instance, you can hear just some penalty in on this top of this building flopping back and forth but still intact. That's good news.
But we can see that we have electricity. We're one of the few. I would say, here in Franklin County that was under mandatory evacuation.
But look, my heart breaks for the people who are enduring what is unfolding tonight. Just to our East, 60, 70 miles to our North and East, as Hurricane Helene races inland, bringing its massive power of destruction along with it.
It's moving at quite a clip: 25 miles per hour inland. And why I bring that up is because it's going to take a lot of time before that storm could actually wind itself down, weaken enough to not pose a threat any longer. And so, we have several hours of hurricane-force winds, certainly into
central and Southern portions of Georgia. Some of that might escape into the higher elevations of the Southern Appalachians, as well.
So, that will make for a very difficult, challenging overnight. You combine that with the extremely heavy rain that they're experiencing right now, that's just a recipe for disaster.
Laura, this storm came in powerful, more powerful than any other hurricane that's made landfall in the Big Bend.
And this area is no stranger to hurricanes and storms. We've had five landfalling hurricanes in the state of Florida, at least, since 2017. But this one eclipsed many; most, if not all; and even was stronger than Hurricane Ian in terms of the central pressure when it came onshore.
We have a laundry list of superlatives describing the big extreme events out of this storm. They're still being written. But storm surge record values at Cedar Key, for instance, are off the charts, never been experienced before.
And that is really a telltale sign of just how powerful the storm was. And it wasn't just there. Other locations, as well, experiencing similar tide values.
COATES: Derek, what -- what dawn will bring is anyone's guess. Derek van Dam, thank you so much. Please stand by.
VAN DAM: OK.
COATES: Millions without power and some people stranded. What will rescues look like in the morning?
We'll get into that with the one, the only Lieutenant General Russel Honore, next.
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[00:56:58]
COATES: More than a million customers are currently without power in Florida, more than a million. And that number could rise in the coming hours, with the storm moving quickly through the state.
I want to get right to the retired lieutenant general, Russel Honore. He is the author of "Leadership in the New Normal," and he served as the commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, where he coordinated military relief efforts in post-Katrina New Orleans.
General Honore, thank you so much for being here. The power outages, how does that complicate the potential recovery efforts?
LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE (RET.), FORMER COMMANDER OF TASK FORCE KATRINA: Well, along with that power outage come power lines over roads. That's going to be the big challenge in the morning, is to get the assets in there to clear the roads so you can get the power trucks in, as well as to get power generation into places like sewer systems and water systems, so people out of there can survive, Laura.
COATES: I think about hospitals, as well, and everyone that would require the amounts of power to survive.
And parts of Florida, we understand, General, are experiencing a 20- foot storm surge. Some of that could be -- the state could actually be underwater.
Talk to me about how you even begin to navigate that.
HONOR: Yes, well, most of that coast cultural community there around Florida where the storm hit from Tampa North, you've got the elevation of less than nine feet. This is going to be a problem along those coastal communities.
Then when you go into crossing Interstate 10, the challenge is going to be with rain and wind. And that's going to take more of the grid down.
And this is happening at nighttime. So, it's going to be a rude awakening in the morning to get out and assess the damage. But I think the public officials have done a good job to tell people stay inside.
And I hope, as it goes further North, that they'll abide by those rules.
COATES: I mean, just the scope of this, sir, and the width of it: 400 miles. The idea that attacking not only Florida, but Georgia and other places Southeast region, that must really complicate efforts to coordinate all these different entities to get recovery and solutions quickly.
HONORE: Absolutely. You're talking about between Atlanta and Tampa. That's a 500-mile run right there where normally these states do mutual aid, and they help each other. Now they're having to call in assets from further across the country.
This is going to be a major challenge to get the grid back up, get the roads cleared, and get the infrastructure stood back up. The good side of this is what a storm hit. There was a storm there last year, Idalia, and that took probably the weak trees out and probably infrastructure had been rebuilt some. So that's the better side of that.
But it's going to be a hell of a cleanup, because Interstate 10 can be closed; Highway 19 closed; Highway 75, parts of it could be closed. It's going to be a nightmare to get there.
[01:05:00]
Now, the National Guard is on standby. The Department of Defense is on standby. The Coast Guard. But the winds got to go down, and they're going to have to fly stuff in there or come in by boat to get those areas that they can't get to. But the guard is ready, and this -- the stage is well organized both Georgia in Florida to respond.
LAURA COATES, CNNA NCHOR: Lieutenant General Russel Honore, thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you all for watching, our live coverage of Hurricane Helene continues right now.
