Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Hurricane Matthew Batters Florida's East Coast. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 07, 2016 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00] CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That is entirely unused beach. We don't really get people. We don't get buildings until right about there on the south end of New Smyrna, as you get down toward Cape Canaveral. So, right now, the worst wind is where nobody is.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Chad, what are were looking at in terms the concern of duration? Like where we are here in Jacksonville now that the advisory shifted and I'm with your man, Van Dillon (ph) here from HLN who is showing me all the special meteorological data you get in.

With that shift in the advisory, so it's not going to be real full impact here in Jacksonville until like late afternoon, early evening. But all this tenderizing that's going on of these bands before it, how does that increase vulnerability?

MYERS: Well, it certainly does, because the more you rip a building apart, the longer duration the wind happens, the more damage occurs because of that one shingle that's gone, now two are gone. One board, that one fascia board falls off and now the winds under your house and in the attic. So, the longer the wind goes, the more damage, unlike a tornado that takes it and blows it all away at the same time.

Here is your duration problem, and I know you probably don't have a return model, but there is the bottom of the eye six hours ago. It's only moved this much. It's moved less than 60 miles in six hours. If you're talking about another 120 miles to Jacksonville, my 11-year-old can do that math, that is another 12 hours before the eye gets to you. That's how long you'll be in it to win it.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Chad. Thank you very much.

CUOMO: Appreciate it.

CAMEROTA: Chris, you stay put, hunker down. We'll be back with you momentarily.

We do want to bring in Mayor William Capote. He is of Palm Bay, which, of course, is south of Canaveral. That's where you have been watching Jennifer Gray's live shots from.

Mayor, where are you hunkered down? MAYOR WILLIAM CAPOTE, PALM BAY, FL (via telephone): I'm hunkered down

with my family at my home right now. Everybody, our chief of the fire department is at the EOC. They lost power there and that's the southeast section of Palm Bay, but they're running on generators. They have radio, 800 radio power for cell phone and communication but we're hunkering, hunkering down.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CAPOTE: I'm listening to the winds. As you're stating, I can tell because I've been up the whole time. I've been listening to winds picked up just like on clockwork at 2:00 in the morning, it got really intense and right now, as you're mentioning about Cape Canaveral. Those wind hitting them, now it is coming to the northwest. I live on the northwest side of the city and I can hear it in the back of my house.

And I can hear the wind pounding and pounding away. But I'm in communication with my staff and they're letting me know what's going on. And we're ready to move any time for any emergency that's needed.

CAMEROTA: When you say -- I mean for any emergency. Are you going to be sending out emergency responders or are they also hunkered down?

CAPOTE: No, right now. We're going to let it settle in first. We'll let it settle in first.

For those people that decided to stay and they need extra help in regards to oxygen and things like that, at this time, we're not able to send the responders. We're going to have to wait until we could.

CAMEROTA: Right.

CAPOTE: But the winds have intensified.

CAMEROTA: And, Mayor, when you say you're hunkered down with your family. Do you have children?

CAPOTE: I have my son. He's older now, but we're here together as a family. My other son had got 24 hours, he has two-day duty because he works for a satellite company in Melbourne and they needed to keep your feed going because the feed that they do is for CNN and all the other stations.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. Well, thank your son for us that he was called into duty so we could be broadcasting out to the country and to the world, quite frankly, that's watching what's happening to you there. Wow, lots on his shoulders.

So, when you say that the wind was intensifying at your house, can you describe it to us? What has it been like?

CAPOTE: As a matter o fact, let me walk and if I lose signal, let me kind of give you I'm going to the back, so you can hear.

CAMEROTA: Try to describe what you're seeing for us, as well. CAPOTE: OK. I boarded up the back of my and you can hear the

pounding. I can hear the pounding in the back from the wind hitting it.

CAMEROTA: From the boards over your windows, you're saying.

[06:35:01] CAPOTE: Can you hear it?

CAMEROTA: Well, not as well as you can, but I take your word for it.

CAPOTE: But it's intense. You can hear the wind pushing, pushing on the plywood.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Are you -- how are you -- you boarded up your windows, obviously.

CAPOTE: Correct.

CAMEROTA: What else do you do to take cover?

CAPOTE: I've been through this before in 2004. I felt like an experienced soldier, and I still have power, electrical power. The northwest side of Palm Bay has power. We still have electrical power. It seems that southeast lost power. And I'm still getting reports in on what's going on with the other sector.

CAMEROTA: That's good. Well, Mayor, we know you have your work cut out for you once you do make it through the worst of the storm that is hitting you right now. Then, obviously, you'll have days and days of cleanup there.

So, thank you for taking the time. Hope your family stays safe. Send our regards to your son there who is helping out. Thanks so much for being with us on NEW DAY.

CAPOTE: OK. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: We'll take a very quick break here and then we will get more updates from Chad Myers and check back in with Chris who is in Jacksonville.

NEW DAY will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:19] CUOMO: All right. You're watching NEW DAY. I'm Chris Cuomo in Jacksonville, Florida.

The advisory of Hurricane Matthew has been shifted. This is the area that is supposed to get the most concentrated impact, but that's not for many hours from now. Yet, phones were just going off with emergency alerts. Local authorities saying a hurricane is coming. Please take shelter.

Hurricane Matthew is making its presence felt along the east coast of Central Florida. We have winds measured in excess of 100 miles an hour. The eye of the storm, the western edge, several miles off the coast of Florida and holding, moving very slowly, literally, less than ten miles an hour as it moves up north and northwest along the eastern coast of Florida.

The latest advisory: over 320,000 people without power. And as we go to Jennifer Gray, meteorologist who is in central Florida, Palm Bay, which is getting hit harder, that power will be out for a while, Jennifer, because emergency services cannot get out in these conditions.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, absolutely not. We have gusts of 80 miles an hour here and there's no way they can get to you. So important for people to get out.

Take this as a warning, if you live up the coast, we're seeing 100- mile-per-hour winds on Cape Canaveral. If that continues to head to the north, you're not going to be able to stay in your home, especially if it's a mobile home or structure that's not very sturdy. Get to one of those shelters while you can if you are north of the storm.

But a lot of the shelters in Brevard County where we are, are filled, which is good news. It shows some people heeded those warnings, Chris. But, yes, the winds have been incredibly gusty. What's eerie about it almost is that right now absolutely nothing. Not even a breeze and then all of a sudden it will come out of nowhere and almost knock you off of your feet.

And so, that's the nature of these hurricanes. They're ferocious and this one is continuing to push up the coast. We're going to be in this for another couple of hours. Very intense wind and then it should start to slack of by later on in the morning, which is good news. And then you can get out and the emergency crews will be able to get out and kind of assess the damage.

But that eyewall is just to our north and east. We feel the winds are starting to shift a little bit. So, honestly, I'm little curious how much longer our satellite will be able to stay up when we're no longer protected by this hotel.

But we had to move quite a bit inland from yesterday because the surge was making us very nervous. The storm surge seven to 11 feet possible, especially areas to our north that includes where you are, Chris, a little bit later today. I think the storm surge is going to be a huge concern as we go forward with this storm and that goes without saying, of course, the wind, but as well as the rain.

Like we've been saying, a lot of times it was the water. The water that takes lives in these storms necessarily the very strong winds, Chris.

CUOMO: You know, Jennifer, it's just the question of time and how it changes in this situation. Yesterday my biggest concern about the St. John River was the mullet run and now today it's almost at its cresting point right now. We still have four feet of tide to go before noon and maybe six or ten feet of surge. So, we're going to have to keep an eye on the situation here in

Jacksonville and also where you are. I'll check back in a little bit, my friend.

Right now, let's go to Boris Sanchez. He's in Daytona Beach. They've been getting much harder there. We see the power go out, strikes of lightning, an x-factor that can cause all kinds of unexpected damage. Boris has had to move his shot several times. Hopefully, he's in stable position now.

What are you seeing, Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Chris, right now we're in a lull. The winds have slowed down since the last time we've got a chance to talk to you. But it's still very, very nasty out. We've seen several power flashes, as you mentioned.

The lights have been on but flickering on and off just down the street, when I got a chance to look down there a few moments ago. You can see the palm trees swinging in the wind. They were bending pretty far at one point. There's a ton of debris all over the street.

And one of the most interesting things about hurricane is the crazy sounds that you hear. We've heard banging all over the place and really difficult to make out what it is, because you don't want to risk yourself by going out and seeing what is on the street.

As I mention, a ton of trash and debris out there and surprising that people have decided to stay here and hunker down considering that storm surge we have been talking about higher than six to seven feet. We're right here on the beach at Daytona Beach. There is a boardwalk just down the street from us.

I was talking with the gentleman last night who told me the last night who told me the last time they had a direct hit from a hurricane here many years ago, that boardwalk was totally inundated. He's expecting the same thing to happen during this hurricane.

We've already seen the water creep up to the edge of our hotel and this is just the beginning of this storm.

[06:45:04] The surge, as I said, six to seven feet here. Wind gusts of up to 60 miles an hour have already hit this area and the hurricane is still a couple hundred miles south of us.

So, as it creeps closer, we're going to see these conditions worsen. But as I said right now, it looks like things are calming down.

One last thing, Chris -- I just saw a guy walking down the street. A terrible, terrible idea. If you decided to ignore the mandatory evacuation order, at least stay inside your home because rescue officials will not be able to help you as this continues to get worse.

CUOMO: You know, Boris, you're making the right call. We're not in the business to tell people what to do ordinarily, but this is an extraordinary circumstance. The authorities have made it clear. Being out there is just reckless. It's just reckless.

Please, keep the word out. When you see people, say something and trying discourage others from doing the same. We'll check back with you in a little bit.

Right now, let's get to Dr. Bob Sheets. Now, he was in charge of the National Hurricane Center when we were dealing with Andrew back in 1992, I believe it was -- '92.

You know, Dr. Bob Sheets, Andrew was a word we kept hearing in the last few days about a potential analogy to what Matthew could be.

Can you explain that to us and in terms of any of that expectation coming to fruition yet?

DR. ROBERT SHEETS, HURRICANE EXPERT (via telephone): Well, they were totally two different storms. In this hurricane, it's a very large hurricane. It's not nearly as powerful as Hurricane Andrew was, because there the winds were 175 miles per hour. You would not see those lights on that you're seeing in your live shots and the destruction was tremendous from the wind.

In this storm, it's going to be primarily the destruction from the storm surge. In the area south of the keep, the water is close to shore. And so, you have a lot of wave action down there. From here on north right on up through the Charleston, South Carolina, area. The water is relatively shallow in near the shore. That means as the wind is pushing the water towards the shore, it cannot sink and recirculate but piled up.

So, the major damage here is going to be from the storm surge itself.

CUOMO: I saw reports that there was actually a wave recorded at over 17 feet, about 20 miles off shore. Now, that's just a dramatic aspect of this. But, you're right, it's the volume of water. The surge, especially in more shallow areas that creates the catastrophe.

In terms of what we're seeing so far as it moves up the coast, is this storm doing what you expected it to do?

SHEETS: I think the forecasts have been very good in terms of there guidance from the models that have been developed and improved over the years. So, the forecast is very good from a point of view of the National Hurricane Center, it's the most difficult project because of the fact that just a wobble to the left makes a huge difference as compared to the wobble to the right. The fact that it's staying along the coastline on an usual track because with -- we had Hurricane Floyd in '99 that was stronger and it stayed a little farther off shore and then went directly in to the coast up in the Carolinas. But this one here is going to loop and that's a very difficult forecast jump.

CUOMO: In terms of experience, we're talking about Andrew that was back in '92. One of the concerns for authorities has been that the eastern coast has not had the recent life experience of living hurricane and understanding what the risk is and what the resilience is that is need. Is that a concern?

SHEETS: That's always a concern about people's life experiences. The people that were in Mississippi and Katrina, you're never going to have to worry about them responding to a hurricane, again. The people that were in South Dade County and Hurricane Andrew, you're not going to have to worry about them, and the people up in the Charleston area that were there in Hurricane Hogan in '89, you're not going to need about them responding to the hurricane.

But the ones that get the fringe area of the hurricane -- for instance, this hurricane, people all along the coast so far, they have not experienced the eyewall of the hurricane. So, it would be a false experience for them if you had a hurricane come directly into the shore.

CUOMO: We want people to remember that because we have a lot of hours left of exposure to Matthew.

I want to bring in Chad Myers, Dr. Bob.

[06:50:00] He has a question for you.

Chad, go ahead.

MYERS: Hey, Doctor, I want to talk to you about the storm surge in the St. John's River and also up towards St. Simon's island.

There are a few cuts in the sandbars here all the way from Daytona, all the way to Jacksonville. The next true opening for the water to pour in will be the St. John's River and then on up towards the Tybee Island. What will that storm surge potential be here?

SHEETS: It's going to be very large you don't have the water flowing out of the rivers into the ocean. The wind is going to push it up the river and in those inlets is going to push it up there and the fact that this is such a large storm with the long duration of time pushing that water ashore means that it will pile up. And I think that I've seen the hurricane center storm surge model indicate somewhere around 10 to 11 feet of the surge.

Now, again, you're going to have waves on top of that. So, it's not just the surge itself, but the waves on top of that and then the inland factor by driving it up the St. John's River and some of those.

MYERS: Chris?

CUOMO: Well, those are good points, but tough to hear Dr. Bob Sheets. Thank you very much for being with us.

Chad, thanks for keeping us aware of the status because that's what we're aware of right now. What is behind us the St. John's River and the growing concern is, it is right up at the bank right now. Four more feet of tide to come before high tide at about noon local time and the surge that is expected and the wind that's coming with it. I don't think we're going to be able to stay here and I think this whole area is going to be pretty significantly under water.

So, Dr. Bob Sheets, thank you very much. We'll check back with you if we need you.

Chad, you know you'll be with you.

Alisyn, back to you in New York.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris.

Last we heard, 300,000 people there in south Florida were without power. But we don't know the latest numbers. So, we want to bring in Rob Gould. He is with Florida Power and Light. That is Florida's largest power company.

Mr. Gould, what are the latest numbers of how many people have lost electricity?

ROB GOULD, CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT: Yes, Alisyn. We think at this point we're making a lot of progress. We have about 550,000 customers impacted thus far. We restore about 150,000 customers and I think that indicates how much effort we have already been putting into this storm.

We have been out in this storm restoring power. As soon as the storm clears, of course, we'll be hitting it in earnest. We've got a small army of about 15,000 folks, 12,000 of which are field workers.

And the key in any restoration like this is to have your field workers ready. Have them prepositioned and in place and we have been monitoring the storm for the better part of a week. We had our command center open and, again, had our people in place so we can get about the restoration as quickly as we can once the storm passes.

CAMEROTA: Gosh, Rob, what a herculean effort for those 12,000 people that you have in place. Are they out in the elements right now trying to work on power?

GOULD: We are actually. I think what's important to understand. We invested $2 billion in our system since the past decade. Since the last time we saw a major strike here in Florida.

And those, those investments are yielding benefits. I heard Boris talking before about the fact that he was seeing some flickers and things of that nature. That may be a good thing. We have installed devices, for example, on poles that, actually, instead of having a truck to have to roll to change a fuse, it actually automatically opens and closes and opens and closes and tries to clear the circuit so that the power stays on.

And I think that as we continue to see the storm move up the coast, we're making progress. We still have upwards of a million of our customers still in harm's way. So, we're not out of this by a long stretch.

CAMEROTA: And, Rob, just very quickly. When day breaks there and people and the wind passes or the rain passes and people want to come out and check out their neighborhood, I know that you have a big warning for them because just because they don't have power doesn't mean that the lines aren't still hot. What do you want people to know?

GOULD: Bottom line is, if you see a line down, do not go near it. It could be energized. If you see flooded waters, stay away from it. There could be a power line down.

Again, we've invested $2 billion since the past decade, but this is a force of Mother Nature that candidly we have not seen in a very, very long time. And Mother Nature has not done a clearing effort, either, in that time. So, we're seeing a lot of flying debris. A lot of trees down, things of that nature.

So, there's no way to hurricane proof a system. We think we have a very strong and resilient system. But we're talking about a category four storm, category three now.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

GOULD: And we have a long way to go and safety is the most important part.

CAMEROTA: Rob Gould from Florida Power & Light -- thanks so much for joining us.

[06:55:00] We'll have much more of the track of Hurricane Matthew when NEW DAY continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CUOMO: All right. To our viewers in the U.S. and around the world, you're watching NEW DAY. I'm Chris Cuomo in Jacksonville, Florida.

The latest advisory has this area getting the most concentrated hit from Hurricane Matthew but not for many hours for right now. Right now, it is battering the eastern coast of central Florida.

Alisyn Camerota is live up in New York to keep the ship steady. The shots are going down as the bands of feeder system are coming through. You lose your shot, and we've got to have somebody else here and we have that for you this morning.

Here's our latest information. The hurricane is still maintaining category three force. That means there's sustained winds of 120 miles an hour at its core.

Here on shore, we've been feeling gusts of up to 110 miles an hour so far. But in areas of central Florida, Daytona Beach, Palm Bay, they have been getting battered steadily. Over 300,000 are without power and it's going to stay that way or get worse because emergency services cannot get out. In the conditions and the areas where power is out. So, let's get to Jennifer Gray right now.