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Hurricane Matthew Threatens Coast of Florida; Meteorologist Gathers Data by Flying above Hurricane Matthew; Interview with FEMA Administrator. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 07, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Wind gusts record in Cape Canaveral over 100 miles an hour. Hurricane Matthew right now steady at a category three. That means it packs winds of a maximum 120 miles an hour. But the wind is just part of the trifecta of problems. You have the wind, you have the storm surge, and you have the rain. Jennifer Gray knows that as well as anyone. She's our meteorologist. She's in Palm Bay. She's been getting hit hard there all morning. What's it like now?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, we have been getting hit hard, really hard, right before the sun came up. Now we are finally starting to feel like things are getting better. You still get the very strong gusts. They weren't as strong as they were a couple of hours ago. When we were standing out talking to you and we had gusts pounding us hat 80 miles per hour or even a little bit more. Now those gusts aren't quite as frequent. The sun has come up. You can see the clouds just racing across the sky here in Palm Bay just outside of Melbourne, and the eye wall came very, very close to us, within just a couple of miles.

And it's crazy to say, but that made all the difference when you're talking about the proximity of this powerful storm, and the coastline. With that eye wall staying just offshore, it spared us winds that could have been 100 miles per hour, which is -- which can cause much greater damage than winds of about 80 miles per hour. And then unfortunately, just to our north, Cape Canaveral, as you mentioned, recorded winds of about 100 miles per hour-plus. And it battered Cape Canaveral for quite a while. They are still in the thick of it as we're talking.

And then that eye wall only about 30, give or take, a few miles away from Daytona Beach. So, quickly, within the next two to three hours, Daytona Beach will be feeling the brunt of the storm. And then it will continue northward from there.

Chris you are right, south of that eye and south of Melbourne, people are breathing a sigh of relief. They are saying, OK, things are getting better. But this is far from over. Daytona Beach, Cape Canaveral, still in this. And anywhere up the coast, up in through Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, by tomorrow, and it is going to be a nasty one. Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Jennifer, parts north of where you are just need to look at their screen right now. That is your future. That's Daytona Beach. The winds picking up here where we are in Jacksonville and we still have a long way to go. The governor's office just sent word, the I-10 corridor runs east/west here in Florida is clear right now. If you need to leave, now is the time. Heed the local warnings.

Boris Sanchez is in Daytona Beach. He has had to move several times this morning because of the wind effect. How is it now?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, we're going to have to move again soon. We've started to have to dodge debris that's coming in from the street here. This is a piece of roofing insulation that almost hit our camera guy just a few moments ago. It's just a mess out here. The wind continues to just pound this area.

I'm sure some of these palm trees are going to start falling over at some point. I've seen them bend pretty far. And you can see behind us there are still people driving through this. I can't imagine why. The dangers in these kinds of hurricanes are numerous. You not only have these extremely strong winds but you have the debris that they throw around, power lines that get knocked down.

You also have extreme flooding. We're at the shore here. The ocean is just on the other side of our hotel. And with the storm surge in this area supposed to be higher than seven feet you can expect flooding in these neighborhoods. You pair that with the debris that's in the street, the power lines that are in the street, a very high chance of a fatal incident here in Daytona.

You also have to deal with the pounding rain as the wind continues to gather speed behind me. It is going to continue to get worse here as the eye wall draws near. Again, Chris, I can't believe I'm saying this, but there are people in the street right now. I'm not sure who this guy is, but I've seen several cars pass since we've been standing here. I saw one guy walking around earlier. It is just so, so poorly thought out to be out in these kind of conditions, especially when they are going to get worse. So if you are out on the street, I mean, the best thing you can dos get inside and find a safe place to be right now before this eye wall gets closer and closer to Daytona, Chris.

CUOMO: You're right to keep putting the word out there, Boris. It is stupid to be out in these conditions right now. You're not just endangering yourself, you're endangering the first responders who are going to have to come and get you if there's any trouble.

Boris and I are basically blind on the ground. We can only see what's around us. But on your screen we have cameras of other parts of Daytona Beach. There's a camera shooting on the beach right now. You can see just how violent the action is with this current band of weather that is feeding this hurricane Matthew. The camera shaking there. It's locked down. Who knows how long it will stay up.

And what you have to see is, what's at play is this three different effects -- the wind, the storm surge, and the rain.

[08:05:06] This is called a wet storm, hurricane Matthew, which means it's that storm surge that is going to have the most devastating impact. And the rain amount of volume and the wind kind of work in concert with it to create this trifecta problem for those people who are in structures that aren't safe enough to take this type of beating.

Here in Jacksonville, the added concern with the St. John River is that there are a lot of crossovers here, bridges, 40 miles an hour, they're done. Sustained gusts are getting close to that right now. I'm looking at an American flag. It's just been pinned facing westward for the last hour because the storm is getting closer. The bands are coming. The wind is here, which means you make the wrong move, then you're going to have to live with it, because you're not going to be able to get anywhere in a place like this.

This river has two-and-a-half more feet of high tide in it. Without any storm surge it's already cresting at the top of this promenade. That means these areas will be flooded.

Let's check in right now with Dr. Rick Knabb at the national hurricane center. We understand there's a new advisory, doc? What is it?

DR. RICK KNABB, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Yes, good morning, Chris. We've just issued and intermediate public advisory. So this doesn't have a full update on the five-day forecast, but we have updated the position and the intensity and the motion, still 120 miles per hour, the maximum sustained winds, category three, major hurricane moving north/northwest at 13 miles per hour. And we'll update the track forecast at 11:00 a.m.

The warnings are still in effect, hurricane warnings for a good chunk of the east coast of central and northern Florida, and then Georgia and South Carolina. No changes to the prototype storm surge, the warning areas that we're concerned about that are in play here because even if the center of circulation never comes onshore, the center of action is going to be on the coast and at some points inland, and I'm really worried that folks are letting their guard down because they think, well, the center's offshore and the track stays offshore so I'm not going to get hit. And that is not the message we want to be sending.

This is going to be really, really close to the coast. Following a path almost the same shape as the coastline itself, and it could come ashore, or it could come close enough that storm surge and inland flooding in addition to the hurricane force winds have a great potential to take lives if people don't follow evacuation instructions. There's still time to do so in many locations, especially in Georgia and South Carolina.

CUOMO: Doctor, I was saying to you when I was back in New York, boy, I hope we're wrong about this. I hope we're wrong. And one of the things that's unusual about this is the duration that we're dealing with as this things makes its way up the coast and a coast line unfamiliar with hurricanes. So I'm starting to see online from people in and around here in Jacksonville, they're saying, all right, it's rainy, it's blowy, there's going to be a little built of damage, but it's not that bad. I would love for that to be the case for the rest of the day, but is that being overconfident way too soon? KNABB: Yes, the weather is just starting to get bad in Jacksonville.

We're just beginning to get to the phase in which you're getting winds of tropical storm force in the first coast region. So it's only going to get worse from here. The center of circulation is still way to your south and southeast. As it moves northward, the winds will get stronger, the rainfall will get heavier and more persistent, and the hurricane will start pushing ashore the ocean.

There is a significant life-threatening danger of storm surge flooding in the first coast area. Areas like Ponte Vedra Beach, St. Augustine, Jacksonville Beach, and even the possibility of the storm surge getting into the St. John's River, that is a very real threat here. And it's only going to be a very short time before the winds get so strong that the authorities will close bridges and people can't get out anymore. So the weather is only starting to get bad. And it's going to be bad for a while.

CUOMO: Upwards of 300 people lost their lives in Haiti. Obviously it's a very different place than the United States, certainly Florida. We don't know about the Bahamas. And here we don't know yet. Very few localities have been able to go out and do any type of impact assessment. So really we don't know what has happened here other than what we see around us. And doctor, as you know, that's the only reason I'm out here right now. There's nothing enjoyable about this, but we're out to help local authorities understand the current situation, and, frankly, to be out here to feed other people's curiosity so they don't have to be.

But in terms of when you're looking at this. This word that it's big a slow but still a far way to go, that still is the status quo as far as you're concerned?

KNABB: Absolutely. And we want to talk especially to folks in Georgia and South Carolina where the winds of tropical storm force haven't gotten there yet, and we're hearing concerns that people aren't heeding the evacuation instructions. But we're hearing a lot of talk about how historic this storm is, how unusual it is to have a hurricane this strong in this area.

[08:10:00] But part of the history of this hurricane might be how many people died. And if you're in an area where you've been told to evacuate and you haven't evacuated yet and they're telling you there's still time to go, you need to leave now so you're not in our report afterwards in one of the lists of the fatalities that is greatly possible due to storm surge and inland flooding. Water takes the most lives in tropical systems in the U.S.

CUOMO: Dr. Rick Knabb, thank you very much. We'll be back in touch.

Alisyn, the governor just said the I-10 corridor, which is the main artery here to get out of Jacksonville and the area surrounding is open. Now is the time to go. I hope to God we're wrong about all this and that it stays the way it is and everybody's OK and it was just that we got the assessment wrong. That will be great. But we do not know that anywhere close yet. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well it doesn't look like you're wrong

because on the split screen here that we're seeing, on the right side is Daytona Beach. That's where the hurricane is hitting right now, and it sure looks different than how it looks, Chris, in your location Jacksonville. In Daytona Beach, it is just an incredible scene. I mean, it looks like the camera is under water, there's so much rain and so much wind.

And the reason that we know so much about this hurricane and its track is because of the work of our next guest and his team. Richard Henning is a meteorologist, and he is the flight director for NOAA's hurricane hunters. What you're seeing on the right side of your screen is them flying into hurricane Matthew. You can see their plane, their little prop plane bouncing around in the outer bands of the hurricane. And they do that so that they can gather data. Richard, let's see if our technology works at 45,000 feet. Are you up in the air in a plane right now?

RICHARD HENNING, NOAA METEOROLOGIST: Well, good morning, Alisyn, and good morning to all your viewers. Yes, we've been flying an eight- hour mission in the NOAA Gulfstream 4 aircraft. It's an unusual piece of technology. What we do is we actually fly across the top of the storm and across the environment that surrounds the storm, about a 4,000 mile track that took us several hundred miles out into the Atlantic and across the top of the storm. And now we're actually in the Gulf of Mexico.

And the whole idea is we drop what we call dropsondes, which are weather instruments that fall from our aircraft. They fall by parachute. They take about 15 minutes to reach the water, and the whole time they're transmitting data, the important meteorological data on winds, pressure, temperature, all the things that a computer model would need to help forecast the track of the storm. Just like you would have a weather balloon except instead of the balloon going up, the dropsonde goes down.

And again, we sample the environment around the storm, and this data is fed directly by satellite to the computers that the national hurricane center uses to forecast the track of the storm.

CAMEROTA: So Richard, you are up in the air. You're 45,000 feet up, and you say that you're in the Gulf of Mexico because that's where you're gathering all the atmospherics around the storm. We're watching the video of one of your colleagues who flew directly into the storm. I know you've had that experience. Can you just tell us what it is like in this little propeller plane when you fly through those outer bands of a hurricane?

HENNING: Yes, we have two different aircraft that we employ at NOAA. We have our Gulfstream G-4 which is the aircraft that I'm flying in right now. And then we have a P-3 Orion, which is a four engine turboprop plane that actually does the real dirty work flying into the teeth of the storm down at 10,000 feet. That's the one that actually penetrates the eye wall and gets the really nasty ride.

We get a lot of turbulence up here at 45,000 feet because this is where all energy from the storm flows out. It's called the outflow region of the storm. So it gets pretty turbulent up here, as well, but not nearly as turbulent as we get going through the eye wall down at lower altitudes in our other aircraft.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. Richard, I mean, honestly just watching the video is sending a shiver down my spine. For anybody who's ever been in turbulence on a commercial flight, the idea that you're on a little prop plane there going through the eye wall is so intense.

So, Richard, what have you learned, now that you've been flying around and dropping these instruments, what have you learned about hurricane Matthew that makes this one different?

HENNING: Well, one of the most important things that we saw tonight is that the storm is always changing, that the structure of the storm continues to reorganize itself.

[08:15:12] The folks around Cape Canaveral, the Melbourne area, caught a little bit of a break with the storm making a slight turn to the right that spared them the worst of the eyewall. But, these storms are -- they can be very tricky. And they can veer back to the left and reorganize.

And so, this is still a very, very dangerous storm with winds well in excess of 100 miles an hour. And the folks in the warn area out ahead of the storm in the Jacksonville area, and obviously the folks in Georgia and South Carolina have to pay very close attention to the emergency management warnings, being issued by their communities, because this is potentially a very deadly storm.

If it were to make direct land fall on the coast, and there's really nothing to prevent that from happening. It could very well cross the coast. Central Florida looks like it's been spared but the folks down the road may not be so lucky.

CAMEROTA: Well, Richard Henning, thank you so much for ting the time to talk to us on NEW DAY. We know you have your hands full and our meteorologists are relying on the data that you are gathering at 45,000 feet right now so thanks so much. We'll check back with you throughout the day.

HENNING: All right.

CAMEROTA: OK. So once again, there you see what's happening in Daytona. It is a mess. It's very intense, all of the winds and rain there, that's what's headed in your direction, Chris.

CUOMO: And actually, as you were talking to the storm chaser there, the path of the storm has shifted west. And obviously every time it moves west, it's bad for Florida, because that means that the outer edge of the eye is now closer and that means more intense rings are now closer to aspects of Florida.

So, let's collect in in Daytona where those dramatic pictures of Hurricane Matthew present are coming from. And let's check in with the police chief, Chief Chitwood, there in Daytona Beach. Chief, we told you we would be doing the public service with you, of

getting the word out. They're seeing people out on the roads. People have this understanding that they think it wasn't a bad$, as they expected. But the truth you want people to know is you have no idea how bad it's been because you can't do an impact evaluation of anything and it's still far from over.

Chief?

CHIEF MICHAEL CHITWOOD, DAYTON BEACH PD (via telephone): That's exactly correct. We're out here now with the city manager. We're up on A1A on the beach side. The winds have picked up tremendously. You know we have some rooftops that have been ripped off. Some trees that have been snapped. Gas stations have been overturned.

There's, you know, we're looking at it now. We have not gotten the worst of it yet. You cannot preach enough that you have to stay indoors, stay hunkered down. The worst of the storm is about to begin here for the next four or five hours.

Do not get out on the roadways. The winds are gusting at about 100 miles an hour.

CUOMO: We're looking at really rough surf in St. Augustine right now showing it to the audience. Obviously as a, you know, something that serves as a reminder of what is potential areas there of Daytona Beach. Are you pretty sure that people there?

CHITWOOD: We're about 75 percent have evacuated, even as we're out here driving around. You can see there's quite a few homes where there are cars in the driveways. There's a few hotels, and a few condos. So, there's some people that are still here. They just have to remain inside until we give the all-clear.

And like I said it's the next four or five hours are going to be really, really crucial for us. You c really see how the conditions have deteriorated. You can probably see about 50 yards in front of you from the wind and the rain and the sand.

CUOMO: I've been checking on my phone while we're hear in Jacksonville and looking at it, and, you know, Alisyn, my co-anchor, really explained it well. It doesn't look like underwater shot right now coming from that beach. And it's going to be sustained for several hours. And that's what the real concern is for you.

The duration, because during that window, you won't be able to go out and get people and that's when the impact will be its worst.

CHITWOOD: We're almost there right now. And I think one of the things all concerned me is you just said that t eye jogged a little bit west. Which means that's going to give us a greater impact here in Daytona?

CUOMO: And how are you going to be in terms of safety? Do you have to stay out there? Do you have a place where you could get back to just hold down operations until you get a window of opportunity? CHITWOOD: That's exactly what we're going to do. We've got the city

manager out. We wanted to take a quick assessment then we'll be heading back to the emergency operations center and hunker down until the worst passes by.

CUOMO: You know, and obviously you can't get out there. We're really not stationed everywhere. I mean, CNN's got people all up and down the coast, but has anybody given you any good information about if there's been any impact on homes or what it's like in areas outside the downtown area yet?

[08:20:09] CHITWOOD: Just from us being out. And we were out in force for about 3:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., we didn't see much of an impact to homes. Minor flooding, some trees down, power outages. But now as we're out here riding you can see there is some roof damage. You can see that there's power lines down the street. You can see that the worst is about to happen here.

CUOMO: All right, Chief. You know you can use us when you want to get the word out about information people know. And be safe. We'll check back with you soon.

CHITWOOD: Thank you.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn, we're just starting to get a band here. Tropical storm level is 39 miles an hour. That's an assessment level for emergency services. That's when they start saying that they can't go out and do their evaluations. That means in Jacksonville, you're now starting to enter a different era of urgency and we're still hours away from the worst.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. I mean, I think you're about ten hours away from the worst according to our meteorologists. So, Chris, we'll check back in with you in a second.

But I want to bring in Craig Fugate. He's the head of the Federal Emergency Management Administration, FEMA.

Mr. Fugate, thank you for taking time to join us this morning. What concerns you the most at this hour?

CRAIG FUGATE, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Well, my concern has been the concern we've had all along. That's going to be storm surge.

I want people to understand, you know, we're going to start getting reports out of south Florida. It wasn't that bad. Some power outages, some minor damages and people are going to think this storm isn't that powerful. They were not impacted by hurricane force winds. They did not see significant storm surge risk. We've known all along that was going to be a bigger risk for north Florida and southeast Georgia.

So, people may say, hey, it didn't look that bad. Bad is happening right now right off of Daytona. And it's going to continue to move up the coast. We need people to move to high ground if they haven't. Some places like the police chief said, it's too late. Stay where you're at. Hang on until the storm passes.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I mean, this is making a beeline to Jacksonville. Our Chris Cuomo is. And it's going to work its way all the way up the coast before that. And there you can see on your split screen there what's happening in Daytona. That is what is in store for millions of people.

Mr. Fugate, I know that the president signed a declaration of emergency for Florida, as well as Georgia, South Carolina. What did that mean? What does that change?

FUGATE: Well, it just means we did the paperwork. We already started moving lots of people and resources in anticipation of the impacts to support the governors. We already had our teams in place. We had equipment and supplies, this is our documentation now to be able to release that to the states as they need it to deploy into the areas of impact.

But again, people are looking at wind. People are looking at power outages. That is not the principle life threat. The principle life threat is still storm surge and it could be much worse. They don't call Jacksonville the river city for nothing. So, flooding can occur not only on the coast but well inland on the St. John's River, Saint Mary's and other tributaries as this storm moves into northeast Florida, and southeast Georgia.

CAMEROTA: So, what do you want people in Jacksonville and the surrounding to know? I mean if they're still there, and they have not evacuated what are they to do?

FUGATE: Move to high ground. You know, I have family live there. They all went down to my cousin's house in central Florida to get away from the storm. Too many people up there have not been through a hurricane. They've been through tropical force winds. The last time we had major hurricane impacts was back to 1964 Hurricane Dora and that hit south of Jacksonville.

This storm's going to put more water than they've ever seen. You have to go back to the late 1800s to see the potential impacts. So, a lot of people say I don't live beach, it's not a problem.

In that part of the country, you live near rivers and creeks, very low lying that water can go in tens of miles. You need to move to higher ground. You don't have much more time. As you're already seen, Daytona Beach it's probably too late for some people. They just need to stay where they are.

CAMEROTA: But in Jacksonville, it's not too late. You're saying people still have a chance to move right now.

FUGATE: Yes. I mean, we're still seeing, starting to see those gusts coming in. It's going to start getting up tropical force. But time is running out.

And the only thing that I can really see right now from this storm track is it hasn't gotten any better. People are saying well it's weakened. It's not a category 4.

They don't understand how deadly and dangerous the water is going to be. They focus too much on the wind. They think the wind won't be that bad.

I'm telling you, the storm surge is what we got to keep focused on. And people need to be moving to high ground. For some people it's too late where you can still, move to higher ground. You only have hours left before the full brunt of the storm is in that area.

CAMEROTA: And, Mr. Fugate, you say you have thousands of people poised and ready to help. What will they be doing tomorrow?

FUGATE: Well, they won't be tomorrow. We're starting today working further south. Urban search and rescue teams and other teams are on standby.

[08:25:02] As the storm moves north, we're going to basically be following it supporting the state. Their priorities will be getting back in areas doing life safety rescue missions and also assessments. Utility crews will also be following the storm north.

So, it will be one where as conditions improve further south we'll be supporting the state if they need assistance. But as we get in to the areas of heavy impact, we're ready to support commodities rescue teams, communications, the things that states may need in the immediate response, but when you -- when you also factor in the states have called out their national guard.

They do mutual aid. They have a lot of resources. Our job is to support. But we're ready to go starting today if needed.

CAMEROTA: It sounds like you all are positioned in the right place. Craig Fugate, thank you very much for taking time to warn people, and tell us where you are. We appreciate it.

FUGATE: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right. We'll be tracking the storm, obviously, as it continues to hit Daytona there.

NEW DAY will take a very quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All right. We're here in Jacksonville. This is the new focus of maximum impact of Hurricane Matthew but that's not for several hours from now.

But we are getting these intermittent bands with winds affected about 40 miles an hour. That takes you into tropical storm status.