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Florence About to Make Landfall; Power Outages in North Carolina; Official During Katrina on Storms. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 14, 2018 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:32:09] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, John Berman here in Wilmington, North Carolina, where the outer eye wall of Hurricane Florence is above us at this moment.

We've come in a little bit closer because I have a guest. I won't subject him to some of the worst winds and rains that we're getting here.

Buddy Martinette is with the fire department here in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Give me a sense of what you're hearing.

BUDDY MARTINETTE, WILMINGTON FIRE CHIEF: Well, right now we have a lot of downed trees, just wide-spread power outages. Most of the firefighters right now are just hunkered down, trying to wait this thing out so they can get back out on the streets.

BERMAN: Now, you can't go out when it's like this. We're told that the wind speeds now are 70 miles -- 75-miles-per-hour.

MARTINETTE: Yes.

BERMAN: Your people can't be out on the streets now.

MARTINETTE: No. We were only -- at 50-miles-an-hour we have a policy that basically says, when the winds get to be sustained that high, we kind of stop our responses. Now that -- we leave that up to the officer's discretion. So if there's a life to be saved, then we -- we go and do it. So even now, if something was to happen dangerous, we would send somebody out to try to operate if it was to save somebody's life.

BERMAN: You'll do what you can?

MARTINETTE: Yes, absolutely.

BERMAN: You can't what you can.

MARTINETTE: Absolutely.

BERMAN: You can't do everything, though, is the problem. MARTINETTE: No. and people's expect -- when people stay back in a

storm, the expectation needs to be -- or they have to have a very low expectation that somebody's going to be able to come and help them. It's very difficult.

BERMAN: I apologize for the water that's going in your eyes right now.

MARTINETTE: Yes.

BERMAN: You're a great sport about that. One of the things we know about this storm as it falls on us right now, is it's coming for a while.

MARTINETTE: Yes.

BERMAN: The duration of this storm will be something. What kind of challenges does that pose?

MARTINETTE: Well, that creates a lot of challenges because where we'd normally go out, we're going to get water to pile up. We don't get a chance to clear the streets of the debris and so the debris is going to pile up in the streets, which makes our responses more difficult. It also makes it more difficult for Duke Power to get in here and get the power turned back on.

BERMAN: Yes, I understand we've got 320,000 people across North Carolina without power so far. You and I know that number is going to go up. That number's going to go up quite a bit.

What kind of flooding do you normally get in Wilmington? I know we have the rivers here around here. Is it a storm surge situation you're concerned about?

MARTINETTE: Storm surge situations happen on the ocean front and on the Atlantic-facing beaches a lot and we are concerned about that for those island or barrier island communities. This -- this particular area, when it was built, was built pretty high and so we can take a -- we can take a fair bit of rain. Now I'll say that we'll probably be under three feet of water here in about six hours, but we can generally take a pretty good, fair -- good piece of rain before we start flooding.

BERMAN: What do you think the timeframe is that the danger -- and, again, I apologize that we're standing in the middle of this right now with the winds coming. How many days before you think you're out of it?

MARTINETTE: Oh, this is a week -- this is weeks. If this thing sits on top of us, it will be -- it will be a few days before the storm is over, but recovery will be weeks and months.

BERMAN: Weeks and months.

[06:35:00] Now, we're hearing reports up in New Bern of people trapped in their homes. The storm surge there. Some people did not heed the mandatory evacuation orders that were there. What is your advice -- people -- we had someone on the phone with us

before. They were -- they had moved to their attic, where there wasn't a window. What would you tell people who are in their homes with the floodwaters rising?

MARTINETTE: Yes, just go high, stay there, and we will get to you as quick as we can. Our - the way we prioritize our rescues are for our most vulnerable. And so I imagine when we get into damage assessment mode, we're going to first be able -- we're going to first clear the beaches because, obviously, they're under the greatest impact from the storm surge and from the wind, the facing wind. But we have a pretty good process for how we prioritize those rescue efforts and those damage assessment efforts, and we'll just go into that mode.

BERMAN: How will your teams --

MARTINETTE: We might end up in the river here in a minute.

BERMAN: Well, we'll -- I will hold on to you. And, you know, and I'm shifty (ph). I'll grab on to a post if I have to.

Your rescue teams, how are they doing tonight? Where are they staged?

MARTINETTE: Well, we have some urban -- so we have some federal urban search and rescue assets staged about five minutes from here at the airport. They're waiting to go to work. We have some preposition teams not too far out of town in Raleigh. They're ready to go to work. We have some -- our folks definitely are prepared to go to work. And as soon as we can -- I promised our citizens and our visitors -- hopefully we don't have any visitors -- that we're going to get out there just as quick as we can. I promise you.

BERMAN: All right. Listen, thank you. You're a great sport. Get dry. Stay safe. You have days of work ahead of you, OK. We really appreciate it.

MARTINETTE: Thanks, John, appreciate it. All right.

BERMAN: All right, joining us now by phone is Keith Acree with the North Carolina Emergency Management.

Keith, thanks so much for being with us.

Give us an update, if you can, on the power outages first in the state right now.

KEITH ACREE, NORTH CAROLINA EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (via telephone): Sure. So statewide we're looking at about 320,000 was the update we had a few minutes ago, 320,000 customers without power statewide. That number continues to grow very quickly and jump up in large chunks every hour (ph).

BERMAN: Three hundred and twenty-thousand and rising and rising.

Keith, one of the areas of great concern is New Bern, where we understand there are people trapped in their homes and there have been calls for rescues. Can you give us an update on the situation?

ACREE: Right. Well, I think the rescuers on the ground in New Bern are doing everything they can do to (INAUDIBLE) make due at this point, you know, because they're out there working in pounding rain and 70 to 90-mile-an-hour winds. So it's quite a challenge. It's certainly not the (INAUDIBLE) aircraft in the air and doing air operations. So we're dealing with what we've got on the ground, (INAUDIBLE) without putting, you know, rescuers in jeopardy themselves.

BERMAN: Yes, I'm having a little bit of a hard time hearing you obviously with the wind and the rain where I am.

The concern as we're talking about is some of the rescues in this area of storm surge.

What can people expect, what can people who are trapped in their homes at this point expect?

ACREE: Yes, I mean, I think that -- some of them can expect a little bit of a wait. I mean crews are working as diligently as they can to get to them where it is safe to do so. But a lot of people need rescued. And there's only so many people there to do it. It's not safe to move crews great distances across the state to get to them right now. All of these rescue teams move in large trucks. They just can't move around. But resources that are close to you, if it's safe to do so, we'll come to you as quickly as they can get there.

BERMAN: Yes, we know we're doing every -- you are doing everything you can to help the people that you can help, but sometimes you just can't get out there. Not with the winds like this. Not with the rain like this. And not, in some cases, the water moving as swiftly as it does.

What complications does the duration of this storm -- what unique complications does the duration of this storm pose for you?

ACREE: Well, I think it's a matter of having enough resources and teams to keep at it for an extended periods of time. I mean hopefully we have -- we have brought in resources from all around the country into North Carolina. We've been working on that for the past several days. We've got, you know, quite a bit here now and we -- hopefully what we've got is enough to sustain the course of this over the next, you know, 48, 72 hours and beyond that.

BERMAN: And you say 42 to 72 hours.

This storm surge, New Bern has been the area hit hardest at this point. Do you expect you'll see similar situations, similar emergency situations as this storm does take the turn and move south?

ACREE: Yes. I mean I think we're going to see flooding, you know, occur in other areas. Exactly where that's going to be, hard to predict. But, yes, we certainly expect there are going to be other cities facing flooding situations. (INAUDIBLE) officials in some towns are having conversations about potential evacuations. So --

[06:40:13] BERMAN: And, Keith, just one more question. I was told the rainfall at this point is falling at about three inches per hour. Some 20 inches of rain already in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. And Chad Myers, our meteorologist, said that we could get 20 more inches by the time this is all done.

The fresh water flooding will start to become a problem in the next day or two. Explain what that might mean.

ACREE: Right. So, I mean, that's -- you'll have an initial problem with flooding due to the storm surge. And then the river flooding, the creeks and the streams we're worried about, that condition we're going to face three to four and five days from now with all the water that falls inland runs back down those rivers towards the ocean. And that's exactly what we saw during Hurricane Matthew just a few years ago. We expect to see that again with this storm.

BERMAN: All right, Keith Acree with North Carolina Emergency Management. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you even more for the work that you have done and that you will be doing over the next few days. It is so important. And it is just a herculean effort ahead of you, so we really appreciate it, sir.

ACRE: Thank you. Stay safe out there.

BERMAN: All right, we're just -- we're just getting word that the North Carolina governor, Roy Cooper, he is going to brief at 11:00 a.m. this morning. That will be when this storm is still bearing down on his state and on the coast here.

We're in Wilmington, North Carolina. The outer eyewall over us right now. Wind speeds approaching 90 miles per hour. Three inches of rain per hour.

CNN's special live coverage of Hurricane Florence continues right after this.

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[06:46:03] BERMAN: All right, John Berman in Wilmington, North Carolina. This is CNN's special live coverage of Hurricane Florence. The outer eyewall now directly over us in Wilmington, North Carolina. These are the strongest wind gusts we've received here, 75, 80 -- that felt like 90 -- 90 miles-an-hour blowing me around here right by the water. In the northeast Cape Fear River, three inches of rain per hour now at least. We're going to get so much more rain here over the next 24 hours. Very difficult to deal with.

We just got an update. Some breaking news from the power companies here. Some 430,000 people, 430,000 customers in North Carolina without power. That number has gone up by about 100,000 every hour as this morning approaches and the sun begins to come up. A little bit lighter here than it was a short time ago. That's if you can see through the rain that's just whipping past us at this moment.

Let's go to Chad Myers in the Weather Center if we can. Chad, give me a sense of where we are in terms of the eye of the

storm. The outer eyewall still over us, obviously, in Wilmington, North Carolina.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

BERMAN: What do we have -- what do we have ahead of us?

MYERS: And now we have duration damage, because the wind has been so strong for so long, just like that gusts right there. There was just a 98-mile-per-hour wind gusts in Kirkland. That's the same issue, that same little cell that just went over Wilmington. At the same time, four miles northwest of you, John, there was a 100-mile-per-hour wind gusts near Wilmington. But the eye is showing up on radar quite well and the eye is moving this morning. In the overnight hours, it really didn't move at all.

There's the land. There is all we have to cross to get the middle of that eye across the land and we call landfall. Now, that's really fairly irrelevant because half of the storm is still off in very warm water, taking very big waves somewhere in the neighborhood of 22 feet, and smashing them to the north and northeast of the storm in that wrap around part of the storm.

We do know that Emerald Isle has a storm surge right now of seven feet. Seven feet above normal high tide. And that's Emerald Isle up north, not that far from Moorhead City. I'll show you a different map in a second.

It's only three streets wide here. And if you have seven feet of water in that city, or that town right there, that is going to be a mess. And, like you said, there's more rain to come. We have areas here that will pick up an additional 20 to 30 inches of rainfall before it finally gets towards Charlotte and then on up toward the northeast.

John, is this the worst that you felt the -- for the entire storm, because I can barely see you?

BERMAN: You know, the wind is blowing -- the rain -- Chad, I have to tell you, I'm, you know, 50 feet away from my camera. I cannot see the camera -- hard it is raining.

MYERS: Yes.

BERMAN: And the winds --

MYERS: And I cannot hear you, so let's just --

BERMAN: Coming from any one direction.

MYERS: Yes, it's about to turn on you and eventually you're going to get the inside part of an eye. The eye is going to get to you and things are going to really calm down very, very rapidly. It's just going to be some time.

Wilmington, North Carolina, your normal rainfall for the year should be 42 inches. You've already had 63. And that's what it's raining like right now, going up probably another ten inches before it finally stops.

The flood threat is all up and down the East Coast. There are 17 river stages in major flood and then higher. Some of the areas may get to record flood.

And there's been some pretty big weather, including Matthew and Floyd and all that. To get to record levels, you really have to get some rain. Atlantic Beach, 23 inches. That's some rain. So our Emerald Isle is right there under the "h" in Moorhead City. That's where the surge is right now. And seven feet above sea level, where it should be, and we have big waves on top of that.

[06:50:08] John, I'm going to let you try to dry out for just a second to get your electronics going. I'm going to toss to Chris Cuomo down in north Myrtle Beach where what you have there he will have in about 12 hours.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'll tell you what, it's that amount of time that raises the concern, not just the amount of time with that rain and that wind, but what leads up to it. I mean even these, you know, these relatively baby winds of something like 40-mile-an-hour gusts are plenty to soften up structures and, you know, root structures of vegetation in the area, shingles are flying off. We'll see what happens when this high tide turns around, when the surge comes in with the storm. A lot of people stayed here, even though it was a mandatory evacuation zone.

And in terms of the rescues, the numbers we're hearing versus the reality. In the 8:00 hour, you're going to have the FEMA director, Brock Long is going to be on this program, as is the head of the National Weather Center. So you're going to get insight from the top on the show. That is to come.

Now, in terms of how to deal with something like this, how to make it through and what the necessities are, let's bring in Mitch Landrieu. He was lieutenant governor in Louisiana during the time of Katrina.

Can you hear me, Mitch?

MITCH LANDRIEU (D), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: I can hear you, Chris. How you doing?

CUOMO: Better than I deserve. But we haven't seen anything down here yet. John Berman in parts north (ph) are dealing with distress.

LANDRIEU: Well, you're going to look like -- in a couple of minutes you're going to look like Berman. I said in a couple of minutes you're going to look like Berman, because that's coming your way.

CUOMO: Well, I'm -- we're going to -- we're going to keep John's shot up for two reasons. One, it's important for people to see the reality. And, two, I like to see John in it. So we're going to keep him here, especially while I'm dry and on the porch. Now, in terms of dealing with, you know, we try to bring in some

levity when we can, Mitch, because we know there's so many people who are going to be dealing with distress.

I lived Katrina. I saw how you people pulled through it and what it took. There -- it's not about comparison, but there is a new element that they're going to deal with here, duration.

LANDRIEU: Yes.

CUOMO: Imagine three days of these types of conditions and what that does and what it requires from local government. What are they going to have to do?

LANDRIEU: Well, a couple things that I want to just kind of sear home.

Brock Long is going to tell you this, Ken Graham's going to tell you, from the National Weather Service, don't be fooled that it's a category one. A category one can be every bit as dangerous as a category five. And this storm has got rain, it's got storm surge, it's going to have electrical outages and the inundation's going to be tremendous. That eyewall is coming through right now, which means it's going to calm down. Lots of people think they're out of harm's way and they're going to do something silly like go outside. Do not do that. This is the worst part of the storm.

Of course you have tons of people that have evacuated. They're all, you know, sleeping on top of each other, so it requires a lot of patience. Back on the ground, where you are, I talked to Mayor Bethune the other day in Myrtle Beach, people -- people are hunkered down. Right now you have to stay where you are. Do not try to move. Because once the winds get above 35 to 50-miles-an-hour, first responders cannot get to you. So the great challenge for everybody right now is to stay where they are.

Your first responders are doing everything they can to help anybody that's in harm's way. But as you can imagine, and you can see what's going on with John, if you're in Myrtle Beach and you're looking at the weather right now, you think, oh, everything's going to be fine. It's not. That storm surge that Chad was talking about is coming your way. That wind is coming your way. That water is coming your way. Right now the order of the day is to stay put and stay hunkered down and do not get yourself in harm's way because that water is going to get you. That's the greatest danger in the next 48 hours.

CUOMO: And we've been talking to people in New Bern and other areas north of here that have seen the worst of it so far. They're going to have to deal with the dirty sided storm, the back side also, and we'll see what happens there.

LANDRIEU: Right.

CUOMO: And they've been moving up in floors. That's what we're told to do. As the water comes into the house, if you've been there, you made the decision to stay, obviously you move up as the water moves up. But that move is only as smart as what you bring with you. You have to be ready to break a window, put a hole in a wall or in a roof --

LANDRIEU: Correct.

CUOMO: Because God forbid you put yourself somewhere where you don't have an egress, you don't have an exit.

LANDRIEU: Well, here's the hard part. All of the people that Mayor Bethune told to leave and who did not leave are now in a difficult situation. And hopefully they've given them -- they've brought enough water, they've brought enough food. There's going to be an electrical outage. If the wind stays up, it's going to be really hard for the first responders. So just protect yourself. Every -- don't light a fire. Don't try to make yourself warm by doing that. Just get yourself out of harm's way, get as high as you can, you know, and you have to wait it out. If for some reason you get yourself in a closed attic, you have to try to find a way to make sure that you have air flowing in.

The first responders, I promise you, are chomping at the bit to get to you. But if they come out and winds are above 50 miles-an-hour, they're going to put themselves in harm's way. But I know I just saw the fire chief a minute ago. They're all waiting and they're ready to get in as fast as they can.

Now, here's the danger. When one part of the storm goes away, everybody's going to want to come back outside. Don't do that either because when you get out there, there's going to be downed power lines, there's all kinds of dangerous standing water that you can fall in. The hardest part is for people just to stay put and let the first responders do their job because they're there to try to save your life to the extent that they possibly can.

[06:55:19] CUOMO: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. But, of course, Mitch Landrieu, thank you very much.

LANDRIEU: You're welcome.

CUOMO: Again, lieutenant governor during Katrina back there in the state of Louisiana. He knows what it takes to get through these things.

A reminder about first responders, they have to think about their lives as well. They have conditions and rules about when they can get out, because they just can't be effective in certain conditions. If you're home and you have power and you're watching and you're in this area, do what I'm doing, watch John Berman in the weather, that's the reality, you don't need to live it.

We'll take a quick break and then our continuing coverage of Hurricane Florence now in full effect in the Carolinas will continue.

Please, stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news. CUOMO: All right, welcome back to the special edition of NEW DAY.

Coverage of Hurricane Florence.

Alisyn, we're waiting to get her coms back in New York.

John Berman is in the thick of it in Wilmington, North Carolina. The eye of this storm just coming to where he is. Florence has made landfall. We're waiting for his shot to get back up. He and his team are fine. He's been reporting brilliantly all morning for you. He is in the worst of it. As soon as his shot comes up, we'll show you what he's living in real time.

[06:59:57] The numbers are already big and we are nowhere in terms of the expected duration of affect. Four hundred and thirty- two thousand plus customers. Who knows how many people are each household that is called a customer. Four hundred and thirty-two thousand of them without power. Storm surge