Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Hurricane Ian Approaching Category Five Status; Hurricane Ian Threatening Parts of Coastal Florida; Mayor of Tampa Bay Interviewed on Possible Effects of Hurricane Ian Making Landfall; Report Indicates Leaks in Gas Pipeline between Russia and Europe Caused by Sabotage. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 28, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That was the last reading from a plane that was flying through the storm for the National Hurricane Center, 155 miles per hour, just two miles per hour short of a category five storm. Some 2.5 million people up and down the coast under some kind of evacuation order for very good reason. This extremely powerful storm is now bringing projected storm surge of up to 16 feet in some areas south of here. The Port Charlotte area, Punta Gorda, not far from Fort Myers, so many pretty heavily populated areas, so many houses right near the water that could be underwater soon. You have storm surge, you have wind speed, also rainfall. We're in between rain bands here in Tampa, but it has been pouring all night and all morning long here. They could see 12 to 24 inches of rain before all is said and done here.

And so much of the Florida peninsula could feel the impact of this hurricane. It could make landfall the next several hours and then work its way up the peninsula slowly, very slowly, bringing hurricane force winds here to Tampa, to Orlando, before it heads out over the Atlantic on the other side maybe sometime later tomorrow. Obviously, millions of people feeling the impact of this, a life-threatening storm, in some ways a near worst case scenario for some of the people south of here.

There was an 8:00 a.m. update just in from the National Hurricane Center. I believe we have Michael Brennan at the National Hurricane Center standing by to give us a sense of the very latest. Sir, if you can hear me, where is Ian? Where is it going?

MICHAEL BRENNAN, ACTING DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NOAA: The eye of Ian right now is located about 55 miles west of Naples, moving north-northeast at 10 miles an hour. So we're expecting catastrophic impacts along the southwest border coast later today. As you mentioned, the storm surge inundation could be as high as 16 feet above ground level in the area near Port Charlotte, Charlotte Harbor, from Englewood down to the Bonita Beach. And we're essentially right at the threshold of a category four or five hurricanes, so we're looking at catastrophic wind damage where that eyewall of Ian reaches the coast of southwest Florida today.

BERMAN: Can you walk me through the timeline of Ian from now over the next 24 hours?

BRENNAN: Sure. Yes, we expect Ian's center to reach the coast later today and then it's going to move slowly north eastward across the Florida peninsula, bringing widespread hurricane force winds well inland, perhaps even as far inland as the Orlando, metro area. And it's going to slowly move northeastward and merge near the northeast coast of Florida, but not until Thursday night or early Friday morning. So we're going to have a very prolonged, heavy rainfall event. We could see widespread rainfall totals of 10 to 15 inches, Tampa, Orlando, up to near Jacksonville. And somewhere in there is probably going to get close to two feet of rain. So we're going to have widespread catastrophic flooding impacts across much of central and northern Florida from this storm as well.

BERMAN: That's freshwater flooding from the rainfall, even as the coastal areas see the storm surge there, 16 feet in Port Charlotte. That sound awful. How awful are we talking there? Give me a sense of that impact.

BRENNAN: It's simply just you're not going to survive if you're in an area that's going to have 16 feet of inundation. I'm six feet tall. That's almost three times as high as my height. And it's not just the rise of the water from the storm surge. It's the breaking waves on top of it that are going to be driven by those 155 mile-an-hour winds. Those waves can destroy buildings and basically lay a foundation to bare down to the slab. And that's just not a situation you're going to survive in. So if you're still in one of these storm surge evacuation zones in the Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Port Charlotte area, you still have a few more hours to get to the safe place, get out of that storm surge zone, and protect yourself today.

BERMAN: Yes, protect yourself, listen to your officials there. Michael Brennan at the National Hurricane Center, we appreciate your guidance. Thank you very much.

BRENNAN: Thanks.

BERMAN: As we said, the conditions are deteriorating up and down the coast. I want to go to Randi Kaye in Punta Gorda, about 100 miles or so south of here, where this storm could have a direct impact. Randi, tell me what you're seeing.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are still seeing the conditions certainly are deteriorating here. The rain comes in waves, it lessens a little bit, and then it comes back at us pretty hard. The wind is certainly starting to gust as the storm gets closer to the western coast here of Florida.

I did just talk with the emergency operation center, and they said they are considering more evacuations, as you just heard there. There is still time for people who haven't evacuated to get out. This would be Zone C in this area, people, it's a much more residential area, but they're quite concerned about the storm search that we're talking about now, this 12 to 16 feet.

[08:05:01] So a lot of concern about that. About two-thirds of the county has already been under this mandatory evacuation. But here is the Peace River behind me. Certainly some concern about this. There are still boats docked out there as well, and this feeds right into Charlotte Harbor, and Charlotte Harbor is where hurricane Charlie raced across back in 2004. So certainly, a lot of concern about a lot of this water ending up in downtown Punta Gorda, which is not far from me. I also asked what changes they've made since hurricane Charlie here. They did rebuild almost every single building in downtown Punta Gorda, but they haven't changed the elevations. So while the buildings may be stronger or newer, John, there is certainly concern that the elevation hasn't changed with this storm surge moving in. Back to you.

BERMAN: Right, a stronger building is good, but a stronger building doesn't help much if you're dealing with 12 to 16 feet of water. Interesting that they're now considering evacuations in Zone C. The way it works, Zone A closest to the water, Zone B the next closest, and then Zone C further away, so they're now moving people even from there, or considering it now.

I want to bring our chief meteorologist Chad Myers to joining this conversation. Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Randi, I'm looking at the boats behind you. And they're going to become jetsam and flotsam because those pilings are not 16 feet. If that water goes up 16 feet, there's not going to be anything for those boats to be tied to. Why didn't more people get their boats somewhere else or out of the water?

KAYE: That's a really good question, Chad, because certainly they've had the notice to do so. We spoke to a couple late yesterday, and they were spending the night. They were planning to hunker down for the storm on their boat here in this harbor just not far from me at all. But if you look out there, you can see them all behind me. They're there. It's unclear what's going to happen to them depending on the storm surge and certainly the winds could take them down. This is the Peace River, as I mentioned, but the Charlotte Harbor is where this Peace River feeds into, Chad, and that is where hurricane Charlie, we know, hit right at the Charlotte Harbor. So I don't know what would you expect would be happening in the harbor if we're seeing this kind of -- a storm of this magnitude.

MYERS: When the wind is going to be blowing from the west at possibly from 140 to 155, all of that water is going to get pushed up into those rivers. That's the problem. You could actually get a funnel effect where some of these numbers, 16, could be higher right up the river, right up the stream. So that's what I'm concerned about, especially if there's someone actually staying on those boats out there. That's something that -- you need to be gone.

But the whole idea here is that Charlie, everybody talks about Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. This isn't Charlie. This is closer to Katrina. This is a storm surge of Katrina, not a small wind field of Charlie. And I just hope people got out of the way, because you need to run from the water, kind of hide from the wind, if you can. But, you know, 2 million people have been evacuated with this, or have at least been told to evacuate. How are they -- are they leaving?

KAYE: And that's actually the concern here in Charlotte County when I asked the emergency operations center spokesperson just a few minutes ago. Do we know if Zone A evacuated, which is the Barrier Islands and the coastal communities. He said, you know what, we don't. All we can do is we will them to evacuation. There is no way, they don't go out and do checks. They don't ask people to check in and say we've evacuated house number 23 on this street. They have absolutely no way of knowing, which is probably a good reason why, as we know, the governor has the search and rescue teams on standby. But even in a situation like this, we've been through this before, you know certainly from Katrina, just getting to those communities could take quite some time if people are still there and they did remain there for the storm, right?

MYERS: Yes. I know of people that actually rode it out in a boat. And then the boat is gone. HE had to replace the boat, but he made it through it. And I don't know how he made it through it. He has scary stories to talk about. And I hope that these people don't have scary stories to talk about. I hope they just get off those boats and go up on higher land.

BERMAN: Chad Myers and Randi Kaye, stand by. Randi, you and your team stand by safely somewhere, if you can, for the next several minutes or several hours.

I want to bring in Jane Castor, the mayor here in Tampa. Mayor, thanks so much for being with us. I think we have some live pictures also of the nearby Skyway Bridge so people can see that the situation here in Tampa, even though not anything what Randi is seeing down in Punta Gorda, is beginning to deteriorate, the waves picking up. What are your concerns this morning?

MAYOR JANE CASTOR, TAMPA, FLORIDA: Our concerns clearly are still the wind.

[08:10:00]

I never thought I would say that I was grateful to hear that we may endure a tropical storm or category one hurricane force winds. But still, the winds and the storm. We're going to bring in 18 to 20 inches into a community, a Tampa Bay area that is already saturated. So the flood warnings that we provided earlier are still going to be in effect. And fortunately for us, we've had a couple of days to work on this with the prior predictions. So a lot of our coastal community has evacuated to higher ground.

BERMAN: Just so people understand what you're talking about, yes, there's still a storm surge threat here in Tampa, maybe six feet that would be coming from Tampa Bay, which is behind me sort of up the hills from the river here. But then what you're talking about is the rainfall, expecting 18, maybe two feet of rain over a 24-hour period here. That's freshwater flooding. What damage could that do?

CASTOR: That could do a lot of damage to our homes, to our businesses, but clearly not what our neighbors down in Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda are going to endure. But still, it's going to cause some flooding damage, and with the wind some damage as well. But when you think about it, when that storm surge comes in and we're trying to expel all of that rainwater through our stormwater system, drainage, that's just not going to work. The water is going to continue to rise and we're still going to have flooding. So we're just trying to ensure that everybody in the Tampa Bay area doesn't stand down. We haven't even begun to feel the wrath of hurricane Ian.

BERMAN: No, no, it really hasn't become a situation here yet, other than pouring rain. What's your message to the people here in Tampa over the next 24 hours?

CASTOR: Our message is the same. Please stay on higher ground where it is safer. And then once Ian, the effects of Ian have traveled through our community, just be very considerate and aware of the fact that the majority of the injuries happen after the storm, with the downed power lines, with trees, water, standing water. Just a number of different hazards out there that we need to pay attention to.

BERMAN: Mayor Jane Castor, we do appreciate you being with us. Thank you for welcoming us to this city, which has been getting ready for this storm for some days and we'll be dealing with it for some days to come. We appreciate it.

CASTOR: Thank you. Same here.

BERMAN: All right, Brianna, let's go back to you.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: So Berman, some other stories that we're following this morning, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the leaks found in the Nord Stream One and Two pipelines connecting Russia to Europe were caused by sabotage. These are pipelines have been at the center of diplomacy tensions as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe. Analysts say the damage means the pipelines are unlikely to be able to carry any gas to Europe this winter even if political leaders did want them back online.

And South Korea says North Korea has fired two short range ballistic missiles from Pyongyang towards its eastern waters. This comes just a day before Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to visit the demilitarized zone which separates North and South Korea.

Our special live coverage continues as Florida is bracing for hurricane Ian. We're going to speaking with FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell next.

So we're also following some breaking news from the U.S. embassy in Moscow. Officials there warning Americans do not travel to Russia, also asking Americans who are in Russia to leave immediately.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:30]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not scared. I'm not. I am prepared though. I've got three generators in my truck. I am ready to rock and roll.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Florida starting to feel Hurricane Ian, now the monster storm with sustained winds of 155 miles an hour.

To put this into context, that is just two miles shy of a category five hurricane.

Let's bring in CNN's Brian Todd. He is in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Brian, what are you seeing? What are you expecting?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, the last hour when we talked to you, we had no daylight. We know have daylight to show you where some of the potential danger lies, in St. Petersburg, where we are standing. You have the good visual barometer, the palm trees. They are starting to sway a little bit as we get hit with the bands of wind and rain from Hurricane Ian, as it moves towards here. When these start to bend a little more, you know there's distress, and you have to take cover.

Also, a big test in the coming hours, Brianna, is where these jellies, these break waters will be able to protect the coastal areas, these marinas and other areas by the coast in St. Petersburg. You see the whitecaps and waves going over that jetty over their?

This is where the test will come as we pan to our right, we'll show you where the water from the storm surge, which could hit about seven feet will push all of this water possibly passed this marina, and downtown St. Petersburg, which is very vulnerable as you can see, the low lying areas where the flooding could occur in the coming hours. And you know, you have to look for some potential dangers, where you might not necessarily see them.

And covering these storms for a number of years, here is one thing to conduct. You see that skyscraper over there under construction in downtown St. Petersburg? Look at the top or the crane is. These construction crews often leave a lot of tools, debris, other things that can fly off in areas like that.

You've got to be aware of that if you will be anywhere downtown, and you are outside when a storm like this hits. These are the kinds of things which will present danger in the coming hours. We talked about evacuations. I heard John talking last hour with a local official who reiterated the fact that, sometimes they go door to door -- they can't force you out of your home, they cannot pull you out. In the end, that will be your decision.

Well, in this county, in Pinellas County, some 400,000 people had to make that decision. They are under mandatory evacuation orders. But again, it is your call as to whether you leave. Officials told us a lot of people have heeded those warnings.

[08:20:02] But we're going to see how that will affect people who stayed, downtown St. Petersburg, very vulnerable to flooding. Local officials also telling people in this area during the height of the storm, you've got to try to conserve water, they are asking you not to run your dishwasher, not to run your laundry machine, not to try to limit flushing and showering if you can, because they have had issues with the sewage system here in St. Petersburg.

In 2015 and 2016, they had 200 million gallons of sewage water pull into aquifers and other public water spaces, because the sewage system could not hold up. They started new construction on that, and revamped the system this past December.

So, this is going to be a big test as to whether the sewage system. And, again, Brianna, low lying areas here, we are expecting some pretty significant flooding in the St. Petersburg area in the coming hours.

KEILAR: All right, Brian, keeping an eye on things for us, thank you so much.

I want now to go back to Berman.

BERMAN: All right. Thanks so much, Brianna.

Joining me now is Deanne Criswell, who is the FEMA administrator, standing by for us at FEMA headquarters.

Administrator, thank you so much for being with us.

Hurricane Ian expected, to have a catastrophic impact as it makes landfall, a near worst-case scenario for some parts of southwest Florida, about 100 miles south of where I am, including the highest storm surge ever experience there, some 16 feet.

What's the impact of that there? What are your specific concerns?

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: John, thanks so much for having me on today.

As you said, this is going to be catastrophic impacts, not just where we're going to see this storm make landfall, but also we are concerned but all the inland flooding it is bringing with it a lot of rain. And it's going to move slowly which means people who are in the path, they will experience the impacts for a long period of time.

My biggest concern is the water, both the storm surge and inland flooding. Water is one of the leading causes of death, direct fatalities in these storms. We know a lot of people have evacuated. We also know there are people who have not.

So we have put together a really robust search and rescue capability that we have stationed right now in Miami. That includes our urban search and rescue teams, members of the Department of Defense, Department of Interior, the U.S. Coast Guard, and CBP, along with the state. Because we know we will need to get into these communities and see who is there, and make sure we can get them to safety.

BERMAN: Yeah, we are hearing dire flood warnings, everywhere from south where the storm could make impact in Punta Gorda, all the way north to Jacksonville. That's almost the entire peninsula, under dire flood warnings, swelling to 24 inches.

How and when will you be able to reach people? I asked that fully knowing this storm has not even made landfall yet.

CRISWELL: Yeah, the storm has not made landfall, we are already seeing the impacts of this storm, John. We already had tornado warnings through the night. They will be more today, already starting to see rain. You are experiencing that right now.

As the storm moves, as it is safe for our search and rescue teams to go in, they will begin to go in to search those areas to see and assess damage. Most importantly, look for people who might need help getting out of the area.

So, we're going to follow this storm as soon as it is safe for the teams to get in there, and make sure that we're finding anybody who needs help.

BERMAN: That is such a key warning you make though. As soon as it is safe. As soon as it is safe for those rescue crews, because as the storm is now bearing down, we are starting to hear from local officials in places like Punta Gorda, telling us that the emergency services at this point are shut down for the time being, because it's just too dangerous for anyone to be outside, correct?

CRISWELL: Absolutely. I mean, if you have not evacuated yet, you need to stay. You need to shelter in place. You need to get to the highest part of your home and you need to make sure that you are putting yourself and your family in a safe place until emergency responders can get to you.

We're not going to wait until the storm completely passes. When we say when it's safe to do so, that's when we get the majority of threatening winds out of the way, so it is safe for our emergency responders to go in.

But just because they are out doesn't mean that individuals should be out. They need to stay put until the storm completely passes. And when they do go out, be really cautious. So many dangers will be out there with the flooding, water, downed power lines. A lot of dangers out there even after the storm passes.

BERMAN: Deanne Criswell, I don't how much work you have to do. One of the -- one of the incredible sites you see when you come into a site like this, all the emergency officials converging, staging in weight to move in the minute they can after the storm passes through.

You have thousands of people affiliated with you just waiting to come in here and help. Thank you for what you do, thanks for being with us this morning.

[08:25:03]

CRISWELL: My pleasure, John. Thanks for being out there and helping us get the message out.

BERMAN: You got it.

All right, Brianna. Again in Tampa right now, some brighter skies. The rain band is passing. But you keep heeding these warnings and the superlatives now, these grim superlatives as this storm approaches the southwestern coast with winds of up to 155 miles per hour. It is such a problematic situation, just beginning here, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yeah, and the storm itself not moving all that fast. So these storm surge concerns are a very big.

Hurricane Ian, barreling towards Florida. You see it in these pictures, St. Petersburg, one of the many cities in his path. We will be speaking to the mayor there, next.

Plus this, as Russians are trying to escape the country, to avoid Vladimir Putin's draft, there is now an urgent warning out from the U.S. embassy to Americans in Russia. Leave immediately.

This is CNN's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Back to the hurricane heading to Florida here in a moment. First, though, we have breaking news this morning.

[08:30:00]