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New Day

Craig Fugate is Interviewed about Hurricane Ian's Impact; Dave Reuter is Interviewed about the Power in Florida; Dr. Birgit Bodine is Interviewed about Ian's Hit to her Hospital; Chad Eggleston is Interviewed about Riding Out the Storm; Russian Navy Seen Near Pipeline Leaks. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 29, 2022 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Really holding up at this point because this water surge, this constant rain is something like they've never seen before. And at this point, it's something they'll have to watch throughout the day as this storm moves closer and closer.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, they've going to have to sit through the storm in Orlando. Get windblown there before they can get back to Tampa and south of here to see what damage might have happened to their homes, Ryan. A tough situation for so many people. Thanks for being there. We'll check back in with you in a bit.

Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Berman, let's bring in former administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Craig Fugate. He also was Florida's emergency management director leading the state through the largest federal disaster response in Florida history.

Craig, it's great to have you this morning as we're really waiting for the sun to rise here, in less than an hour, and reveal some of the damage that we're expecting. What are you looking for as that happens?

CRAIG FUGATE, FORMER FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Well, I think we're going to get some of our first images of how bad the storm surge damage and extreme winds we saw down in southwest Florida. You know, as your reporters were saying, this is still ongoing. There are areas that are still flooding, are still getting rain. So, that's still happening.

But the areas that got hit on the southwest coast, the parties are going to be search and rescue. Teams have been working, and you'll see clips all through, you know, the social media feeds where they were out last night working where they could, getting into areas they could. But this will be their first opportunity to get the visual of, are they aware, do they have all of the areas that have been hit targeted, do they have the teams in there. Because this really, this first big push of all this response is going to be search and rescue, checking on people, making sure people are OK and getting to people who may have been trapped in the storm. KEILAR: What are the biggest dangers right now to safety and to life?

FUGATE: People getting out of their homes and going out. And I'm not trying to be, you know, light about this. If you're somewhere safe, stay inside. In these areas that have been hit, downed power lines, downed trees, vehicles overturned, chemicals in the water. And we have some interesting animals in Florida, and they're going to move to high ground, snakes, other things.

And, in Florida, we have seen as many people lose their lives after a storm has passed than we do from the storms. Everything from traffic crashes to people falling off of ladders and getting carbon monoxide poisoning. So, our message is, if you're in one of these area that has been hard hit and you're somewhere safe, stay where you're at. Don't try to get out and go see what's happening.

First thing is, it's dangerous. Second thing is, don't get in the way of those search and rescue teams and the utility crews who need to do their critical work. And it's a lot easier when you don't have people out there trying to see what's happening.

And I know this is a natural tendency, people want to go back home. If you're evacuated, you know, your thought is, I want to get home. Wait until officials say it's safe. In some areas you may be able to get back quicker, but we know, in areas, particularly down where we had the storm surge, it's extremely dangerous and they want people to stay where they're at, stay safe, until they can make sure that things are safe for you to come back home.

KEILAR: Yes, it's such important advise. We've already had one of our correspondents reporting from in front of downed power lines going right across someone's front path. So, the danger here has not passed.

Craig, we really appreciate your time this morning and that warning to folks. Thank you.

FUGATE: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: More than 2.5 million Floridians are without power, and officials say that number is expected to rise. We're going to speak to Florida Power and Light. We're going to get an update ahead here.

Plus, Hurricane Ian absolutely pummeling a Port Charlotte hospital. It ripped the roof off of part of this hospital, left its ICU partially under water. We'll be speaking to a doctor from that hospital, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:38:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything was fine. And then, all of a sudden -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Within a couple hours, we flooded. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The house flooded. It just started going deeper and deeper. And by the time we were walking out, we were midthigh in water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That's a resident from South Venice, Florida.

This morning, we're starting to get more and more video in. More and more accounts of what happened. What it was like in the southwestern part of this state as the winds, 140, 150 miles an hour moved in and pushed that water in some cases 10 to 12 feet, right up into those communities, flooding those houses, overwhelming some of those houses.

Two and a half million customers without power in the state of Florida at last check. But let's get an update on that.

I'm joined now by Dave Reuter from Florida Light and Power.

Dave, thanks so much for being with us.

How many customers at this point in Florida without power?

DAVE REUTER, SPOKESMAN AND CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, FLORIDA POWER AND LIGHT: Well, John, I'm hearing reports of about 2 million overall in the state. But I can tell you, for the Florida Power and Light service territory, our customers, we have about 1.1 million customers out at the present time.

BERMAN: OK, 1.1 million of your customers, up to 2 million statewide.

And do you expect more, as this storm continues to move into Orlando, and other populated areas with a lot more rain, will this number grow?

REUTER: You know, the potential is certainly there for the number to grow a little bit as it continues to make its way out at the peninsula later today. Obviously, we've already been restoring power to customers as we've been able to safely through different bands of the storm. Since the storm began, we've restored power to more than about 700,000 FPL customers. In fact, overnight, where we were able to get to safely into the west part of the state, we restored power to about 150,000 customers in those western regions.

[06:40:00]

BERMAN: It's amazing that there's still 1.1 million customers of yours without power, but you've been able to restore 700,000. It just gives people a view of the rolling nature of this. More gets knocked out, you get more on, and that's just the way things go.

What are the challenges? You talked about the southern and western part of the state. What are the challenges for you there? Because we saw some of these communities under 10 feet of water. How do you get the power back up in places like that?

REUTER: So, we're going to find out today exactly what the devastation looked like, what we're up against in terms of the damage that's been done to the electric system. You know, as light comes on, we're going to have crews out there as soon as it is safe to do so. We have to wait until winds get below about 35 miles an hour in order to do that.

But once we're able to do that, it should take about 24 hours for us to have an assessment of the extensive nature, or maybe not so, in certain parts and then figure out where we can start repairing the power.

You know, our goal here is to get the power back on as quickly as possible, but most importantly we're going to do that safely. And so depending on where the floodwaters are in particular --

BERMAN: And just - I just didn't mean to interrupt.

In terms of expectation, days or perhaps weeks for some people, I imagine.

REUTER: So, our hope would be that we could do it for day - you know, in a matter of days for those customers that we're able to get the power back on, we're able to get into those regions. But if this is a rebuild, you know, if we go in and find out that we're not just looking at stringing wire and drying a few thing out, you know, this could be a matter of weeks depending on how extensive the damage is on the west coast.

BERMAN: Dave Reuter, thank you for explaining the situation to us. Wish you the best of luck in the days ahead.

REUTER: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, Berman, I think one of the most arresting images that we've seen is this roof of an intensive care unit at a Port Charlotte hospital with around 160 patients having blown off as Hurricane Ian was pounding Florida. Just take a look at this video here inside the ICU. The entire floor covered with water. The stairwell looking like a waterfall. We are told that no one was able to evacuate the hospital last night. So, obviously, this is interrupting some of the care that patients have been receiving there.

Joining us now with an update, we have internal medical special Dr. Birgit Bodine.

Doctor, thank you so much for joining us from the relative dry of the room that you are in, thank goodness.

DR. BIRGIT BODINE, INTERNAL MEDICINE SPECIALIST IN PORT CHARLOTTE, FLORIDA: (INAUDIBLE).

KEILAR: Can you just tell us how your patients are doing? Is anyone's health or life in danger from the conditions that at least part of this hospital is in?

BODINE: Luckily, everybody was super fantastic and very, very quickly we got people out of the ICU. The problem then ended up being that this water gushed down the stairwell, as you see there, and on to other floors.

So, first, we initially had to evacuate everybody out of the ICU, which, of course, are our critical patients. We were able to get them into the PACU (ph), which is essentially the operating room, post recovery area where they could handle ICU patients.

After that, though, we started to see that water is going everywhere. So, we had to get a lot of our patients out of the rooms and into the hallways. We still have them -- I've been up since 2:30 this morning rounding. We are trying to get everybody out. Luckily, everybody's doing good. And, actually, surprisingly, in decent spirits because they can see that we're trying the best we can with what we have. And the staff certainly is super fantastic. Everybody has been in-house now for the last 48 hours pretty much. None of us have gone home yet. We've all slept here, taken turns for a few hours here and there. Our plan is to try to get these patients out this morning, obviously.

KEILAR: You're going to try to evacuate them this morning. You cannot be in these conditions for very long.

BODINE: Correct.

KEILAR: The pictures are just terrible here. Tell us what it was like going through this storm. I mean you described moving from one place to another and then the waterfall effect of this water. Were you worried that this was going to be a situation where you couldn't find refuge in hallways and keep this at bay?

BODINE: Yes and no. I mean, luckily, patients are in beds. So even though, to this moment, we still have water in the hallways that we're all kind of sloshing through, the patients are obviously elevated in their beds. So, luckily, the patients are safe in terms of that. We also have one wing of the hospital that is dry, that we have been able to triple up some patients into rooms so that as many are there as possible.

But, yes, it's a -- it was chaotic, but I have to say, I'm very proud of everybody here who has been working here.

[06:45:02]

It was a little bit of an organized chaos. So, even though we weren't expecting that, there were so many people there that we really had hands on deck, everybody pitched in.

KEILAR: Well, look, we're so glad that everyone is safe. It's amazing to see what you guys dealt with. And we'll be monitoring this to see your evacuations. We hope they go smoothly this morning.

Dr. Bodine, thanks for your time this morning.

BODINE: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: Hurricane Ian battering Florida with catastrophic wind and rain. We're going to speak with someone who rode out the storm in very hard-hit Naples.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back.

I want to go right to Naples, Florida, and bring in Chad Eggleston, who rode out the storm there.

We saw so much water in the streets of Naples yesterday, Chad. What are you seeing this morning?

CHAD EGGLESTON, NAPLES RESIDENT WHO RODE OUT STORM: Well, it's still dark out, you know, so we're kind of going to just play it by ear and, you know, pick up the pieces, assess damages as the sun rises.

[06:50:05]

So, you know, last night, I mean, when I went to sleep, there was still a lot of water, you know, and relatively high winds. So, you know, I would generally still unpredictable, unstable conditions.

BERMAN: Well, you're a smart man being safe and taking your time before you go outside.

Explain to me what you went through yesterday as this storm was hitting and the water was coming in.

EGGLESTON: You know, just you -- you kind of find yourself in a position where you're totally powerless, you know? You - you kind of had - you knew there was a storm coming in and you can make preparations and make sure you're in a good, safe place, you know, but at a certain point, like you really don't know, you know, how severe and how big this thing could be.

So, you know, it's really just that feeling of, you know, a very humbling experience. You know, you're just kind of, let it happen, you know, and hope for the best.

BERMAN: Did you have water in your house, Chad?

EGGLESTON: No. No, we're on the fourth floor. But, you know, people on the -

BERMAN: OK.

EGGLESTON: The first, you know. But, yes.

BERMAN: Listen, Chad Eggleston, we're glad you're OK.

EGGLESTON: Yes.

BERMAN: To you and yours, please be well.

EGGLESTON: Thank you.

BERMAN: It's going to be a tough day ahead. Hang in there. EGGLESTON: Yes. Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, this is CNN's special live coverage. Ian headed toward Orlando right now. Our reporters Brian Todd and Randi Kaye making their way to some of the hard-hit areas. We'll have live reports ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:55:52]

KEILAR: We'll be getting back to Florida and the storm destruction there here in a moment.

First, though, first on CNN, sources telling us that European security officials observed Russian navy ships earlier this week in the vicinity of those leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines that were likely caused by underwater explosions.

With more now on this we have CNN reporter Katie Bo Lillis. She is part of that team that broke this story.

Katie, did these ships have anything to do with these explosions that were revealed, believed to be responsible for leaks in these pipelines?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: It's a good question, Brianna. They don't know the answer to this right now. At this point this is just one of many factors that investigators are going to be looking at to try to get a sense of what actually happened here.

Here's what we know. We know that Russian support ships, Russian navy support ships, were spotted in the vicinity of the leaks on these pipelines. We were also told by a source familiar with the intelligence that Russian submarines were spotted in the general area last week.

But, important not to jump to many conclusions here, as one Danish military official put it to me, he said, look, we see Russian ships operated in this part of the Baltic Sea pretty routinely. They're testing our awareness. So, the presence of these ships doesn't necessarily indicate that they had anything to do with the explosions that, at this point, we believe caused these leaks.

KEILAR: Yes, look, we don't know who did it, but there's a question who has the motive and who has the capability. And a lot of experts say Russia. And that's why they're looking at that, even as they can't prove it at this point in time.

So, what happens next?

LILLIS: I - yes, so the - so Denmark and Sweden are both investigating. It's another really good question. Denmark and Sweden both investigating. The U.S. has said they will provide them with the intelligence that it has in their presence. But we spoke to multiple U.S. officials yesterday who said the United States just still doesn't really have a firm sense of what happened here. You know, they're being a little bit more circumspect than some European officials have been, publicly saying we believe that this was sabotage. It's our assessment that this was sabotage.

And part of the problem here, Brianna, is that the Europeans haven't actually been able to get a site inspection done yet, right? They haven't actually been able to get a diver down to the physical locations of these leaks to take a look at what actually happened. It's our understanding that there's some logistical and, I would presume also some safety concerns with actually getting a diver down there.

So, you know, at this point, even though we are hearing from both U.S. and European officials that they believe Russia is the primary suspect here, largely for exactly the reason that you said, because these officials say what other actor is there that has both the capability and the motivation to do this, still more questions than answers here.

KEILAR: Yes, maybe those visuals would reveal something.

Katie Bo, great reporting. Thank you so much.

LILLIS: Thanks so much.

KEILAR: And NEW DAY's special coverage continues right now.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman, live in Tampa. Brianna Keilar is in Washington. This is CNN's special live coverage of now Tropical Storm Ian. I say tropical storm because it has been downgraded to tropical storm level. Still, it has powerful winds and drenching rain, and it is headed right toward Orlando. We will get a live report from Orlando in just a moment.

And the rain is such a powerful and threatening force. More than 20 inches of rain have fallen in some parts of this state. And they can't take anymore. So, the drenching rain is causing freshwater flooding in the central part of the state.

Some 2.5 million customers are without power in Florida this morning. I spoke to a power official moments ago who said it could take weeks for the power to come back on in some places because they might have to simply do a complete rebuild in those areas.

As for where Ian has already been, it landed as a category four hurricane. One of the most powerful hurricanes ever to make landfall in Florida, devastating communities. Fort Myers, Naples, Port Charlotte, huge storm surge, seven to 10 feet, maybe 12 feet.

[07:00:03]

We've talked to people who had fire - had water well into the first stories of their building.