Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Catastrophic Destruction Across Florida as Storm Moves North; 14 Million People Currently Under Flood Alerts from Ian; Ian Tied for Fourth Highest Wind Speed to Make Landfall in Florida. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 29, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:03]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We've talked to people who had fire -- had water well into the first storeys of their building. One fire official in Naples told us he was unnerved as the water was coming up in his building.

Here in Tampa, to be clear, Tampa avoided the worst of this storm, they hurricane really skirted around here, but still powerful winds and drenching rain. You can see the damage that was done here. This is some kind of roofing, I think, that was torn off one of these buildings. This is a huge, huge, heavy piece of thick vinyl and tar that was just torn and thrown down here to the street. And this is Tampa, which didn't even see the worst of it, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, that's right. And, look, as you mentioned, it's weakened now to a tropical storm, but weakened or not, Ian is still one for the record books cutting this brutal path across Florida's west coast. As much as 20 inches of rain fell in some areas. This morning, there's 14 million people under flood alerts. More than 2 million homes and businesses are without power across Florida. And that intense flooding that Berman mentioned there in places like Fort Myers and Naples, here you're seeing pictures of those areas, it's leaving people who decided to ride out the storm just trapped in their homes, Berman.

BERMAN: Yes. The sun will come up soon. CNN has live team coverage up and down the coast, up into Orlando, where the storm has yet to hit.

Our first report is from our Randi Kaye in Punta Gorda, Florida. Randi, I am so happy to see you well this morning.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, John. Good to see you as well. We got up early. We're trying to make our way to Fort Myers, which we know was so hard hit. But the roads are very, very difficult. As you can imagine, the power -- there's power lines down everywhere. The street lights are out. And so the stop lights are out. So, it's very difficult to get around.

But we've pulled over just to show you some of what we're finding along the way. Obviously, they were expecting a huge storm surge. So, we are finding a lot of water. We found front yards that looked more like lakes. But this wasn't supposed to be a windstorm.

And I just want to show you this was supposed to be more of a storm surge and a rain event. Just look at this. This is a shed what appears to be a shed, at least of what appears to be a shed or was a shed. And you can see, it's basically tossed on its side. Inside, it's all twisted metal in there. It looks like it is upside down. And this is just some of the damage that we're seeing along the way.

We pulled off on a side road, so if we just take a little walk down here, you can see, just be careful there, there's power lines behind you. So, here, this is what we're finding all over, John, power lines just in the middle of the roads, all of this damage. You can see, things were just tossed about, pieces of twisted metal. A lot of water all along, this is a mobile home park that we found along the way.

But this is just an example of what we're seeing and that's why there's so much concern about people who might be trapped, where there might be some water, deep water. Search and rescue teams, of course, is going to take them some sometime. They're getting a lot of calls, as you know, to 911 from people who might be trapped in their home who didn't evacuate or couldn't evacuate.

But if you just take a look around here, it's a mess. I mean, there's pieces there that have come off. We've seen pieces of -- and homes that are in the roadway as well. So, obviously, we're going to keep going to Fort Myers and get in as much as we can. We know that 96 percent of that area is without power. So, we'll see how far we can get and we'll bring you pictures along the way, John.

BERMAN: Yes, I know it's going to be slow going, hard going, and I know you're going to be careful, Randi.

Any people besides you out and about this morning?

KAYE: Well, we saw actually one -- we didn't see any people until just recently. There was a car trying make its way this way. I don't know if you can see down this road, but there's a tree in the middle of the road that had fallen. And so the car turned around. But other than that, we were driving through some of the neighborhoods on the way, just to see what we saw. We saw trees, trees down on the roadways and stop signs and all street signs were on their side, but we haven't seen any sign of anyone.

But I will say, here in Punta Gorda, they didn't get that storm surge that was predicted, the 12 to 18 feet. We do see a lot of water on the ground. But it looks like there was a lot of wind that came through because we've seen some pretty big trees that were uprooted and on their side.

BERMAN: Well, I know there was a lot of wind that went through because I saw you braving the wind as it was just pounding Punta Gorda there.

Randi Kaye, I'm glad you're doing well. I hope you got a little bit of sleep, another long day for you and your team ahead. Please be safe.

KAYE: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: All right, let's go to Brian Todd who is live in St. Petersburg, across, on the other side of Tampa Bay from where I am. Brian, what are you seeing this morning?

[07:05:00]

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, here in St. Petersburg, like where Randi was, everywhere else in Southwest Florida, they're waking up to scenes like this, downed trees, downed power lines throughout this city, debris all over the place, damage assessments too, as we kind of walk around this corner and show you what we can of the damage here in St. Petersburg, just a lot of debris here on the ground that they have to clear out.

Obviously, daylight has not arrived yet. That will be coming shortly. When it gets here, that's going to give rescue officials a chance to reassess and try to get to these places and try to figure out how to get to these places.

We talk about damage assessment, and Randi mentioned it, rescues still need to be carried out. And they've got to try to figure out how to get to these people. Officials in Collier County where Naples is said that they conducted third rescues so far, there could be many more coming today, again, and after daylight arrives shortly, they'll get more of a read on where they can get to and where they can't.

And what we can also tell you is that officials are warning about rushing back to your houses too quickly to try to assess damage. That's, of course, a natural instinct. Everybody wants to get back to their houses, it's understandable. But they're saying it's pretty dangerous. Last night, we came upon a house that had been completely burned out in Largo, Florida, just north of here. And it's dangerous to even get around in this house.

This house was completely -- the interior of it was burned out. We've talked to the owner. He had been there for -- his family had been there for 50 years, he was trying to renovate the place. And it was just completely devastated by a fire. The fire had started when a power line ripped off of a transformer there. And it was a very dramatic fire. A video was shot by a neighbor who gave it to us there.

This owner said he's fully insured. He's going to try to recover what he can from that house. Officials say when you go into places like the house that we were at and see some of the stuff, again, it's natural. You want to recover your items and try to just assess what needs to be done. But you've still got power lines down. You've still got protruding objects, broken glass all over the place. It is dangerous to try to get back to some of these houses.

And officials, while they conduct these rescues, are telling people, hey, we've got to still conduct rescues. We don't want to have to come and rescue you if you go back to your house and you get injured by something. So, that's kind of the balance that they're trying to effect this morning. And it's going to be tough for the next couple of days to do that, John. BERMAN: It is tough. And, look, we're going to hear more and more stories of material loss in the hours and the days ahead. But let's hope that the stories of human loss are at a minimum.

Brian Todd in St. Petersburg, thank you to you and your team. Again, just getting a sense of the damage as the sun begins to come up, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. We are In Tropical Storm Ian now crossing Florida, dumping those inches of rain across the central and northern part of the state.

So, let's get right to CNN's Ryan Young who is in Orlando. Ryan, what have you seen here since we last checked in with you?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You think about this, the rain has intensified since we last saw you, and you think about the 20 inches that could headed for this area, and the rain hasn't stopped all night long. We see transformers popping in the distance, it seems like, every half hour, as we've seen power surging on and off.

But the flooding is really the bulk of the story. We've seen throughout this area, we know that there had been seven rescues at least by first responders who have been going out to try to get people out of their cars. In fact, we have some video that we want to show you near the hospital where you can see the water around this intersection that is just very high, and, of course, it's almost impassable, that dovetails into what we want to show you here.

This is Tony Atkins. He's a reporter at a local station here. I actually know this reporter. And if you look here at this video, they were doing a live report when a woman was driving her car. They tried to wave at her and she kept driving into the water. Her car ended up getting stuck. And Tony waded through the water and then put this woman on her back and started walking her back to safety.

It took very few moments for that water to start sweeping this car away. I've actually been able to talk to Tony since this happened, a good young reporter, and he was telling me basically they could do nothing to stop her. She was a nurse, she was focused on trying to get to that hospital, and then they were able to get her out of that car to safety.

So, at this point, you can see some of the treacherous conditions here without lights sometimes. People think the water is a lot lower than it is. And let's not forget, this is Orlando. So many people have traveled for vacation. In the hotels we've been staying in, we bumped into couple after couple who traveled from around the world to be here. In fact, we just talked to a couple from the U.K. who told us they were here for a three-week holiday and, all of a sudden, they're now stuck in the crosshairs of this storm.

And as a Floridian, I will tell you, there are certain storms that stand in your mind. If you think of 1992 and Hurricane Andrew, if you think about Irma, and now this storm will definitely be something that's being stamped in the minds of people who live in the state because this water is coming so consistently, and the flooding is happening in places that no one expected.

[07:10:08]

As first light comes up, we hope to get closer to the hospital. We're about two miles away from that location, just to see the local flooding in that area. But, obviously, you want to be safe as you start going in different directions around the state.

We also talked to two gentlemen who got their families out of Tampa to avoid the situation there, only to now put themselves in Orlando and be in a direct path of the storm. Take a listen to them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I live in zone A. So, storm surge is an issue. And I have a seven-year-old and five-year-old, girls. So, we definitely had to get out of Dodge, and Orlando seemed like it was a good fit. And then, of course, all of sudden, it just -- you know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seemed like Orlando was not going to get hit as hard as Tampa was. And I'm new to Tampa, so this is my first storm, and safety first. You can't put a price on your safety.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: There's something I want to stress, as everyone has been super responsive, especially with the emergency management folks. We've seen police officers driving through the streets, trying to make sure that people stay safe. So, as the storm to come in this direction, it's good to see everything moving in the right pace, especially when people need help. High water rescue vehicles are in the area as well. Brianna?

KEILAR: Ryan, thank you. Amazing video, that rescue, indeed. Berman, let's go back to Tampa.

BERMAN: Yes. Look, as you can tell, by Ryan, Ian is not done yet, so let's get as many information as we can where it is going. Chad Myers at the weather center. Chad, what's the forecast now?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Still making an awful lot of rain and still some wind gusts to 65 across the area. And all of those wind gusts that coming off the ocean now, due to the spin, they might even be higher if you (INAUDIBLE) and things like that. These are the gusts that don't have any friction, no trees to slow them down because they are right off the water.

Here goes the storm though into the Atlantic, may be gaining some strength but likely making landfall somewhere again up in the low country of South Carolina, maybe toward Northern Georgia or even up into the North Carolina area with more heavy rainfall.

We've already had a lot of rainfall, 10 to 15 inches here. And I know there are spots on radar that show more than 20. And there are still big areas of rainfall around the Orlando area with this onshore flow. There's Daytona, right off the water, 69 miles per hour.

Now, aren't you glad they moved Artemis back into the building now that you think about it, I mean, when they were thinking, oh, this will kind of miss us, not to worry about, but they did roll it back, and that was obviously a good story there.

Here's rainfall still to come, moving onshore here, Orlando, heavy rainfall on up into Savannah. It's really more of the wind that's going to push water into Charleston. Charleston floods in just rain, regular rain. You put about a four-foot surge in Charleston, that will really bring the waters up.

There's the wind right now, moving ahead into the ocean, picking up some speed because the storm is over warmer water. So, this isn't done. As you said, this is still continuing to move through here with surge maybe three, four feet in all of these coastal communities.

A couple other things going on, too, Berman, we talked about how the Naples surge map here, it broke. We don't know how high the water actually got, because way up here, well above into major flood stage, the gauge broke.

Two other things I want to mention, I know you heard about the helicopters or heard them overhead, two Sikorsky Jayhawks from the Coast Guard did leave Palm Beach on the way over there. They were on flight radar 24. We're keeping an eye on them and I'm sure a lot more cavalry is on the way.

BERMAN: All right. Chad Myers, thank you. The storm not done yet, a lot of people still in its path.

In the meantime, here in Florida, dealing with the people who have been left behind, I'm joined by Rob Gaudet, the founder of the Cajun Navy, which, of course, everyone knows helps out in water rescues, a volunteer force, in getting to people who are very much in need.

Rob, what have you been doing?

ROB GAUDET, FOUNDER AND CEO, CAJUN NAVY GROUND FORCE: Our team has been for the last probably four, five hours pulling people from homes. We get ticket requests and we actually know exactly where we're going. We use social media. People go to Facebook or they message us directly and say, can you go help my mom, my sister? This is their address. They're stranded on the roof. We go exactly to that place and perform rescues by doing that.

BERMAN: Where has this been happening mostly?

GAUDET: This is down around Venice, towards Fort Myers. We haven't made it down that far yet. The guys started up here in Tampa about 2:00 A.M. when they left, and it was safe. And they have just been running all the way down, going along different roads and finding people that are asking to be rescued.

BERMAN: And how many rescues have you undertaken at this point?

GAUDET: The last count was between 20 and 30. They don't know exactly how many, but between 20 and 30 so far.

[07:15:00]

BERMAN: And how many calls are still out there?

GAUDET: There's probably hundreds, we don't know exactly. But we were inundated last night with people asking to be rescued. All we could do is say, go fill out our online form. And it's not the people that stranded on the roof, it's the family that they're calling that's calling us and saying, hey, I have a family member stranded that needs to be rescued. So, we're not even really talking directly to people who are going to help until we actually show up.

BERMAN: Every storm is different. Every situation is different. When you say, stranded, stranded how? Is there a commonality?

GAUDET: When you have six feet of water, you water around you, you can't see land, you can't see the roads. Stranded is literally you're stuck on your roof or inside of your home without the ability to leave. You're not going to put your family at risk by going into the water.

So, usually, the people we get have disabled, they have children, or they need help in some way getting out of their home, usually, when it's on a clear day. They're not just going to wander off into the danger of the water and a hurricane. And it's cold as well. So, they're trying to stay warm while they're out there stranded on a roof or wherever they are.

BERMAN: The rescues so far, have they been -- you say driving. They've been driving down here. Have they been land rescues driving up and getting people out or have they been going into the water?

GAUDET: We have boats. And so we're out where there's flooding and helping people get out of the water.

BERMAN: And are there places where there's still water, as far as you can tell, water surrounding areas surrounding homes?

GAUDET: There is. There's inland flooding happening right now, off the coast of that region on the western side of Florida, where they're out doing rescues right now.

BERMAN: All right. Rob Gaudet, you have your work cut out for you. I know you're going to be working until there's no more need, but that could be some days to come. Thank you very much. Thanks so much for being with us.

GAUDET: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: All right. Brianna, 20 to 30 rescues so far, still ongoing in houses still surrounded by water dealing with now inland flooding.

KEILAR: Yes. Always amazing to hear about the work that they're doing there. Ahead, we're going to be joined by a member of the Air Force's hurricane hunting crew, what he says makes this so much different than others.

Plus, the FEMA administrator will join New Day with the latest on rescue and relief efforts.

And we'll speak to the mayor of Sarasota. Officials say there are more than 500 calls rescue crews have responded to this morning.

This is CNN's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There goes the signs. There goes the beds. Holy cow. Oh, (BLEEP).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: That was a NOAA hurricane hunter really feeling the strength of Hurricane Ian as his team flew through the storm. Ian has been downgraded at this moment to a tropical storm but not before slamming into the state as a category 4 hurricane Wednesday with winds around 153 miles per hour.

Let's bring in 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron Pilot Major Kendall Dunn. He has piloted multiple different Air Force missions into the storm for the past week and he's going to tell us a little bit about what that's been like.

How has this storm been compared to others that you've gone through, Major?

MAJ. KENDALL DUNN, 53RD WEATHER RECONNAISSANCE SQUADRON PILOT: Hey, good morning. So, this storm, in general, it's grown, I started flying it when it was just a baby storm, 20-mile-an-hour winds, nothing big, you know, for eight hours or so. And then we get into it yesterday, the first couple passes basically coming through the eye wall, not a big deal, nothing significant, you know. Then all of a sudden on that fourth pass, we get the information it's rapidly intensifying.

The video you just showed of our sister service there at NOAA, it was unbelievable. It rocked our whole world, something I've never seen. And when we got back yesterday and other pilots talking to his crews, nobody gave us a hard time and saying you were scared. Everybody realized we did get rocked pretty good.

KEILAR: Unlike anything you've seen. We were talking with a storm chaser who was there in the eye of the storm, as storm chasers go do, and he was saying something that struck him was how much lightning there was. He said that he's not used to there being so much lightning. What did you see? DUNN: Oh, yes, ma'am, absolutely. So, when we started the mission yesterday morning, you know, it's nighttime. So, you're coming through the eye and the eye wall, and there's just lightning popping everywhere. We have hail. So, it's almost -- I've never been a paparazzi, but seeing it on T.V., so it's just lightning and popping everywhere. And you're just trying to keep the aircraft straight level, trying not to exceed anything.

And then you just pop out in the middle of the eye and you're just like, we got a break, because the wind speed is basically zero right in the middle. And just in the inner eye wall and at night, it's just blowing up and it's lightning and lightning, the most beautiful thing you could ever see. The problem is you have to go through the other side. And it's kind of nice when the sun comes up. You don't see the lightning anymore. You just feel the aircraft.

KEILAR: Yes. Everything is calm and then you have to go right back into it. Major Dunn, it's amazing work that you all do and we thank you for all of the information, the important information, that you gather to keep all of us safe. Thank you so much.

DUNN: I appreciate you. Thank you.

KEILAR: So, next, we will take you back out to John Berman who is live in Tampa. We're also going to speak to the FEMA administrator and the mayor of Sarasota when our special live coverage continues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you okay?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm fine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're okay?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Physically I'm fine. I'm a wreck, my boat that I've been n working on three years is now completely demolished so --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm five feet, so this is water probably 4 foot at least. You guys did it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: John Berman here live in Tampa. This is CNN's special live coverage of Ian, now a tropical storm heading toward Orlando, winds still at 65 miles per hour, still drenching, drenching rain. 20 inches of rain already falling in some parts of this state, more rain still to come. So, much of this story is south of where I am, south of Tampa on the southwestern coast, where Ian hit as a category 4 hurricane, 140, 150- mile-per-hour winds, but it was the storm surge, the devastating storm surge, 10 to 12 feet in some areas that just inundated coastal communities, including Naples, Fort Myers, Lee County. There's so much concern in Fort Myers. It's hard to get a look of what's even happening there yet, also Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte, other places.

2.5 million customers in Florida without power this morning. I spoke to a power official who told me that in some places, it could be weeks, and that may be optimistic before power comes on if the entire power grid was wiped out there. In some places, that is very much a distinct possibility.

I want a get sense now of the federal response. Joining me is Deanne Criswell, the FEMA administrator. Administrator, thank you so much for being with us.

What is the area of greatest need this morning?

DEANNE CRISWELL, ADMINISTRATOR, FEMA: Good morning, John. I spoke with our federal coordinating officer earlier this morning, who is on the ground and has been working through the night with the state.

[07:30:06]