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Ian Intensifies Back Into Hurricane, Moves Closer To Carolinas; Multiple Dead, Millions Without Power Amid Destruction In Florida; Suicide Bomber At Kabul School Kills Dozens, Most Of Them Girls. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired September 30, 2022 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:32:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, John Berman here live in Fort Myers, Florida following the latest on Hurricane Ian. This morning, it has intensified back to a category one hurricane making its way to the Carolinas.

This is what it did to Florida, where I am. At least 19 people are dead. Those numbers could very well rise. At this moment, more than two million people remain without power. Some of the flooding simply catastrophic. Search and rescue missions are ongoing in certain places.

With me now is Audrey Henson. She's the co-founder and owner of By the Bay Bobcats, a construction and excavation company that's been on the ground in some of the hardest hit areas. Audrey, thanks so much for being with us.

AUDREY HENSON, CO-FOUNDER AND OWNER, BY THE BAY BOBCATS: Yes.

BERMAN: And look, what you're doing now is what's needed now, which is getting help to people.

HENSON: Yes.

BERMAN: You're bringing food, you're bringing supplies to first responders. After this moment has passed, you're going to be with people making some of their toughest decisions when they go back to their houses. How do you know whether you can rebuild?

HENSON: Yes. I mean, it's a great question. Like I was just telling you, I'm from St. Pete, Florida and when we went to bed Monday night my family thought that this hurricane was coming directly for us. So we spent the last week preparing our own home, helping our neighbors board up, bagging sand -- doing everything we could to prepare.

And I just really feel for my neighbors and my friends down here in Fort Myers because they didn't have as much of a --

BERMAN: Yes. HENSON: -- heads up as we had.

And so, the biggest mission right now -- the most important thing is saving lives. There is going to be really complicated rebuilding and cleaning efforts that are going to happen. Companies like mine, By the Bay Bobcats, stands ready to serve.

But I just off a phone call with someone saying they helicoptered -- helivaced someone off of their roof --

BERMAN: Yes.

HENSON: Who was holding on to a mango tree throughout the storm -- just total trauma.

And FEMA is not getting supplies to everyone yet. I think everyone's doing their best. That's why we filled an entire truckload of Gatorade, of water, of sandwiches. Anything --

BERMAN: Right.

HENSON: -- we could find at Publix, quite frankly, we just filled the car up and headed down.

BERMAN: The rebuilding process -- it's hard. First of all, when everyone's doing it -- when you're on a city block where every house is --

HENSON: Right.

BERMAN: -- either gone or badly damaged, how long will that take?

HENSON: I mean, I've heard -- I've heard some pretty crazy estimates up to five to seven, to even eight years. We focus mainly on residential homes.

So step one, first, save lives. Step two, let's start getting all these trees off roofs, assessing roof damage. I mean, that's where a lot of this damage has come front. Roofs have opened, flooding has come in. Flood adjusters, I'm sure, are flocking down here to help and to figure out how do we get these homes at least safe enough to house people.

We had a hurricane down in St. Pete about four or five years ago -- Hurricane Irma now. Some people were out of their homes for over a year. That's a long time to be displaced. And this storm was even bigger than that. So the magnitude, I think, is something that we don't even fully have our hands around.

[05:35:00]

BERMAN: Yes, and the flooding. When -- we -- our Bill Weir was in a home in Cape Coral and you could just see the woman when she returned to her living room. She was making footprints in the sand --

HENSON: Wow. BERMAN: -- and the silt --

HENSON: Yes.

BERMAN: -- that had washed into her living room.

And it's hard to imagine that something --

HENSON: Yes.

BERMAN: -- like that is salvageable as is. You probably just have to knock it down and rebuild -- and start from scratch?

HENSON: If it's a wood home, sure. Like, again, I grew up here so I'm a big believer in concrete block homes but even block homes flooded. So you'll have to rip out the floor. You're going to have to do some demolition and we're going to be able to help with that.

The mission today for us is to get our eyes on the damage, start assessing it, offer a helping hand. Do whatever we can to deliver supplies to our first responders. It really broke my heart when I heard first responders, for over two days now, have been surviving off chips and water. That's not the fuel --

BERMAN: Yes.

HENSON: -- they need when they're saving lives, driving helicopters, driving ambulances. They are -- they're doing some pretty heavy-duty warfare rescue missions right now and so this is the least we could do.

There's Floridians all across the state doing exactly what we're doing and I think that's why we're so Florida strong.

BERMAN: Yes, granola bars only go so far.

HENSON: That's right.

BERMAN: Audrey, thank you for the work you're doing now. You've got your work cut out for you --

HENSON: That's right, we do.

BERMAN: -- with the demolition and the rebuild. Thank you.

HENSON: Yes, thank you. I appreciate it.

BERMAN: So, the devastation left behind by Hurricane Ian is both financial, as we were just talking about, but also emotional. We'll talk about some of these costs ahead.

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[05:41:04]

BERMAN: So, Floridians are only beginning to understand how much damage Hurricane Ian has left behind. They begin this long, expensive rebuilding process. Now, the state has faced this before. How will the costs this time compare?

CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans here to talk about what we know -- Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, ANCHOR, EARLY START: This is just a devastating event for Florida, to be honest. And it's hard to talk dollars and cents, John, when you are trying to preserve life here and keep people safe, so I just really want to couch these numbers in that. It's also quite early here.

These are -- you're seeing the most expensive storms on record. It's a pretty good chance this is going to make that list and here is why. You are already seeing estimates everywhere from $45 billion to $65 billion to $70 billion in losses here, and a couple of reasons.

Over the past decades, places like Tampa, Fort Myers, Sarasota -- they have seen huge population growth. In fact, some of the fastest population growth in the country have happened in Florida. More people, more building, more homes, more businesses -- that means more monetary damages when those things are damaged. And that's what we've seen -- widespread damage here.

It's going to take us, John, a good five to 10 days to get a grip on just how bad these numbers will be because you're still in the event right now. It's going to take some days to assess. But this is looking like it's going to be one of the worst financial-wise disasters in Florida history.

BERMAN: What contributes to the overall cost of this?

ROMANS: Well, you look at some of the -- obviously, the huge population growth and the many more homes, that's part of it.

But also, you look at the industries that are impacted here. You've got the theme parks shut down. That is a huge financial driver for the state. Cruise ships that have had to be rerouted, right, and canceled. Airline industry, the citrus industry, and also fertilizer production.

And I'll throw this in here as well. You already have snagged supply chains, overall inflation, and higher rebuilding costs. All of that will feed into these numbers.

This is not a typical hurricane season. This is a hurricane season in the middle of another crisis. An inflation crisis following a pandemic makes it all that much more difficult to rebuild and more expensive to rebuild, John.

BERMAN: What does it all do to a state budget?

ROMANS: Well, this is a huge economy, right -- $2.1 trillion -- a $1.2 trillion economy in Florida. What I'm concerned about is the insurance industry here. The challenges for Florida is that Hurricane Ian is going to test its home insurance insurers. Since January 2020, a dozen have gone out of business. So you've got a state that is grappling with making sure its insurance

industry is solvent and can actually write checks for all of these people. So that's going to be the next hurdle to really try to understand -- is the fragility of Florida's insurance programs and how this hurricane will test that, John.

BERMAN: Christine Romans, thank you very much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

BERMAN: Just one of the things people have to worry about.

I want to bring in CNN safety analyst and senior licensed insurance adjuster, David Soucie. So, David, how long will it take for insurance companies to get people the money they need?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST, SENIOR LICENSED INSURANCE ADJUSTER (via Skype): Well, I'll tell you, John, it's been incredibly -- an incredible effort so far -- just the companies I've been working with, so far, with deploying insurance adjusters. We've made at least two or three hundred people just in the small company of the FKS that I've been working with. But there are many other insurance adjuster companies that are looking for adjusters to go down there and assist.

It's really -- I haven't seen this -- I've worked Hurricane Andrew, I worked Hurricane Katrina, and I haven't seen this type of response by the insurance companies since -- really, since Katrina.

BERMAN: So, do we know what percentage, roughly, of these homes that were destroyed or damaged would be covered by insurance?

[05:45:01]

SOUCIE: Well, that's a really good question John, and, of course, we'll know more as we get out there.

But, for example, in Katrina, a large percentage of the homes that were damaged were from surge. And if it's just from water surge coming up from the bottom, it's really not covered. That would be covered under your flood policy with NFIP.

If you can't get insurance you can go to FEMA. There's a lot of complexity with this and that's why these adjusters -- experienced, licensed adjusters are really important to talk to them and get them out there as quickly as possible.

BERMAN: So, President Biden announced about $38,000 for home repairs and another $38,000 for people with property damage. For those without insurance, how would people get ahold of that federal money?

SOUCIE: You can just go to the FEMA website and you can start talking to them about it. But first of all, you want to certainly call your insurance company right away if you have any kind of damage.

The other possibility, too, is that if you just have roof damage -- which a lot of people might have just from the winds, who are beyond the surge -- you can call the Army Corps of Engineers and get a free tarp. They'll come out. This is tax insurance that's available to you, so don't feel you -- don't be hesitant about calling.

They can get -- they call it the Blue Tarp Program. So they'll come out and they'll put a tarp on our house to prevent further damages, which you have to do. You have to make sure that you mitigate any further damages on your home if it's been opened up by a tree or whatever else damaged your roof.

BERMAN: Yes, you've got to protect what's left.

David Soucie, very helpful. Thank you.

SOUCIE: Thank you, John. Be safe out there.

BERMAN: So there is breaking news. Thanks, David. There is breaking news this morning out of Afghanistan. Nearly two dozen people killed after a suicide bombing at an education center. Most of the dead, young girls. We have details on the attack ahead.

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[05:51:07]

BERMAN: We'll get back to our hurricane coverage in just a moment. But first, happening overnight in Afghanistan, at least 23 people are dead and 36 wounded after a suicide attack on an education center in Kabul. We understand that most of the dead are young girls.

This is students running from the scene where they heard loud explosions that threw some of them to the ground.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is covering this story and joins us from London this morning. Salma, what have you learned?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, yet again, a place of learning, a place of education turned into a place of carnage in Afghanistan. About 7:30 am local time in Kabul, a suicide bomber entered this classroom at this education center that was administering mock exams -- mock university exams. That suicide bomber, of course, ripping through the classroom, sending people running as you can see in that social media video.

More than 20 people confirmed killed so far and dozens more wounded. It's still a very active scene.

And while we don't know who is responsible for this, so far, we do not know what the motives of the perpetrator are. It does bear the very worrying hallmarks that we've seen in the past when it comes to terror attacks in Afghanistan.

First of all, this occurred in a minority neighborhood. Hazara minority predominantly live in that area. They have been persecuted in the past by extremist groups. Rights groups say that they have very little protection under the Taliban. And, of course, the second point here -- the one that you brought up

-- eyewitnesses saying that a majority of the victims appear to be young women.

Again, these were mock university exams. You can expect that they're 18, 19, 17 -- really, the future of Afghanistan.

And the plight of female education has gotten that much worse since the Taliban takeover. Girls are essentially banned from going to high school, middle school. Many girls cut out of their education. This, again, reminding you of just how dangerous it is to be a young woman trying to learn in Afghanistan -- John.

BERMAN: Dangerous, indeed. A bad situation getting even worse.

Salma Abdelaziz, thank you, as always, for your coverage.

Back now to our reporting on Hurricane Ian, which is moving toward the Carolina coast. It should make landfall before noon today. It caused so much destruction here in Florida.

I did speak to one woman who stayed at home and rode out the storm in a nearby town -- in North Port, which is about 10-15 miles from here. It is inland. Listen to what she witnessed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Just tell me what happened during the storm.

ROSANNA WALKER, NORTH PORT, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Well, it was really windy. I've never seen it that windy. And it was really pouring out.

And all of a sudden, the water was coming in through the doors -- the top, the bottom -- the windows over here. And it's all in my closet. Like, I've emptied out my closet.

All of a sudden, it just started coming down the ceiling and everything, and it was blowing up in the air and I didn't know what was going to happen, you know?

So I thought -- I thought they would send someone today to at least --

BERMAN: Right.

WALKER: -- seal it.

BERMAN: Water coming through the roof?

WALKER: Yes, it still is. It's dripping right now. I mean, I just -- everything got ruined. It's all -- oh, I just didn't want to touch it without them seeing it but they haven't been by because they couldn't get by because the streets are --

BERMAN: I know. It's hard to get around.

WALKER: -- flooded. BERMAN: It's hard to.

Were you scared when this was happening?

WALKER: Oh, God, yes. It was just me and my little puppy here and oh, it scared the heck out of me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: We'll have the latest on Hurricane Ian. It is now a category one storm moving toward the Carolina coast. At least 19 people are dead here in Florida.

[05:55:06]

Stay with us. Our special live coverage continues right after this.

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BERMAN: Ian is not done yet. It has regained hurricane strength and it's taking aim at the Carolinas where people now are bracing for the worst.

I'm John Berman in Fort Myers, Florida.

The storm now barreling towards South Carolina with 85-mile-per-hour winds. It is expected to make its third landfall in the coming hours near Myrtle Beach. After seeing the damage in Florida, the governor of South Carolina says we know.