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The Source with Kaitlan Collins
Milton Makes Landfall As Category 3 Hurricane With 120 MPH Winds; Hurricane Milton Batters Florida As It Moves Onshore; Flash Flood Emergency Issued For Tampa Area. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired October 09, 2024 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:00]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Wow. It's really interesting to see this much water now, starting to come up. And again, it's this water coming up from the Manatee River. And it's higher -- the higher -- the ground is higher, about a 100 feet from there, and water's just pouring down from that direction here. And now, the wind is really picking up, just in the last couple of seconds, and it's really whipping.
Our coverage continues all night long. Kaitlan Collins joins me now. I want to toss it over to her.
Kaitlan.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST, THE SOURCE WITH KAITLAN COLLINS: And I'm Kaitlan Collins, alongside Anderson Cooper, live on the ground, in Florida, where you can see Hurricane Milton has just made landfall, near the Barrier Island of Siesta Key, Florida. But clearly, the effects are being felt everywhere.
It has come in as a Category 3 storm with a 120 mile per hour sustained winds, even higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center. We are talking torrential rain, extremely dangerous winds, what is being described as life-threatening storm surges that are now pounding portions of the state.
At this hour, a life-threatening flash flood warning has just been issued, for nearly 2 million people. That includes Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater. You just saw Bill Weir, in St. Petersburg. You could see all of that developing there.
Right now, over half a million homes and businesses have lost power, with conditions deteriorating by the minute.
This storm has also spawned a record number of tornadoes, all across the State of Florida, far beyond where this storm is actually making a direct hit, tonight. There have been 19 confirmed tornadoes so far.
The Sheriff of St. Lucie County has just confirmed that there have been multiple fatalities after an outbreak of tornadoes there. Many more warnings, of course.
Just to give you a sense of how massive and intense this storm that is hitting Florida right now is, look at the satellite image, showing lightning strikes breaking out everywhere.
We have reporters fanned out, across the storm zone, across Florida.
Anderson, you're in Bradenton, Florida. We were just looking at you, and the Manatee River. As clearly, you're just seeing how much this is developing nearly by the minute.
COOPER: Yes, Kaitlan, it has really changed. I mean, really, in the -- in the two minutes or so that you've been speaking, it is, it's changed a lot. I mean, again, it is -- these storms are just so strange and so unpredictable.
When you're on the ground, you think the -- the eye made landfall down probably about 15 or so minutes ago South of Sarasota. It seemed like things were calming down here a little bit. But boy, wow, the water now is just slamming into the Riverwalk here, in Bradenton.
This -- I mean, I don't know, Neil (ph), if you can -- I don't know if you can see this. I mean, look, this is, it's like the ocean here, this river now, all of a sudden.
Bill, how are things in in St. Petersburg?
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Oh, it is getting rough here, Anderson. It is getting so much more violent, just in the last few minutes since I talked to you.
We're sort of pinned down in the corner of this building, Corner of First and university, just how -- how freight-train wind gusts, and this torrential, just appreciate -- the deluge that's falling here. Five inches in three hours. We're expecting another five in the next couple hours.
So, the freshwater flooding that's happening here, I just can't -- I can't help think about all those souls, who went through Helene, who already had to deal with moldy drywall, and now this is going to cause so much heartache. There must be so much stress, across Florida, tonight.
And these tornadoes. There's no good day for a tornado to hit your house. But the worst day is when it happens right in front of a hurricane like this. And a lot of those folks evacuated from the coast inland. There was that big one over by Fort Pierce, and supercells that are more common in Texas, Kansas, have been kicked up by this storm here.
We're also wondering, speculating, there's one set of headlights over there. I wonder if somebody was driving, and now they're just sort of frightened and frozen in place
COOPER: Well, with this--
WEIR: --waiting for things to happen.
To give you some perspective.
COOPER: Yes -- wow.
WEIR: The coast is this way, around the corner. The winds are coming ripping down First Avenue. And the Municipal Boat Basin and the Yacht Club is that way. I'm certain, we're going to wake up in the morning, and see some of those boats on the street. Whether they will be put there by the wind--
COOPER: Yes.
WEIR: --by the storm surge, in this part of Tampa Bay. We're in the bottom sort of the entry point, on the northern side, over across the bay we had, is Tampa.
COOPER: Yes.
WEIR: I just heard in my ears--
COOPER: Bill, I'm just going to show -- I got to show--
WEIR: --Siri just read a text to me.
COOPER: I got to show our viewers here.
WEIR: From the great Brandon Miller, our Meteorologist.
COOPER: Neil (ph).
WEIR: Who says that this just--
COOPER: Neil (ph), take -- this is -- this is -- this is -- the winds have really picked up. The water's really moving.
[21:05:00]
You can get a sense of just how fast the wind is moving there. You can see it in the light there. It is now just whipping off the Manatee River. It's coming in from kind of the North, I guess, Northeast, and the water now is really starting to pour over.
If you look at the ground -- whoa -- OK, that wasn't good. We'll probably go inside shortly.
But you can see the amount of water here on the ground. This is -- this is water from the Manatee River. It's also water coming from the land as well.
But as you, I don't know if you can -- if you can turn, Neil (ph), take a look at this. There's a bridge over there. I've seen some emergency vehicles going across the bridge over the last hour or so. It looks like there's one about to come across. But you can really get a sense of just how much that water is coming on, on shore now.
Let's check in with Brian Todd.
Brian, where are you exactly?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, Anderson, I'm in Downtown Tampa on Howard Avenue. And it is about the worst it's been all night.
You can see the violence of this storm right around me. It's starting to flood this street. We've had six inches of rain in the last couple of hours. We're going to get another five to eight inches of rain in the next probably five hours here.
And just look at this. I mean, it is -- the word is violent, because the wind has been whipping sideways all over this place. These trees have been whipping around.
There is a lot of debris on the road. That is another big part of the story, here in Tampa. You've heard the Mayor Jane Castor say that the contractors didn't show up to pick up the debris from Hurricane Helene. We've had debris flying around this area too. That is a danger.
But right now, it is just the sheer volume of water that is hitting us right now that is dangerous. Drains are overflowing. Sewers are overflowing. Canals are starting to overflow. We've got tornado warnings around here as well. And again, the wind is just, really just pounding us here.
And what's also, as you've been describing, where you are, the wind does tend to switch directions quickly, like right now we're getting hit from my right side to my left, just extremely violent gusts of wind. But then it'll kind of whip around in another direction, and you don't really know where it's coming from.
This city is really getting hit, I believe, with the worst of it right now. If it's not at the peak, it's got to be near that point right now. I know that Mayor Castor said that maybe by 02:00 a.m. much of this will pass. But that's a long way to go for these people. You're talking another five hours here, during conditions like this. It is not safe out here.
First responders cannot come out in this stuff right now. They say that 45 miles an hour winds or higher, they cannot go out and rescue people. We are pretty much at that point, Anderson.
The bridges around here are completely closed, impassable. These roads are starting to flood. And again, anyone who ventures out in this, right now, in a vehicle or otherwise, is really running a risk.
COOPER: Yes, you can -- there's -- there's -- let me just grab this here.
So, yes, like stuff is just this literally -- this came from the river. Thankfully, it's just Styrofoam. I'll try to -- I'll try to put it down over here, try to get that behind the tree. So, yes, that's just one of the things we're starting to see stuff that's in the river itself ripping up and then getting airborne.
So, we'll probably move -- we have a -- basically, when you do this kind of stuff, you have several fallback locations. So, we have several fallback locations, which we'll probably shortly go to. But this is interesting. This is the first time. So now, the water's really come over the Riverwalk. And it's -- the water is now kind of staying on the Riverwalk. But it's also now washing up to this sandy area, which is about 10 feet or 15 feet or so from the edge, of the river's edge. So, it is definitely really picking up now. Yes, obviously it is.
I also just saw a, again, a very distinctive flash of blue light, probably some sort of power outage.
I don't know, Neil (ph), if you -- I'm sorry, who? Let's check in.
You can really see it. I mean, this wind is -- it's just, it's picking up this water, and it's just moving this water.
Carlos Suarez in Fort Myers.
Carlos, what are you seeing there?
CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, it's a bit difficult to hear you.
The wind really has not let up here in Fort Myers. And we're starting to see the worst flooding this entire night.
At this point, where I'm standing is a parallel to the Caloosahatchee River. And it's -- you're not going to be able to see from where you -- obviously where my camera is.
[21:10:00]
But just up the street here, I can see where the Caloosahatchee River has just breached this part of Fort Myers. And all of this water, out from the river, from the Gulf of Mexico, is now just pushing its way inland here, into Fort Myers. This right here is the concern that officials have had going into this storm.
During Hurricane Ian, the storm surge out here was about 10 to a 11 feet in terms of flooding. We don't expect that kind of number, because the storm is now to the north of us.
But we're still looking at probably seven to eight, if not nine feet of flooding. And it's something that has started to materialize out on Fort Myers Beach, to the west of here, the southwest of here, where we're looking at about five to six feet of a storm surge, right now.
And then, out in Naples and Collier County, which is about an hour south of where we are, we're also looking at floodwaters there at about the four- or five-foot mark.
As you can see, just from when I started, there's a bit of the break here. But what's happening now is expected to continue, for the next couple of hours, and into tomorrow morning.
And I don't know if, Stu (ph), if you can kind of go over to your right a little bit, and show the bay there? But we're maybe a feet or so from the bay, just breaching that basin
right there. A little bit further -- a little bit further up, is the actual river, the Caloosahatchee, and that's already started to come out onto the mainland out here.
Anderson, kind of what you're looking at here is a confluence of forces. You've got the storm surge coming in, from the Gulf of Mexico, as this hurricane continues on its track north. And then, you've got all of the flooding, you've got all of the rain out by Lake Okeechobee, and even central parts of Florida.
And so, all of that water is coming in from the central part of Florida, and then you've got all of that water coming in from the Gulf of Mexico. And when all of that comes together, this is what you're going to see. This is how it's going to be for the next several hours. And we haven't even figured in a high tide yet that's going to happen around 12 or 1 o'clock in the morning.
So, when all those three things happen, it's going to be a pretty ugly situation, for the folks that live here, in Fort Myers. And this is not going to get better over the next couple of hours. It's not going to get better until probably tomorrow morning, once high tide kind of loosens up a bit, and some of this water starts to recede.
But I was here two years ago, for Hurricane Ian. This is kind of what happened then. That was a direct landfall. This storm is north of us. And there are some similarities about the storm surge, Anderson.
COOPER: Yes, I'm very curious to know how long the speed of these winds is going to continue for, in this area, because it is -- it's really picked up. It is continuing.
We're now kind of just moving back away from the edge of the river, wisely. And I think this location is still OK for right now. But it's a significant amount of water. I'm just stunned at how much the (inaudible).
COLLINS: Obviously, Anderson's shot there, as they -- you can see the Manatee River. It's getting worse by the moment, as you were watching all of this.
What's remarkable is you're seeing all of these different live shots, from where Anderson is, from where Carlos Suarez is, from where Bill Weir is. Every single live shot here, you are seeing the consequences of this storm, as it is making landfall, here in Florida, just this hour.
We are tracking it closely, given just how wide this impact is, and the storm surges that we're tracking, also the tornadoes that have been spawned as a result of this storm.
CNN's Chad Myers is in the Weather Center.
And Chad, obviously, we are watching this very closely. A lot of people still hunkering down, who did not get out of this. Tell us where this storm is, right now. Because just seeing every single live shot, it's remarkable how they all are really experiencing similar -- similar conditions, as they're deteriorating--
CHAD MYERS, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
COLLINS: --so quickly.
MYERS: Yes. And what's remarkable, Kaitlan, is that this storm, all of this water that you see coming from the sky is on the north side of the eye. All the surge that we talked about is on the south side of the eye, from Punta Gorda, back to Naples, and to our reporter there in Fort Myers.
But here's what's going on. The northern part of the eye is still very filled with rain and convection. Nothing really going on down here, except some wind, pushing the water on shore.
So, our Anderson Cooper, right there. Bill Weir right here, in St. Pete. And then our Brian Todd, in Tampa. Just hour after hour worth of rain, now still to come, and they've already had six to 10 inches on the ground that has already fallen. Another six to 10 will likely fall in this wind warning, where winds have been gusting over a 100 miles per hour at times.
The good news is, talked about the tornadoes. They are offshore. They have moved away from Florida. They were right along that I-95 8 (ph) Corridor earlier today. But we are still seeing the wind now gusting to 90 miles per hour at the airport.
[21:15:00]
Here's what has already fallen. Here, right through here, this entire area of purple Tampa, there's the bay. That's greater than 10 inches. And what's to come? More, in the same places, plus moving some of that rain into Orlando as well, and then on up toward Daytona Beach. More areas here of purple, 10 inches or greater, still to come.
Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Yes, I'm just thinking what the Tampa mayor told Anderson, just a few moments ago, that it's 09:15 there. She thinks this is going to be going for until 02:00 a.m.
And you're seeing where Bill Weir is.
MYERS: Yes.
COLLINS: Just the amount of rain they've gotten.
MYERS: Yes.
COLLINS: About five to six inches in just a matter of hours, with more to come.
Chad, we'll continue to check in with you. I want to go back to the ground in Florida. That's where Boris Sanchez is, in Tampa.
Boris, the storm surge, not as bad as expected, but still much higher than it was for Helene. Tell us what you're seeing right now.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, no question about that, Kaitlan. The storm surge is part of the reason we moved away from where we've been going live all day.
The actual water hitting the seawall, at Tampa Bay was starting to get too intense. You pair that with stronger and stronger wind, the rainfall you just heard Chad outline, we're anticipating up to and a foot, more than a foot of rainfall in the Tampa area.
It's already seen six inches coming through the evening. It's about to get five to eight more. There's no doubt that it's going to cause intense flooding.
Where I am now, we're experiencing very, very heavy bands of wind. It is literally shaking me. It's moving me around. The temperature has also dropped significantly. So, it's gotten quite a bit colder.
I'm staring down the street at a residential area where the water appears to be slowly, creating larger and larger puddles. As the rain continues to go down, there is no doubt that this area is going to flood.
There's a significant amount of tree cover. You can expect branches will come down. We're already seeing them come down. We've also seen the power take several hits in this area, it potentially could go out fairly soon.
You add all of that, Kaitlan, to that storm surge that you were talking about? And it is a disastrous situation for folks that decided to stay in evacuation areas. Obviously, officials were warning them to get out. For folks that were just outside evacuation areas, and decided to hunker down, they've been under a Shelter In-Place Order since this afternoon.
Obviously, very dangerous conditions. As you noted, tornado warnings throughout the State of Florida, more than a 100 today. That is a record for the Sunshine State, many of them going hundreds of miles from where the storm made landfall.
I've been watching folks throughout the day. There were a lot of residents, earlier in the day, that were walking around trying to get a glimpse of what was happening, during the storm, during this intense rainfall and heavy wind. There are a fewer of them this evening.
But there are still folks out there. Officials want them to know it is best to stay indoors at this time, because we are likely to see very intense flash flooding, not to mention debris flying around, Kaitlan, from Hurricane Helene that's been left over these past two weeks.
COLLINS: All right, Boris, we'll continue to check in with you. We're watching all of this playing out. We're seeing the elements of this storm. Right now, you're seeing an airplane that has been flipped over completely by the winds of this storm. That is coming in from a weather camera that we're seeing. You can continue to see the wind in the background of that.
Obviously, you are going to see a lot more images like this. Unfortunately, it's getting darker and darker, so it is going to be even harder. As Boris was saying, they're losing power. In some places, it's coming back on. We've got over half a million people and businesses that do not have power, right now. And that number is continuing to grow by the hour.
What you're looking at, right now, is in Venice, Florida.
I should note, we're checking in with all of our reporters, throughout this hour, making sure that they're staying safe.
We're going to reestablish with Anderson, as you saw him, in Bradenton, Florida.
I want to go now to Randi Kaye. She's in Sarasota.
Randi Kaye, obviously you were seeing debris itself start to fly earlier, from a ceiling fan from a house, I believe, and other aspects of this. That was a huge concern that officials had, this coming so quickly after Helene.
What are you seeing right now in Sarasota?
RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Kaitlan.
There's debris that, of course, became projectiles, and that's scattered all over these neighborhoods. But we are just about 20 minutes or so from Siesta Key, where Hurricane Milton made landfall, just near Siesta Key, so very close to where the storm came across.
And when we were in the eye, Kaitlan, it was so tranquil here. The birds started to come out. There wasn't any wind. There wasn't any rain. There were bugs and birds, and you could hear the frogs out.
Now, the eye has passed, and we are now back in the thick of it.
We do expect that this is going to get much worse for us. We're going to see more wind. We're going to see more rain. We had wind gusts of about 73 miles per hour here. We're just near Sarasota Airport.
But when we were seeing the worst of it, this fence came down. Three panels of this fence near this neighbor's house here.
[21:20:00]
And this tarp, this white tarp, I'm not sure if you can see that, Kaitlan, it was going this way, it was blowing this way when the wind was really bad. And then, it was on the ground for a while during -- when the eye was over us, when we were in the eye. And now, because the eye has passed us, the wind has actually changed direction. So now, it's actually blowing the other way. That is what's happened here.
So, we do expect that when we see high tide around 04:30 in the morning, that is going to bring some of the storm surge over this way. We are about half a mile or so from the water. So, we do expect, as I said, conditions to worsen, and we will stay here for it.
Kaitlan.
COLLINS: All right, Randi Kaye, we'll continue to check in with you, in Sarasota. Thank you for that.
Right now, on the phone, joining me is Florida senator, Rick Scott.
And Senator, thank you for being here.
You were Governor of Florida. You've dealt with a lot of storms, like this, in your home state. What are you most concerned about, right now, as this storm is making landfall?
SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-FL) (On Telephone): Well, number one is people that didn't evacuate that should have. We can't take care of them now.
And what happens often is people say, Oh gosh, this is really getting bad. So then they want to leave. Unfortunately, you got flooding. You got trees down. You got powerlines down. As you know, we've had unbelievable number of tornadoes around the -- around the state today. So, you have no choice. You have to stay in place now, and you have to hunker down, and you have to keep yourself alive.
I worry about our first responders that want to go out, and help these people, and they have to put their lives on the line. But they do it because they want people to be safe, to be safe, so.
And then, I worry about, and as this passes, are all the problems we're going to have. Trees down. We're going to lose a lot of power. We're going to -- you know, then I worry about our people and go outside before it's safe, and they're going to be around, trees are going to fall because we are saturated with water. Are they going to touch down powerlines? Are they going to try to start a generator and not know how it works? Are they going to use a power saw, and not know how it works?
So, you just worry that, you know, if you just look at what happens? One, unfortunately, people don't get out of harm's way. Number two is afterwards, they make foolish decisions.
But on top of that, today, we've had horrible tornadoes around the state. I've talked to a lot of sheriffs and mayors, all day today, about the tornadoes. And my heart goes out to everybody going through theirs right now.
I'm in -- I'm a little bit further south. I'm in Naples, Florida. And I evacuated away from the -- I was in the evacuation zone, which I hope everybody did. And so where I'm hoping that-- COLLINS: So, you've had to evacuate, Senator?
SCOTT (On Telephone): --where I like it's safe.
Speak again, Kaitlan.
COLLINS: You had to evacuate your home?
SCOTT (On Telephone): Yes, we had to evacuate. And so, I'm hoping that everybody around me evacuated. I'm hoping it's not as bad as they anticipated. We're supposed to get five days (ph) for this storm surge, and a lot of flooding, so I hope it's not going to be that bad.
But these are -- these are -- these are deadly storms. And so, I'm going to do everything I can to keep people focused, and keep people alive.
COLLINS: And Senator, what you just talked about there, the tornadoes that we saw, hitting parts of this state that weren't even under full evacuation orders. Maybe people, who were living in mobile homes were told to evacuate and get somewhere safer.
I mean, these tornadoes that were hitting, some of them on near the Palm Beach area, where in St. Lucie County, where we've seen these fatalities.
SCOTT (On Telephone): Oh, yes.
COLLINS: Have you ever seen over a 100 tornado warnings, 19 confirmed tornadoes, as a part of a hurricane that you're dealing with?
SCOTT (On Telephone): No, we've had -- we've had tornadoes like when Michael in 2018. We had a lot of tornadoes that spawned off as it went up to Panama City. But not like this, and not this far away. We've had -- we've had rain bands this far away but -- you know, that far away, before the tornadoes, we've not had that.
And so, I talked to sheriffs and mayors in the, you know, where they had tornadoes. And it was a scary, scary time. We had so many tornadoes. So, I could -- I could feel it in people's voices, how concerned they were, some for their own life, and some for just people they take care of.
COLLINS: Yes. Senator, obviously, we are thinking of everyone, in your home state, tonight, as they are just trying to survive this. Thank you so much for joining us. I want to talk to you more about that FEMA funding, and recovery, after this, in the future. So, thank you, Senator Rick Scott.
SCOTT (On Telephone): Thanks, Kaitlan. Bye-bye.
COLLINS: And I do want to note, for everyone watching, who is very concerned, obviously, about all of our correspondence and anchors on the ground.
Anderson is OK. Just obviously, understandably difficult to establish a connection when you're seeing what's happening with the wind and the rain, and obviously the deteriorating conditions by the minute. We are going to check with him -- in with him, later on this hour.
Right now, that plane video that I just showed you, in Venice, Florida, that was shot by Jonathan Petramala, who is a storm chaser in Florida. And he's joining me now.
[21:25:00]
Jonathan, just tell me. I mean, this is a remarkable image, and just speaks to what we are seeing, watching this live, right now. Tell me what you've been seeing, out on the ground, in Florida.
JONATHAN PETRAMALA, JOURNALIST, DRIVING THROUGH THE HURRICANE (On Telephone): The strongest parts of where we've been in the storm has been on the backside of the eye, after it passed us on shores. It made landfall just to the north of where we are. We're in Venice, Florida.
So, we have a couple situations happening here. You have the wind shifting to be directly onshore here. And what that is doing, clearly, it's strong enough to knock over, flipping this plane upside down like this, also knocking down trees, powerlines. There was a staccato of popping from all of the powerlines blasting off earlier and breaking.
And then, of course, you have the storm surge. That's really beginning to pour in as well, near where we are, here at the Venice airport, the low-lying areas to Esplanade around Venice.
And so, that's going to be the next real big issue that people are that people are going to have to worry about. And they might let their guard down. And just do not do that, because the backside of the storm, especially south of where landfall is, that's where we expect the main impacts with the storm surge. And that can stretch all the way down from Fort Myers Beach, here to Venice and, of course, up to Bradenton, Sarasota area.
COLLINS: Is there a concern about a false sense of security of people feeling? Randi Kaye was saying earlier that it was just this moment of calm, as the eye was passing them, as they were waiting for the -- more of the bands to come in to hit.
And then, all of a sudden, we check back in with her, five minutes later. And you see how quickly those conditions on the ground can change.
PETRAMALA (On Telephone): We've had a lot of experiences like that, where you are in areas that maybe haven't experienced an eye of a hurricane. And they go through the front side, they think the worst is over because they're in the eye. They don't realize that the backside is coming.
It happened when we were in Carriacou with Hurricane Beryl. We were going around yelling at people, Hey, guys, you can't get too far away from your safe place. We got half the storm, still. It really shocked them. And then that backside of the eye wall came with Hurricane Beryl. It was like a tsunami of debris. And that's the same thing that'll happen here in Milton as well in Florida. And people definitely need to be aware of that. And also realize that this storm is bringing that storm surge, all the way across the Gulf of Mexico.
It's like the Gulf of Mexico is a bathtub, and the storm is moving from one side of the bathtub to the other. And just like you're moving in the bathtub, that momentum of the water is going to go over the edge. And unfortunately, the edge here is the State of Florida. And so, that water is going to come into land.
Now, the only good thing is, and it's a kind of a twisted way to say this, we just had Hurricane Helene two weeks ago pass by. That was a 100 miles off the coast of where I am.
But it damaged, in the Tampa Bay area alone, over 20,000 homes and businesses severely. So, that is fresh in people's minds, and I think that really helped to push people to evacuate, because they were able to finally understand the danger of storm surge. And of course, the threat with Milton is that it could bring in much more.
COLLINS: Yes, that absolutely is the concern, especially as the ground is totally saturated, debris is everywhere still.
Jonathan, please stay safe. And thank you for showing us just the power of the storm, flipping that plane over, as you warned about that tsunami of debris coming back.
Anderson is back with us.
Anderson, I know that there have been some -- things have been changing. Tell us what you're seeing right now on the ground.
COOPER: Yes, well, so a short time ago, probably about 10 minutes ago, we were over there, on the Riverwalk, here in Bradenton. As you can see, I don't know -- I don't know if you can see.
COLLINS: It's very dark, Anderson.
COOPER: Yes, it's very dark. That area is really no longer accessible. So, my camera crew has moved -- actually, they are inside a building right now, which is our first fallback position. We're on the ground floor. We have a second fallback position on the second floor, and one on the fourth floor, depending on how the evening goes. But -- so we're in a safer location.
There's just a lot of debris flying around out there. There's still some flying around here. There's actually a tree, which has fallen because the ground is so saturated with water from the rain, the five or six, or however, many inches of rain that have poured down here, just over the last several hours. This tree has fallen down. There's still a number of palm trees which are standing. But we're watching them, obviously, very closely.
But the situation here is really, this is definitely the worst we have seen of it, in terms of the wind, and in terms of just the amount of water falling, the amount of rain falling, and the amount of water just coming off, off the Manatee River.
I'm very curious to check in with our correspondents, in other areas, as soon as they kind of comeback online.
COLLINS: Well Anderson, can I ask you--
COOPER: And so, as soon as we have somebody, let me know where -- yes, go ahead, Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Can I ask you? Because obviously, you can see how dark it is right now, and you were talking about how much the conditions were changing.
Do you still have power there? Because the outages have doubled in just an hour. We went from over half a million as we were coming on the air. Now, it's 1.1 million homes and businesses that don't have power, in Florida, right now.
[21:30:00]
COOPER: Yes, there have been electrical explosions, really, for the last two hours, all over the place. Sky is with -- I mean, this is common. This happens all the time. The sky just lights up with this very eerie blue light.
Let's go to -- I'm sorry -- to Boris Sanchez, who's standing by in Tampa.
Boris, I mean, it is -- it has gotten really bad here, just in the last 40 minutes, 30 minutes or so.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
COOPER: How are things where you are?
SANCHEZ: Yes, Anderson, there's no question that there has been a serious intensification of the storm, in just the last half hour or so.
The wind is much stronger than it's been at any point throughout the day. The rain is coming down significantly harder. It is a massive amount of water. There are trees. There's one off to my left that has been making noise all night, and it is seeming (inaudible).
COOPER: Did we lose Boris?
OK, I think -- I think we lost Boris, just for now. We'll try to get contact.
It's very hard maintaining, obviously, the -- you know, we're working off cell towers. We're working off a variety of technology, just to try to stay on air, just to give you a sense of, of how -- of how the power of this storm.
It's so strange, because about an hour ago, maybe it was an hour and a half ago, I think a lot of people, maybe who were staying at home, looking out their windows, had this sense of like, Oh, things are kind of -- it's not as bad as maybe some people had thought it was going to be. It was downgraded from -- it was a Cat 5 out there in the Gulf, then it was a Cat 3, when it came on shore.
It may be a Cat 3, but that is a really, really strong storm. And you can feel the power of it out here right now.
It's been, I don't know, 10 or so years since I've really done a lot of hurricane coverage. I've experienced whiteout conditions a couple of times in the really the height of a storm. We're not there yet. We may not get there. But it is -- it is close to, at least in this area, there is so much rain and wind and water in the air, the sky almost looks white. It's a very eerie and strange thing.
Carlos Suarez is in Fort Myers. I want to check in with him. He is south of me, in Fort Myers, which was very badly hit, obviously, in Hurricane Ian. A 150 people were killed in that storm.
Wow it is -- and Carlos, what is it like where you are?
SUAREZ: Anderson, the wind really is not letting up, at this point, here in Lee County, across parts of Fort Myers, where we are at this hour.
We're looking at gusts of anywhere between 50 to 60 miles per hour. And so, what's happening, right now, is the flooding is really the big issue for parts of Southwest Florida. This storm, the hurricane, has made landfall, of course, to the north of me, where you and Boris and Bill Weir and everyone else, and Randi Kaye is located.
What we're experiencing, south of you guys, is the storm surge, all of this water that is being pushed in from the Gulf of Mexico that has nowhere to go.
The Caloosahatchee River, which is behind me here, is pretty much at this point, just blended into this street. There's really no way to know exactly where the river kind of stands, because the pier, the beach area over there, that's, at this point, all of the water is just coming through on this side.
As you talked about Hurricane Ian two years ago, this part of Fort Myers saw a storm surge with a direct landfall of about 10 feet. Of course, we're not going to see those kind of numbers, because the storm is already to the north of us.
But the next couple of hours are really going to be difficult, and they're going to be telling, because that storm surge could be anywhere between eight to nine to 10 feet. And we're not going to really get a sense of just how much of this flooding is going to happen, until tomorrow morning, because that's when we expect high tide to take place.
That's when we expect all of the flooding from parts of Central Florida to make its way down the Caloosahatchee River, where I'm at. And then that's kind of what you're seeing here. I've been describing it as a confluence of forces, where you have the water from the Gulf of Mexico, rushing in through the river out here, and then you've got all of the rain, and you've got all of the flooding from canals and rivers and up from the central part of Florida.
And that water has to go somewhere. And at some point, when it can't go out into the Gulf, because of the storm, and it can't go inland, it's got to make its way, just blocks in. That was really the concern for folks, coming into the storm, is they knew that this part was going to flood. And, at this point, Anderson, it's flooded, at this point.
[21:35:00]
I'd imagine, as far as I can see into Downtown, Fort Myers, at this point, it's just become almost a large pool, if you will. It's really just running parallel to the river. And it's, at times, a little bit difficult to make out where the river is.
Anderson.
COOPER: Carlos, I'm going to go back inside, in just a minute.
I want to go back to Kaitlan, right now.
Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Yes, Anderson, obviously, stay safe. Everyone is watching you. And just want to make sure you get into a safe position. We'll check back in with you as soon as you do.
We're watching. Obviously, where Anderson is in Bradenton, Florida. You can see how much that wind is picking up. This has all happened in just the last 35 minutes.
When we checked in with Anderson, about half an hour ago, as he was standing near the Manatee River. You saw the river is starting to pick up, start to churn. Now, of course, you're seeing this right now.
Anderson, we want to make sure you're in a safe place.
We are going to continue with our breaking news coverage. We are live in Tampa, next, where you are only seeing surges of that water start to take over, as the wind is also picking up.
We're going to check in also with the Mayor of St. Petersburg. That's where waves are crashing ashore. More than nine inches of rain has fallen in just three hours there. Yes, nine inches of rain. A once-in- a-thousand-year weather event is underway.
We'll be back in just a moment.
[21:40:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COLLINS: Some breaking news for you, while we were in the break. A flash flood emergency, which is the highest level of flood warning, has just been issued for Tampa, according to the National Weather Service. This is an upgrade of the previously-issued considerable flood threat that was already there. And this means that between 10 and 14 inches of rain has already fallen in that area.
There is a warning from the National Weather Service. They are saying this in all-caps, that this is a particularly dangerous situation and advising people to seek higher ground now.
I'm Kaitlan Collins, back with Anderson Cooper, who is in Bradenton.
Anderson, you're a little outside Sarasota. You're south of Tampa, where that flash flood emergency was just issued.
Just tell us. I saw you moving earlier, as you were trying to essentially get by a palm tree. There's obviously a lot of debris flying behind you. Tell us what you're seeing right now.
COOPER: Yes. So, we're in Bradenton. What you're seeing this, these branches in front of me is a tree that has fallen. It fell earlier. It fell probably about two hours or so ago, because the ground was so saturated.
But this is, without a doubt, the height of the storm that we have seen here in Bradenton. I don't know if it's going to get worse than this. But it is -- it is pretty bad out right now.
There's -- there is debris going through the air. I'm actually fine here. There's a tree. Most of the debris, right now, is just like pieces of branches. And it also, oddly, a lot of Styrofoam. I'm not sure where all the Styrofoam is coming. But it's obviously, it's not too bad.
So, if it gets worse, I'll move inside. But I'm in, I think, in an OK location, right now. It's actually rather sheltered from the wind, if you can believe it.
But you can really get a sense of just how fast this wind is moving. I mean, it is -- it's extraordinary. The -- it is almost all white, when you are out here looking around. It's like whiteout conditions. It's something I've only seen a few times before.
It's not clear to me (inaudible) on the ground here, in Bradenton. They were expecting as much as nine feet of storm surge. But at least, I believe at least six inches of rain have fallen, here in Bradenton, if not more. It wouldn't surprise me if it's more, as some communities have already seen.
I do want to check in with Bill Weir, who's up in St. Petersburg.
Bill -- we don't have Bill, I think, at this point.
But, Kaitlan, it is-- WEIR: I got you, Anderson.
COOPER: OK. We got Bill. Oh, really.
COLLINS: We can see Bill.
WEIR: I got you.
COOPER: Bill, let's go.
WEIR: Hello. Hello.
COOPER: How are things? How are things, Bill?
WEIR: Against all odds, Anderson, you got Bill Weir.
Against nine inches of rain, in three hours, is what this city is experiencing, right now. Just get a look at what that looks like, just coming down harder than any shower and any spa that you've ever been to.
Look at this. It's just pounding. Freshwater rain now rushing down the avenues, where it's sort of a higher elevation. You can see the water moving on the streets here at St. Petersburg.
But just torrential rain and the wind. I'm not sure if you can hear the howl now. It's been sort of in and out. But I'm going to shut up for a second. Just listen.
That is the soundtrack. And depending on where you are, in this city, there's car alarms by all these vehicles that were parked high, to keep them out of the flood zone that's going off as they're being rocked by the wind, here.
It's hard to know what's happening, just to our left. That's the Boat Basin. The harbor is just down the street here. And we didn't want to venture out in the vehicles, for obvious reasons, trying to be a little bit cautious.
But no telling. We were down there just at sunset, at 7 o'clock, and the waves are just starting to pound over the seawall. So many boats left in the harbor, so many of those boats uninsured (ph). First light will reveal so much about what went on here.
[21:45:00]
But what strikes me is much the way that Hurricane Helene picked up trillions of gallons of water, and dumped them inland, hundreds of miles from the coast. This storm is moving so much water across the entire peninsula.
And the water is so -- the ground is so saturated, Anderson, as you've been mentioning. That means trees coming down. That means powerlines coming down. From what I understand, over a million customers without power, in the State of Florida already. And miraculously, here in St. Petersburg, we still have it. But this is going to be a mess in the morning.
Anderson.
COOPER: Bill, thanks. We're going to check in with you throughout the night.
I mean, this thing is, it's really changing every couple of minutes. It's very unpredictable, Kaitlan. It's fascinating to see it up close.
I mean, I'm glad so many people here heeded evacuation warnings.
COLLINS: Yes.
COOPER: I'm glad that there's -- there are a number of shelters here in Bradenton, of people. I talked to a number of officials in various counties. People really seem to have heeded a lot of the evacuation warnings. And that is when you see the power of this storm, right now, that is certainly good news.
You can see power where we're at is flickering on and off. But it's a very dynamic situation here, right now.
COLLINS: And Anderson, everyone's tweeting at me, asking about your safety, everyone's safety. Obviously, if you need to go inside, let us know.
But we're just getting word from the White House that President Biden was speaking with a bunch of the mayors in the areas that are expected to be hardest-hit before Milton made landfall.
Were the officials that you spoke with today surprised by how quickly this got moved up? Because at about lunchtime today, we didn't expect this to hit until 11:00 p.m. and then it was moved up to 08:00. And now, of course, we're seeing it in full force right now, where you are.
COOPER: Yes, I mean, this storm has changed really fast a number of times. I mean, as you remember, it went from a, you know, a relatively low-level category storm, to suddenly a Cat 5 storm, it seemed like, in a matter of hours, which was just stunning.
I mean, I saw some explanations about the warm waters, at various levels of the Gulf, is the reason why it intensified so quickly. And then, obviously, it went back down to a Cat 3. But it is, you know, it just, it's been a really -- a really surprising -- a really surprising couple of hours here.
And I'm very curious to hear from officials, from their vantage point.
Yes, sorry, it's -- it's really picking up. You know what, Kaitlan? I want to check in with Randi Kaye, who's in Sarasota.
Randi, how are things?
KAYE: Anderson, things have certainly deteriorated since you and I last spoke. We were sort of in the eye. And then on the backside of the eye. And things had really calmed down. And then, once the eye passed, and the backside of the eye passed, things had really started to get much worse here. So, we are now experiencing those very high winds that we were talking about.
I know you were talking about finding a place for safety, making sure that nothing is flying around in the air. We're doing the same thing here.
I'm keeping an eye here, on this last piece of fence that you can see that's standing. That's in the house next door to us, where we are. These other two pieces you can see that are on the ground here. Those have already come down.
And when the eye passed, Anderson, it's really interesting, because this white tarp that has been blowing here, behind us, all night, because it broke free? It was going -- it was blowing in that direction. And now, when the eye passed, and the wind direction changed, it's now blowing in this direction that way. So, we'll see if it actually breaks free.
There are some powerlines down. And we've lost power in in the place that we are staying. And the winds are just extremely, extremely strong. We're experiencing rains. But the winds is really what it is. It's like a punch to the gut, when it -- when it gets you, just at that right moment.
COOPER: Yes.
KAYE: So, we're doing our best to stay safe as you are, of course, Anderson.
COOPER: Good. All right, Randi, we'll check in with you.
Let's go to Brian Todd in Tampa.
Brian, where are you?
TODD: Anderson, we're in Downtown Tampa on Howard Avenue. I can just tell you that this storm is now, it is relentless, it is violent and it is dangerous out here.
Just take a look at how I'm getting just slammed from my left side. The wind is blowing horizontally. The rain is horizontal. I even noticed a little bit of, you know, sometimes the rain seems like it's blowing upward. It's just getting so violent out here.
We've heard the, you know, Bill and everybody talk about the figures here. Nine inches of rain in three hours. Three months' worth of rain in three hours is what that translates to.
We're not even in one of those zones, where they had mandatory evacuations. Now, if they had known that this was going to be this violent, in this neighborhood of Tampa, they may have made for mandatory evacuation here, but they did not. Still, there is nobody out here now, because it is simply too dangerous to be out here. This road is starting to flood, and it's getting -- the flooding is going to get much worse, because this water basically has nowhere to go, Anderson.
COLLINS: Well, and Brian Todd, it's Kaitlan here.
[21:50:00]
I want to read an update that we just got from the Florida Division of Emergency Management that is notable. And they're telling people, do not walk out into the receding water of Tampa Bay, because this is essentially a reverse storm surge. And they're saying that this water would will come back. It does pose a life-threatening risk.
So, if people are seeing that water start to recede, they're saying, Don't go out there, because it's about to come back in full force in that space.
TODD: Yes, it certainly will come back. I mean, a lot of the storm surge has been pushed out of Tampa Bay, and it is going to come back, as you said.
It's interesting how they were so worried about storm surge, here in Tampa. And even in the last few hours when they said, OK, well, the storm surge is not going to be as bad as we thought.
Well, look, that's no consolation here, because this water just has nowhere to go, just because of the rainfall, not because of the storm surge.
And when the storm surge comes back, if you can just get a sense of how bad it is out here, you know how bad it's going to be, when that storm surge returns. I mean, drains are overflowing. Canals are overflowing here. Everything is just overflowing. And I'm not even sure I know where this water is going to go at this point.
So it's just, you know, if this isn't the peak, I don't know just how bad the peak is going to be, here in Tampa.
COLLINS: Yes, it is a triple threat of this storm.
Brian Todd, please stay safe. We're going to check back in with you, as we are watching what is happening in Tampa. And with all of our reporters on the ground.
We'll continue with our special coverage here. And we're going to be joined by the head of FEMA, with the latest response, and what they are seeing happening, on the ground, in Florida, after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:55:00]
COLLINS: We're continuing our live coverage as Hurricane Milton is making landfall, right now.
Anderson Cooper is in Bradenton, Florida.
And Anderson, as you've been watching this, I mean, the wind is picking up. That is the most notable thing that we are seeing from where you are. But also the flooding. Seeing that this has become a life-threatening flooding event as Milton is making landfall, seems to be one of the biggest takeaways as we're watching to see just what the impact of the storm is going to look like.
Tell us what and how it's changing, where you are on the ground.
COOPER: Yes, I mean, that's the thing. It's so hard to tell, because you feel so isolated in a storm like this. There's a lack of information, locally.
Certainly in this area, by the river, and this ground, is incredibly soft. It's incredibly saturated with rainfall. The amount of water coming off the river has been extraordinary. And it is -- we were down there, as you've been watching, we were down there probably about 30 minutes ago, and we fell back to this location. My team is inside.
And -- but I'm told right now that our Weather Center said that there are gusts up to a 100 -- more than a 100 miles an hour, which is feels about right. I mean, I don't know if you can see out there, because light -- there's not a lot of light.
But I mean, this wind is moving incredibly fast. So, these gusts, when they come, like this one, you really -- you really get a sense of the power of this storm.
Kaitlan, I think you have the FEMA Administrator.
COLLINS: Yes, yes, Anderson, we do. We can see those gusts behind you.
And the FEMA Administrator, also in Florida, Deanne Criswell.
Thank you for joining us, from Tallahassee.
I know you just got a briefing with emergency officials there. It seems, Administrator, like flooding is the number one issue that we're seeing, the life-threatening flooding, happening in Florida, right now.
You tell us, what is your biggest concern, as Milton is making landfall?
DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Yes, Kaitlan, I had an opportunity, I've been here just for a couple of hours, right now, to talk to my team, but also to get connected with Director Guthrie, at this Florida State Emergency Operations Center.
And actually, before the storm and the eye made landfall, they had multiple tornado touchdowns that have caused some pretty bad damage in other parts of the state. So, that was a threat that we knew was a potential. And unfortunately, we did see multiple tornadoes across the state. Right now, we are seeing the flooding. And the wind and the storm is just starting to move across the state. We won't know the full extent of that until the storm continues and gets out of the state. But we know that there's still life-threatening situations out there.
COLLINS: And Administrator, we are getting word now that Hurricane Milton is now a Category 2 hurricane. Obviously, that doesn't diminish the impact that we're seeing on the ground.
What is your number one message, to people, to Floridians, who are watching right now?
CRISWELL: So, right now, you just need to stay put, right? The wind is, even though it's decreasing, the threats are not decreasing, right? With the increased amount of rain, with the threatening, the life-threatening flash flooding that's happening, you need to stay put, not go out into this. Trying to make sure that you're as safe as possible.
But one piece of good news, Kaitlan, is I was told that over 70,000 people are actually in shelters, right now, which means people listen to the evacuation orders, which is really encouraging.
COOPER: I've got a question. Do you have any sense of just the water on the ground, in some of these communities? I mean, do you have a sense yet of kind of the storm surge that's occurred, or just the amount of rainfall, and how many inches of water has been on the ground, been put on the ground?
CRISWELL: Yes, Anderson, obviously, it's going to be different in different parts of the state, depending on where you're at, where the storm passes.
We are still just monitoring this storm. And so, we won't have real good fidelity until the storm goes through, and we can get some of that information back in.
I think the biggest thing is still just to know that there are a lot of threats out there, as you've been reporting. And we want people to make sure there's -- if they didn't evacuate, and if they're not in one of those shelters? That they're staying put, they're staying out of harm's way, so they don't create a life-threatening situation for themselves.
COOPER: Yes. Administrator Criswell, thank you so much for all your efforts. Appreciate it.
Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Anderson, just as someone -- you've covered so many of these hurricanes for CNN. I wonder, as you're looking at this, how much worse this is, or how it compares to other storms that you've been in the middle of?
COOPER: It's really hard to compare. I mean, every -- as you know, I mean, every storm is so different, and there's so many variabilities. [22:00:00]
And it's certainly been a while, since I've really been out, covering these. But it certainly reminds me of some of the storms. I mean, I remember being up, you know, we were up in Tampa, for Charley, where Charley was expected to make landfall in Tampa. It ended up really hitting Punta Gorda, very, very hard.
I have no sense of how this storm compares to others. We won't know that, as the Administrator said, until later. But the power of this one is certainly making itself known, right now, Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Yes. Absolutely. Anderson, please stay safe.
Thank you all so much for joining us.
Don't go anywhere. Our breaking news coverage will continue. "CNN NEWSNIGHT" begins right now.
