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Milton to Slam Florida; Tampa Prepares for the Storm; Sarasota Prepares for the Storm; Jordan Hall is Interviewed about Storm Chasing; Fort Myers Prepares for the Storm; Barbara Tripp is Interviewed about Storm Preparations. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 09, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

CHRIS WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Refused to acknowledge that he lost and that the winter is the real president for the last four years.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Any - any connection between the showmanship that you say in a way Kennedy invented and what we see now in electoral politics?

WALLACE: Well, he was the first to really use television very well. And in that first debate, you see him, he had a - you know, a real tan. Even in black and white you can see how good he looked. There was a gray set. He wore a dark blue suit. Nixon, who had a real 5:00 shadow, didn't wear makeup. He was ten pounds underway because he'd suffered a serious illness. And if you see - if they - if they show a picture of it, he's wearing a gray suit and blends into the background. So, there was a lot of showmanship.

And Kennedy was always a step or two or three ahead of Nixon throughout that entire election.

BERMAN: One of the amazing things is, when you talk about health, no one, no presidential candidate potentially unhealthy - more unhealthy than John F. Kennedy, but still the perception was the opposite.

Chris Wallace, sounds like just an incredible look at an incredible election, thanks so much for being with us.

WALLACE: Thank you for having me.

BERMAN: All right, a brand-new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news this morning and truly all throughout the day, Hurricane Milton now an extremely powerful cat four storm, category four storm, and closing in on Florida's Gulf Coast. Conditions have already started to deteriorate. We've seen that with our correspondents that are on the ground. The national weather - National Hurricane Center is now warning people are going to be in for a very rough 12 to 18 hours once this hits.

Despite the dangers, though, some people are choosing to ride out the storm. Why some residents say they've decided they just can't and won't evacuated.

Also, new this morning, Election Day, just 27 days off. Early voting is already happening in multiple states. And some Democrats say they're having flashbacks to 2016. What's behind a growing sense that Kamala Harris' campaign is stuck in the mud? New reporting on that.

I'm Kate Bolduan, with John Berman. Sara Sidner is out today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: All right, we have breaking news. The outer bands from Hurricane Milton are now hitting Florida. The National Weather Service warns all evacuation and storm preparations should be rushed to completion. This morning, this could be one of the most destructive storms ever. In just minutes, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will give an update. And we are getting a sense of just how powerful this storm is from, again, some of the outer bands that are already hitting.

BOLDUAN: CNN is stationed all along the coast for you this morning. Our correspondents will be there through it all. Let's start with CNN's Derek Van Dam, our meteorologist, on the very latest of the track, the timing of landfall, and the intensity. What are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: All right, John and Kate, even though this is no longer a category five, the storm surge that will come from this storm will be consistent with a landfall and category five storm because of the amount of energy that it has enacted on the eastern sections of the Gulf of Mexico. It's going to push up all of that water into the very vulnerable coastline.

Look, we're 18 hours or so away from a societal and economic devastation that I'd like to say we haven't seen in decades. But if we go back two weeks ago, we saw it in the state of Florida and into North Carolina. So, here we go again. Brace for impact.

We do have an explicit category four landfalling hurricane, again late tonight into the early morning hours of Thursday. So, that's going to complicate things because it will be an overnight landfall over the western central coastline of Florida. And we have been paying very close attention to the eye, the center of the storm, because these little wobbles with this powerful of a storm system mean all the difference on who will get that right front quadrant, the most powerful storm surge enacted downstream from this storm.

So, what we're picking up from the National Hurricane Center's latest 8:00 a.m. update is that they've actually decreased the values in Tampa Bay. Eight to 12 feet still eclipses the record setting storm surge from Hurricane Helene two weeks ago. But ten to 15 feet, look at that, Sarasota. Some of our computer model show a direct hit for Sarasota with more of a reverse surge as the storm works inland for Tampa Bay. We will get surge in Tampa Bay, no doubt about it. But what happens on the back side of that storm will be very crucial for who gets the worst.

Now, we'll see periods Thursday morning where a large swath of the central peninsula will experience hurricane-force gusts in excess of 100 miles per hour. The eye is visible on our radar. There are tornadoes already spinning up. A new tornado watch - a blanket tornado watch lasting right through 9:00 p.m. tonight.

[09:05:01]

And look at this, some current tornado warnings already spinning. Some of these could be strong today. So, we want to look out for those quick spin-ups.

And then you just got to talk about this. Consequential rainfall. Two to three months falling from the sky over the next 36 hours. That will flood inland communities.

John. Kate.

BERMAN: All right, Derek, thank you very much.

Let's get right to Isabel Rosales in Tampa.

Again, Tampa Bay, so vulnerable to storm surge. It was six feet two weeks ago. It could be doubled that this time.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. And we just heard from Derek that even though the storm surge forecast for Tampa Bay has decreased eight to 12 feet, that is still monumental. That is still huge impacts.

This is the Hillsborough Bay, which is connected to the Tampa Bay. This is Tampa General Hospital right here, the regions only level one trauma center. During Helene, the waters from the bay got all the way up to the wall with eight to 12 feet. I mean this is exactly why so many officials have been urging people to evacuate Zone A where we're at right now. This is a huge, huge, huge matter of concern.

Now, we heard from the Hillsborough County sheriff, Chad Chronister, that this is the 11th hour. The window to evacuate here is tightening. I just checked the traffic cameras. I-4, I-75, they're in the clear. So, no backups to still get out of this area. And there's going to be a point where you just have to bunker down.

The other matter of concern here is the wind, the rainfall. The winds in particular, once they reach 40 miles per hour, where all of the bridges are going to shut down. The skyway - Sunshine Skyway, the Courtney Campbell Causeway, Howard Franklin, all of these bridges will stop running. And also means, John, first responders, the sheriff told me, they will not get out there. They will not be able to help people. He said he fears for the individual who chose not to evacuate, making that call, and then learning help will not be coming.

BERMAN: Yes, people need to know at a certain point they're on their own.

Isabel, thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: All right, let's go to Randi Kaye, who's been standing by and watching how things are looking, preps are happening and how it's deteriorating in Sarasota. What are you seeing?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Kate and John.

We've seen a mix of weather here already this morning. We've seen a fair amount of lightning and thunder and heavy bands of rain coming through. Right now it's a little bit quieter. But we are expecting this storm surge that Derek was talking about of about ten to 15 feet here in Sarasota. We're at South Shore Drive, in the backyard of a home that is - the smart owner has evacuated.

But you can see, he left his boat behind. And - and we're - he's very concerned about what might happen to his boat, of course, given this ten-to-15-foot potential storm surge.

And then, across the water over there, there's a group of homes that have clearly evacuated. They have their storm shutters up, and they're very, very quiet.

We've been driving around Sarasota for the last day or so and it has been very, very quiet here. It's pretty much a ghost town. The restaurants have shut down. People were boarding up. There was a run on plywood. The gas stations are all closed. And so it does seem as though people did heed the warnings to get out of town.

There's, of course, the barriers islands here, like Siesta Key, where they closed the bridges last - the bridge last night at about 7:00 p.m. to those barrier islands. So, if those people didn't evacuate, they are there now through the storm.

And I will tell you that I talked to one woman, and she told me that she and her husband, for Hurricane Helene, which saw a seven-foot storm surge, they decided to watch the weather. They thought they were in the clear. They'd been living on Siesta Key for 25 years, never had any flooding. They watched the weather. The husband stayed behind. He ended up with water up to his chest. Five feet of water. Had to swim to safety in the dark to higher ground. And they rode - and he rode out Hurricane Helene that way.

This time they are staying, but they're staying in a condo building in downtown Sarasota, which is built to withstand a cat five hurricane.

Back to you guys.

BOLDUAN: Randi, thank you so much.

Derek Van Dam's going to (INAUDIBLE). Isabel's going to be in Tampa for us.

And you spoke to someone who's sticking - who's never evacuated as well, and she and her husband are sticking through it again.

BERMAN: Yes, they're on Sanibel Island, just off Fort Myers, which was cut off from, you know, Hurricane Ian -

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: Which may not - you know, which may be much less than the storm surges they're going to see this time. Big risks. BOLDUAN: Yes.

Let's talk more about another person who's sticking around, but they do this professionally. Joining us right now is the storm chaser Jordan Hall. He's in - are you still in Sarasota City right now? Tell me what you're planning for. And tell me what, Jordan, from your experience, if you're talking ten-to-15-foot storm surge, what's that going to mean?

JORDAN HALL, STORM CHASER AND MULTIMEDIA JOURNALIST: Yes. So, I'm still sitting here in Sarasota. And the plan is to kind of just adjust with the eye. You know, the eye is going to do those wobbles and those little goofy twists and turns. But when you're talking about ten to 15 feet of storm surge, that's a lot of water that's going to be pushed inland. And it's hard to fathom just how much water - water until you physically see it with your own eyes.

And what I've noticed in Sarasota as there's still a lot of boats that are in some of those marinas that could very likely float away with that storm surge if it verifies (ph).

[09:10:05]

BERMAN: Yes, not float away, float in.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: I mean you're going to see boats that could end up a mile inland -

HALL: Yes.

BERMAN: Which is not something you ever want to see.

You know, we call you a storm chaser, Jordan. I mean how - you know, when it's a storm surge, can you chase that, I mean, or do you want to run away from that?

HALL: So, the way you would do it as a storm chaser, you got to - you got - I get here days in advance and we kind of scope the area out and we look for high ground. For example, concrete parking garages and places - if you need to bail and be safe, you can. And if that storm surge is something I'm trying to document, I'll look for high ground, just like those parking garages, which we've found quite a few there in Sarasota. And like you said, those boats are going to be floating inland, all that extra debris on top of it that was left in like Siesta Key that got surged out from Helene, all that extra debris is just going to be floating there in those surge waters.

So, even those windows and stuff that are boarded up could still see damage from what's in the water.

BOLDUAN: And, Jordan, I think I saw that you were there for Hurricane Helene as well, which was already a horrific and deadly hurricane. And you describe the damage from Helene as staggering. And the way this is - that Milton is now coming at the Gulf Coast, it could be some - I mean it could be double that in terms of the levels - the threat, the levels and the damage. What is your biggest concern with that?

HALL: Yes, so, I was up near Perry and Horseshoe Beach for Helene. And as we all saw, it was catastrophic damage of the storm surge there in Keaton Beach, Horseshoe Beach, and even Cedar Key. So, when I made it down here in the last few days, to see the damage from Helene this far south really is eye-opening considering the eye for Milton is going to be making landfall basically here, which means they're going to see double to maybe even triple the amount of water they did just two weeks ago. And we have already seen the amount of damage that that much water can do to a community like this.

BERMAN: All right, listen, Jordan Hall, we know you do this for a living, but, please, nevertheless, stay safe. This one feels different from really any storm that I think you've chased before. So, the best to you. Thank you very much.

And we are standing by to hear from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He will update in just minutes as Milton makes its approach. The outer bands already being felt on Florida.

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[09:17:02]

BOLDUAN: We've heard it from everyone. One of the biggest concerns with Hurricane Milton is storm surge. The National Weather Service forecasting life-threatening storm surge levels.

The basics first. A storm surge is a rapid rise of water levels caused by the strong winds from the storm pushing water onshore. In parts of Florida, they're talking about 12 to 15 feet forecasted of surge levels.

We want to give you an idea of what that really means, what those numbers really mean and will look like. Take a look and keep an eye on this wall. Let's start at a surge of two feet. That's right off the floor. At two feed, low-lying coastal areas will be inundated with water.

You take it to the next stage that some are projected to have, five to eight feet, that is enough to submerge a car. But look at this, Milton is expected to be much worse. Storm surge levels of ten plus feet. This is taller than a city bus. Normal - average commercial buildings have a ceiling height of 14 feet. And Milton is expected to be, in some places, the storm surge a foot higher than that.

It is impossible to know with certainty at this point which places are going to face the worst of it. They are talking, though, basically from Tampa on south. They need to be concerned and they are in the thick of what could get this. When you see this surge level in relation to just an average human, you can see very clearly why forecasters and local officials are so worried today.

John.

BERMAN: I've got to say, that's incredible, Kate. That's the top of our stairs. Beyond the top of our stairs.

BOLDUAN: It's terrifying to see it in relation to us, like, to relation to where I am. I mean this is really high.

BERMAN: Yes. And it is why people need to be so careful, pay such close attention to this.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

BERMAN: We do have our first live looks from Key West. This is a fixed camera that will be familiar to you. I think we do, at least. Well, I can describe it to you. There you go. There is, you know, a famous point on Key West right there, the southernmost point in the United States. And you can see, already getting hit by the rain and the waves lapping up. And this will only continue over the next several hours.

Let's go up now - let's go north from there. CNN's Carlos Suarez is in Fort Myers, which is very vulnerable to storm surge.

Carlos, what are you seeing right there?

CAROLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, good morning.

So, that scenario that Kate described is exactly what we believe and we fear may play out here in Fort Myers. To give you a sense of where everyone is right now, two years ago Hurricane Ian made a direct landfall here in Lee County. And the area behind me here along the Caloosahatchee River, the storm surge was about ten feet. And so everything that you're looking at here behind me was flooded, was damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Ian.

With current - with Milton's current forecast, we're still looking at anywhere between eight to 12 feet of a storm surge.

[09:20:01]

And so that storm is still, right now, tracked to go a little bit north of where we are.

So, the folks here in Fort Myers and down in Fort Myers Beach and over in Sanibel, they're getting ready essentially for the possibility of a repeat in terms of the storm surge and the flooding that we are going to see.

We spent the day yesterday over in the downtown part here of the city. Folks there put up plywood. They had sandbags. They were trying to do everything as much as they can in an effort to try to keep a lot of this water out.

One final note, John, from me. Over on Fort Myers Beach. I was there yesterday. It is a ghost town. The folks there were told to evacuate earlier this week. And the city, the town there, is now under a 24 hour curfew.

John. BERMAN: I am glad that the people appear to get out from Fort Myers Beach because that is so vulnerable and there was so much destruction there a couple of years ago.

Carlos Suarez, thank you for being in Fort Myers. Stay safe. Keep us posted.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And with us right now for some more, Chief Barbara Tripp, fire chief of Tampa Fire and Rescue.

Chief, thank you very much for taking the time.

These are really the final moments to get the message out. Talk to me about what your message is right now for everyone in Tampa.

CHIEF BARBARA TRIPP, TAMPA FIRE RESCUE: My message is to make sure everyone pay attention to the local guidelines and follow the rules. If you're in an evacuation area, please, please take heed to that and definitely evacuated. You know, they have that cone of uncertainty. So, if you is anywhere into that cone, you must take this storm seriously.

This is one of the major storm that - I've been in Florida all my life, Tampa, and I've never seen nothing to this magnitude.

BOLDUAN: The director of the National Hurricane Center, we've been shown graphics all morning, talking to us about the real concern of storm surge and how high that could be. Even if it's short, even if Tampa doesn't get the worst of it, it's still cataclysmic, it could be, storm level - storm surge of ten feet. And also we heard from the National Hurricane Center that people could be facing and will be facing 12, 15, 18 hours of a real rough go when this all starts heading in. When it is at its worst, what are you all able to do?

TRIPP: We're not able to do anything. You know, once the sustained wind and it get too dangerous out there, I cannot put first responders out there in the field. That's why we're pushing the message out there to tell everyone that even though we're 911 and we want to be there to help you, but you need to help us by evacuating. So, we won't be able to go out. We won't be able to do anything. For people that have medical conditions and need oxygen and stuff, they need to go to the shelters so they can be in a safe haven. Because, once again, we won't be able to go out until the roads are clear and we're given the OK through the mayor to be able to go out and assess that.

So, we want everyone to take heed. So, this is definitely going to be serious.

And when you talked about storm surge, you know, Hurricane Helene presented Tampa with a lot of challenges that we've never seen, you know? And we was initially supposed to get five to eight and we got almost seven feet of water, which damaged a lot of homes. And we had to do a lot of rescues.

BOLDUAN: And you could see more than that this time.

TRIPP: Yes. And this time -

BOLDUAN: Tampa General Hospital is making -

TRIPP: I'm sorry. Go ahead.

BOLDUAN: I'm so sorry, Chief. So - so sorry, Chief.

Tampa General Hospital is - says it's making preparations to stay open. And they're putting up a special barrier to try - to try to help them do that. It says it can withstand this barrier that we're showing pictures of right here, can withstand of 15-foot storm surge. It withstood Hurricane Helene. But are their concerns that Milton could be different here for the most vulnerable who would be at that hospital?

TRIPP: Most definitely. And, of course, we've been working with our local partners, like Tampa General. We have some additional fire suppression over there on Davis Island to assist them for any kind of emergencies.

And as you say, this storm is different. Each storm is different. You know, that AquaFence that they have up did help out with Hurricane Helene. And we don't know what kind of water surge is going to - Milton is going to present.

So, we've been working with them and their emergency management to make sure that we take care of Tampa General as well.

BOLDUAN: Have you gotten a sense - I was speaking to the Hillsborough County sheriff earlier. He said he was really proud of the evacuations, the level of evacuations that he's seen. Do you have a sense yet of how many people have decided to stay, how - versus how many - how many residents have heeded the warnings and have evacuated to safer ground? Do you have a sense of that yet because that gives a read of what you all could be facing in terms of rescues and help you're going to need to provide on the backside of the storm.

TRIPP: So, the city of Tampa have right about 400,000 residents. And if I had to say, it would definitely be less than 5 percent. We - law enforcement have been going door to door, door to door encouraging individuals to make sure they leave those evacuation zones. We provide any type of transport for them to go to different shelters.

[09:25:03]

And I must say, it's been a positive results. A lot of residents are heeding to the advice that we've been giving him. So, which has been great.

If I had to say 5 percent, you know, you have some people that say, you know, I'm not going no matter what. So, we present them, you know, some of the dangerous that could take place. And, of course, we cannot force you, but we do everything we can to try to assist you.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And it's all about to happen.

Chief Barbara Tripp, thank you for - for your work here and for the whole team behind you that look very busy getting ready for what's going to be a long - a long, long day in this immediate storm coming up. Thank you very much.

So we are also standing by to hear from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as Hurricane Milton is making its approach. The latest update from the governor, what he sees, what - what preparations are underway. We're going to bring that to you live.

Plus, why more Democrats say they're growing anxious as Election Day nears. The new CNN report.

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