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Milton Lashes FL with Heavy Rain, Severe Flooding and Damaging Winds; Water Rescues Underway in Florida; Assessing Damage Done by Milton; At Least Four Killed in St. Lucie County. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 10, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: National chairs of the Biden campaign.

MITCH LANDRIEU, CO-CHAIR, HARRIS FOR PRESIDENT: I was.

BERMAN: To that end, Vice President Harris has been asked repeatedly how she's different than President Biden. And some people think she's been tripped up by answering that. How do you think she is different than President Biden?

LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, whatever the differences is between them, it's not nearly as vast as the difference between her and Donald Trump. She's obviously a woman. She is a woman of color and she is of a new generation. And as you know, when both President Biden and President Trump were running against each other, the country was like saying, can we actually turn a page? And I think it was Nikki Haley said, was the first one that does that, is the first one that's going to have a leg up in the campaign.

So, she is not Joe Biden, as much as they want to try to make her Joe Biden. But she was and is part of the Biden administration and part of all the historic gains that were made from the American Rescue Plan, to the bipartisan infrastructure law, to the CHIPS Act, bringing back manufacturing. But she has continued to work really, really hard on demonstrating that she wants to continue the fight to lower the cost for everyday Americans.

Which is why the other day she came out with her plan to help the sandwich generation. Those of us that have older parents and lots of kids. I have eight brothers and sisters. Between us, we got 38 kids and I got a mom that's 92. And we're all balancing that. Everybody in America is doing that. If you want to have a pro-growth economy, you have to help folks stand up. She's been very aggressive about that.

She's put out now an 82-page economic plan, and she's talking about that. And she's basically going to fight really, really hard, as needs be, unfortunately, to protect the freedoms that Donald Trump wants to rip away from us. And she's going to be very aggressive and take it to him.

And so, you can expect her to be her own person. She has demonstrated that throughout her life, and she will do that when she's the president of the United States.

BERMAN: Mr. Landrieu, I do appreciate your time this morning. I know watching storms like these, it's in your DNA. It's something, you know, you've been through and you care about. So, I do appreciate it.

LANDRIEU: Well, John, listen, our thoughts and prayers to the people of Florida, but please listen, you're not out of harm's way yet. I think when the sun rises and we see the damage, people are obviously going to be crushed by that. But to the fact -- to the extent that you can protect the loss of life, that's the number one priority, getting that electricity back up and operating and then letting the first responders do their work and then don't do anything that's going to put you back in harm's way right now, I think is the way forward.

BERMAN: It's the best advice for sure. Thank you so much for being with us, Mayor.

LANDRIEU: Thanks, John. Good talking to you.

BERMAN: All right. Happening now, we are seeing water rescues across Florida. And the sun is just coming up. One of the images we're just getting in from Clearwater there. You can see that Zodiac out pulling people, looks like a family, inside that boat rescued from their home. We are getting new images like this in a new sense of the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:35:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, Milton is moving offshore now. Thank goodness. And as the sun is coming up in Tampa, we're hearing about water rescues that are underway. You're seeing some of the video. They're showing video from Plant City this morning behind me. But take a look at this. This is Clearwater, Florida. Water rescues. Look how many people are needing help to get out this morning as the sun is coming up.

Tampa is 70 miles north of where Milton actually ended up making landfall. Tampa's mayor this morning is urging residents to stay inside because it is still not safe.

I'm going to show you what happened in St. Petersburg. Drone video showing Tropicana Field. We'll pull this up for you, drone video showing Tropicana Field, the roof just shredded from hurricane force winds. Inside that stadium is where first responders were all set to be staged to help.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is on the ground in St. Petersburg for us. Looks like you're right outside Tropicana. What are you seeing?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate. Tropicana Field, one of the centers of the community here in St. Petersburg, getting battered by Hurricane Milton. As you noted, and you see in that drone video, the roof of it just shorn off. And that was one of the bases of emergency operations. You had emergency responders sheltering there. It gives you an idea of just how powerful this storm was.

I should note that for the most part, the neighborhood surrounding the immediate neighborhood, surrounding Tropicana Field, considering how strong this storm was and the rain and storm surge we were set to see appears to be in relatively decent shape. But obviously, that's with the caveat that we don't know exactly how all the areas of Pinellas County are doing.

We actually spoke to a sheriff's deputy this morning that had blocked off access on a bridge into Pinellas County. He reported that there had been some downed power lines, and that is a major part of the concern. The unseen danger that still lurks underneath floodwaters, underneath rubble, potentially.

We do know, as you noted, that some areas are flooded out and rescues are underway, especially in the eastern part of Hillsborough County. You mentioned Plant City. We understand there's some two to three feet of flood water in certain areas, and a senior citizen's facility had to be evacuated. Back here in Pinellas, part of the concern is with the Barrier Islands, those places that are at sea level, that have the coast on one side and the bay on the other. A lot of debris from Hurricane Helene was left over in those areas. They are impossible to access right now.

Nevertheless, officials are putting out the word to stay indoors. They want folks to stay inside to avoid those unseen dangers as they survey the damage and get a better idea of just how devastating Hurricane Milton was to this specific area. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean, just, first light, you get the sun finally coming up so they can get a true clear assessment of the scope of it all. Boris, thank you so much. You did such great reporting throughout all of this. Thank you. John.

[07:40:00]

BERMAN: All right. And as Boris mentioned, breaking this morning, we are seeing water rescues across Florida from Milton and Clearwater, also in Hillsborough County. CNN's Isabel Rosales was just in the action.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I've got the sheriff right here. Sheriff, is it OK to talk with you?

SHERIFF CHAD CHRONISTER, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA: Yes.

ROSALES: Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff, what can you tell us about what's happening with these rescue operations?

CHRONISTER: Yes. We're -- we have three of the amphibious vehicles staged throughout the county and they're in full operation at assisted living facility up on the north end. Here at the hotel, we have some elderly folks that struggle with some disabilities and able to get them to some dry land, get them some medical attention.

These aren't people who didn't heed the warning. This is -- these are individuals in areas where we've never seen flooding. Never seen flooding. And to go from no flooding to three feet of water up over your knees, I can imagine how frightening that was for everybody here.

ROSALES: Yes. And specifically, the assisted living facility, another separate operation happening right now in the northern part of the county. That's where the University of South Tampa, another place you would never imagine to see flooding like this. That's a more complex situation because you people dealing with medical complications. What can you tell me about what's happening there?

CHRONISTER: Yes, that's a -- it takes a little more of a triage. Certainly, have to handle a fragile situation with the utmost care and a lot more care. We have almost 100 residents up there and that's certainly going to be a more prolonged rescue operation.

ROSALES: Any message you want to give to folks out there that, you know, they're stuck, stuck and more blindsided, again, in these areas that they've never seen conditions like this before?

CHRONISTER: Just hang tight, shelter. I know you're uncomfortable. Almost 600,000 people in our county without power. We'll come to you as quick as we can.

ROSALES: And any idea how many of these calls you have right now?

CHRONISTER: Right now, these are the two big facilities. We have another rehabilitative facility. We have a hotel here and then up on the north end. But again, out east and up north, we've never experienced this type of flooding. So, I'm sure it was quite frightening for these folks who thought they were safe. They were sheltered in place. And now, faced with having flooding and not knowing what was going to stop.

Again, you can see the relief. My heart is certainly full of content knowing that we're going to get them to dry ground and get them the medical attention they need.

ROSALES: Sheriff, thank you so much for your time. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Again, that was Isabel Rosales just a short time ago in Clearwater. We are getting some other footage in from water rescues in that area. We'll bring it to you as soon as you -- as soon as we can.

And it's not just the flooding. Also, we're seeing new damage -- oh, no. OK. Here we go. These are live pictures coming in from Clearwater. Look at that. There's a local reporter there. But I think it's worth keeping it up, guys, if you can. I mean, you can see the boats going through the streets there to save people in Clearwater. These are live rescues taking place at this moment. All right. We'll show them to you later. Also, we're seeing damage from tornadoes. Kate just spoke to someone. There's a Clear -- well, Kate just spoke to someone from St. Lucie, an official there, who says there have been multiple deaths, no exact number yet because they are still working to save people. Let's get to CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

The tornado issue here, Derek, I mean, this -- I mean, everyone was concerned about tornadoes, not as much as the storm surge, but these tornadoes have turned out to be deadly.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right, John. And it's a well-known fact that the outer rain bands of an approaching hurricane are prolific tornado producers and they're usually very fast spin up tornadoes. They can cause some minor damage.

Not often do we see these large wedge tornadoes that have dropped from the sky from what was approaching Hurricane Milton. And here is one of the larger tornadoes. I'm not saying this is a wedge tornado, but it is a significant tornado. And by the way, keep in mind, this is in Palm Beach County, Wellington, Florida, on the eastern side of the state.

So, so much focus and attention was on the storm surge, rightfully so, very dangerous part of an approaching hurricane. But this was almost overshadowed. The threat of tornadoes turned out to be a significant factor in Hurricane Milton. In fact, there were a record number of tornado warnings issued in a single day for the entire State of Florida. 126 to be -- in fact.

And now, that's just interesting because there weren't 126 tornadoes, there were roughly 35 confirmed tornadoes so far. But if you look at this list of number of tornado warnings, you can just go back and see how they're attributed to previous hurricanes. 2017, we've got Irma. I was there. 2024, that is Helene, just two weeks ago. 2022, that was Ian. Yes. And you can see those tornado-warned storms and the numbers they're associated with it.

We still have that onshore wind as Milton continues to pull away from the Space Coast, that's the eye pulling away from Cape Canaveral, and it produced a prolific amount of rainfall too, not just tornadoes. That pink shading there is 10 inches or more of rain in St. Petersburg.

[07:45:00]

They got over two -- or over a foot and a half of rain in a three-hour period. They got nine inches plus, that is three times their monthly October average falling from the sky. That is why we're seeing these types of water rescues live on TV right now.

BERMAN: All right. Derek Van Dam for us. Derek, you've done such great work over the course of this storm. Thank you so much. We'll come back to you in a little bit. Kate.

DAM: I appreciate you, John. Thank you. BOLDUAN: One city rocked by the initial storm surge was Naples, Florida. Take a look at this video. So, roughly 100 miles from where Milton made landfall. Floodwaters, you see in this video, just taking over beachfront properties. Look how it is rushing in as the storm battered the coast for hours and hours overnight.

Joining us right now is the city manager for Naples, Jay Boodheshwar. Thank you so much for jumping on. How hard did Milton hit Naples?

JAY BOODHESHWAR, CITY MANAGER FOR NAPLES, FLORIDA: Well, hi. Good morning, Kate. Well, we got about six feet of surge. We were bracing ourselves for more. But ultimately, you know, that's what we received. And it was actually quite challenging for us.

BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean, so some of the estimates were, you know, double that. But still, make no mistake, six feet of storm surge is very dangerous and very damaging. I mean, overnight we saw reports of, you know, several feet at least in multiple -- in many, many places. You're talking now -- you've got six feet of floodwater storm surge. How are people doing in Naples today?

BOODHESHWAR: Well, we're waking up with a big bit of a sigh of relief. You know, as you know, two years ago, Hurricane Ian brought nearly 10 feet of surge to the City of Naples. And we're still -- you know, we were almost recovered from that. And two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene pretty much wiped away our dune system along our coastline. So, that made it easier for Milton to breach our shoreline and fill up our streets with water.

So, our residents are waking up, I think, with a little bit of a sigh of relief that it wasn't as bad as Ian. Our residents did a great job. They evacuated. We had no injuries reported last night. Of course, we're making lots of calls this morning and there's a lot of cleanup ahead of us. But we've done this before and we're going to do it again.

BOLDUAN: We've seen in other places, we're showing -- we were just actually looking at or we might still be looking at it here, just live water rescues happening in Clearwater, Florida. How -- do you have a -- have you heard of what kind of -- any calls for rescues in Naples?

BOODHESHWAR: We are responding to calls right now. We had a structure fire last night. No injuries. And a couple of minor calls for service. But, you know, it makes it a lot easier on our first responders when our residents do heed our warnings, evacuated. And those who stayed behind, they were well equipped and -- you know, but this morning we do have some issues. Of course, cars are going to begin driving around on streets and we have lots of intersections that are without stoplights right now. So, we're asking the public to use care, treat them as four-way stops and let the crews do their work, and please be careful.

BOLDUAN: You mentioned just the kind of the double whammy, the double hit that Naples and so many other cities in Florida are dealing with in the last less than two weeks. I mean, what is recovery going to look like after two major hurricanes kind of gone through your city? BOODHESHWAR: Yes. You know, regrettably we're getting good at this. You know, it's a pretty simple formula. We assess, we make the streets safe, and we begin recovering. So, right now, we have push crews that will be clearing debris, unclogging drains, and making our streets safe.

We also have crews out doing assessments of both private property to get a feel for how much water intrusion occurred within the city. I'll tell you that the majority of the City of Naples had certain level of water. We were pretty much submerged with water coming in from the bayside as well of the -- as well as the Gulf of Mexico, but it's going to take us weeks to recover from this once we get a good handle on what is in store for us in the next week or so.

BOLDUAN: All right. Jay Boodheshwar, the city manager for Naples, Florida, thank you so much for jumping on. John.

[07:50:00]

BERMAN: Yes. So, north of Naples in Pinellas County, these are live pictures you're looking at there of water rescues. This is some kind of an apartment building. If the cameras pull out, we can't control it because his affiliate footage right now, but that's actually like five feet of water right there. That boat has pulled basically inside an apartment complex and we think there -- yes, there you can see it right there. You can see the water up to the windshield of that car. You can see these rescuers arriving there, presumably to save people who are trapped inside and just want to get out.

These are some of the images that we are now beginning to see as the light comes up across the West Coast of Florida. That is where the greatest flood damage is right now. The East Coast is where we're just beginning to get a sense of the tornado damage.

This, live pictures from Cocoa Beach. The storm just passed here and has moved out to sea. Stay with us. This is CNN's live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:55:00]

BERMAN: All right. We do have breaking news. We're just learning at least four people have been killed in St. Lucie County from the tornado outbreak there. We're also learning that multiple people were rescued from under debris after reports of tornadoes in Palm Beach County. Kara Duffy from our affiliate WPEC has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA DUFFY, WPEC REPORTER: Now that the sun is coming up, we are getting a more clear idea of just how much damage Milton left behind overnight and into these early morning hours. And the damage is a lot more widespread than we first realized. When we came out here earlier this morning, it was so dark out on top of the power outages. It was hard to tell. And now, as you can see, just total devastation. We've seen trees just snapped right in half, vehicles that had rolled across multiple lanes of traffic, ending up here, just feet away from a neighborhood pond area. A big chunk of the dock that's also in this community lake and pond area, that was now pushed all the way up onto the road. Debris scattered everywhere.

Now, if you take a look to the side of us here, as neighbors start making their way out, they're also realizing just how serious this is. We've seen multiple vehicles just kind of pulled over to the side of the road, many of them with the windshield blown out, glass shattered everywhere, park benches, a reminder of what was here not even 24 hours ago. Certainly, a much different vibe out here.

As you can see in the distance here, trees barely recognizable and homes just shattered in the distance there. It looks like it's a small RV that's actually toppled on its side. So, it really just kind of reinforces just how strong that storm and wind must have been last night.

Now, first responders have said that they reported to the scene here for a tornado, that they took at least five people to the hospital. Three of them had to get trauma lifted out of here, which, as we know, means they were seriously injured. Several others were treated on the scene. And as of right now, we're still just trying to talk to people in the know, see what they know, how they've made out overnight and really just where they go from here.

So, as the day goes on, we'll certainly asses further and hopefully, have some updates throughout the day and check in with you. But for now, reporting from the Acreage in Palm Beach County, Florida, I'm Kara Duffy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Yes. You know, and the amazing thing there, that's the East Coast of Florida, Palm Beach County. That's not even where the storm made landfall. I don't even think it passed over Palm Beach County as a hurricane, but you can see the damage from the wind and the tornadoes there.

Now, some of the most dramatic images we've seen, Tropicana Field, where the Tampa Bay Rays play, the roof just lift it off completely. Storm chaser Brandon Clement shot this video. He is with us now. This is just stunning stuff of -- you know, you can see right through, to the diamond on Tropicana Field.

BRANDON CLEMENT, STORM CHASER, WXCHASING STORM TEAM: Yes, it's it -- was a horrible situation when we pulled up into St. Pete. It took a lot to get there. A lot of flooded roads. Of course, all the bridges shut down. Took a lot of back roads and ran into cars that were flooded. But as soon as you get into St. Pete, you could see it off in the distance. It's well lit.

Of course, a lot of power outages. So, it really stood out and the roof is completely off. You can even see the light displays they have inside going, of the different color lights reflecting off of the white patterns of what was left of the roof.

BERMAN: I mean, when I see these images, I just think of, you know, where it all go? Is the debris just scattered about in the area nearby?

CLEMENT: Yes, it's scattered inside and out. So, when you look down into the field, you know, you see the diamond, but the diamonds got a lot of debris on it. That's pieces of the roof. And of course, outside of the -- of Tropicana Field, in the parking lot, there's pieces of it there as well. So, it's just scattered all the way around.

A lot of it is hanging up in the rafters and still in the beams, the support beams for the roof. So, it's just everywhere you look,

BERMAN: And I understand, after you shot this, you then turned south here. You're south of Sarasota now assessing the damage there. What are you seeing now? What do you see along the way?

CLEMENT: Currently in Englewood, unfortunately, the police have blocked off the road back to Englewood Beach, and there is.

[08:00:00]