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Hurricane Milton Leaves Extensive Damage in Florida; Officials Attempting Water Rescues in Florida in Wake of Hurricane Milton; Hurricane Warnings Remain in Parts of Florida; At Least Four Killed in St. Lucie County, Florida in Tornado Outbreak; Crane Collapses into Building in St. Petersburg. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 10, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: What are you seeing now? What did you see along the way?

BRANDON CLEMENT, STORM CHASER, WXCHASING STORM TEAM: Currently in Englewood, unfortunately, the police had blocked off the road back to Englewood Beach and there's a temporary flight restriction up, so I can't fly the drone and show what it looks like out there. I'm hearing it's really bad, but I can't provide on it. I'm not seeing any rescue crews go in or any resources you go in. So I don't know what the situation is there, but I am in Englewood, and some of the homes that were flooded, you can see in the live shot I have up, a lot of debris spread around. These were debris piles left from Helene in the same houses that flooded again last night when Milton came ashore.

BERMAN: All right, Brandon Clement, we're glad you are safe. Thank you so much for providing these dramatic images. We are getting new information just in, a brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are standing by for the first live update of the day from Florida's governor Ron DeSantis and the director of FEMA which will offer a first assessment of what kind of damage hurricane Milton brought when it slammed into the state. As the sun is coming up now, first responders are able to get a clear look at the scope of the damage.

Crews on the west coast of Florida are conducting water rescues to get people to safety. On the east coast of the states, search and rescue teams are sifting through tornado debris. And this just in from the east coast of Florida, officials in St. Lucie County say at least four people have been killed, four people dead at least, after several tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down. I spoke last hour with the sheriff there who said an entire mobile home park, an entire mobile home community was just flattened.

Let's go to Victor Blackwell. He's standing by in Orlando this morning. And Victor, there's a lot of moving parts here as we're starting to get an assessment from various parts of the state of what people are dealing with today.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, the big headline right now, those water rescues that are happening right now to get people to safety. Of course, we've also had that headline of the power outages, more than 3 million customers out. I just went not too far from here in the last hour I've had, and I walked out on 435 and 535, and I saw that there was a 7-Eleven with metal. I tweeted out the photograph and sent it in. There's some wind damage there with metal panels kind of strewn around. There are sheriff's officers, deputies, who are blocking down branches and large branches, not the whole tree here in the Lake Buena Vista area.

We also just saw some video from the Orange County fire department, fire rescue, showing the video of that attempted water rescue about 4:40 a.m. here in Orange County where the water was up to their chest. They were going into this mobile home community trying to rescue people, but those people decided that they wanted to stay. so they stayed in their homes. We're going to see more of the reports of localized flooding around Orange County because that really is the story for the center part of the state.

As it relates to the power outages, we're closing in on 100,000 here in Orange County, which is really not a majority of the county serviced. Next door in Lake County and in Polk County, in each of those counties, more than half of the customers are without power. You go west to Brevard County, there's - east of Brevard County, I should say, there's a report of a tornado, one of three dozen tornadoes along the eastern coast of Florida. Thats in Cocoa Beach. Still waiting for todays from the police there on the damage caused by that.

But yes, as the sun is now up and people are seeing what's around them, and the first responders able to get out with the winds down and the sunup to give them a look, we're going to start to get the full scope of the damage of hurricane Milton overnight.

BOLDUAN: Victor, thank you so much for that. Let's go now to Clear -- to St. Petersburg, rather. That's where Boris Sanchez is standing by. And we've been watching these video coming in from Clearwater, which is very close to where you are of water rescues.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Kate, extensive water rescues not only in Hillsborough County, but in Pinellas County, as we understand it. We're here in St. Petersburg, just outside Tropicana field which sustained enormous damage. The roof of it completely in tatters. I can report that the neighborhood around it, though, has not seen extensive flooding. So things at least here in the immediate aren't quite as bad. But again, it's unclear the extent of the damage from hurricane Milton right now. We were trying to access part of Pinellas County that was shut down, sheriff's deputies blocking off a bridge. We talked to them about why.

[08:05:00]

They explained the sheriff had actually gotten to some downed power lines and had seen that there was a lot of damage in a certain area that was flooded, and that is part of the concern. That's why these areas are shut down, the unseen dangers, whether it's power lines in water or power lines underneath rubble, or branches that might be teetering on the verge of falling.

We're seeing, as you noted, Kate, water rescues right now, especially in eastern Hillsborough County. This is very agricultural part -- a very agricultural part of Florida. We have migrant workers there. We understand that a senior citizens' facility had to be evacuated. They're looking at two to three feet of flooding in some parts.

Officials in both Pinellas County and Hillsborough County are urging folks to stay indoors, especially if they see storm damage, because right now there is so much going on that they do not want folks to interfere and they do not want folks to put themselves in danger with these rescue operations and with serving the further widespread damage of hurricane Milton, Kate.

BOLDUAN: And Boris, that's been a little bit of what we've been hearing from officials this morning, from an official in Venice, Florida, from an official in Naples, Florida, all along the west coast of Florida, saying they are really getting out there now to get an assessment of the damage that is brought, and a lot of it on the west coast, as we know, is from the water, is from just being dumped with rain. I think, didn't they say, I think it was Clearwater, it was St. Pete, like a foot-and-a-half came down.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Yes, absolutely. It's something that we had to deal with all night in Tampa, the pounding rain. Tampa got roughly four to six months worth of rain in about a day, and you can imagine that for officials trying to get to folks that might be calling for help, that in itself is a challenge. On top of that, you have a storm surge that was coming in, and further, the wind that knocked over a ton of debris, and there was debris leftover from hurricane Helene that also created obstacles for officials. As we were getting to this area now from Tampa, we saw widespread flooding.

Fortunately, most of it did not seem to be going into homes that we saw. But of course, these are the areas that we can access right now. It's not what officials have shut off so they can get to people that need help.

BOLDUAN: Yes, very long day still ahead, and we're also standing by to hear from the governor and the head of FEMA to get -- kind of be able to give us a bigger overview of what, what the state is now facing as Milton finally heads away. Boris, thank you so much, really appreciate your reporting. John?

BERMAN: Just one bit of an editorial for some of those pictures you're seeing there. We're seeing water rescues in Clearwater, Florida. Some editorial just came in. High water has trapped as many as 18 people in one Clearwater apartment complex. Now, I don't know if that's the one you're looking at right there. All right, these are live pictures right now from Clearwater. Obviously, water rescue is in there, the water pretty high, I mean, up to the windshield of that car, so hard for people to get out of that building. Certainly, the boat is pulled up right into the building. Again, live pictures from Clearwater.

We do know that that 18 people have been trapped in an apartment building. I don't know if it is the apartment building you are looking at right there.

In the meantime, let's get to Isabel Rosales, who is in Hillsborough County. Isabel, what don't you tell us where you are and what you're seeing?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, good morning to you. Yes, we just got here to Riverview, the southern part of Hillsborough County. And I'm going to show you something impressive, and it's causing a lot of issues to this community that I'm in right now. So this is a drainage system right here, this water that's ponding off. They had so much wind, but most importantly, so much rainfall yesterday that it actually broke apart the sediment, and look at this, created this enormous sinkhole. Look at that. Wow, I can't even tell how deep that is, just all the way across this road that I'm told by a deputy, a Hillsborough County deputy, is the only way into this community. So you can see folks just looking around in all of this. They've been coming up, taking pictures.

The deputy tells me that they're essentially stuck here. They're forced to go around the neighborhood into the backyards of these houses if they want to get around because this is the only way in and out of this community. So clearly, a bad situation for these people.

Now, earlier today, I was in Plant City. That's in the eastern part of Hillsborough County where I was riding along with the Hillsborough County sheriff's office and the sheriff, Chad Chronister, as they got to a hotel, the Holiday Inn, where guests suddenly found themselves overnight, unexpectedly in floodwaters, unable to get out, something that is not typical of that area of Plant City, something that they've never seen before. I spoke to the manager of that Holiday Inn. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:10:03]

BRENDA COLEMAN, TAMPA RESIDENT: Just with the hurricane and the water, it just kept rising. And I've been here 14 years, and I've never seen it get this high.

ROSALES: You're a little emotional.

COLEMAN: I'm sorry.

ROSALES: It's OK. It's stressful.

COLEMAN: Sorry. I have always, the owners probably know, I always tried to treat this like it's mine. So to see this is hard. Sorry.

ROSALES: How are the customers here?

COLEMAN: They've been good. I've had a couple that word kind of upset, but at the end of it, they're like they know that there's nothing I can do, that it is major. So we just had to hold together and make sure everybody was safe. And I got most of the guests that were on the first floor to a higher floor so that everybody was safe. And then I had the couple that stayed here with my mom and I so that we wouldn't be down here by ourselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And shortly after that interview, one of the guests there who had mobility issues, a couple, actually, Elizabeth and Jack Gibb (ph), they were loaded onto HCSO amphibious vehicle and taken out of there into dry land. So a great rescue there.

And of course, we did here over on the Tampa side from Mayor Jane Castor that the flooding danger is not over. Here in the past hour, we entered high tide, so she's saying that that will lead to more flooding from the rivers all over Tampa and Hillsborough County. Guys?

BERMAN: Isabel Rosales at that sinkhole right there. I know you've been up all night going from location to location, just seeing some of the damage. If the floods aren't enough, the sinkholes now posing a threat as well. And you've just reported also just editorially, there are live rescues happening right now in an assisted living facility in Hillsborough County as well. Isabel Rosales, thank you so much for that. We'll come back to you. Stay safe.

Let's get to meteorologist Derek Van Dam. Derek, sort of the twin threats we're seeing right now, on the west coast of Florida, it's the flooding, water rescues happening right now. On the east coast, this is just immense amount of tornado activity.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. So right now we've got this 8:00 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center, and Milton is looking like a former shell of himself, right? It is sheared, it is destroyed in many regards, and it's pulling away from the space coast rather quickly. But of course, the threats still remain, and we'll try and highlight those as best we can. You can see hurricane warnings remain along the space coast stretching as far north as the northern portions of the Atlantic Florida coastline. In fact, we are getting gusts up to 58 miles per hour right now in Daytona Beach. So that is still dangerous conditions as the outer rain bands of the backside of Milton continued to wrap in from the Atlantic coastline.

This produced a prolific amount of rain, right here specifically. You can see it on this radar estimate, that's where over ten inches of rain has fallen. And we heard from Isabel's great reporting about the water rescues that are taking place in Hillsborough County, and then into the Clearwater area right now. Clearwater Beach saw 14 inches. St. Petersburg, 18 inches. There was nine inches of that rain in St. Petersburg that fell in a three-hour period. So you can imagine just how much ponding and flooding that caused.

So here it is, the eye of the storm still pulling away from the space coast. But it's wrapping in that rainfall. So there are still active flashflood warnings in place in and around Daytona Beach.

And with that onshore push, three to five feet of storm surge still an issue for our coastal communities before this system is said and done and pulls completely away. These are the record -- or rather the storm surge totals, the highest totals that we saw. Venice Beach, just a little over five feet, Fort Myers, 5.27 feet and into Naples, roughly just over five feet. And of course, that's not as high as what Ian brought in 2022, but still a significant amount of surge that will obviously leave some homes and businesses with water damage this morning.

Wind gusts over 100 miles per hour right where the storm made landfall. Again, just near Siesta Key. And this has knocked down over 3 million customers across the state of Florida without power right now. And we know that these approaching hurricanes are prolific tornado makers. While this was just one example of one of the tornadoes that dropped from the sky, and this is on the east coast of Florida. So this is coming out of the Palm Beach County region. And that is a significant destructive tornado. You can see it lighting up the sky, breaking down transformers.

This is incredible. John, there were the record number of tornado warnings that were issued in one day's time across the state of Florida yesterday. That was just one of them. You can see the others from previous hurricanes as well.

BERMAN: Look, it was just one after the other after the other yesterday afternoon and well into the evening.

[08:15:00]

Derek Van Dam, thank you very much, and again, you are looking at these live pictures of these just water rescues. People driving down the streets in boats.

Derek Van Dam, thank you.

BOLDUAN: And you can see -- and you can see how high that water reached. You could see was reaching the top of those cars there.

And our coverage of Hurricane Milton continues. We are standing by to get an update from Florida's governor, as well as the FEMA administrator the first update that we will get from them since Hurricane Milton finally started moving offshore, as there is now with first light, dealing with this.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:20:13]

BERMAN: All right, breaking news. We are just now getting reports of fatalities in St. Lucie County, that is in the eastern part of the state.

With us now is the communications director for St. Lucie County, Erick Gill.

Mr. Gill, if you can hear me, can you give us this latest information, a number on fatalities now?

ERICK GILL, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR ST. LUCIE COUNTY: Yes. As of this morning, the medical examiner has confirmed that there were four deaths as of yesterday's tornadoes that rolled through are county from Hurricane Milton.

Crews are still out today doing additional damage assessment and rescue and recovery in some neighborhoods that we had at least two confirmed tornadoes touch down yesterday between four and six o'clock.

There have been reports as many as a dozen tornadoes, but we will need to wait for confirmation from the National Weather Service on that in the next day or two.

But we know within about a two-hour period, we had over 900 calls to our Emergency Operation Center regarding the tornado activity that was happening in our town.

BERMAN: The fatalities, four now recorded. Did they come from one specific place or are they spread out?

GILL: I don't have any details. I do know at least more than one were from one neighborhood, but we are still getting all those details as we speak.

Kate, my colleague, Kate Bolduan was speaking to the sheriff who said that there was a mobile home park that was flattened. Do you have information on that?

GILL: Yes, we had crews in there last night after the tornadoes rolled through. We had a window until about 10:30 to eleven o'clock, before we knew the force storm winds were going to come in from the gulf. So we had crews in there getting those residents that may have been displaced into temporary shelter, those that needed medical assistance, and getting them to hospital facilities, and there were some fatalities in that neighborhood, yes.

BERMAN: What are you hearing this morning now that the crews are out again? Are you still getting calls? Are people trapped?

GILL: Not that I've heard this morning, but again we've only been -- had daylight now for about an hour-and-a-half or so, but crews have been out.

The main focus is getting the roads cleared and getting power restored and getting those that need shelter in to shelter.

We did have two general population shelter setup earlier in the week that were overwhelmed before the tornadoes impacted our area, but we know that shelters are a place of last resort. You're supposed to run from the water and hide from the wind, but with these tornadoes, sometimes, you don't have a lot of warning.

BERMAN: You really don't and that's the thing, with this tornado, there were days of warning particularly about the storm surge in the West Coast in particular, was on high alert, but much of the peninsula had been told there could be damage.

I mean, how ready were you for this?

GILL: I think we were as ready as we could be. With tornadoes, you don't get that warning. You know, with hurricanes we can track and make predictions on storm surge and wind speeds, but we've seen some severe tornadoes just out of summer thunderstorms. They can spin out of nowhere and from Palm Beach County all the way up in any river county, that happened yesterday.

BERMAN: What is the most important thing for residents to know this morning? What do you want people in St. Lucie County to be doing?

GILL: Stay put, if you can. Now is not the time to go out and sightsee. There will be plenty of video and photo available for people to look on social media. Right now, we need to make sure that we are getting the roads cleared, we are getting the power restored, and helping residents get back to normal.

BERMAN: All right, Erick Gill, obviously, communications spokesman for St. Lucie County, confirming four deaths there. We are sorry for your loss and we know it will be a very busy day for you. Thank you so much for your time, sir.

GILL: Thank you.

BERMAN: Kate?

BOLDUAN: And John, you guys make a great point with Erick Gill there. You can -- you track a hurricane for days and days. You can't track when a tornado is going to pop up and that just happened. What happened to all those people in St. Lucie must have been terrifying last night. Just terrifying.

We are also looking here, these are live pictures from Clearwater, Florida, live water rescues happening there. As many as 18 people trapped in an apartment building due to this severe flooding.

Our live coverage of Hurricane Milton continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:29:03]

BOLDUAN: All right, everyone. Let's get back to our live coverage of Hurricane Milton and all of the damage that the hurricane has brought.

We have live water rescues that have been happening this morning and continue at this hour. You see this, this is in Clearwater. This is in Clearwater, Florida. This is on the West Coast of Florida and that is where we find on the West Coast of Florida, Boris Sanchez, who is standing by.

You lived through it, reporting on it all throughout the day and night for us, Boris and behind you is some of the evidence of just how strong Hurricane Milton was and the wins that it brought. SANCHEZ: Yes, absolutely. Some fearsome winds coming into Florida's Gulf Coast, Kate.

This is Tropicana Field, it is one of the centers of the community here in St. Petersburg. And as you can see behind me, the roof is in tatters. It has been completely shorn by the wind and that is notable in part because this is one of the bases of emergency operations in response to Hurricane Milton.

You had emergency personnel sheltering there. You had resources gathered there and you can see how impactful this hurricane was.

Something you may also be able to see behind me, is that there is a pretty decent amount of traffic for this hour especially after a storm. We were able to look in the immediate neighborhood of Tropicana Park and it seemed as though, at least in the immediate area, there wasn't much flooding, there wasn't much damage to structure.

So right now, it looks like the roof got the worst of it at Tropicana Park.

[08:30:39]