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Erin Burnett Outfront
Now: Helene Is "Extremely Dangerous Category 4 Hurricane"; Biden Revived Economy In Deep Red Georgia But Many Still Back Trump. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired September 26, 2024 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:39]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news unsurvivable. That is the exact word officials are using right now, as Hurricane Helene has now grown to an extremely dangerous category four hurricane, bringing with it potentially, really historic storm surge levels, right now expected at 20 feet.
Lets just look at the scene right now is a live camera that we have in Matlacha, Florida, trees right there right now, you've got up to 130 an hour gusts coming through that area on that bridge. We have seen cars coming and going really even in these past few moments, which is pretty stunning. Many bridges have already been closed.
This is the Skyway Bridge, as you're looking here, which is now completely submerged. Imagine being in one of those cars.
And right now, darkness is descending on the area, more than 200,000 people in the dark without power. Right now, there is a sheriff asking people who do not evacuate to write their name and date of birth on their arms or legs so they can be identified.
And that the storm is hitting on precedent and warm waters. And that's what's really like this high-octane jet fuel as they're calling it, with the storm intensifying and speeding up so rapidly right now, we do expect 60 million people across 12 U.S. states to feel the effects of Helene over these next hours and days it is now one of the largest storms to go to the Gulf of Mexico in the last century. This image is that storm from the International Space Station and of course, the larger the store in the more catastrophic the damage when you add up the wind and the flooding and the rain.
And we do have some new pictures from inside the storm as it's rapidly intensifying this from one of the hurricane hunter aircraft, as you can see in part of the viewfinder there.
And the Florida capital Tallahassee bracing for what they're calling a dead on hit. Tallahassee, in fact, this is an interesting thing, least in known history, has never faced sustained hurricane force wind and that, of course, has officials fearing complete destruction in this moment, thousands of trees could come down massive power outages just an absolutely chaotic and horrific scene possible in Tallahassee.
And there are new warnings tonight across all of the south. Tennessee, Georgia, the Carolinas, all right now preparing for life-threatening flash floods in Georgia, people being told to stay off the roads.
In Asheville, North Carolina, 100 miles inland, evacuations are already underway. They are being told that they will be seeing one of the most significant weather events to happen in the modern era.
We do have reporters across Florida tonight. Chad Myers also standing by with latest forecast as the storm is about to formally hit near Tallahassee.
I want to start with Derek Van Dam joining me now though from Apalachicola on the Florida panhandle.
And Hurricane Helene, Derek, heading your way, going to be arriving, as I said, the formal arrival soon. What are you seeing? What do you expect?
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, this area in particular is bracing for what could be the most powerful land falling hurricane in Big Bend history. And that's really saying something because I often refer to this as the catcher's mitt of hurricanes. If you just look at the topography, this thing is just primed for hurricanes, to just move in and it's so vulnerable as well.
I was trying to think of ways to encapsulate for our viewers the -- what we're experiencing here on the ground, the familiar sights, the familiar sounds. We're hearing this kind of a howl, almost a roar. Every once in a while, these worlds of wind come sweeping by associated with some of the heavier rain bands, we get pelted in the face with some of these stronger gusts and the rain bands that feel like almost like a power washer comes through. I walked out our front door and got instantly bombarded with a gust that almost took me off of my feet.
And then obviously, the flooding waters that are starting to pile up overtake the sewage systems and the drainage systems here. And then the familiar sights of the rocking trees and even though the signs that soon will be come, the potential for missiles as wins here could top 75 miles per hour quite easily. We have so many threats associated with this storm in Apalachicola, which were in Franklin County and you could see most people have heated the evacuation warnings. We've got empty streets, but still have power for now.
[19:05:02]
We're going to take advantage of that as we can. But we've had spin up tornadoes that have made their way on shore. We have the storm surge component to this storm that will make landfall just to our east, that catastrophic winds and hey, Erin, there are so many trees in and around this part of the Big Bend and into the Florida panhandle, and with the wind and the saturated ground, these things are going to topple over. It's going to take down power. It's going to take -- it's going to
land on cars and homes. This is going to be very difficult night and it doesn't stop here. We know that these hurricane force winds are going to extend far inland and that's really our greatest concern is just how impactful this will be for so many more people than just the coast.
We know it's strengthened. We know it continues to deepen and if we just look at some of the drone videos, that video that we sent up about an hour ago. There's just a marked difference in the conditions that we experienced only one hour ago from our drone operator and photojournalists here to what we're experiencing seeing now.
Skies have become dark. The wind has picked up and the conditions have gone downhill in deteriorated. So we think that will only multiply exponentially as this storm approaches the coastline where we are.
BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you very much, Derek. We're going to be checking in with you.
Of course, over these next moments when you talk about how quickly things are changing. And also, of course, all of this happening in darkness in the night. In terms of the time that the storm is striking.
Carlos Suarez is joining me now on the phone. He's been in Gulfport which is just a southwest of Tampa tonight.
And, Carlos, I want you to know, you've had to move locations because of flooding coming up and a very rapid deterioration that you were witnessing where you were before.
So what -- how fast how has it changed?
CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Erin, to kind of give you a sense of exactly where we were. We were in Pinellas County, as you mentioned, that for the southwest of the Tampa Bay area, in part, that we've been the last couple of years for a couple of other hurricanes because we knew that that area is a low-lying area.
We knew in the past to hurricanes that we've covered there, that that was an area that would flood. So, when we got here this morning, what was interesting is there was already flooding, right? And, of course, the storm at that time was way off the coast of Florida, is nowhere near southwest Florida, but we knew that some of the rain that had fallen overnight, along with some of the high tide, that this was going to be a little bit different than the previous storms that we've covered.
And then probably around 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon as that hurricane got a little bit closer to the north of southwest Florida from Fort Myers and Naples, and got just to the southwest of us, you really started to see those strong winds pick up. You started to see the rainfall and then all of a sudden in a matter of just I'd say maybe hour or to the water from the bay which has been slowly trickling over and breaching the seawall there. It just started to completely flood the area and we really had to move a few blocks to the north in order for us to be a little bit safer from where we were at the time.
And now we've made the decision to go ahead and pull back. We're trying to get somewhere safer within Pinellas County. And that because several of the bridges that connect Pinellas County to the south and Bradenton and Manatee County, as well as some of the bridges that connect out to the Hillsborough, which is Tampa -- in the Tampa Bay area? Those bridges have closed because the sustained winds at one point or another have reached 60 miles an hour.
And so, right now, we're in the process of just trying to find a safe place where we can join some of the CNN programming.
BURNETT: All right. Please stay safe and we will be checking in with you, Carlos, as you find another location there and hopefully are able to circle up with some others that are there. And that just shows exactly the difficulty of covering these storms to try to bring people exactly what is happening, but also to be able to move yourself. Again, this is a storm that has been labeled unsurvivable.
Chad Myers is OUTFRONT in the CNN Weather Center.
And, Chad, unsurvivable is the word that were being told so when exactly does the storm formally hit as far as you see it? And obviously from what were seeing on the images, what our reporters are experiencing on the ground, the concept of formally hitting is also with a storm, this large kind of hard to define.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is because it hits in a ramped up kind of way for this water. There's not going to be some 20 foot wave that comes over and, you know, into Steinhatchee, even though the numbers say there will be a surge of 15 to 20, that's not how it works, it just goes up six inches and then ten more minutes and other six inches, and it kind of creeps on you.
And that's why we have to get our reporters out of there before that creep gets too much. And then you can't move anywhere because you've already fallen back as far as you can.
[19:10:00]
So the winds right now are 130 miles per hour. We know that because the hurricane hunter aircraft are flying through it.
They're flying through it over waters that are about 85 degrees. The storm is still intensifying. It still could get to 135. It has six more hours before landfall, but between now and then, that's when this six-inch, one-foot, two-foot creep is going to be all the way through the Big Bend here.
And so yes, we're not really going to see that big wave of wall of water, but it's going to be an eventual push, push, push and then divided. And, you know, in Katrina, Bay St. Louis had a storm surge of about 34 to 36 feet. So this happens, this happens when you have a catcher's mitt like this or Bay St. Louis like this because there's no place for that water to go, right? It just has to go inland. And the inland goes up. And so the water goes up.
The insurvivable part of it was that, you know, if you're standing on the ground and you're six feet tall and the water is 14 feet over your head. I mean, that's -- that's where that number, that's where that word came from, right?
BURNETT: Yeah.
MYERS: So that's just the case. We are seeing those so much rainfall. There's rain like you said, in Asheville, where flood warnings are going on hundreds of miles away from where this storm will be making landfall and then were going to see, because of a front and because of the moisture from Helene, almost 20 inches of rain in that little town.
BURNETT: I mean, it's unbelievable.
MYERS: Really, it's incredible.
BURNETT: It's something that these -- no place can withstand in such a short period of time.
So, Chad, you know, we hear about the largest storm in modern time. You hear about the first direct hit on Tallahassee in that anybody knows of ever occurring. You hear about an unsurvivable storm. How bad do you think it will get?
MYERS: I think nearly 100 percent of Tallahassee will be without power. I really do. I don't think -- because of the way the live oaks are structured in the taller oaks are there and the pines are there, they're going to come crashing down because they have all these weak spots that haven't been tested.
BURNETT: Yeah.
MYERS: It's the weak link. It isn't the whole tree even, but it's that one branch that comes down and hits the power line. And all of a sudden, you spark and lose thousand people and then spark and lose another thousand people.
What I did today, and I know there's so many other things. Charge your phone. What I did today, I loaded my freezer with bottles of water because if my power goes out, even here in Georgia, I can use that frozen water, shove it in the refrigerator and hopefully keep my fridge cool for at least a couple of extra hours.
Do that now, do those things while you still have power, you got to think about them, but there are still things you can do to help yourself out.
If you're going to close your garage door and you're going to have wind to 80, make sure there's nothing that can push that garage door into the garage, push something up there. It could be your car. You know, don't try to get the car scratched, but that whole thing pushes and then you lose your house because you lost your garage door.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Chad, thank you very much. And well be checking in with chad here as we get these updates are coming out from the weather center from NOAA.
Thank you, chad and lets go now to the mayor of Tallahassee, John Dailey.
And, Mayor, I appreciate your time.
Chad was just saying he expects nearly 100 percent of Tallahassee to lose power, which in and of itself would be a catastrophic life- threatening event in a storm officials have dubbed unsurvivable. First, they say dead hit on Tallahassee, expected in known history. How bad do you think this will be, Mayor?
JOHN DAILEY, TALLAHASSEE MAYOR: Well, no doubt if we have a direct hit with a category four hurricane, it will be the most powerful storm ever to hit the city of Tallahassee in written history. That is undisputable. Now, having said that though, we have prepared and we are prepared.
For the past week, the city has an institution have been working with the White House, with the governor's office, with the county, with the school board to make sure that we have the necessary assets here. We have them spread out all over the county. We have our personnel in place as well.
We've called in our mutual aid agreements from all over the United States, nine states far away as Oklahoma City. They're sending electric and utility crews to help us out.
So we have tripled our workforce prior to the storm. We expect to increase our workforce to five times the normal workforce after the storm recovery. So, the residents of Tallahassee have been preparing all week as well. We are a college town these did a great job with evacuating the students. Now's the time to see what Mother Nature is going to bring us.
BURNETT: Mayor, I understand the evacuation order in Leon County was to residents living in mobile and manufactured home. So it was specifically to them because Tallahassee is 45 to 50 feet above sea level obviously, the storm surge that we've been told as 20 feet, are you confident in the storm track and in the science behind that decision to only evacuate by mandate, those individuals?
[19:15:00]
DAILEY: I do. Tallahassee is about 30 miles inland, so while my thoughts and prayers are with our neighboring communities on the coast with the storm surge that they will experience, our greatest concern is obviously the wind effect, and also the rain effect. Talking about rain, we are above average with our normal rainfall. The ground is saturated, more rain comes, is going to loosen the trees. As you know, Tallahassee is internationally known for our beauty in our live oak trees and that helps bring trees down.
But when you have category four sustained winds, yes, you're going to have significant damage to the electrical grid two structures here in town, and it's important that we speak the truth to the residence we must take this extremely serious.
Now, again, having said that, we are the number one public utility in the nation. We've called in our friends to help us out.
BURNETT: Yes.
DAILEY: We will be ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work.
BURNETT: Right. Well, Mayor Dailey, I appreciate your time. And I'm sure your residents appreciate your attitude about all of this as well. Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate it.
And I want to go now straight to St. Marks, which is just south of Tallahassee. That's where veteran storm chaser Mike Boylan is. He has been intent of the biggest name storms and many others. And he runs the popular Mike's Weather Page, which is a hurricane tracking website.
So, Mike, thank you very much. I appreciate your time.
So the storm here that as we understand it from where you're standing south of Tallahassee, what do you expect to happen there when you hear the mayor talking about well, they feel like they're a little bit inland and therefore that 20 feet of storm surge doesn't directly come to Tallahassee.
MIKE BOYLAN, STORM CHASER, MIKE'S WEATHER PAGE: Yeah, I'm going to really beautiful little town here, talked to a bunch of the locals that live here. Really community feeling, location and they're all kind of kind of cautiously scared. Nobody's ever seen this storm surge prediction in this area. So there's definitely a lot of tension where I'm at, and they're calling for 20-foot of surge in the storm striping. And as you guys have mentioned.
So I just can't, imagine 20 feet of storm surge you know, looking at some of these buildings around here, what that what that could possibly look like.
BURNETT: Mike, are you worried that people who should have left have not?
BOYLAN: A hundred percent. I was talking to local sheriff and they are concerned. There's some locals that are kind of stubborn a little bit and they haven't evacuated and I know Taylor County had a pretty bold statement on X. I read them. There are concerns with locals that you know, don't take this serious. I mean, I know living in Florida my whole life Floridians get these
storms. They don't believe him. They think they're going to turn, they think its hype. But this one is not hype folks. I mean, were talking at strengthening system at landfall and it is huge.
I mean, people compare Charlie to Ian, and that was her decision to stay because they, you know, Charlie was a tiny little storm. This thing is so big, it's going to be pushing so much water and I think a lot of folks are going to be caught off guard.
BURNETT: Well, I mean, that I think is frightening for anybody listening given what they've said about it being unsurvivable, if you are near that storm surge. I know Mike that you've been around Florida today. We've got some of the video that you filmed at memorial park. That's in Jacksonville. And you also shared what you saw in Tampa Bay near Safety Harbor, and then you also took pictures of trees already down in Oldsmar, Florida.
Now, back to what I mentioned before, you're one of the people who really understands what a storm can be because you directly been in the path of ten of the biggest storms. So when you look at what you saw already today hours before, we're still seven hours away before what will be called a formal landfall. What does it all signal to you?
BOYLAN: Well the sheer size and the effects outside of that cone. So, you know, a lot of folks still focusing on that speck cone is the impact area. And this is impacting people all the way Atlanta, Georgia, is going to have hurricane force winds.
So I think its just showing you the power of the Gulf of Mexico. We've been talking all season about the water temperature has been very warm and it's proving powerful. Storm is going to have far-reaching effect.
And, you know, we don't get a lot of these cat-4s and who knows that its going to go even higher in size is what scares, you know, Ian was a four, we saw what that did.
And another thing that I'm concerned about is everybody so focused on this center line eye. But this system is so big, you know, Ian, we had hurricane winds 80 miles apart. So there's a lot of folks effective, even if Tallahassee gets a little the city goes a little bit to the east.
But as the mayor said, it's tough. They've never for screenings here in I think they're going to be a lot of power problems and trees down. It's going to be a mess.
BURNETT: So what are you seeing right now in terms of the water levels as they are starting to move?
BOYLAN: Yeah.
[19:20:00]
Definitely, definitely. Definitely seeing waters were up you can kind of see it. It's creeping up. And that's what -- that's what problem with surge it comes in so fast
usually with these winds, and that's what people had caught off guard. Like its nothing. You know, and then ill set it comes in sometimes so quick. And then you like a little towns like this here at St. Marks is one way in, one way out.
And if your one way out is covered with water, you're basically trapped. And that's why it's so important to get the heck out because there's no other way to go. And if the rainfall, it's an earth story, I'm concerned about it, we've been seeing record rains in Florida and that's been happening this whole summer. And we're going to get accumulated rains here through the night.
You talk about 20 inches possibly, you know. So that's going to be another story that we're going to see. And Tallahassee is very roly- poly and there's going to be a lot of flooding on top of trees down. It's -- it's not going to be pretty.
BURNETT: It's another two feet on top of that, the 20 foot storm surge that'll be saying on the coast..
All right. Mike, thank you very much. And we will be coming back to you.
I want to go straight now to Michael Yoshida, who is OUTFRONT in Steinhatchee, Florida.
And, Michael, what are you seeing right now?
MICHAEL YOSHIDA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Erin, at this point, you can see the wind, the rain starting to pick up as Helene makes its way towards Florida. You mentioned were here in Steinhatchee for some perspective, right on the Steinhatchee River just beyond the point behind me that's where you end today and then the gulf, and that's why for this community, and those in Taylor County, there's that concern of that storm surge, that 20-foot potential.
To put some of that in perspective for you, the owner of the marina here, I was speaking with him earlier today and he said during previous storms, floating docks like this one, when they get that surge, he's seen it raised these docks up with the water well above this metal pole you see here, and then they just start floating away.
So that's been a concern all along those high waters combined with those strong winds bringing down some of the trees we have in this area with those power lines is why we've seen the sheriffs office put out those words of a mandatory evacuation over the last few days. And why even earlier today as you guys have been talking about, they had that message about if you decided to stay, if you didn't evacuate, taking that permanent marker, writing your name, your date of birth, other information on your arm or leg, very sobering message about just how dangerous this storm can be in this part of Florida when it hits.
BURNETT: I mean incredibly sobering just to imagine that with a sharpie. Have you seen, Michael, you know, people still leaving? Do you have a sense of who is still around? And again, just talking about how power is obviously going to be -- start to be lost. And this is happening as darkness falls.
I'm wondering, you know, how visibility as even right now?
YOSHIDA: So, we've been here for a couple of days now. I can tell you the first day we were talking to people, even further inland here in Taylor County who seem to be getting the message. They had a sense this storm had the potential to be different even though they had written now previous storms.
Here along the coast, it could tell you we first arrived, we saw people loading up trailers to take away some of their items to go further inland, today, not a lot of activity, honestly. We've seen Florida highway patrol, sheriff's deputies making the rounds, continuing to knock on doors of those who may have chosen to say, but at this hour especially again the sun going down, not a lot of people out and about thankfully. So hopefully most people took the warnings and got out of here.
BURNETT: I hope so, Michael, thank you very much.
And let's go to John Berman. He is in Tallahassee, the city that's getting a direct hit tonight. As we anticipate a likely in the next several hours here, John, what are you seeing in Tallahassee?
JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. We -- just a few minutes ago, was pouring just a deluge where I'm standing right now. You can see the rain coming up from the bricks, that's died down.
But we are now getting a pretty steady wind here. The winds are starting to pick up. It's all moving in pretty slowly, but over the next few hours, it will get serious.
You know, Erin, as you've been pointing out, Tallahassee, the capital of Florida population, some 200,000, it's never had a direct hit with sustained hurricane force winds. If this storm makes landfall about 25 miles south of where we are on the coast as a category 4, 30 miles per hour, winds could still be 110 miles per hour when they pass right over this city and that could just be a huge, huge problem.
The county commissioner told me a little while ago, they expect thousands of trees to come down, thousands. They expect hundreds of road closures here. But hurricane Michael hit a few years ago. And that wasn't anywhere near Tallahassee. That was over in Panama City.
BURNETT: Right.
BERMAN: It knocked out power for a week for 90 percent of this city, a direct hit in Tallahassee. They're concerned it could cause major problems with the power.
They say they're prepared, but there is concern as you've been talking about, they don't know what to prepare for because they've just never seen something like this in this city, Erin.
[19:25:04] BURNETT: No, I mean, that is that unprecedented nature, whether people then do what you told them or because it hasn't happened before, say, I'll be fine, ride it out. We just -- we just don't know and we're not going to know for quite awhile here what the situation really is for what people chose to do.
John, thank you very much.
And on our breaking news coverage continues here. We're going to talk to a boat captain who's also a lifelong Floridian. Tonight, he has decided to ride out this hurricane on his houseboat. He's going to tell you what he's doing. You'll explain why.
And we are standing by for the latest update from the national hurricane center. We do expect that any moment, we're going to bring that to you just as soon as its released.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:30:05]
BURNETT: And the breaking news, we have to tell you that hurricane Helene is now formally a category four storm winds already 130 miles an hour.
It's still strengthening and it is still six to seven hours away from formally striking the Florida coast, even though images like this already seen across many parts of Florida. Bridges closed across the panhandle roads already flooded out, as the storm is still gaining strength. Officials are calling the storm surge, which could reach 20 feet unsurvivable.
I want to go to John Antapasis. He is the emergency management director. He is in Tampa tonight.
And, John, now, you're looking at a very dangerous category four. It is still intensifying and gaining power off the coast, 120 miles from Tampa, but we're already right now showing an image of a completely flooded highway that to many would look like its in the midst of a hurricane in Tampa.
So what do you anticipate happening here overnight?
JOHN ANTAPASIS, TAMPA EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR: Yeah, the impacts were anticipating are going to continue to increase over the last few hours the wind bands as they've come in its tropical storm- force winds, heavy rain and specifically the surge as that continues on.
And we're looking at that threat later into the night and early morning. So, obviously, we had our life the valet evacuation zone for those residents to get those areas, but those are our big threats that we're facing tonight. BURNETT: The image that we're seeing here on the screen is a bridge.
And obviously I know that there have been several bridges in the Tampa area already shut down because of the storm surge because I mean, this one this image is incredible, that there's people still driving through it and how terrible that must have been.
So what do you say now, John, to anybody who hasn't left, who's thinking about it? Do you try to leave or not?
ANTAPASIS: We're messaging into our residents, at this point, you have to hunker down where you are in shelter in place really shouldn't be out on the road at all or actually been a pedestrian and out in the streets trying to look at some of these images, be on your home, being a safe place. There's downed power lines already in the roads so you don't know if there live and potentially putting yourself in danger being out there.
BURNETT: So, in the storm surge in Tampa. I know five to eight feet. I obviously I know the max which could be in some areas could be 20 feet, but the county commissioner in Tampa has called the surge you expect there unprecedented.
So are you confident Tampa will be able to handle this, especially because, you know, Mike Boylan was just talking about this compared to other storms with this storm is simply not just a lot stronger, but also a lot bigger, and it's going to last a lot longer than storms people are used to.
ANTAPASIS: Yeah, this surge is going to be unprecedented for most going back to Hurricane Irma in 2017, Ian 2022, and Idalia, this is something going to be a little bit different than our residents have been used to. Still again, that level A evacuation zone that we called earlier before the storms impacts are occurring. That was to protect our residents to be safe, but we prepare for this starting June 1st, so were at the ready with our police officers, fire rescue, our electric company. We're ready to go in response to this, that whatever comes forward.
BURNETT: You know, I know that there's been severe flooding in Tampa in prior year, Shore Acres section that we saw in St. Petersburg, 80 percent of all the homes there were flooded during Idalia. That's what we understand. And you just mentioned that storm.
How worried should a place like Shore Acres who just went through this a year ago be?
ANTAPASIS: They are our residents and our low lying areas in Tampa and throughout Tampa Bay. We have been challenged with a lot of these severe weather events.
So again, all residents, you know, we heed them to be prepared for these types of events and we are in the height of the season and again, were expecting those impacts to be there. And again, our first responders are going to be there to save lives. And again, we will work to be protecting property throughout the night and early morning doing those damage assessments when the storm passes us. BURNETT: John, thank you very much. I know its going to be a long night with no sleep and hopefully a safe one. Thank you.
ANTAPASIS: Thank you.
BURNETT: And I do want to go now OUTFRONT to lifelong Floridian and boat captain Bobbie Witt. He is right now riding out the storm in Cedar Key, which is about 150 miles from Tallahassee.
And, Bobby, let me just you know, obviously were worried about you. I know you're about two hours from Tallahassee and its expecting a direct hit and unsurvivable hit. They say there, but you are on your houseboat. What made you decide to stay?
BOBBY WITT, RIDING OUT HURRICANE IN CEDAR KEY, FLORIDA (via telephone): Hello. Well, mostly, because that's what I've always done. I've always stayed on my boats all my life. And I just want to try to save my boat, saved my property here, and we'll see if it's the right choice or not.
BURNETT: Well, obviously, I hope we all hope anybody listen to your voice, hopes that that you will be okay. I know that you say you've done it before. It isn't the first time you've decided to stay, even when people had told you to evacuate, you've wrote written the storm out before.
I know we spoke to you during Idalia last year, and at the time you said that was the worst storm you'd ever encountered? That was an eight to nine foot of storm surge and I know here they're expecting up to 20.
Bobby, what is your biggest worry tonight?
WITT: Well, I mostly worried about the ropes breaking and, you know, and order the cleats pulling out of the deck or something catastrophic like that?
I believe the boat will stay together it always has and so I'm counting on everything being all right. It's -- the wind is here now. It is.
BURNETT: And you're already feeling that you got it fully anchor down.
WITT: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm in a very sheltered place, very, very sheltered little harbor here.
BURNETT: What are you seeing already when you talk about the winds?
WITT: Well, it's laying down the mangrove bushes. I mean, it's severe wind right now. So, I'm assuming it's going to pick up, but it's already there. It looks like hurricane force winds to me.
So, Bobby, you are a lifelong Floridian and as you've said, you've done this before, you have written out storms you know, I'm not far, I'm from the first one to tell you that officials are saying this one is unsurvivable in one of the sheriffs near your town actually asked people who don't evacuate to write their names on their arm or leg and their birth date for identification that if you stayed -- when they'd asked you to evacuate and you don't make it.
Are you doing that, Bobby?
WITT: No, ma'am. No. No, here in Cedar Key, it's such a small little town. Everybody knows everybody. So I don't think it would be concern but every -- everything is going to be all right for me because like I say, I have a very shelter little harbor here.
BURNETT: All right. Well, I hope so, Bobby, and I knew everyone watching hope so too. I appreciate your talking to us. And hopefully we'll be speaking to you soon and hearing that you're okay. Thank you.
WITT: All right. Thank you. Bye-bye.
BURNETT: Bye-bye.
And next, our breaking news continues. We're going to check in with the city manager of Panama City. They are expected to suffer a direct hit from what could be a category four storm. What already is a category four storm? Are they ready?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:41:47]
BURNETT: The breaking news, Hurricane Helene gaining storm, gaining steam right now, category four hurricane. We've gotten the formal upgrade and it is still getting stronger. The storm is so close to Tallahassee that the city's radar is picking up the storm's eye.
Let me go to Derek Van Dam who joins me now from Apalachicola, which is on the Florida panhandle.
Derek, I know you've able to find a spot here to talk to us. What exactly is happening there?
VAN DAM: Yeah. Conditions are deteriorating and quickly I'd like to say exponentially quick because just an hour-and-a-half ago, we sent the drone up. We were able to do that, get kind of before feel of what Franklin County, Apalachicola looked like when before the sun actually set this evening.
Now, we've got darkness cast over this area and we know that it's going to be an incredibly difficult night because now were feeling these real intense bands, every wants to, while they come through. And they just -- they hit in both at the site of our building, making those all too familiar sounds almost a roar -- almost like a roar of an oncoming train for instance, and we're feeling when the stronger wind gusts, some of the rain pelting the size of your face, almost like a power washer been slashed in front of you from just a few feet away.
Look, that's just not hyperbole. This storm is -- the bottom is literally dropping out on it, right? I mean, we know that it's intensifying. We know it's expanding.
And the threats here are so significant that we have had to remove ourselves from the ground floor and move up to a higher level because not only the storm surge but the ability to get into shelter at a moments notice as well because some of the more peak winds have started to reach this area, Erin.
And we know it's not just a coastal storm as this thing sweeps just to our east will be on that western side of major Hurricane Helene. And we anticipate deteriorating conditions since right through the midnight hour and into the early morning hours of Friday, the storm means business.
BURNETT: Certainly does. And, of course, now in a sense, slowing down and speeding up at the same time, getting more powerful and the actual formal hit time now could be into the early hours of Friday morning.
Derek, thank you very much. We'll be checking back in with you and as everyone can see, the deterioration just in the conditions around Derek in these past minutes since we spoke to him.
I want to go to Hillsborough County now, conditions also deteriorating significantly there. Winds right now for the storm from all ends spanning well over 400 miles from end to end.
And joining me now, the emergency management director, Timothy Dudley, Jr. of Hillsborough County, that includes Tampa.
So, Timothy, let me just ask you what you're seeing so far. Winds look incredibly strong. You've already had to close bridges. We had images of some of them.
What are you seeing so far, right now? And does it match with what you're expecting?
TIMOTHY DUDLEY JR., HILSBOROUGH COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR: Thank you for having us.
Absolutely. It's exactly what we're expecting and we work closely with the National Weather Service. They've been spot on. So we expected to see these impacts starting to roll in this evening. So we're going to see peak surge coming in between 7:00 p.m. at 4:00 a.m.
[19:45:02][
And as you've mentioned, we've got the major bridges that have closed down now.
So, that's certainly a time for our folks to start making sure that they are in a safe place. And the stopped moving around the county down to make sure that they heed the warnings that we've been pushing all day.
BURNETT: We know one area, Sheriff, it said, write your name on your arm or your leg with your birth date for identification. If you stay because its unsurvivable and there's a real fear that people who stay, some of them could die.
Your fire chief urge residents to evacuate today and he said, please don't put first responders at risk because you made an improper and poor decision.
Do they -- do you can you tell if people heeded that warning or do you any sense of how many people did not?
DUDLEY: So a lovely zone evacuation for us. It impacts over 100,000 folks here in Hillsborough County. So, we would hope that folks have heeded our warning and moved to a safe place. Right now, we have over 1,300 residents that are safe in chapter is that it includes pants and all are special needs residents.
So we are prepared for those who have not heeded the warning, but we have equipment position to respond either way.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Director Dudley, I appreciate your time and thank you very much at the beginning of a very long marathon of a night for you. Thank you.
DUDLEY: Thank you.
BURNETT: Jonathan Hayes is the city manager of Panama City in Florida's panhandle. He joins me now.
And, Jonathan, just heard Director Dudley talk about what he's seeing right now in Tampa, you're just west of the big bend area where the storm is expected to make landfall. So what is your biggest concern right now, was such a massive storm and of course being on western side.
JONATHAN HAYES, CITY MANAGER, PANAMA CITY, FL: Yes. Good evening, Erin. We are grateful to be on the west side of the storm and seemed to have dodged the bulk of what our neighbors in Florida to the east and all the way to Tampa are experiencing.
Our biggest -- our biggest concern is storm surge and then the rain that were expecting anywhere from five to eight inches in a short period of time. And as your reporter, just 50 miles to my east, just said an Apalachicola. It is now sun has set, it's dark and the situation is going to continue to deteriorate.
But again, we are very grateful. We actually have some of Iran police officers and fire department officials that are already kind of staging to our north. And they're going to be prepared to head east as soon as the storm passes to assist our fellow Floridians to the east, what are you prepared for though in terms of surge, which, you know, when they talk about and survivability, that specific -- I mean, it referred to a lot of things, but specifically it was in reference to the surge which I know at its peak there saying could be at least 20 feet.
BURNETT: Yes. So we won't -- we won't see that really on the west side of the storm over here, thankfully, because of that shift to the east here in the last half of the day but our crews over the last four days have been working very closely and to prepare, our city and working with officials at the county to be prepared for this. We gave out over 5,000 sandbags in 48 hours to Panama City residents and businesses.
We worked very hard to clean out as much as the ditches as possible. Lower all of our storm ponds or wastewater treatment plants in order to help absorb as much of this water as possible. As both the storm surge the rain comes through.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Jonathan, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much.
HAYES: Absolutely. Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. And thank you.
And we are continuing to follow the breaking news as Hurricane Helene is now already having massive effects across the state of Florida.
And our special series "Show Me the Money". Tonight, we take you to a community where there has been a resurgence of jobs because of the Biden-Harris administration. So, are people there voting for Harris or not?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:52:20]
BURNETT: Breaking news, Hurricane Helene rapidly intensifying at this moment, formerly a category four extremely dangerous winds strengthening right now.
I want to go to Carlos Suarez. He is OUTFRONT live in St. Petersburg getting hammered right now by Helene.
Carlos, I can see those trees behind you. What does it feel like right now?
SUAREZ: Well, Erin, when I joined you at the top of the hour, we were trying to make our way from Pinellas County, which is south east of where we are we were trying to make her way over to the Tampa area because the flooding really was too dangerous for where we were in Gulfport.
However, when we got to the one bridge that we thought might still be open, law enforcement. There had had closed it. And so at this point, if you're in Pinellas County, which is home to Clearwater and St. Petersburg, as well as Gulfport. You really can not crossover into the Tampa area and you can also not go south into Bradenton.
And so what we've done is we've now set up here in St. Pete, where in driving around trying to find their location to go live. And you can see that that storm surge is still pushing its way in. Our meteorologists are telling us that considering where the numbers are right now, were still looking at another four feet of storm surge. That was really the problem that forced us to leave where we were in Gulfport because as soon as some of that severe weather moved in, as soon as the hurricane was out, just to the west of us, the water just kept pushing in at a really fast rate of speed.
And it was coming to the point that it just wasn't safe for us to not only be where we were, but our equipment, our cars, we had to push back a couple of blocks where we felt it was safe enough, but then our meteorologists let us know, look, you're still in the thick of things, even as this storm continues its path north, and its not going to hit Pinellas County directly. It's going to be a well off shore, well over 100 miles to the west of us.
You are still going to see all of that wind. You're still going to see all of that rain and more importantly, you're still going to see those forecasts four feet of storm surge, and then come around midnight 1:00 in the morning. That's when high tide kicks in here. So you're going to have all of these ingredients coming together at the same time. And thats why all of this water right now is flooding a good part of Pinellas County -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right.
Carlos, thank you very much.
And, obviously, going to be a very long night glad you're safe where you are right now, but we can already hear even from the audio that he was dealing with, you -- you feel that storm in these final hours. And we're going to continue to follow Hurricane Helene over these next moments.
I do also, though, want to bring you our final installment of our "Show Me the Money" series about Americas economy, where Phil Mattingly night has traveled to a staunchly Republican county in the battleground state of Georgia.
[19:55:03]
This is a staunched Republican county where the economy is booming, thanks to Biden-Harris policies. Are voters there though convinced Harris will be the best president? Or are they going the other way?
Phil is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: This is the face of a new era in American manufacturing, tucked in the corner of northwest Georgia.
LISA NASH, QCELLS DALTON PLANT GENERAL MANAGER: When I came here, there was dirt, there was no building. I was the first person hired.
MATTINGLY: Could you have envisioned this?
NASH: No.
MATTINGLY: As we walked through a factory floor that produces 32,000 solar panels a day, Lisa Nash sees a success story, not just for her company for the entire community.
NASH: The population is growing. They're buying houses shopping, eating out. They're contributing back into the local communities.
MATTINGLY: Paying taxes.
NASH: Paying taxes.
MATTINGLY: Yeah.
NASH: So all of that investment can be invested back into infrastructure.
I want to show you that a whole machine over here. We talked about robots earlier. This one reminds me of Bumblebee.
MATTINGLY: That's exactly what I was thinking.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTINGLY: It's a story made possible by billions from the Biden- Harris administration, one Vice President Kamala Harris made a point of highlighting with a visit to the plant last year.
Kimberly Richardson embodies a new generation manufacturing jobs created here.
KIMBERLY RICHARDSON, QCELLS ASSISTANT MANAGER FOR RECYCLING: So I'm in charge of recycling here at the company.
MATTINGLY: QCells executives to introduce their VIP visitor. She sees a deeper meaning to Harris's candidacy.
RICHARDSON: She set the tune for every woman in the United States, every little girl to say, I can do this.
MATTINGLY: But while Georgia may be a hotly contested battleground state --
KASEY CARPENTER, GEORGIA STATE HOUSE: She wasn't well-received in north Georgia.
MATTINGLY: This is Trump country.
CARPENTER: The independents that we keep up here is that independence and outsider that he's really struck a chord with.
MATTINGLY: Republican State House Representative Kasey Carpenter isn't as sold on Trump as his constituents.
CARPENTER: We're in a world where we get to candidates, but we have 27 boxes of cereal on the shelf.
MATTINGLY: But for voters here, the debate on the economy comes down to one thing.
CARPENTER: That inflation is such a big issue for our community.
MATTINGLY: The paradox playing out in the midst of a dramatic comeback because the largest factory of its kind in the western hemisphere sits in what has long been known as the carpet capital of the world.
CARPENTER: It was a bloodbath for us here.
MATTINGLY: An area decimated by the 2008 financial crisis. Now the picture of what was once aspirational.
NASH: If you look around in the factory, you're going to see a broad age band. We have a 65 father, his son, and his daughter worked here.
MATTINGLY: And growing, with a new plan already under construction, 50 miles down I-75, where we found this packed Saturday scene, and the states number one ranked farmers market two years running, something that may seem out of place and a 75 percent Trump county.
But part of an approach that lured QCells here.
It was really tough to find your political affiliation outline.
MAYOR MATT SANTINI, CARTERSVILLE, GA: Because my job as a local government, we're not -- we're not partisan. Yeah, I certainly have my political views, but the bottom line is, is when you're a local government, your job is to serve the community.
MATTINGLY: This is Kasey Carpenter's day job.
(CROSSTALK)
CARPENTER: Yeah. I'm really literally -- I wash -- I fry chicken on Monday, and Saturdays, I'm washing the dishes.
MATTINGLY: A longstanding hub in a proud community.
CARPENTER: It's blue collar, man. We're all workers.
MATTINGLY: Still skeptical of their cutting-edge role in the green energy transition.
CARPENTER: We're growing the green energy that they don't necessarily care that much about.
MATTINGLY: Right.
CARPENTER: I don't think they realized that if start -- if the whole thing is repealed, it will affect those 2,500 jobs down on the south end of the county.
MATTINGLY: A reality that's impossible to ignore.
What do you think about the future?
NASH: You want to ask me that in November? MATTINGLY: Even as the future looks bright.
NASH: No, I --
MATTINGLY: Why do you say that?
NASH: I'm optimistic because we're just scratching the surface.
MATTTINGLY: Transforming a one industry town no more.
Are you adding solar capital of the world on the sign?
CARPENTER: No, we should.
MATTINGLY: You should, right?
CARPENTER: We got to wait and see what happened. The story still remains.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: It's an incredible county and such incredible story. And then you think about how people, yet how people are voting. I mean, that may surprise some. But you have been now to several states. You've talked to so many interesting characters and there's been so many counterintuitive takes between the reality and their vote both ways. What stood out to you the most?
MATTINGLY: One thing I think people forget about too often is everyone we talked to every income quartile wherever they're from, is going through a coming out of a profoundly disruptive and traumatic time in the pandemic, a lot of people mentioned it not a top, but they eventually got there. That's one thing.
The second is something that one so people we talked to in Saginaw said to me, it keeps riling around in my brain. The question is do they care about me? That sounds simplistic. It's also very profound and the answer is going to determine who wins in November.
BURNETT: I think there is a loneliness epidemic. There's a lot is crucial question for all of us.
Phil, thank you very much.
And thanks so much to all of you. Our breaking news coverage continues now with "AC360".
