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Erin Burnett Outfront

Now: Monster Hurricane Milton Making Landfall In Florida. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired October 09, 2024 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:28]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett and welcome to a special edition of OUTFRONT.

The breaking news tonight, closing in. Hurricane Milton, the biggest storm of the century, could make landfall within the hour. Live images from St. Petersburg on your screen right now. You see our Bill Weir there in that picture. He'll be with us in a moment.

Hurricane Milton now on a much faster track toward land, expected to hit Florida with 150 mile an hour wind gusts and a destructive storm surge. Conditions deteriorating by the minute. Officials now saying it is no longer safe to be outside. And let's show you what it looks like on the roads already flooded.

Right now, the monster storm, one of the most powerful on records still growing after nearly doubling in size in just 24 hours, absolutely, incredible. And we have new satellite images here on your screen, the lightning strikes from a storm that officials warn change the the coastline of Florida forever.

And right now, tropical storm winds now stretch more than 300 miles from that eye. And let's just show you some of the pictures of what it looks like about 40 miles from the eye in the gulf. Some of these waves is just taken by a drone. But again, 40 miles from the eye, 30 foot waves.

And as you can see from these pictures in Naples, these are live images, Milton already pushing a massive storm surge on shore, forecasters say could get as high as 13 feet in places on top of high tide, historic for Tampa Bay, plunging entire neighborhoods and districts under water and changing Florida's coastline forever.

Right now, making things worse, the storm is creating a number of destructive tornadoes, a record 100 warnings posted already today, we've got new video in of just one of them, just to see the sheer size of that, and then already 100 of those warnings around that eye already, around -- on land already a major concern tonight. The millions along Florida's is the debris not just from those tornadoes and the winds now, but Hurricane Helene 13 days ago, concrete chunks, cars, mattresses everywhere, now just lying around, becoming a deadly missile picked up by Milton's winds. We have a team up and down the coast here. I want to start with

Anderson Cooper, who is OUTFRONT live in Bradenton, Florida.

And, Anderson, you know, what is the latest that you're seeing where you are right now?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Well, conditions are definitely getting worse. We've been seeing a lot of heavy rain, obviously, a lot of wins for several hours now. The storm is going to be coming from that, from the west, from that direction. Tampa is north in that direction.

So Bradenton is south of Tampa, and we're north of Sarasota, about 13 miles or so. We expect the eye to make landfall in to pass over Bradenton. I'm not exactly sure where it's going to be making land and fall, but we're on the Manatee River.

This is the river walk, it's completely deserted. We haven't seen a lot of people as you sometimes seeing hurricanes out trying to get photographs to things like that. This place has been pretty deserted now for many hours. People have taken this very, very seriously here.

The river is definitely -- I mean, there's whitecaps on the river. The water is lapping over onto -- onto the river walk. One of the problems, Erin, is to the rain has just been pouring down. So this ground is already saturated with inches of rain now, for hours, there's rain literally running down the street here going into the river, just walking to this location through grass -- I mean, usually your heat sink in the grass, the bridges have been closed, a number of shelters have been set up.

Officials here are just hoping for the best they have warned people. They've tried to impress on people the importance of getting out, getting to safety. But at this point, obviously the storm is here and there's nothing more that people can do. They've just got to stay where they are and just try to ride this out, Erin.

BURNETT: So, Anderson, you know, you're talking about how you are. There's no one there on that -- on that walk us. Sometimes there might be and many people seem to have heated the evacuation warnings.

Behind you in the distance, I did still see some lights and I know powers already started to go out over these next hours. All of that likely to completely descend into darkness, right? I mean, you know, just with them with all of this incredible loss.

COOPER: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, one of the things as you know, from covering her hurricanes is it is very common in the midst of a hurricane to start to see flashes of blue light which has transformers -- transformer stations exploding its a very eerie thing to witness.

There is still electricity that you see across the location where we're staying, a hotel that they still have electricity.

[19:05:04] They still have Wi-Fi. They are confident -- they have their own generator, they're confident that the power may stay on. But already, the Wi-Fi has been flickering on and off. The televisions that were on in that hotel, they have they have shut down. You can no longer access information from television, which is obviously for people who are staying in their homes, it just makes it all the more scary when you can't get, you know, immediate information if your Wi-Fi is out, if your TV isn't working.

But there's a lot of people who have gone to shelters, a number of shelters have opened here and we'll see what happens in the coming hours.

BURNETT: All right. Anderson, we're going to be checking in with you.

And, of course, Anderson will be there throughout the night, but such an important point, people rely on this instantaneous information, their phones, their Wi-Fi, that has changed in these past 10, 15 years. And now, people truly descended into being alone and how afraid that can make you.

Bill Weir is OUTFRONT in St. Petersburg.

So, Bill, what are you seeing where you are right now? Obviously can see just these massive waves coming ashore behind you already.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, just about an hour ago, we were marveling when the first wave breached, whoa, this deck that we're standing on, were nearing you know, a little rum bar here on the St. Pete here, out in the distance. I know if you could see that eerie lights, that's another restaurant, the power is still on, but as you can see, the waves just kidding higher and higher. It seems by the minute, this will probably be our last live shot in this location.

Storm surge here, if it gets up to the predicted, I don't know 10, 12 feet could be a huge problem for downtown St. Petersburg and especially for all the folks who are still reeling after Hurricane Helene, who came through here less than two weeks ago and in addition to the tornados you talked about, that's why this storm scientists are warning about these multiple -- these threats multipliers, (INAUDIBLE).

So quickly after the other it's so hard for people to brace even in a good day after coming out of something like that. And then with these tornadoes, there's never a good time to lose a hostile tornado, but the absolute worst time just, hours before a hurricane like this one makes landfall.

Now, years ago, hurricane Charlie, they studied it, disaster managers and less than half of the people cool within the a category one to three evacuation zones didn't evacuate at all. So much of this storm is going to come down to how many people heeded the advice of officials, Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Bill, thank you very much. And please go get somewhere safe there as those waves are coming out.

I want to go to Brian Todd in Tampa.

Brian, I know things are deteriorating where you are right now.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Erin, deteriorating is putting it mildly. We just got slammed with some of the strongest wind gusts that we've experienced, getting another one right now.

You know, when these winds and the rain starts to hit you horizontally, that you're really in for it. There's a chance I might have to go and grab onto this light pole in a second here just to kind of get my bearings. But what I can show you is that the water is starting to kind of build up here on Bayshore Boulevard along Tampa Bay.

The good question tonight is, is this storm surge and it's getting stronger now. He is going to push the water up from Tampa Bay and start to flood these areas here. Now the storm surge is now not predictably to be quite as strong as they thought it would be for here in Tampa.

However, the rain and the wind are going to be huge issues here. This could get up to 12 inches of rainfall well, that means that drains are going to overflow, that canals are going to overflow. Sewers are going to overflow. We've already seen this here on Bayshore and another huge problem here.

As we've been talking about this all day (AUDIO GAP) mayor of Tampa told us that the contractor that was supposed to pick up all the debris from Hurricane Helene never showed up.

So, with kicking up in on this deal and it's really getting stronger where we are, that debris flying around is going to be a huge hazard doing a live shot like this, even in the dark, you know, I find myself, you've got to kind of look around and make sure --

(VIDEO GAP)

BURNETT: Looks like Brian --

TODD: It's all right. Go ahead, Erin.

BURNETT: No, your shot obviously was taking a couple of hits there, Brian, just because obviously with the winds and everything that you're experiencing, you and your team.

You know, as those winds come through, can you just tell us what its like? I mean, you're out there. Obviously, you have a photojournalist out there. You know, what exactly is it like when those when you get hit with a gust?

TODD: Well, the first thing you do is you try to look around to see if there's like a light post around you or maybe a stop sign like that one that you can grab onto, when you toss to me a few minutes ago, I thought it might have to grab onto something yeah, because we were getting hit by some of the strongest wind gusts that we've gotten hit by all day long.

That's an issue, of course, for first responders, too, Erin, because what were told by officials is once the wind gets 45 miles -- longer, go out and take 911 calls and respond. We're about at that point now, I think, it might be the point of no return. So if you're out there and you're crisis and called 911, what --

(VIDEO GAP)

BURNETT: All right. We're going to -- we're going to let Brian go there, obviously been asked to move as well to just to try to, you know, they[re trying to give you this shot to understand what's really happening. So everyone can understand what's happening, but also as Brian said, just to try to be safe here.

Elissa Raffa is with me now.

And, Elissa, you know, when you look at what's happening to Brian, you look at what's happening to Bill Weir, Anderson, all of them there starting to really -- you see these waves, coming up, one knocking bill the wind there. What is -- when, when, when mountains going to make landfall, obviously, that -- that could happen here in these next moments and hour, what does that going to look like?

ELISSA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, the eyewall, pieces of the eyewall is coming on shore, right now. That's why their shots look like that. You see this box here. This is the extreme wind warning. It's a very rare warning for extreme winds, up to 115 miles per hour or greater.

This is for the tough part of the eyewall includes St. Petersburg and includes Tampa. It includes Bradenton. When you have this extreme wind warning, you need to treat it like a tornado warning, getting into an interior room, away from windows, in a basement because those wins will just be so vicious.

And you can see the look here on the radar where we've got this piece of the eye. that came through Sarasota, up to Bradenton, and then swinging through some of that Tampa Bay area, the wind gusts -- we've already seen wind gusts above 77 miles per hour on parts of Venice and Sarasota, as well as St. Petersburg right now, gusting to 66 miles per hour, Tampa wins getting over 40 miles per hour.

So, again, the winds picking up because we have the corps that is the most dangerous park. This is also -- it's going to pack the biggest surge that's coming on shore, pretty much as we speak.

It is still a category three hurricane with 120 mile per hour winds. And again, its sitting that eye, I that center of the eye is just swirling onshore right now. We are looking at these 110 mile-per-hour winds in this purple here. And hurricane force winds will extend through the entire peninsula.

So that's why we're worried about these widespread power outages, because this won't just be a west coast problem. This will stretch even to the east side of the state. The winds that what you're seeing right now and all of those live shots, again, that's the pieces of the eyewall coming on sure.

And that's what's going to drag in the nine to 13 feet of storm surge from Sarasota to Venice. That's what's going to take the biggest push of the ocean. We're looking at six to nine feet up in the St. Petersburg and Tampa Bay area -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Elisa, thank you very much. And we're going to get back to you here.

As Elisa is saying, portions that eyewall now coming on shore in Florida, in these moments.

Let's go to the mayor of St. Petersburg, Ken Welch.

Mayor, we just saw our Bill Weir out on your peer just a few moments ago when those waves gusting over the edge, and Elisa reporting that that eyewall now portions of it are already at this moment now, striking the coast of Florida.

So what are you expecting over these next few hours?

MAYOR KEN WELCH, ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA: So we're expecting extreme winds. For us, it won't be as much as a surge event if it stays on the same track but these are catastrophic winds that we haven't experienced in the eye of this storm and we are thankful that we think most of the folks in our evacuation areas responded to that. We've got a high census in our shelters, and, of course, a lot of folks who are on our interstates and highways over the last day or so exiting.

So we think people heeded the call and now we just have to hunker down or the next several hours and get through this wind event.

BURNETT: And I know your emergency responders, you have to take care of them. They have to stay safe and alive. I know you've paused all emergency operations, but that's not something you do lightly.

WELCH: Right.

BURNETT: And we talk about an eyewall starting, you know, pieces coming on shore. We see these images to give people a sense of just how dire it is.

Mayor, what do you say to anybody who has not yet evacuated? What should they do right now if they're there?

WELCH: So, if you haven't evacuated by now, you just need to find a safe place where you are and try to protect yourself. For the last two days, we've been asking folks if you are in those evac areas, please evacuate to a safe place. We've got plenty of shelter room, transportation, no excuse, no reason for someone to stay in an evacuation zone.

We think most folks have heeded that call and I think particularly because just, you know, two weeks ago, we had Hurricane Helene and we lost 11 or 12 lives in St. Pete in Pinellas County, all in evacuation areas. So I think folks saw what happened and understand how important it is.

We don't have to lose a life if folks just follow the instructions.

BURNETT: No. Brian Todd was just reporting a moment ago about, you know, in the area that he was in, that there had been a contractor that was supposed to pick up some of the major -- major pieces of debris from Hurricane Helene, you know, mattresses, chunks of concrete, I mean, massive stuff. It doesn't even have to be a chunk of concrete to be a missile in a situation like you're in right now, could be something light, but you have all of that, that contractor in that particular case actually didn't even pick that up.

[19:15:04]

But even if they had right, you are looking at months of pickup from Helene. It's all now out there. It's going to get blown around. How worried are you about that?

WELCH: Well, we're concerned about it. Those will become projectiles what we think though is that because most of that debris is in areas that have been evacuated, have a mandatory evacuations, we shouldn't see a loss of life or injuries from that debris.

Those folks -- those areas should be empty because they are evac areas, but again, you had six months of debris from Helene that we couldn't clean that up in six days. I think you saw that across Tampa Bay, so we did the best that we could. But if folks evacuated, we should avoid any -- any harm from that to get two human beings.

BURNETT: All right. Mayor, I appreciate your time. I know it's going to be a very long and worrisome night of for you. So, thank you very much for being with us.

WELCH: Thank you.

BURNETT: And you're in St. Petersburg.

Let's go to veteran storm chaser Mike Boylan. He is there, runs the Mike's Weather Page, which is a very popular hurricane tracking website.

Mike, you know, you're regular on this show, you and I talk a lot and you're from Tampa. So this -- this is home for you. So this is not just work, this is also emotionally difficult for you I know tonight, and you're working.

Your family, you evacuated them, but you are right now doing your job. What does it feel like where you are right now?

MIKE BOYLAN, STORM CHASER: Well, we're in St. Petersburg. This spot that we're at, we actually vote and we have a lot of memories here and I've never seen waves crashing the seawall like I am right now.

So it's incredible to see power this, these winds and waves coming from Tampa , you know, east to west in the eye is still hours away. It's scary. You know, there's an emotional aspect, like you said, not knowing what you're going to wake up tomorrow and all your memories of this area and a lot of people evacuate. And, you know, it's -- when it's your home, it's different, you know, because you grew up here and you see things your favorite restaurants and where you might have went with as a kid, might not be the same tomorrow.

BURNETT: Yeah. They said that were hearing now that the coastline could forever be changed no one knows exactly how dramatic that actually might be. Portions of that eyewall already coming on shore, obviously not yet where you are, but the storm surge 12 feet expected on the broader Tampa area, on top of a high tide.

So what do you think this actually means, Mike, can you hear me in terms of how bad it will get?

BOYLAN: Hey, guys, no audio.

BURNETT: It sounds like he's not hearing me while we try to fix. I will let everyone know, I mean, this is the challenge. It is incredible that we can even get these connections that we can get when you were hearing -- when you were hearing about -- you know, Anderson saying the televisions have gone out in the hotel behind him and the reality of people losing power, losing Wi-Fi, losing TV, and completely being in the dark literally metaphorically, being in the dark, unable to know what is happening over these next hours, just how terrifying that might be.

As we do understand, our Elisa from the weather center, was just reporting that portion of that eyewall have already started to come on shore. Over the next few hours, you're going to see more and more of that and see the full impact and wrath of the storm, which has doubled in size in just the past 24 hours. So it's doubled in size. And in fact, something really important as you look at this, satellite map, this imagery, what's happened is an acceleration in the speed with which the storm is moving.

So, a few hours ago, it was slated to sort of come on shore or maybe even in the early hours of the morning right before midnight. Now really accelerating an already portions of that eyewall as Elisa is reporting already coming ashore, an incredible, you know, accelerator in terms of how quickly the storm itself is moving.

And, Mike, I think I have you back.

Let me ask you about that. Storm doubling in size the speed that it is moving just accelerating so quickly. Has you -- have you ever seen anything like that?

BOYLAN: Not just doubling in size, that's kind of rare. I mean, this thing started out as a tiny little storm. They compare to the Charlie and now that it encompasses the whole state of Florida, practically.

And that's a wake-up for everybody, you know, inland. I'm already seen inland flooding and the drive here. I stopped at some spots that I know are underwater, a church. So we're already seeing massive water accumulation. It's insane, the amount of rain. But then you've got these winds. It's just incredible. I mean, I've been in a lot of hurricanes was seen see in the Tampa Bay

do this is a shocking to me.

BURNETT: You know, we talk about people completely losing contact with the outside world, which is what's going to happen, right? With no power, no Wi-Fi, nothing do you think the people who did stay behind truly have any idea what to expect?

[19:20:00]

BOYLAN: No, it's -- there's a lot of stubbornness in Florida. I get it. I used to be that that one that didn't believe in evacuating and you're left with week sometimes and they warned us.

You know, Kevin Guthrie in the state. You know, there's a lot of resources out of state and it could be a week with no power. And when we had Helene a couple of weeks ago, the barrier islands were shut off for three to four to five days almost and people were getting angry because they wanted to go home.

So that's -- that's why they had to do their job. They had to clean up. We've had all this debris later on in.

This wind is absolutely insane and the eye is not even close to us yet. So I can't even imagine what's going on inland here, you know, with trees down, power lines, down a lot of things, folks that live here never experienced.

BURNETT: No, not at all. Sometimes, I can even here it. They just kind of whistling and howling as it moves past you.

BOYLAN: Yeah, howl.

BURNETT: All right. Mike, we're going to check back in with you and I appreciate it. I'm very glad we were able to get our communications back up with you.

I want to go to Jamie Rhome now, the deputy director of the National Hurricane Center.

So, Jamie, can I just ask you about something, Mike and I were just talking about, but the forecast had the storm making landfall late, late tonight, possibly even overnight past midnight, but it's making landfall now. So it was just sort of a quick step up in the acceleration of the speed with which the storm itself was moving.

How did that happen so fast?

JAMIE RHOME, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Oh, these storms can, you know, alter their speed, forward and backwards or wobble around. So this is not a dramatic change in the timing, although it feels like it. It get it feels like it for people on the ground experiencing these conditions. But this sort of variation is normal with storms making landfall.

BURNETT: So what do you expect here over the next hour as conditions are deteriorating so much, at least from all the images we could see from our reporters in Tampa, Bradenton, and Fort Myers?

RHOME: It's going to be a rough night for a lot of people in the path of the storm. Here in the Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg area, the eyewall is starting to move inland and that's why we have an extreme wind warning.

So that's a -- that's a shelter in place warning. That means it's no longer safe to be outside of your home. So absolutely go inside and stay there for the rest of the night and these winds are going to spread inland over the next several hours and just cut a swath of hurricane force winds across the Florida peninsula.

Then, adding insult to injury, you're going to get this really heavy and I mean heavy rainfall and flooding to set up sort of along into the north of the track that could be right along the I-4 corridor. So definitely don't be out driving, it's night time. You can't see if the roads are flooded or not. You could drive right into a flooded road and the worst of the storm surge is starting to materialize as the back of the eye moves ashore and you get the strongest push of winds towards the shore.

BURNETT: All right. So, you know, as part of this when you talk about this flooding and the winds happening, the prolific tornado outbreak today, 18 reported over parts of the state, major damage in some places, the warnings today, we had more than a hundred already which is the most ever in a single day in the state of Florida.

How is -- is there anything that stands out to about the tornado formation from this storm?

RHOME: So we have hurricanes in the past that produced these big tornadic outbreaks but what's -- what's unique about this one is you have the worst of the tornadoes the worst of the storm surge the worst of the flooding and now the worst of the winds with the core moving over a densely populated metropolitan area, so you've got all four hazards and the worst of them coming to shape and it's -- it's basically affecting the entire Florida peninsula and some way, shape or form.

And normally you only get a couple of these hazards. You get, you know, the winds or the storm surge. To get all four like this to converge is truly unusual.

BURNETT: All right, Well, Jamie, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

I want to go straight now to John Antapasis, the Tampa emergency management director.

So, John, obviously tracking north now towards your city as that portions of that eyewall are now moving on shore, what are you doing to prepare right now? Or is it pretty much your -- what whatever's done is done?

JOHN ANTAPASIS, TAMPA, FL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR: Yeah, throughout the day, we've been ready for this moment to get everything in place, all day, all -- last few days, we've been getting all our apparatus, outside teams in place, equipment in place.

But at this point in time, we are hunkering down as well as our residents need to be doing, so we have to hunker down and wait for it to pass so we can get out do our damage assessment and start our response.

BURNETT: All right. So I know obviously we've got some areas where emergency personnel they've already said. You can't call 911. They can't come out at this point because it would be at risk to -- too much of a risk to their own lives at this point. But you know, at what point do emergency personnel -- as you see it have to stop and they have to shelter in place for the next hours until the storm passes a bit?

ANTAPASIS: Yeah, like Jamie was just saying, we got issued that extreme wind warning. So again, it is life-threatening wind, we have our first responders.

[19:25:05]

They have to shelter in place as well. Obviously, we can't be out on the road with that danger out there. So again like we've been saying to our residents, we're in that mode right now. We have to stay where we are hunker down, be safe and again we'll ride this out and we we'll be able to be out there as soon as we can.

BURNETT: So we talk about all those -- the piles of debris from Hurricane Helene which are in some of the mandatory evacuation areas now, and obviously you don't need to have piles of debris to have anything be a missile a branch that comes down and a current storm could be a missile but when you have piles of stuff it is -- it is a truly a life and death situation for anyone out.

How has that complicated your preparation for Milton?

ANTAPASIS: It's been a challenge. I joined you about last week with Helene and again our teams have been on the ground with solid waste and our debris haulers throughout this week. We had double shifts. We had extra contractors coming in to get all prepared for this storm coming in to pick up as much as we could, but it was a monumental task.

And again there is debris out there. We're very aware of it and it is going to add to that first push that we get out with our public works teams at daylight tomorrow, and we know those challenges are going to be out there. So we are taking those extra precautions as those teams go out for the extra dangers. But ultimately, there is debris out there. It's going to add some challenges tomorrow morning.

BURNETT: All right. Well, John, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

And let's go back to Bradenton where Anderson is.

Anderson, what have you seen here in just these past few minutes? I mean, we literally spoke 15 minutes ago. Now, you are -- you are looking truly in the dark here. COOPER: Yeah, the winds are definitely -- yeah, yeah, the winds are definitely picking up I got to tell you when we were talking before I was thinking wow is this is this it because the winds were -- were strong and there were white caps and stuff on the on the river. But the winds have definitely picked up just in the last 5 minutes I would say.

There's still lights on in buildings uh you know flickering on and off. I did see what looked like a transformer going off across the water to the north. But you can get just -- it's hard to see the rain here. You can sort of see it off in the distance and some of those lights. It's really just kind of whipping horizontally, it's actually kind painful. It's picking up a lot of -- you know, there's a lot of debris on the ground, just of -- from trees ripping off.

There's not -- thankfully, you know, Erin, you were talking earlier about debris from Helene that hasn't been picked up. This community has really tried to pick up -- but there's a lot of -- there's a lot of branches of trees that are just kind of whipping by right now, so that's something obviously as it gets dark, if the lights go out, that really becomes a hazard.

I heard somebody talking earlier about you know not going out on the roads. That is really something that emergency officials here are really emphasizing. It is so easy if you are driving on a road the light the lights go out to not know where the road is where the water is you pull off to the side of the road and suddenly you find yourself in a ditch of water you can't get out of.

Thankfully, again, we have not seen people walking around but this wind is definitely picking up. I'm very curious to know, you know, if this is sort of the height of it, if it's going to get much worse over the next 30 or 40 minutes, and if that eyewall does come over this community, what that will be.

Obviously, it generally -- the wind should die down once the eyewall is over us, but I'm also curious to see what's on the back end of that if the storm then kind of picked back up again or if it sort of has disintegrated on the far side of that eyewall. So there's a lot of questions about, still, what's going to happen here. But for now, we just -- we're waiting and seeing.

BURNETT: Yeah. I mean, and Anderson, now -- we can see your face a little bit now but I can hear the roar of the wind, you know, as it comes through just kind of sort of picking up off your microphone, that roaring.

I mean -- are you -- at this point, you know, in terms of where -- where would you describe exactly where you are? I mean, have you seen anybody -- you know, regular civilians who are still there?

COOPER: No, I haven't. There's a lot of people in hotels here -- there's a hotel right here which is several stories, it's a five-story hotel. There's a lot of families who have moved into this hotel in the upper floors, none of the lower floors, obviously, have been booked. Just want to -- like this stuff is like just -- this is like whipping through the air all around here because there's all these beautiful palm trees here all along the riverfront, and they are really starting to come apart in -- in a lot of different places. You can see some of them back there.

So there's people in -- in buildings here, the folks at the hotel feel very confident about, you know, the structure itself. Obviously, the first floor, they are very concerned about storm surge, you know, there's estimates of six to nine feet of storm surge in this part. It's expected to be even higher further south more in Sarasota, again, remains to be seen.

[19:30:02]

I don't know what it is. At this point, but as I said earlier, the ground is already so wet here with that storm surge. It only just obviously makes it -- makes it all the more difficult.

BURNETT: All right. Well, Anderson, thank you very much.

And, you know, we'll keep checking in with Anderson as he sees fit.

Let's go -- he just mentioned Sarasota and how the storm surge there is expected to be even higher, that is where Randi Kaye is right now.

So, Randi, what -- what are you seeing at this moment?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erin, we are seeing some major winds here, they're coming and going but we know that we clocked 74 miles an hour just in the last hour, and we know o know that the center of the storm is now about 35 miles from us here in Sarasota. I moved just a little bit closer inside because the winds are getting so strong and this is a piece of a fan this is a fan blade that was on a fan that was just above us on a porch that came flying down.

So that is part of the reason why we moved in and I'm not sure if you can see this fence here next to us. That's the fence that belongs to the neighbor's house. That fence is now on the ground as well.

So the winds are certainly picking up. We know that we are in the thick of it. It's going to get much worse for us here in the next hour or so, as Hurricane Milton gets closer and closer. There's so much debris around this neighborhood, Erin, and that is just such a concern. So it's good that people have left because things like that, the fan blade the pieces of the fence, tree branches power lines, all of this can of course become very dangerous projectiles as this storm continues and as we clock such strong winds, Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Randi, thank you very much.

And now, let's go to Scot Morrison. Now, he's in Crystal Beach, and Crystal Beach is two blocks from the ocean, and he's in safety harbor about 20 miles from Tampa, both are under mandatory evacuation tonight. Scot and his family though did choose to stay. Their home had been badly damaged in Hurricane Helene and now they're living through this nightmare again.

So, Scot, may I just ask you first what you are experiencing right now.

SCOT MORRISON, CRYSTAL BEACH, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Yeah, thanks for having me, Erin, I appreciate it. You know, right now, the storm is starting to kick up here in the Tampa Bay area. We're -- we're like you said, we had to -- we had to finally vacate our home down off the water here late this afternoon and we're -- we're up in another home just a few miles inland where we're still surrounded by water here.

It's getting very windy here. We've had a lot of tornado, you know, warnings and (AUDIO GAP) it's just really starting to spin up here.

BURNETT: All right. And I know obviously it makes say sometimes hard to hear you there for a second just because of that.

But, obviously, Scot, you know, you -- you -- I don't need to tell you, you're well aware, you've heard all the reports how catastrophic the storm surge will be and National Weather Service just had an alert telling people to take cover now to protect your life. You know, when you hear how bad this will get and I'm sure you were very -- you know, you have your reasons for staying. Do you regret your decision to stay at all and how come you decided to?

MORRISON: Yeah, there's this first storm we lost half our house, cars, homes, business, you know, we pretty much everything. So we've been trying to rebuild, demolition, rebuild over the last two weeks, this next storm coming in we really just finished kind of some of those processes still trying to protect home, and our property that is still down there before this storm hits.

So, you know, no regrets. We -- we're in a safe enough place now that I think will be fine and there's unfortunately a lot more people in a lot more dangerous areas than we are thankfully right now.

BURNETT: Well, and I know you've -- you did share video. You talk about the utter destruction that you've endured in your life here from Hurricane Helene, and I'm sorry. I know it's hard for people to understand just now this happening again. This is your living room, these images floating in feet of water. You talk about your business destroyed.

Obviously, Milton, we're hearing may be worse is expected to be worse, and you already are seeing water inside your house. So, Scot, what is your plan to get through this?

MORRISON: You know, my plan is we're hunkered down here for the (AUDIO GAP) will weather the storm, you know, God willing, here, and then we'll head down to, you know, our house and back down to our community tomorrow morning. Our community still has garbage in every road, it's impassible down there. So we've got to get down there and kind of see how things are tomorrow morning and also check on some of the neighborhood -- some of neighbors as well. So that's my plan for tomorrow morning we have bikes to ride back down into the community if need to be. BURNETT: All right. Well, Scot, thank you very much and I do hope that that you will be all right, you and your family.

And we are just going to take a very brief break here as our breaking news coverage continues here. Hurricane Milton making landfall now uh portions of that eyewall on land.

We're going to take you back to the ground where conditions are rapidly deteriorating in Fort Myers right now, getting reports of wind gust from this storm already, near 100 miles an hour on land, and we're going to take you into the eye with a hurricane hunter who just flew through Hilton -- Milton, will be OUTFRONT.

[19:35:01]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BURNETT: All right. Breaking news, Hurricane Milton making landfall right now. The monster storm now barreling on shore in Florida.

Let's show you Fort Myers, live images there, where the wind and rain are both picking up at this hour. You can see sort of the water just moving by very quickly there, like a flowing river, more than three feet of water already covering normally dry ground.

That's going to rise incredibly quickly. It's not a slow thing. It's going to rise very quickly, perhaps up to 13 feet.

It's where at least one tornado ripped through a neighborhood today, roofs already torn off of homes that was before you now see the storm as I said formally coming on shore.

[19:40:05]

Eighteen tornadoes reported across the state, 100 warnings.

Carlos Suarez is OUTFRONT in Fort Myers.

And, Carlos, as we talk about that eyewall coming on shore, how quickly is the situation deteriorating where you are right now?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, there is a bit of a break in the rain but the winds are strong and the flooding as you can see behind me has started here in Fort Myers. We are in downtown Fort Myers, in an area that is known to flood and so this what you're taking a look at is the biggest concern that folks had with this hurricane as it continues on its track just to the north of us here.

This part of downtown Fort Myers is expected to get a storm surge anywhere between eight to 12 feet, and already we're seeing these kind of numbers just to the south of where we are. In Naples, down in Collier County, they're looking at a storm surge at around four to five feet. And in Fort Myers Beach, which is about a half hour drive where we are, we're told that the storm surge there, the flooding there is about to three to four feet where it should be at this hour.

Again, Erin, we were coming into the storm with this being the biggest concern because two years ago when Hurricane Ian made landfall here in Lee County, it's a storm that I covered, this part of Fort Myers flooded. It's a low-lying area. It is right next to the Caloosahatchee River which just about 20 minutes or so ago, when I went over there to take a look at, it has started to breach. That water is now starting to come in and a lot of this is happening because as this storm continues to make its way north, it is pushing that water from the Gulf of Mexico up into the Caloosahatchee River and then you've got all of that rainfall that's coming down from Lake Okeechobee coming down from central Florida, and those two forces are coming together at this one location.

And in fact, just on the other side of the river out here, I can see the lights of transformers that are blowing. And the two other things that have happened here in Fort Myers since we've been here for the better part of the day is there were two tornadoes, at least we believe two tornadoes hit, one just to the other side of we are, it's about a 10 to 15-minute drive, a tornado there hit a neighborhood, homes there were damaged and now they're dealing with these flood waters which as you can see will last well into the night and into tomorrow morning -- Erin.

BURNETT: Yeah. Absolutely and I know some of the worst surge there coming your way.

Carlos, thank you.

I want to go to John Morales now. He is the longest serving meteorologist in south Florida. He was here with us last night.

And, John, you were talking about how emotional it was for you when you were warning viewers about the stunning severity of Hurricane Milton.

JOHN MORALES, METEOROLOGIST: Indeed, and, of course, you're starting to see that play --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORALES: I apologize. This is just horrific.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Yes, John. I'm sorry, no, I was just playing -- I played just briefly that clip, so people could recall. But, I mean, you're sitting there right now covering this through the night, for people, some of them are going to lose power, some of them are going to lose the ability to even hear you when you're talking to them but are going to be turning to you.

So what is your forecast for what happens here over these next couple of hours now the eyewall is already hitting land? MORALES: Yeah. I mean, we're -- we're in the now casting phase, right? I mean, it's here, it's now, it is happening just as you saw that report from Fort Myers.

And listen, I've studied that storm surge from Hurricane Ian extensively as part of my expert meteorology work in mitigation because there's a lot of that going on because of the impact of the hurricane and so many homes that were destroyed just two years ago in that very same area.

And you know, the surge -- it starts to come in slowly many hours, many hours before the hurricane makes landfall. But then suddenly it really starts to accelerate, the water levels start to rise so quickly and so shockingly that -- that's when people really get caught off guard and that's why we asked people to leave the coast hopefully they all did, and hopefully they'll all be safe.

Regarding the other impacts, listen, there's an extreme wind warning right now in the Tampa Bay area because they've had to face the eyewall. The eyewall has brought those gusts to near 100 miles an hour in some locations, in addition the rainfall intensity in that area is extreme. So flash flooding and river flooding across the swath of central Florida, that includes from Tampa all the way to Daytona, can be anticipated.

And you've discussed the fact that there have been tornadoes, at point, 54 tornado warnings issued in the state of Florida, including supercell thunderstorms, that's normally something you see in Kansas and Texas. Well, we saw that in Florida today out ahead of hurricane Milton.

BURNETT: And, John, so you know the storm doubling in size in 24 hours and then sort of speeding up in these final moments before it hit land, and I know that you -- it have been maybe -- maybe it was going to hit around midnight or just after just before but suddenly, now, the eyewall already on shore and it -- it's sped up.

What does all of this mean on the actual ground?

[19:45:02]

And we're looking here now even at some images of the surge coming in -- all the way down in Key West.

MORALES: Well, it means, you know, those folks that were able to hide from the wind and not have to run from the water, they all need to be hunkered down right now.

Now, those that ran from the water hopefully are in a safe space. Those that did not run from the water and I'm talking about storm surge here, well, you know, things are going to start to get really dicey real fast and that includes any anywhere I would say from Sarasota down to Charlotte Harbor, Port Charlotte, Cape Coral, Fort Myers, further south to Naples, even down to Naples, that inundation is coming in as you and I are talking. And it's -- it's only going to get worse all the way until landfall and it won't start to recede until after landfall. And landfall could be, you know, from this point, we're talking a couple of hours away because landfall is defined, Erin, as the moment that the center of the eye of the hurricane reaches the coast.

BURNETT: All right. Well, John, thank you very much.

John as I said longest serving meteorologist in south Florida, watching this epic storm.

And let's go back to Bill Weir. A moment ago, we saw Bill in St. Petersburg.

And, Bill, at that point, you were -- you -- there was a wave literally came ashore of where you were standing. I know you've moved a few hundred yards inland.

So exactly where are you and what's happened since we spoke just I guess now at this point, what, 20, 25 minutes ago?

WEIR: Yeah. Well, Erin, the nasty has gotten nastier. We just had an 89 mile an hour wind gust. We'll take you around the corner here. This is Bayshore Drive here in St. Petersburg. The municipal boat basin where we were before and the pier is on the other side of this -- this road here.

But just peeking around this corner is where we're going to start catching these gusts. It's amazing how in a -- in an urban setting like St. Petersburg, the way the move -- wind moves around through the buildings, especially we're going to head that way later if as the water comes up, but completely deserted thankfully, wind, rain, palm fronds blowing everywhere, you can't see it anymore after sunset, but hundreds of boats in this harbor.

One longtime sailor just came by and told me he thinks most of them are uninsured, folks just you know playing their luck and we'll see and whether the wind of Milton of -- of Milton ends up putting those boats or the storm surge into downtown St. Petersburg, it's -- it's soon too soon to tell. Of course, the little jog north as this storm sped up in the last few hours it advanced our anticipated landfall, but the storm surge could be coming up at 6:00 a.m. at high tide tomorrow and so this will be a long time coming.

And as you talked about earlier, the fact that some people were just trying to dry out I met a woman yesterday had her belongings on her front lawn she was looking for her mother's wedding ring but had to stop that short and evacuate once again. This is over by Indian Shores near here. So, so much uncertainties tonight and so many folks who took shelter from the coast having to worry about these supercell tornadoes that John Morales was just talking about, Erin.

And so it is devolving this storm. But we'll keep you posted.

BURNETT: So those winds, I -- you know, we see them sort of gusting and moving. I can see them because of that one light that there still is behind you, Bill, have you -- have you noticed a real change in those winds in just the past bit?

WEIR: Absolutely. Yeah, it's just the -- it was the outer bands were flirting with us a bit and now these are slaps. These are full-on, you know, make you catch your balance sort of gusts. I'm loathed to go walk around in it you can see how -- how, you know, violent the wind is right now.

But again, I mentioned earlier that the city of St. Petersburg, they were worried enough about these big construction cranes, these tower cranes that they put out put it on their website to be to be worried about these things.

You can imagine, they're hanging on by bolts up there. We don't know what wind speeds they're tested for but they're going to get a test tonight. We saw them sort of blowing around like wind socks earlier.

But yeah, the wind is really kicking up but again you can hide from the wind, it's that water and which -- you know, has been pushed by category five winds for hundreds of miles regardless of the wind speed when it makes land all of that kinetic energy is coming up here.

BURNETT: It's coming to where you are.

All right. Bill, thank you.

And our special coverage continues as Hurricane Milton making landfall as we speak, decimating Florida's coast. We're going to be, of course, all over on the ground there through that bay area.

Plus, Milton's destructive storm surge could alter the state's coastline forever. In a moment, we're actually going to show you what that could look like.

[19:50:00]

You'll see.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: And this is the special edition of OUTFRONT where we are following the breaking news. Hurricane Milton making landfall, live pictures this of heavy rainfall in Bradenton on your screen.

Lieutenant Colonel Mark Withee joins me now, Air Force hurricane hunter who just flew through the storm.

And, Colonel, let me just show some of the incredible video that you just filmed while you were up there. What did you see up close?

LT. COL. MARK WITHEE, AIR FORCE HURRICANE HUNTER: Well, what we saw was a very powerful storm. Obviously, the pressures have been rising in the center with -- so the storm has been decreasing off some of those peak intensities. But it's also expanding, the wind field. So it's very large -- still very powerful storm.

Fortunately, it's less intense than it was, but it's still big, and then heading for Tampa.

BURNETT: How did it compare just in this last fly through to many of the other storms you've been through?

WITHEE: Well, this is certainly a -- been a very unique storm in that it -- it's spun up to extremely high levels, in very short notice and has gone through several fluctuations.

[19:55:07]

Certainly, it's in a very high-end class of storm with it. Its intensification fortunately, it has weakened some, but it's still bringing lot of that energy into shore.

BURNETT: You know, we were talking about how there have been a you know a drone footage a little bit out, you know and I know you saw this of close to foot waves and that was you know miles out from the eyewall. You know, what -- what is it like when you're up there and you sort of were able to look down and see the power of a storm like this when it's out in the open ocean or in the open gulf as it was in this case, to see waves like that?

WITHEE: Well, it's very impressive to see the power of these storms to generate those waves. Often times, we -- when we're in the going through the inner bands of the storm, we can't actually see the surface but out at the periphery we can still see those enormous waves that are being generated and then even once we're in the eye and can see the surface you still see those very large waves that are coming.

It's -- as hurricane hunters, we are kind of in a unique position because we can see the storm from the air and we're also not being directly affected by it like those folks on the ground. So it's a very unique and special perspective that we have when we're out there flying to gather the data for the National Hurricane Center.

Well, the data that makes all the difference for people on the ground but as you said so unique and special.

And, Colonel, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

As that eyewall is hitting land on the coast of Florida, you have heard every official, every meteorologist talk about this storm, how historic it is and that storm surge that Florida is facing right now, that those waters are rising as we speak.

The scale hard to imagine. One official describing it as the ocean coming into your living room. Well that gives you an image, but what is it?

Our Jason Carroll has an incredible demonstration of it. So just what are we about to see, Jason?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Erin, I know it can be hard to imagine so we want to visualize for you here in the studio with graphics just what the impact would look like if you were caught in that catastrophic storm surge that you've been hearing so much about.

We want to raise the graphic -- water graphic to just three feet, it doesn't sound like a lot but it's certainly enough to take you off your feet certainly enough to move a parked car and to move much of that debris we've seen on the ground from Hurricane Helene.

Now, we're going to double it the water graphic now at six feet. Now when you think about six feet of storm surge, in combination with the wind -- he wind is predicted to top 100 miles per hour.

Now, we're going to bring it up to 10 feet. Imagine 10 feet and you're living in one of those single story homes there in Florida, your only course of action under this type of condition might be to get on your roof and hold on and hope that someone can come and save you.

This is why emergency officials have been saying for so long for so many days to get out, because under this type of dire situation these type of dire predictions, your chances of survival are very, very low -- Erin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: All right. Jason, thank you very much. Very low and just to think about that North Carolina family, they did get to their roof right and the mother had to watch her child die as that child was taken away by the floodwaters.

Boris Sanchez is in Tampa, that rare extreme wind warning already in fact catastrophic flooding happening already, Boris, in areas near you.

What are you seeing?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Erin, we actually had to move the previous position that we were in less than an hour ago. It was right on the coast with Tampa Bay and it was just way, way too intense. The rain was just coming sideways at us, the waves were getting closer and closer, so we moved to an area further in and this is just Tampa proper just outside where the bay is by a couple miles or so.

The wind here is picking up, the rain is also coming down. We've seen about six inches of rain since this storm started coming in. That is expected to accumulate up five to eight inches more so we will almost certainly see flooding in the Tampa Bay area and on top of that, obviously, we're talking about the storm surge for coastal areas. It's predicted to be anywhere between eight to 12 feet.

We already started seeing as I noted before some of those waves coming in. In this part of the neighborhood, things are relatively quiet. We saw some residents walking through the neighborhood, obviously, going against what officials have been suggesting that folks shelter in place and stay inside.

As you can see behind me. several of these businesses have been boarded up. I'm seeing sandbags as well. It is just starting to create serious problems here in Tampa. There were streets that were difficult to access as we were driving away from the location where we were earlier.

I imagine that as this rain picks up, as officials have said, again five to eight inches before this all wraps up in addition to what's already come down. It is going to be a very difficult situation for folks that have decided to shelter in place, especially in those evacuation zones. We'll keep you posted on the very latest as we get it -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. And, of course, as you are watching that happening and we should let our viewers know that already as that eyewall is started to come on shore, there are many places already saying that there will be no response if you call 911, they are already unable to send any emergency responders out, as this eyewall has hit land in these next few hours. So catastrophic for Florida.

Our breaking news coverage continues now with Anderson.