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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Helene Explodes to "Extremely Dangerous" Category 4 Hurricane; Officials Warn of Nightmare: Storm Surge, up to 20 Feet. Helene Explodes To "Extremely Dangerous" Cat 4 Hurricane. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired September 26, 2024 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: ... 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 of the people we talked to in Saginaw said to me that keeps rattling around in my brain. The question is do they care about me? That sounds simplistic. It's also it's also very profound and the answer is going to determine who wins in November.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: I think there is a loneliness epidemic. There's a lot -- it is a 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.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening.
Hurricane Helene, extremely dangerous Category 4. It's more than 400 miles across, pushing a storm surge that officials are calling un- survivable is now hitting Florida's Gulf Coast as much as 20 feet of water what are forecast along the shore south of Tallahassee, which itself is expected to take a direct blow.
Some coastal areas already flooding. Take a look at live pictures right now from Gulfport and Tampa on the right, Interstate 275 President Biden this evening, urging anyone in the storm's path to take it extremely seriously. A lot of water there, certainly there in Gulfport, especially.
Emergency managers in Florida's Taylor County are telling people choosing to stay and there are people choosing to stay to write their name and date of birth on a leg to help identify their bodies. Storm warnings are now in effect as far north of Charlotte, North Carolina.
We've got CNN correspondents all along the places now harm's way and Chad Myers in the CNN Weather Center. Let's start with CNN meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, who is an Apalachicola. What are you seeing there, Derek? DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Anderson, the conditions as one would expect have gone down exponentially quick here in Apalachicola near the Big Bend of Florida. We're going to remain on the west side of the eye of the storm.
We know that as, of course, the most powerful, but because of the size of the storm, there's no doubt that we will feel extreme impacts here where were standing and points further east as well. The storm, the bottom is literally dropping out from itself. It is strengthening and it is expanding in size as it does so.
We we're looking at some of the wind radiuses. So, how far out the tropical storm force winds extend, over 400 miles in diameter. The hurricane force winds extend over 100 miles. So, it's like having a tornado move through, once the strongest part of the storm comes ashore move through a hundred-mile wide space. That's the kind of ferocity that this storm is going to come in with and the catastrophic winds that we are anticipating with it.
Now, the Big Bend, this catcher's mitt of Florida is so vulnerable to the storm surge. So, all of that water is going to be pushed up on shore and the wordage from the National Weather Service of un- survivable storm surge values.
Well, that's what 20 feet will do. That is the size of two storeys high. In fact, were on the second can floor of this building here. That would just not be a survivable storm surge. Fortunately, for us, on the west side, the winds will be coming offshore, so maybe, just maybe that will help limit the storm surge potential here.
Now, I'm trying to put it into perspective for our viewers, Anderson, what it's like to ride out an approaching Category 4 hurricane that's strengthening and we've get these all too familiar hurricane sounds, almost the roar of a train approaching the area.
We get pelted with these strong wind gusts, that feels like someone is taking a pressure washer to your face, but then of course there's the flickering lights. I cannot believe we still have electricity. But in our safe space that we have here in our Airbnb that we rented in Apalachicola, we're feeling the brunt of the storm and it's becoming difficult to even open the doors.
So, that just gives you an idea of what people here are going to have to deal with tonight. The flash flood potential his considerable. The chance of water spouts and tornadoes is real. The storm surge threat is palpable and of course, it doesn't just stop at the coast.
We know how fast the storm is moving, and that means it's going to bring the hurricane force winds inland at pace overnight. Unfortunately, the sun has set so people have to endure these terrible conditions in the dark of night -- Anderson.
COOPER: Derek, we'll check in with you throughout this hour. I want to go a little further south. CNN's Carlos Suarez, who's been dodging high waters and joins us now by phone. Carlos, where are you and what are you seeing? CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Yes, Anderson. So, we are right now in St. Petersburg. We began the day a little bit about 15 to 20 minutes to the South and the West of St. Pete, we we're in Gulfport. That is a city in Pinellas County that really is known to flood and we began the day there having covered two other hurricanes the last couple of years where we knew that that specific neighborhood because it's a low-lying area was going to flood.
[20:05:23]
The problem that we ran into is that around two or three or four o'clock this afternoon as that hurricane continued to make its way just west of us but continue to make that track north, it really brought with it some strong wind, some intense rain, but more than anything else, it started really pushing all of the water from the bay right out on to Gulfport.
And so, what we ended up seeing was about four feet of storm surge in a matter of hours and where we were, it just really became unsafe for us to stay there and so we decided to move a few blocks north where the water hadn't reached just yet, but then our team of meteorologists told us, look, at this point, because the storm is still to the west of you and it still has to track north, and because of the sheer size of it, you're probably going to get another four feet of storm surge. So you really need to get out of there.
So, we left Gulfport and we're going to try to get back over into Tampa in Hillsborough County because that area is a little bit more inland, although that is also under a mandatory evacuation, at least some parts along the bay.
However, all of the bridges at currently connect Pinellas County to the Tampa area have been closed because of the strong winds and some of the flooding. There's one bridge that takes you south into Bradenton that also closed earlier this afternoon. And so, if you're in Pinellas County and you didn't evacuate, chances are you're pretty much stuck at home right now because you cannot get inland.
And so, we're in the process right now trying to find a safe location that we can go live from. But as you've covered many of hurricanes, you know, that's not as easy of a task considering how these storms can change. And more importantly, just the direction of the floods.
COOPER: Carlos Suarez, we'll check in with you again. The National Hurricane Center, just put out a new bulletin, the language in it is sobering. Let's go to Chad Myers in the CNN Weather Center.
Chad, first of all, what is the latest on this?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's 130 miles per hour, it did ramp up a little bit over the past couple of hours, but it did not go up between 7:00 and 8:00 PM.
Now, normally, Anderson, we get these updates every six hours and a new to track and all that. But when a storm gets very close, the Hurricane Center does it every single hour. So, here's what we see. Here's what the Hurricane Hunter just found. So, were now -- we're ramped up to 130. That is the bottom end of a Category 4 but it is a major hurricane and it has arms all the way into Central Florida, going to go all the way with a hurricane warning to Macon, Georgia.
It would take three hours to drive there from Apalachicola to Macon. And that's how long this is going to have hurricane force winds. Where is it the worst right now? Likely from New Port Richey and around Clearwater all the way up to Hudson in Florida.
Anytime you get one of these bands and, Anderson, you know it well, in-between the bands the wind kind of dies off when you get one of these heavier bands, the outer bands, then the winds pick up. So, I'm thinking probably on land were probably seeing 70 to 75 miles per hour as the max wind right now but the storm isn't close to shore yet and it won't get close to shore for another, let's say, three or four hours. The closer it gets, the more winds will go up and likely we'll have winds around Perry, Florida around 115 miles per hour for a gust, without a doubt.
We are going to see a lot of rainfall. It's already been raining, flash flood warnings are already in effect. Here is the hurricane warning. There's Atlanta and Macon and you can look at a map, how far it is from way down here it's going to be land-falling and that's how long it's going to take to cycle down.
We always say, hey, it's going to hit land, it's going to die. This thing is moving so quickly when it hits land, it isn't going to die. It's just going to keep right on going. And that's what's causing a lot of this surge as well.
And Derek will get surge in Apalachicola, Saint Marks, absolutely, Cedar Key without a doubt, and all the way along this little hook area through here that's 15 to 20 feet. That's what they're talking about, the un-survivability that's why. If you're six feet tall and you got a wave or water over you another 14 feet above you you're not going to survive that. So that's why they're talking like that.
COOPER: So, what time is it expected to make actual landfall? And like, where do you think it will make landfall?
MYERS: I think it will make landfall very close to Saint Marks. The good news about this area is from about Apalachicola and then just points a little bit farther to these all the way down to about Hudson. There's just a lot of natural land there, kind of mangrove areas, not a lot of beach areas. If you go to the beach, there is no beach there.
COOPER: Chad, I'm sorry. I just got to talk to you about these pictures from out of Tampa, Florida. I mean --
MYERS: Yes.
COOPER: These are people driving on the highway, though the water, I mean, it's just pouring over off that highway. These are incredible images.
MYERS: Is this live? COOPER: I don't think so. This is video -- this is from earlier.
[20:10:07]
MYERS: Well, this was still horrible to be doing something like this. They got caught where they thought they were going to get over this bridge or this causeway in time and they did not. That is well, not one, not good for your life and certainly not good for your car driving through these --
COOPER: These are now live images also from Tampa.
MYERS: Wow.
COOPER: I'm not sure which road this on, I'll try to find out, but it's I-275.
MYERS: That's on the way to skyway. Yes. So, the water obviously, coming over the top of that. No cars of it on this now for quite a few hours, it was shut down as soon as the wind got to 60 miles per hour, they said, you're done. Nobody over the top of that bridge anymore so.
COOPER: Anyway, I'm sorry. I interrupted you, Helene is expected to break records in some areas, right?
MYERS: Oh, without a doubt, there will be more trees and power lines down in Tallahassee, in Valdosta, in Lake City than they have ever seen before, without out a doubt, from Thomason, all Thomason, all the way down even to about Savannah, probably more power outages from a Gulf landing storm, then an Atlantic landing storm because the winds in Savannah, Tybee all the way down to Jekyll Island, your winds off that ocean are going to be at 80 or 85. It's a big storm.
This is tropical storm from South Carolina to South of Tampa. That's what we're seeing in about two or three hours as this storm continues to move to the North. A large area and you're going to have to be very patient. There will be so many millions of power lines down and customers without power. This is going to take a long time because you can't just put 5,000 crew in one city, you have to try to spread them out. There's so many people are going to be without power.
COOPER: All right, Chad, we're going to check in again with you also throughout this hour. We're going to -- let's get a coastal look Wakulla County could get up to 20 feet of storm surge in Wakulla, Ralph Thomas is a county commissioner and he joins us now. Mr. Thomas, thanks for taking the time. Your county is set to take a direct hit, I think from the storm. What are you experiencing right now?
RALPH THOMAS, WAKULLA COUNTY COMMISSIONER: Well, we're about 60 miles north of Apalachicola, so we're not seeing being quite as much wind as the reporter earlier. We are seeing an increase in the rivers and the coastal areas. We do have some roads that are underwater already. And so, that's being breached and that's rising. We expect that to continue to rise.
Wakulla County off the coast and the gulf is very shallow compared to a lot of the other gulf. And so you can see we're already in the bend, so there's nowhere for that water to go. And now were pushing it into a shallow area and so definitely the surge is our biggest concern.
COOPER: Yes, I mean, residents in your area were warned that the surge could be un-survivable, that was the word that was used there. There was a county-wide mandatory evacuation obviously, nobody is forcing people out of their homes. Do you think most people heeded that evacuation order?
THOMAS: Most did. I've never ever seen a county-wide evacuation. We frequently will do the coastal areas, but we definitely put out a push to that and I think people heeded did it better than normal. A lot of folks become complacent and we've all ridden out storms and so we think we can do that. But this not the same storm. This is not anything like we've ever seen.
COOPER: Yes, I mean, that's always the problem is, storms change directions. There can be a slight turn that makes all the difference. And so, in the past, people will warn, oh, this is really bad and then they ride it out and then the next time they think, well, I did it last time, so I can do at this time.
THOMAS: Well, we tried to quantify exactly what 20 feet means. If you tell someone it's 20 feet high at the beach, they think, we'll, I'm just not going to go to the beach, but in Wakulla County, the models show us that 20 feet storm surge will push water 20 miles from the coast and possibly in the South Leon County into, Tallahassee to the North. And so, that's a big deal --
COOPER: That is incredible, 20 miles from the coast.
THOMAS: Absolutely, hopefully that does not happen and hopefully we are spared that. But under the right circumstances, it's not going to be good. The gentleman mentioned Saint Marks. My house is five miles due north of Saint Marks. I've never had a drop of water anywhere in my house, but I'm afraid that, that might end tonight.
COOPER: So, as this approaches, what are you going to be looking for? Like, what's top of your list? I mean, you're looking at the storm surge that's number one in the Big Bend region.
THOMAS: It is mainly, first of all, the wind speed when the wind gets up to 35 miles per hour, we're going to shut down all first responders. And so, you could have a heart attack, you can have a simple medical need and we can't come get to you. We can't do anything.
So, that's what we're going to monitor is when we can safely get our people off the roads and then get them back as quickly as we can. Soon as that wind speed gets back below 35, we are going to have road crews out there, we're going to have chainsaws and equipment. We're going to have our first responders. We're going to go back and revisit these people that we know for sure did not evacuate.
We sent teams out three different times, at least today, knocking door to door, speaking with people face to face, and encouraging them to leave and taking their information and so, that will be an initial search and rescue as soon as this clears, we're going to go back to those folks and hopefully not find a bad situation.
[20:15:31]
COOPER: We're showing some pictures of first responders in the county just getting ready. So, you have folks who are ready to go. Obviously, they can't go out in some conditions, but as soon as conditions allow, they're going to go out and it seems like you've got to good amount of people there.
THOMAS: Absolutely. That's the true heroes in this story because they sent their families away, their family had to evacuated and they're behind to take care of the county and the folks that didn't evacuate. And so, they're dedicated.
We even had to relocate two of our fire stations that are in the surge zone. So, two of those coastal stations have no one in them tonight because they were at risk and so, they're mainly in our main station.
COOPER: Yes. Well, Commissioner Thomas, I wish you the best and we'll talk to you later. Thank you.
THOMAS: Thank you, sir. God bless you.
COOPER: CNN's Michael Yoshida is in Steinhatchee. What are you seeing there, Michael.
MICHAEL YOSHIDA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Anderson, at this point, you can see the wind, the rain really starting to pick up over the last hour. Right here along the Steinhatchee River, put in perspective for you, we're in that Big Bend area of Florida, you can see maybe those lights in the distance just past there is where the river leads in to the bay and then the gulf and that's why for this community in the entire county, there was that mandatory evacuation because of the storm surge concern.
The owner of this marina to put it in perspective for you telling me earlier today when those waters have risen previously during storms, floating docks like the one you see right here, have risen up above the top of those posts right there and then floated off.
That's why you see in their prep this time, they tied them together to some of the other ones that are more anchored down but just another visual of how dangerous this storm potentially could be.
Obviously, as they start to rise, were about to make our way to the higher ground areas, but officials have been urging people to take their preparation seriously to evacuate if they could, a sobering messaged earlier today from the Sheriff's office, the emergency managers, saying that if you decided to hunker down to try and ride out this storm, they wanted you to take that permanent marker, write your name, your date of birth, other identifying information on you just in case obviously, this dangerous storm took a deadly turn.
So, a lot of concern here in Steinhatchee has the storm moves its closer.
COOPER: All right. Michael Machida, thank you. Michael Bobbitt lives on Cedar Key, which is small island surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico. He has chosen not to leave. Michael, thanks for joining us. First of all, what are -- what's it like? What are you seeing out of your window? What's it like right now?
MICHAEL BOBBITT, CEDAR KEY, FLORIDA RESIDENT :It's not good, it's just in the last hour really things have started to come apart. The gulf is rising up to swallow the island.
During Hurricane Dahlia a year ago, we got about seven foot of storm surge and it completely devastated the island. We're looking at between 12 and possibly 20 feet of storm surge luckily, I'm in a house at the top of a tall hill. I think I'll be okay. But I don't know about Cedar Key, as we know, it will exist in the morning.
COOPER: You've ridden out storms before. I assume that's why you're doing it now, even though this is worse as you said, than the last one with the storm surge. I know multiple neighbors of yours also have chosen to ride out the storm. Why did you decide to stay?
BOBBITT: Well, that's exactly why I'm here. I know of at least a half dozen, maybe ten elderly people that just refused to leave. They are in low-lying houses. They don't believe the water is going to come up as high as its going to come. And at some point, they're either going to drown in that house or someone's going to have to go and get them and emergency services after the wind gets about 35 miles an hour, or they can't go out but I can.
I have a rescue boat stationed outside my yard. I've got tactical gear. I've got a little team here. The minute that it's safe enough to get out there, we're going to go start trying to pull people off roofs and hopefully, hopefully they are live people and not bodies. I stayed to help my island as best I could.
COOPER: Do you have any sense of when emergency services could be available once this thing passes?
BOBBITT: I think it's going to be a long time. I think it's going to be hours. And I know that we have a really brave volunteer fire department here on the island. Really remarkable professionals that give their time and energy and put themselves in harm's way but there's a limited amount of resources and I have every reason to believe the bridges will be completely inundated and Cedar Key is a little island, three miles out into the gulf of Mexico.
We're completely isolated and exposed. I think it will be days and days before anyone from the outside can get here. So, we're on our own. And I was unwilling to leave my neighbors without any help.
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COOPER: How many -- do you have a rough estimate how many people actually live in Cedar Key? I mean, no way to know how many stay, but I'm wondering just in general? BOBBITT: Sure, there are about 750 of us that live here year round. Those numbers get bigger on the weekends for folks who come for the weekend and leave. But about 750 of us and in talking with the local authorities, I think about 50 people stayed behind and of those 50, I think about 10 are really unable to take care of themselves.
COOPER: Well, Michael, I appreciate you talking to us and it's awesome, you've got to a boat available, and some folks that have kind of banded together, Michael Bobbitt, we'll check in with you. Thank you.
BOBBITT: Thank you.
COOPER: I want to go to the State Capitol, also right now, joining us now is Tallahassee City Manager Reese Goad, Mr. Goad, can you just walk us through what it's like there now, what are you seeing?
REESE GOAD, TALLAHASSEE CITY MANAGER: You know, Anderson, it's relatively calm. The winds are picking up. It's been rainy, breezy day, and honestly, we're anxiously waiting the storm. We've been prepared for days. We can see it coming. It's going to be here soon, but were waiting on it and conditions are starting to worsen.
COOPER: The National Weather Service described the storm surge as potentially un-survivable in the region. What do you have to say to residents of Tallahassee and the surrounding areas who have decided to ride out the storm?
GOAD: You know, Anderson, we're about 25 miles North of Saint Marks, the coast, the gulf coast. And so, storm surge is not a concern for us.
COOPER: Right.
GOAD: But we are a very treed community. We've got 55 percent of our land mass is covered by trees. And so that's a threat and we've been communicating with our community and I'll be honest with you. People have taken heed, they've taken safe shelter. The roads have been very calm today. People are in our shelters that need to be in the shelters.
I think people are prepared, they heeded the warning and were bracing for impact.
COOPER: What resources are available to those who've stayed in the area?
GOAD: We have shelters, we've got about 1,400 people in our shelters as we speak. There are eight shelters throughout our county or Leon County, which is where Tallahassee is.
They have a good opportunity for shelter. We've got a backup 911 center just in case people need those resources. We do expect we'll probably have to do rescues overnight. Our fire department is more than prepared to do that and so we stand ready to tackle the challenge. COOPER: In terms of the history of storms that Tallahassee has seen, can you give a sense of how this compares?
GOAD: You know, unfortunately we've seen too many. This is, I believe our sixth storm in about the last eight years, including the tornadoes that impacted us in May. This will, if it stays as projected and it seems it will. This will be the worst we've seen. The winds will be the highest for the longest duration, the widest spread.
And so, we understand that we don't have a comparable. We are very prepared, I will tell you, but we're not sure exactly what this brings. We know it will be worse than we've seen before.
COOPER: Reese, I wish you the best and we'll be in touch. Thank you.
GOAD: Thank you.
COOPER: We've got to take a quick break. More on Helene, now, Category 4 Hurricane, when we come back.
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[20:28:17]
COOPER: We're looking at some video from Michael Bobbitt who we just spoke to a moment ago. That's water rising on to Cedar Key, one of the island that he lives on in the one he very much fears for tonight.
Meantime, the emergency managers in Taylor County, Florida, which is Southeast of Tallahassee, posted this message on Facebook.
"If you were someone you know, chose not to evacuate. Please write your name, birthday, and important information on your arm or leg in a permanent marker or so that you can be identified and family notified."
That is how concerned some are tonight
Joining us, now on the phone is Taylor County's director of Emergency Management, John Louk.
John, we mentioned that Facebook post from the Taylor County Sheriff's Office. Has the county ever issued guidance like that during a previous hurricane?
JOHN, LOUK, TAYLOR COUNTY, EMERGENCY MANAGER (via phone): We'll actually we did, during Hurricane Idalia, of course, at that time we weren't looking at a storm surge like we are now and what everybody needs to remember, this is said to be an unprecedented event for this county where the storm surge from 15 to 20 feet, which is catastrophic and definitely life-threatening. And having people that are not used to dealing with something like this.
We just need to ensure that in unlikely event that fatalities happen, that we can do the job that we need to do when we begin our USAR operations. COOPER: What right now concerns you the most tonight?
LOUK: Well, I guess simply the fact that we are constantly learning. We sent out information on social media for folks to send us an e-mail if they are not evacuating, to let us know where they're at. How many people are in the home, that sort of information, and we are constantly getting e-mails from people, even now, just so close to landfall and it's just very disconcerting that so many people who have not heeded the warnings.
COOPER: Do you have a sense right now of how many you've heard from and how many people do you think are staying behind, who are riding it out?
LOUK: Just for documentation purposes, we are looking at between 300 and 400 people and that's -- well, I'm sorry, I just got the word that is way higher than that. So, it's -- and that's not even obviously, the people that took the time to report to us. So yes, it's disheartening.
COOPER: So, based on what you've seen so far tonight and still obviously a lot can happen between now and landfall, what are you expecting, you know, recovery cleanup operations to look like in the morning?
LOUK: well, it appears like it's going to be a lot like Idalia. Obviously, we're going to have -- we're a large forested area, so we're definitely looking at a large number of trees being down, obviously, a large power outage because of the trees falling on power lines. And just the cleanup alone is going to take quite some time.
And, of course, our first mission is going to get out with our cut crews and tossed team get the roads clear. So first responders can and make their way to people and begin our search and rescue operations.
COOPER: Yes. Well, John, I appreciate you're taking time to talk to us and keep folks updated. John Louk, thank you. I wish you the best.
LOUK: Thanks, sir. Thank you.
COOPER: I want to get the latest tracking on storm now from Jamie Rhome, Deputy Director of the National Hurricane Center. So, Jamie, what can we expect from this once it makes landfall?
JAMIE RHOME, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Man, I was just listening to your previous guest. That's -- that was heartbreaking. You can almost hear the exasperation in his voice, you know, talking about these people that wouldn't leave. And, you know, if our worst-case scenario materializes and it looks like it will for certain parts of the big bend here, we're looking at over 15 feet of storm surge. It's just not going to be pretty when the sun comes up tomorrow.
COOPER: So the 15 feet of storm surge, I mean, just for folks who have not written out a storm like this, have not seen what that actually looks like, what does that look like? What does that mean? RHOME: Well, I'm 6 feet tall, so that's more than two of me, to give you some perspective. Typical ceiling in a home is about 12 feet. So, unless people live in a two-story home, they can't escape it vertically, you know, physically run out of room. And if they try to leave the home in those conditions, it -- the water is not just coming up gently, it's coming up with great force, huge waves on them, you know, there's debris in the water.
It's just not a survivable situation. So I hope that those people, the 300 to 400 people that the gentleman was talking about did leave last minute.
COOPER: Chad Myers from the weather center I know he has some questions for you as well. Chad?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Jamie, we had a predecessor rain event and for those who -- the millions of those who don't know what that means, it has been raining for 24 hours or more in a place that is going to see a very significant wind event. Describe what a PRE is and what these people here, the millions more that are in the way of this wind can expect.
RHOME: Yes. So PRE is just a technical term for, you know, pre- existing sort of set up, pre-existing feature. So there's almost like a cold front, if you will, up in here and then all of this tropical moisture is sort of running up into that cold front and it's already wet ahead of the storm. So usually what happens with these storms is you get all the heavy rainfall and flash flooding with, with the actual center of circulation.
I'm going to turn on the current flood warnings. So these green little areas here denote the current flood warnings where flooding is already occurring. Look how far ahead of the storm. The storm hasn't even gotten there. The storm is way down here. And it's already this huge flooding event taking shape hours before the storm.
This is probably going to be a historic inland flooding event too. And historically speaking, historically speaking, 50 percent of the lives lost are in setups like this.
COOPER: So once the storm makes landfall, expect it to make its way north into Georgia. For people on the storm's anticipated path, what should they be doing right now?
RHOME: You got to be ready to go for long periods of time without power. You know, this part of the country has a really dense, beautiful tree canopy. Those trees sort of are like sails, if you will. They catch the wind, and they come down really easily.
[20:35:00]
And then with all this rain, especially this pre-existing rain, that makes the roots sort of softens the soil, and the roots of the trees can't hold as well as they would normally. So we're just going to have widespread tree outage, trees down and power outages, so people have got to be ready to take care of themselves, take care of themselves for several days without power.
COOPER: Chad, I think you -- do you have another?
MYERS: Jamie, I think people maybe, you know, years ago kind of had this hurricane fatigue. We haven't had the number of hurricanes that we were anticipating at this point. Doesn't mean we're not going to catch up, but this is going to be -- this could be the biggest storm of the year and people don't seem to be taking it seriously.
RHOME: Yes, it's -- there's certainly hearing information that's coming in here that would suggest that people aren't. And, you know, you see the footage of people just out and about walking in these conditions. You know, somehow we got to get people to realize that these aren't just an interesting phenomenon.
They're very, very deadly, especially with this setup that we talked about, with this pre-existing rainfall. We're probably going to lose a lot of lives in this setup with this much flooding potential.
COOPER: Jamie Rhome, appreciate your time. Thank you.
RHOME: Thank you.
COOPER: Carlos Suarez is in St. Petersburg on the water. Carlos, we're -- talk about where you're at right now, what you're seeing.
CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Anderson. So we are in St. Petersburg after trying unsuccessfully to get out back into Tampa because of some of the flooding concerns that are taking place right now here in the St. Pete as well as Clearwater and down in Gulfport.
We're at a marina where you can see behind me part of the pier out here, the seawall was damaged by the rising tide and all of the storm surge associated with this. You can see where this part of the pier here just broke off at two and it's pushed up against this long seawall here. Up and drive -- up and down this portion of St. Pete really shows that much of this neighborhood is in the dark.
There is a good amount of debris and we're still seeing all of this storm water. The storm surge pushed into off of the gulf as well as from Tampa Bay. You know, kind of going into today, we knew that where we were in Gulfport was going to flood because we've covered two other hurricanes, and that's where we had pre-positioned. But going into the afternoon today, we really knew it was going to be a particularly more dire situation because all of that water just started to rush.
And when you looked at the radar, the storm at that time was still to the southwest of us. Of course, now it's continued on that track north, but even with the storm staying off about 100 miles to the west of Pinellas County, where we are right now, you could still feel all of that, the wind. You could still feel all of that rain that fell over the past couple of hours.
And more importantly, you started to see that storm surge. And this right now really is not the worst of it, because even though the storm has slowly continued its way north, a high tide is not going to be here until about 12:00 or 1:00 in the morning. So you're still going to have all of that water being pushed in, even though the storm is far north of where we are right now.
But, Anderson, that's kind of the situation here in St. Pete. We were about 20 minutes to the south and the west of here where things just were too dangerous for us to be. So we kind of drove around. We found this one area and then we just came across this damaged here.
COOPER: Yes.
SUAREZ: And it's pretty dark out here because the neighborhood has lost power, but up and down this marina here, it's just littered with debris and buoys and trash. At this point, you can understand the -- you can get a better grasp of the situation when folks wake up tomorrow and the cleanup effort gets underway here in St. Petersburg.
COOPER: Yes. Carlos --
SUAREZ: Anderson?
COOPER: -- Carlos Suarez, thanks very much.
It was one of the things Carlos said, it's just important to point out, storm surge coming in if it's a 15-foot storm surge coming in at, you know, midnight or 1:00 a.m. in the morning into your house. The lights are already off. That is a very scary situation for a lot of people who are staying behind.
Conditions appear to be worsening in Apalachicola. We'll take you back there live. Also, we'll talk to the superintendent of Tallahassee schools, some of which, as you've heard, are now being used as shelters from the now category forced storm. We'll be right back.
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[20:43:38]
COOPER: ?So we've just gotten some early storm surge numbers from the CNN Weather Center. Tampa Bay, 5.5 feet, St. Petersburg, 5 feet. The larger numbers, though, are yet to come farther up the coast with the National Hurricane Center. This forecast say as much as 20 feet of water in some areas.
CNN's Derek Van Dam is in Apalachicola. How are things there?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: So Apalachicola, Anderson, has just passed low tide and we have had 3.6 feet of surge reported at that low tide value. And a buoy on the west side of the eye wall of major Hurricane Helene. So still out in the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 miles away, are registered wave heights at 25 feet.
So we anticipate as the tide levels, high tide approaches and as the brunt of the storm approaches, that surge is going to come in fast and it's going to come in furious as well. Conditions have deteriorated so quickly as you would expect with an incoming major category 4 hurricane. But when we talk about the immediate threats to this area, aside from storm surge, it is the potential for catastrophic winds.
There is a extreme wind warning that the National Weather Service really reserves for the most extreme moments during a hurricane event. They haven't issued one just yet, but I do anticipate that to occur, probably along the coastline of the Big Bend, just to my east, Taylor County, perhaps into Tallahassee as well.
[20:45:10]
This is reserved for those moments where winds are so extreme that it is time to shelter in place. We will be on the western side of this storm, but because of its size, we know that the impacts will be felt well away from here. And, you know, what can 100 mile per hour winds do? Well, it can peel back roofs of houses. It can collapse buildings. It can snap power poles in half, and it can topple trees like a moment's notice.
And speaking of trees, that is one of the big concerns in this area, because the Big Bend, the natural coastline of Florida, all the way to Tallahassee, they pride themselves on their oak trees, the pine trees that line this area. They're going to be no stand against a hurricane of this force, of this magnitude, and they will come down and they will take power down with it.
It is a miracle that here in Apalachicola, the power hasn't even flickered yet, but I expect that to change as we get the brunt of the worst part of the storms impacts here in Apalachicola as we approach the evening past 8:00 p.m. and into -- excuse me -- approaching a midnight hour, I should say, Anderson.
So this storm we know it means business, it's tightening and it's core, it's center. And that's the indicator to the meteorologists that this storm it continues to strengthen --
COOPER: Yes.
VAN DAM: -- and balloon in size and the impacts will be felt well inland from here.
COOPER: Derek Van Dam, thank you. Be careful.
I want to go to CNN's John Berman in Tallahassee. John, how are things?
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I heard Derek say conditions deteriorating. I know what that feels like, Anderson. Here in Tallahassee, the winds are picking up. They're measuring gusts now somewhere around 30 plus miles an hour, maybe a little stronger now. So getting closer and closer to tropical storm force winds.
Some of the hardest rain that we've had yet, kind of the exfoliating rain that tears at your face as we've been talking about all night. Tallahassee has not been hit in recorded history with sustained hurricane force winds. That is what is expected tonight. Maybe a direct hit on Tallahassee. In fact, the storm will make landfall some 20 miles south of here, maybe around St. Marks in the Big Bend area as a category 4 storm, winds of 125, 130 miles per hour. But up here over Tallahassee, it could still be 110 miles an hour, and they've just never seen anything like that.
A city official told me a short time ago they expect thousands of trees. Thousands and thousands of trees to come down the beautiful live oaks here, and that will just cause major problems. Hundreds of road closures expected. Hurricane Michael a few years ago, which wasn't a direct hit on Tallahassee at all caused power outage for 90 percent of the population here for a week.
So a direct hit on Tallahassee. It could be much worse than that. They've got power crews staged already again. That wind is really starting to pick up in the rain coming down here. But the power crews are staged, ready to work on repairs tomorrow morning. The worst of the storm still a few hours away from Tallahassee, but really racing for a direct hit, the likes of which, Anderson, they just have never seen before.
COOPER: Yes. John Berman, thank you. We'll check in with you again.
Joining us is the superintendent of Leon County Schools, Rocky Hanna. So, Superintendent, what's the situation now in the school shelters? Obviously, the schools are closed will be tomorrow, I assume. They've been turned into shelters. How many people would you estimate are now seeking shelter in school?
ROCKY HANNA, SUPERINTENDENT, LEON COUNTY SCHOOLS: Yes, Anderson, we're just all collectively holding our breath from Cedar Key to Apalachicola. I've lived here my entire life. And to your earlier comments that were made in the mid-1980s, we had a small category 1 hurricane Kate that came through Tallahassee and Leon County and it devastated this community has been mentioned before.
We love our trees and our power lines are above ground. It took weeks and really months for us to just recover from that storm. On Wednesday, our students went to school for a half day. We quickly turned our schools, our public schools into emergency shelters. We are operating eight emergency shelters and then two shelters for Leon County Schools employees.
It's the duty and responsibility we have as a public school system. A lot of people don't realize that, is to shelter people from harm. You know, their homes many times cannot withstand these high force winds by building codes. Our public schools can withstand hurricane force winds, and we don't have a lot of trees around our schools.
And times like this is when leaders step up and lead. And I'm just so thankful to our school principals, our administrators, our teachers, our non-instructional personnel that have stepped up and left their families to man these facilities.
As the manager mentioned earlier, we're now over 2,000 residents both from Leon County and surrounding counties like Taylor and Wakulla, Jefferson, Madison.
[20:50:08]
And we'll -- we're just hunkering down and just wait. You know, the sun's going to come up tomorrow morning and we'll evaluate the damage and then see what steps we take next. But, you know, property can be replaced, Anderson. People cannot.
COOPER: Yes.
HANNA: And we've worked long and hard to be ready for this moment. We are in unison with our city government, our county government, emergency management officials. And I'm really proud and honored to, you know, to serve as superintendent. I've been with our district my entire career. I'm a product of our public schools.
Tallahassee is a great place to live, but let's face it. It's Florida and from time to time, things like this happen. This is --
COOPER: Yes.
HANNA: -- like Idalia, but on steroids.
COOPER: Yes. Superintendent Rocky Hanna, thank you so much. Good luck to you.
Coming up next, the mayor of one of the Florida cities is expected to see record water levels when we come back.
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[20:55:15]
COOPER: We're getting some more storm surge numbers from the weather center. Clearwater Beach is now seeing 5 feet of water. I'm joined by the mayor of Clearwater, Bruce Rector. Mayor, what are conditions like right now?
MAYOR BRUCE RECTOR, CLEARWATER, FLORIDA: Well, as you just said, we've got a storm surge of 5 feet here was recently measured and then that's exceeding the seawall by 3 feet. So, and also the report just recently that our famous pier 60 on Clearwater Beach that the water is up to the pier. So it's very serious out on Clearwater Beach right now.
COOPER: I know the storm is expected to bring record water levels to Clearwater. What is the record that exists right now? Do you know?
RECTOR: Yes. Well, you go way, way back to, you know, the 1920s when, you know, we've been fortunate in Tampa Bay and I'd have a major hurricane for a long time. So I'm sure nothing today would exceed that. But this is definitely in, you know, larger than in recent history.
I got a call just a minute ago from somebody who's been here in Clearwater for well over 10 years. And they chose to stay out on the beach and water is threatening their home. So they stayed because they just never have seen this kind of water come onto the beach.
COOPER: So what do you say to somebody at that state? I mean, it's too late to leave now, right?
RECTOR: Too late to leave now. You stay inside, you get up high as high as you can, you protect yourself and -- but for folks out there that are stranded, if they let us know, then as soon as our first responders can get out there to check on them, they will do that.
We have to wait for the sustained winds to drop down to make sure our first responders are safe, but there are a lot of people in Clearwater who are anxious right now. Some have lost power, so it's dark. They've had water threatening their homes like they've never seen it threatened before. And it's a very scary time for a lot of folks here.
COOPER: So right now you have about 5 feet recorded on the terms of storm surge. What are you expecting? What are you anticipating the highest to be?
RECTOR: But the forecast was up to 8 feet and now we've still got, you know, upwards of two or three more hours to go. High tide here is a little after 11:00 tonight. So, we could get up to that 8-foot forecast number.
COOPER: And what kind of an impact would that have?
RECTOR: That's going to intrude a lot of homes. You know, our main priority is life, human life. We want to make sure that everyone is safe. We don't want anyone to get hurt. So, as long as people are smart, they stay in their homes and they stay up, they've secured their home and protected against, you know, intrusion into electrical devices and things. Then they should be able to get through it. But they need to be smart and not get out of their homes and get to a high place within their home.
COOPER: Yes. Mayor Rector, I know it's going to be a long night for you. I appreciate your time. Thank you.
RECTOR: Thank you, Anderson.
COOPER: I want to check back in with CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers, he has some new and concerning wind speed numbers. Chad?
MYERS: Yes. We know now that the Hurricane Center is putting out the new update every hour, not every six hours, not every three hours, but every single hour. And the number is now 140 miles per hour, category 4, 140. And how they figured that out is that there is a Lockheed Orion airplane through this and it found a wind gust at 7,000 feet. But it found a gust at 160 miles per hour.
Now that's not surface, that's aloft. So you have to reduce that by a little bit. But because of actually the reduction itself, they got to 140 for the maximum sustained winds for this storm right now, still intensifying. And these are always the worst as they continue to intensify as they get closer and closer to land. Anderson? COOPER: So Chad, just in terms of when landfall, you know, we talked about this, you know, earlier in the hour, but let's just give an update in the last, you know, minute and a half that we have. When is expected to make landfall and where?
MYERS: The worst part of the eye wall is probably three hours away. We always call landfall the center of the eye. But by the time the center of the eye comes by, half of the damage has already been done. So the center of the eye is still about 70 or so miles away. But the eye wall itself is getting closer and closer, probably within two hours for the eye, at least the northern part, the northern part of the eye wall is a couple hours out.
COOPER: And do you expect it still, I mean, it's tracking for the northern part of Florida Northwest.
MYERS: It has not moved. It has not budged at all. It just has not budged. This is -- because when it started to move quickly, it's moving 20, 25 miles per hour. When it does that, now all of a sudden it has momentum. It doesn't wobble anymore. It's not doing two or three back and forth. It has its eye on the arm right here, bend of Florida.
And as it comes right on by, it's probably very, very close to St. Marks. And I hope there's no one left in St. Marks right now because I've been in that town in Ivan and there was a dozen feet of surge and it was really bad.
COOPER: Yes.
MYERS: And if we're going to get 20 feet of surge, that's going to be worse.
COOPER: Chad Myers, thank you.
CNN's coverage of Hurricane Helene continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now. I'll see you tomorrow.
