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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Parts of Florida Gulf Coast Evacuate as Dangerous Hurricane Milton Takes Aim; Harris Slams Trump's Lies Around Hurricane Relief; Harris Embarks on Media Blitz as Republicans Claim She's Avoiding the Press. Israelis Remember Horrors Of Oct. 7 Attack, One Year Later; Hurricane Milton "Explosively" Stronger With 180 MPH Winds; FL On Alert; Bloody Fork, NC Reels From Aftermath Of Hurricane Helene. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired October 07, 2024 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST (on camera): Does Aviv want a brother or sister?
DORON ASHER, FREED FROM HAMAS CAPTIVITY ALONGSIDE TWO YOUNG DAUGHTERS: (Speaking in foreign language)
YONI ASHER, WIFE AND TWO YOUNG DAUGHTERS FREED FROM HAMAS CAPTIVITY: She wants a brother.
BURNETT (on camera): She wants a brother, okay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Just a moment of simple brightness and an ongoing tragedy which has no end in sight tonight for so, so many.
Thanks so much for joining us, AC360 starts right now.
[20:00:34]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360, people getting out while they can with Hurricane Milton a Cat 5 storm heading straight for Tampa, Florida which hasn't taken a direct hit since 1921.
Also, tonight, the latest from hard hit North Carolina and the lies the former president continues to tell about the relief effort.
And later, on the one year anniversary of the October 7 terror attack. We check back in with the woman still waiting for her family being held hostage to come home.
Good evening. Thanks for joining us.
It took Hurricane Milton less than 24 hours to go from an 80 mile an hour storm to 180 mile an hour monster, one of the fastest-growing hurricanes ever. And on the path that it's on, it could also be the first in more than a hundred years to directly hit Tampa, Florida, a city largely at sea level where even a smaller storm could do serious damage and which is still cleaning up from his brush with Hurricane Helene, which may be why people began leaving today and why as many as 600 ambulances today began evacuating patients from area hospitals and nursing facilities.
Tampa's airport closes tomorrow morning, 51 Florida counties have now declared emergencies, evacuation orders have also gone out for some barrier islands. The National Hurricane Center, just out with a new bulletin and I want to go right now to CNN meteorologist, Chad Myers. So how did this storm intensifies so rapidly? And what do the coming hours look like?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely no shear for it to be torn apart and extremely warm, record warm water down there. And now, we're into this thing called a loop current.
The loop current is the water that comes out of the Caribbean just to the east its of Cancun, which is the warmest water yet, it's already 180 miles per hour. This thing will hit the West Coast of Florida. Is it going to be on the south side of the cone to the north? I don't know yet.
We're still probably 36 hours away from really getting an idea of where this goes. But hurricane hunters are in it right now and they found the winds still at 180 miles per hour. An intense storm. I can't imagine being in that aircraft and flying around seeing what's going there and getting bounced around because what was a 50 mile per hour storm just 36 hours ago, is now 180.
And yes, we will get what's called an eye-wall replacement cycle when that inner eye wall, right now it's only four miles around. If you were inside the eye its two miles to that side of the eye wall and two miles to that side of the eye wall. That will eventually collapse and a larger eye wall will form around the outside and the pressure will go up and the wind speed will go down.
We expect that, when you get a big storm like that, that just happens all the time. But look what's going to happen here. Major hurricane winds in this entire purple area, hurricane winds all the way past the East Coast. There will be a million or more people without power. Guess where the power men are, guess with a line people are. They're up in the Carolinas trying to get their power back on. This take a very long time. Power could be out for weeks, if not longer.
Now, you talked about the storm surge in Tampa with Helene, it was about seven feet. The forecast right now is 10 to 15 feet. So, double the surge that they had from Helene and how much damage was done there. There will be homes that no longer exists, especially along the coast. That's just obviously going to happen when you get a 10 foot surge and homes are right on the beach there going to be missing.
We can't have people in those houses that are missing. This is the problem that's why you need to go today. The great news about this and unlike what when we were in Charlie years ago, this did the rapid intensification days ahead of time. So we have the knowledge that it's going to be a big storm. Charlie was down here, it just went boom and all of a sudden, 12 hours later, it was onshore. This at least is giving us a little bit of time to get out of the way. All the models here, obviously on the West Coast of Florida. Some though much farther to the south, If you remember, we were waiting for Charlie in Tampa and it was weighed down here in Punta Gorda.
And so, that can happen. It can turn, they still do when they get close to land, they can turn. Flood watch in effect, obviously four to eight inches of rainfall. Some models now predicting probably in the neighborhood of about 15 inches of rainfall. And that's just a freshwater flooding that's possible. From Alberto to Beryl, the very earliest Category 5 in the Atlantic, to Milton, the very latest Category 5 ever in the Atlantic Ocean.
COOPER: And Chad, it's unclear, just unclear. When do you expect it to make landfall?
MYERS: Midnight Wednesday night, Thursday morning.
COOPER: Okay.
[20:05:05]
MYERS: So, it will be making significant damage by our time on Wednesday night show that you and I will be on.
COOPER: All right, Chad Myers, thank you very much. We'll have more on Hurricane Milton later in the program, as well as reporting from the areas worst hit by Helene in North Carolina where the death toll it is still climbing and to that point, FEMA today said the agency has enough funding to handle the response to hurricanes Milton and Helene.
The fact that it has to reassure people about that speaks not just to the weather lately, but also the political climate. That's because in spite of Republican mayors and governors and senators in hurricane affected states saying otherwise, Donald Trump has been lying again about disaster relief. This weekend, he falsely suggested $750.00 was all storm victims can expect to get from the government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They send hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign nations and you know what, they're giving our people? Seven hundred and fifty bucks.
They are offering them $750.00 to people whose homes had been washed away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: I wanted to point out the $750.00 is only for immediate needs and only one form of aid, among others, that the government offers.
As we reported on Friday, FEMA now has a webpage setup dedicated to addressing false information and rumors, many of which are being amplified by the former president, who has a much bigger megaphone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They've given over a billion to illegal migrants that came in and now they have no money for North Carolina, for Georgia, for South Carolina, and Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida.
They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank. Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars on housing for illegal migrants, almost no money because they spent it all on illegal migrants.
A billion dollars was stolen from FEMA.
They're missing a billion dollars that they gave to migrants coming into our country.
The federal government is not being responsive.
Kamala wined and dined in San Francisco and all of the people in North Carolina, no helicopters, no rescue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So again, both Democratic and Republican elected officials where Helene struck have openly pushed back against these lies. Here's North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis on Sunday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): We can have a discussion about the failure of this administration's border policies and the billions of dollars its costing. But right now, not yet is it affecting the flow of resources to Western North Carolina.
MARGARET BRENNAN, CBS NEWS: It is not an effector to be clear, okay.
TILLIS: Not at this time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: There's also new reporting that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis refused to take multiple storm related phone calls from Vice President Harris. He said today he didn't know that she called. She had this to say when asked about it late today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games with this moment in this crisis situations, these are the height of emergency situations. It's just utterly irresponsible and it is selfish and it is about political gamesmanship instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do which is to put the people first.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: That's the vice president late today.
Joining us now Republican strategist, north Carolinian Doug Heye, also a CNN political commentator, Alyssa Farah Griffin, who will be making the case against the foreign president in Pennsylvania this week, but did not endorse either candidate and CNN's Kristen Holmes in Miami where he is holding, the former president holding an October 7th commemoration.
Alyssa, your reaction to what Trump has been saying.
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's gross, but it's dangerous.
Listen, Donald Trump worked directly with FEMA and I would actually argue that if all the government agencies, I've ever worked with, FEMA may be the most effective at executing their job.
Pete Gainer, the former administrator under Donald Trump, was one of the core response efforts behind the COVID response, but also many natural disasters that Donald Trump had to oversee. He knows this information isn't true and it has real life consequences on the ground. Volunteers have been depressed because they think that there's not a need or they're not able to get to where they need to be.
FEMA is spending resources, as you said, to knock down these lies and then you have people who desperately need help who are being told there's no help to get, when in fact, there are quite a lot of federal resources out there. And I would just note, America's adversaries love this.
This is a field day for Russia and China who are going to amplify on social media ahead of the election to just stoke fear and tear us apart.
This is, listen, everything becomes politicized a month out from an election. But this is a step further that I've never really seen something like this when you're dealing with multiple horrible national natural disasters at the same time. And it just shows Donald Trump is willing to go solo.
COOPER: Yes, I mean, Doug, you're from North Carolina. A lot of your families are still there. I'm wondering what you're hearing from people hello on the ground about, I mean, are people hearing these lies? Is it impacting things at all?
DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: They sure are and Anderson. I got a call on Thursday from Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, who represents one of the district's most affected by the hurricane, and made it very clear to me that FEMA assured her and other North Carolina members on a call that they have more than enough funds for Helene that they're good there.
And look, clearly some of the media attention wasn't where it should have been last weekend and certainly we didn't know the direction of the storm, so some of the resources weren't on the ground there. But when you're spreading disinformation, it means all sorts of agencies. It's not just FEMA, right?
It's state agencies, it's the small business administrations, not just Joe Biden or Donald Trump in this matter. It's a comprehensive federal and state and states' effort. What they have to do is then take their eye of the ball to tell people these things are false and then these things are true.
[20:10:26]
This is the news you can rely on and this is what you can't. It takes their eye off the ball and makes it that much harder. And there's also brass politics in this, as Alyssa mentioned, but it's also stupid politics.
The reality is the area of North Carolina that was hit is overwhelmingly Republican. Donald Trump, of the -- of the 25 counties that are under emergency declaration, Donald Trump won all of them, but two. There are about 185,000 more Republicans than there are Democrats in this issue, or in that area.
So, by spreading this misinformation, you're hurting your own voters first and we know Donald Trump takes his people sort of as a special, special case. He's damaging them for his own political good. That's malicious.
COOPER: Kristen, I mean, does the Trump campaign have any explanation for why the former president continues to lie about this response. I mean, it's obvious why he does, and there's obviously a shamelessness obviously that he's used to, but I mean, do they did they have any explanation?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, I am afraid, I am going to have to speak quietly because we're in a small room here. But what we're hearing from the campaign is that there is absolutely no change in posture and that they would disagree with what Doug just said about how this impacts his own voters. He is trying to speak to people to use two of his tactics that we have seen him use before.
One, blaming the Biden-Harris administration for faults that are happening on the ground and in United States in this case, the storm response. And two, blaming migrants, and in this case, he can actually merge the two saying that the Biden-Harris administration is using money that was supposed to go towards his supporters in order to pay for migrants.
Obviously, we know this is not true. Again as both Doug and Alyssa just said, these are falsehoods, these are lies, they are not the way things are playing out on the ground. We have heard from Republicans who have said that as well. However, this is something that they plan to continue running on and just keep in mind, we are now facing another hurricane. So, expect to hear this narrative going forward.
COOPER: Alyssa, something that DeSantis is saying that, I didn't know Vice President Harris had called, I guess you could say there's politics that the Vice President Harris wants to be seen as being sort of in command and therefore, she's calling DeSantis. I don't know if there's a role for her that she needs to be calling him, what do you make of that sort of playing out?
GRIFFIN: I think everyone is still being afraid of having that Chris Christie hugging Obama moment of embracing, you a different political partisan. But the reality is it's like I worked for Vice President Pence and anytime there was a major natural disaster, he would also be calling governors, members of Congress in the areas that were affected. It's not just the president, so yes, she's a candidate, but it's also an entirely appropriate thing for the vice president of the United States to be doing its a moment for him to rise to the occasion of leadership and show hurricanes don't choose Republicans or Democrats. This is going to be a whole of government effort.
And I would just also note that the especially North Carolina and we don't even know what damage Milton is going to cause. There's going to be years of rebuilding, there's going to need to be congressional supplementals to pay for this. Those are things that are done on a bipartisan basis. And Donald Trump stoking fear, lying about it now doesn't exactly bode well for if he is to be re-elected, that he's going to assist those areas that he's not going to let politics affect it and he's going to work across the aisle to get people what they actually need.
COOPER: It's just such a bummer because, I mean, disasters, wars, it usually bring people together, brings the country together, brings leaders together. And in the midst of this, in this most painful moment to use people's pain and to try to manipulate it, it just seems particularly egregious.
I understand, Doug, that you're also hearing kind of new threads of misinformation that are starting to circulate related to the storm.
HEYE: Yes. We're starting to hear from folks on the ground that the case is being made -- it is being built, that if Donald Trump somehow loses or to sort of pre-spin a loss in advance that the state board of elections, the moves that they're making to make it easier for people in these impacted areas to vote or somehow trying to rig the game in all the, all the terminology that Trump uses to set this election for Harris, it's not true, but it's just another way.
The problem with conspiracy theories, Anderson, is when you debunk one, there's always another one to come along, that sort of proves the previous ones case as well.
Let me just say very quickly as well, look, whether DeSantis or Biden or Harris talked and DeSantis worked very well with Biden, the last set of hurricanes that came through, what's more important is that these are not sexy positions, but your regional small business administration, your regional director is speaking to their state counterpart, the regional FEMA director is speaking to their state counterpart, and that is definitely happening on the ground and its why we're seeing the relief efforts now really ramped up after starting off slowly.
COOPER: Doug Heye, Alyssa Farrah Griffin, Kristen Holmes, thank you.
Still to come tonight, the former president has already said that undocumented immigrants are poisoning the blood of America. And now, he's raising concerns about their genetics.
[20:15:08]
Also, one year ago today, Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel. We'll talk to the relative of a family of four, including two small kids who were kidnapped that day and whose fate is still unknown.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: So by now most of the former president's thoughts on undocumented immigrants are well-known including rapists, killer, and alike. Today though, that kind of thinking crossed streams at it were with another of his well-known beliefs namely in genetics and breeding, here's what he told Hugh Hewitt today in the middle of talking about murderous migrants.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
TRUMP: You know, now a murderer, I believe this, it's in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
COOPER: He also said falsely that Vice President Harris was "allowing people" to come through an open border 13,000 of which were murderers. That number in fact comes from figures which are not specifically about people who entered the country during the Biden-Harris administration. They cover any administration going back decades.
In addition, that number includes besides, people who are in jail, or prison in for their crimes currently, or who have served their times for crimes.
Back to genetics though it is, as we said, something of a pet subject of his in this case. In 2020, invoking not murderers, bad genes, but Minnesota nice ones.
[20:20:11]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes isn't it, don't you believe? The race source theory, you think we're so different. You have good genes in Minnesota.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: A 2000 Republican strategist and Harris supporter Anna Navarro, also former Biden White House communications strategist, Kate Bedingfield and Trump 2020 campaign senior official Erin Perrine.
I mean, Anna, it's obviously, you know, this is what he's done for years, you know, talking about poisoning the blood and genetics. I mean, it's -- these are not good. These are echoes of not good historical fact. ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes in 2016, it was Mexicans are criminals and rapists and bad hombres. In 2024, it's bad genes. Look, you know, it's the kind of thing he's been saying for forever, right?
He's been peddling otherizing other people. We have seen that he blames everything on migrants and immigrants. He makes up stories about Haitians, and you can say to yourself, this is just rhetoric, this is just Trump in the stupid stuff he says continuously.
People who support him say, Oh you know, don't take him literally, don't take him seriously.
Here's the problem. Because of the things he says, people get triggered. Because of the things he says he inspires people like the mass shooter that drove miles and miles and miles to an El Paso Walmart and killed 23 people because he was hunting down on Latinos.
Because of the things he said, kids in school, Latino kids in school get called racial slurs and have that trauma forever. So his words matter, his words matter. And this is just who he is.
COOPER: Erin, is the sort of language, bad genes poisoning the blood, is that stuff moderate swing voters want to hear in the waning days of a general election?
ERIN PERRINE, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, NEVER BACKDOWN PAC: It's not the most strategic targeted measured message towards swing voters going into a general election. The voters are being very clear about what they care about right now. It's about the economy and about immigration. It's about their families and their communities, and the way that the politicians of every stripe and color need to be talking to them is on a humanizing level.
When they're talking about the economy, it's about affordability, it's about groceries, when they're talking about immigration, they're talking about their communities and the safety and sovereignty of this nation. Make it something people can relate to and not something you need to fear monger on. We're in the closing days of this election and every inch matters. We're seeing young Latino a "USA Today" poll move more toward young male voters, more toward Donald Trump. You're going to see these demographics continue to break in these late days.
The message that is being delivered by both candidates needs to be strategic and smart to make sure that they're getting this done. And right now, that is not helping Donald Trump.
Kate, I mean, they continue -- if Trump continues to do this, the campaign continues to do this. So I mean, they must have some belief that this works for them. I mean, does it appeal to some sort of feral brain part of human beings?
KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, look, I would be afraid to even try to get inside the mind of Donald Trump and who he thinks this is appealing to. But look, does it appeal to moderate voters to swing voters, to the voters that he needs to win over in the final month of this election? No.
I mean, we know that immigration is an issue that does work generally in his favor. But what people don't like is exactly this kind of language. They don't like the hateful rhetoric. They don't like the divisive language.
And so, talking in this way, which I think Anna is absolutely right, it does, you know, it causes people to behave and really problematic ways.
It also just coarsens our politics, it makes it harder and harder to actually come to solutions, which I think maybe exactly what Donald Trump's trying to do here in some ways. I mean, he is the one who took the bipartisan immigration bill off the table because he wanted to keep the issue to campaign on it. He's not looking for solutions.
So, if he thinks this is connecting with some piece of his base, maybe it is, I'm certainly not the person who could speak to what's working with the MAGA base. But in a general election when you are trying to reach these voters who are ultimately going to determine the outcome of this election? No, this is not a winning strategy and it's dangerous.
COOPER: I know you're obviously co-host on "The View." Vice President Harris is going to be on tomorrow. Clearly she is now putting yourself out there more. She was on the "Call Her Daddy Podcast". She's been doing more TV stuff "60 Minutes".
NAVARRO: I am trying not to chuckle where you're saying "Call Her Daddy" -- but go ahead.
COOPER: Well, you know. it is a very popular podcast. Anyway, she is doing "60 Minutes". What do you expect tomorrow?
NAVARRO: Look I -- it's going to be her first live interview since she became a nominee. She's been on "The View" before as vice president. I think she, I think she needs to be authentic. I think she needs to show who she is. I'm very happy that she's going to be out there.
[20:25:07]
She is doing "The View". She's doing Howard Stern. She's doing Stephen Colbert. She's doing a Univision town hall in Las Vegas on Thursday me. She's doing podcasts. She's doing traditional and nontraditional media. We've heard --
COOPER: Do you think she should had done that sooner?
NAVARRO: No, Anderson, she was busy, you know, I mean, literally, she's been running for like a couple of months. She had to pick a vice president. She had to plan a Democratic National Convention. She had to get herself together. She had to get her team together, get the campaign running.
And so like, I know that the media, you know, I know that we like to think that the world revolves around this. She's been doing rallies with thousands and thousands of voters. She's been talking to voters, going to swing states. Now she's going to -- she has this media strategy and I think it's exactly the right time. Because I will tell you, yes, I know that we've been moaning about it, but this is when a lot of people are starting to pay attention.
So yes, this is a good thing that she's doing it.
COOPER: Anna, thanks very much, appreciate it.
Well actually, Kate, I mean, do you think this is the right strategy at this point for her to be doing this?
BEDINGFIELD: Yes, I do. I think she needs to be out there flooding the zone. I think it's great that she's doing some of these outlets that are reaching, people who are not particularly engaged in politics, which is where the majority of these undecided voters live.
Not a lot of undecided voters are watching CNN every day. People watching CNN or engaged in politics and probably already know who they're going to vote for. But some of the people that she's reaching by doing these kind of more non-traditional outlets are exactly the voters who may genuinely still be on the fence. So that is smart.
The only thing I would add to this strategy is to really flood the zone with local media when she's in these swing states. At a time when people's faith in media continues to decline people still trust their local evening news anchor the most. And so, that is a great way to reach people who again are just tuning in after work to watch the local news and then turn the TV off.
So I would really encourage her to do more of that as well.
COOPER: Yes, Kate --
NAVARRO: And you're not going to encourage her to do Anderson Cooper?
COOPER: No, that's all right. Anna, Erin, Kate, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Coming up, my conversation with Effed Seiler, a prominent voice for the families of those kidnapped by Hamas during their terror attack on Israel on October 7, one year ago today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:31:31]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Anguish, heartache, frustration expressed across Israel today, one year after the October 7th terror attack. Mourners remember the more than 1,200 people killed and about 250 who were initially taken hostage.
Some demonstrators demanded the Israeli government make a ceasefire deal to get the hostages back. Combat continues in Gaza, where, according to the Hamas run health ministry, more than 41,000 people have been killed. They don't specify how many of those people were Hamas fighters.
At the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds were killed, mourners heard the song that had been playing one year earlier, as government stormed the concert, slaughtering hundreds. At Kibbutz Nir Oz, mourners remembered the close knit community, where about one in four people were murdered or kidnapped.
Among those taken from Nir Oz that day were members of the Bibas family. Parents Yarden and Shiri Bibas and their children, Ariel, who was four, and Kfir, who was nine months old. Kfir is the youngest person kidnapped that day. Shiri Bibas' parents were murdered that day. Last year, just days after the attack, I spoke with Shiri's cousin, Yifat Ziler.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
YIFAT ZILER, FAMILY MEMBERS KILLED AND KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS: The only thing that helps me be sane right now is sitting here with you and showing their faces and telling their story. I want my family back. Please, I want my family back. I'm trying to be strong and stoic and speak clearly, but I'm devastated. I'm devastated, so no. I don't know what else to do.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: Yes. That was a year ago. Yifat Zailer attended the memorial service at Kibbutz Nir Oz today, and I spoke to her earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: I think about Kfir and Ariel a lot since we talked over the last year, and the idea of them in captivity like this is, it's unthinkable.
ZAILER: I don't think there are words to describe how I feel. I feel a personal failure that they're still there. You heard me talk and ask and plea for help. And now a year later, I feel that I'm losing the legitimacy to talk about them to the world. As if what happened to us is justified.
I'm worried. We are in this in between situation that we don't know. And no one is taking accountability about them. Entire family just vanished. They were taken from us a year ago and we don't know nothing.
COOPER: You said you feel at times like you don't have legitimacy to talk about them. Why?
ZAILER: A year ago when we sat in the park, it was the before, the ground invasion. The war changed a lot in the world's opinion in where they stand. And how they feel towards how my government actions.
[20:35:06]
This war is horrible. When I talk about our two beautiful boys, I get asked a lot, OK, but you know there are a lot of children who died on the other side, in Gaza. And my heart is broken. I don't want to see any child die, or being hurt, or lose their parents.
And I try to remind everyone that Kfir and Ariel, our children too, with no political point of view. I was born to a home who believed in a two-state solution. We're not violent people. We don't glorify death or want to kill whomever is different from us. This is not who we are and this is what I hear.
But October 7th happened to us. And it broke everything that I believe in, that there are people like me on the other side who just want to live. I've been -- we've been doing everything we can this past year to talk about my family, to talk about the Ariel al Kfir, to explain who we are, what happened to us.
When we spoke, I thought my aunt and uncle were kidnapped as well. Two weeks later, we found out they were burnt alive in their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. I'm in my darkest times and I can still find compassion, but I don't feel that compassion from the world anymore towards us.
And you can hate my government. You can criticize their action. But don't hate us. Don't justify what happened to us as a means to free Palestine. I never in my life thought that these words will come out of my mouth. This is not how you free Palestine, by taking a nine- month old baby from his home and no one is saying anything.
COOPER: You feel like the world does not care.
ZAILER: I feel it's very complicated. I understand it's very complicated, but at the end of the day, we are all people. We are all humans and the crime was committed against us too. And all sides should be accountable. I don't hear the same criticism towards Hamas.
I'm sorry. We here, we stand in the street. We shout. We want to change things here. This is a democratic country. I can say whatever I want. I feel free. Why don't we hear anything from Gaza, towards (ph) the Hamas leadership, towards Yahya Sinwar.
People tell me they're afraid. These are the voices that you should hear more.
COOPER: Yifat, I know --
ZAILER: I know about every (INAUDIBLE) died in Gaza. I saw the photos. I looked for the photos that were sent to us because someone thought they saw a little boy with red head, countless bodies. They know what's happening over there.
I'm asking, does someone on the other side know about what happened to us? They know about Kfir and Ariel? Do they know what Hamas did to us? Do the pro-Palestinian rallies -- in your colleges, do they know about Kfir and Ariel? About my cousin Shiri and her husband Yarden?
They feel like I have to somehow be there to explain my country, but I can't. I can't explain an entire conflict.
[20:40:02] But I will never justify violence and the generational effect of all of this, this cycle of vengeance. And just now I'm coming out of the shelter because bombs from Lebanon are being fired into the center of Israel.
And I have to find the strength and -- to do this because we're not -- it's not over. And I will never stop until they're back.
COOPER: Yifat, thank you for talking to us.
ZAILER: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: Yifat Zailer. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: ?We just got word that President Biden and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke tonight about their preparations for Hurricane Milton. It's now packing sustained winds of 180 miles an hour with higher gusts and expected to hit Florida's west coast, possibly in the Tampa area.
[20:45:08]
Officials are warning people not to take this one lightly. Milton is the strongest hurricane in the gulf in nearly 20 years, the strongest storm so far this year, anywhere on the planet. Making matters even more ominous, the storm is expected to hit an area still cleaning up from Hurricane Helene nearly two weeks ago.
Joining us now is Sheila Loccisano, who lives in Longboat Key, Florida, a barrier island near Sarasota. Her community was hard hit during Helene. Thank you so much for being with us. First of all, what's it been like trying to recover from Helene and now having to deal with this?
SHEILA LOCCISANO, LONGBOAT KEY, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Helene was -- it was a nightmare. I stayed and nobody had any idea of the surge that we were going to encounter and the whole island -- all the islands around us have struggled, the damage was terrible up and down. Anna Maria, Longboat, Siesta, Lido, it's been unbelievable.
COOPER: Yes, we're looking at some of your video, which I think is from a resort there. I mean, it's just -- it just looks awful. And the storm surge for this -- for Milton is expected to be, I think, like twice as big.
LOCCISANO: I can't even -- I can't imagine it.
COOPER: Are you going to get out?
LOCCISANO: I will be out of here by noon tomorrow. That's the deadline. It's not going to be easy to leave, but I am leaving.
COOPER: And do you know -- I mean, are all your neighbors going to do the same?
LOCCISANO: Yes, this is the first storm that I can't find anybody that's staying, and that's a good thing.
COOPER: Yes.
LOCCISANO: Everybody is taking this very seriously. You saw the destruction that -- well, you see it in the videos that we're facing every day right now. You just can't even imagine staying. Most places are just shells of themselves. People have been working really hard, cleaning their places out. And the debris that's all up and down the island, all the islands, is just unimaginable.
COOPER: What's the recovery been like? I mean, are you -- do you hear from authorities? Do you have resources available to you?
LOCCISANO: Oh my goodness. Longboat has been just outstanding. They've been giving away water and mop buckets and tarps and different businesses are doing lunches for people and it's just -- it's a wonderful small town community, and it's the same for all the barrier islands.
Everybody comes together. It's unlike anything I've ever seen. And I don't -- like, I didn't give you the video, but the sand dunes that are up and down the main thoroughfares of all these communities, the sand dunes are higher. 6 feet, 8 feet, 10 feet high.
COOPER: You know, I can hear just the emotion in your voice and how, I mean, just how difficult this is. It's -- is that based on what you've seen already and just the idea of leaving again?
LOCCISANO: Well, I -- yes, I've never been to the point where I'm literally looking at every item in our home and deciding, do I take it or do I leave it. And the thought of it just floating in the water somewhere, it's just -- it's really hard to bear.
COOPER: How much -- I mean, have you decided what to take? I mean, obviously, I photographed things like that, but I mean, making those choices, that's --
LOCCISANO: Yes. I'm taking clothes, my clothes and my pickleball paddle.
COOPER: Sheila, I appreciate you talking to us. I'm so sorry for what you're going through, and I wish you the best and we'll continue to check in with you as this thing developed.
LOCCISANO: Thank you so much.
COOPER: Yes.
LOCCISANO: Thank you for getting out there. There's just -- after this, so many communities are going to be in such need.
COOPER: Yes.
LOCCISANO: I can't even imagine what 48 hours is going to bring.
COOPER: Yes. Well, we wish you the best and we'll check in with you. Thank you.
LOCCISANO: Thank you.
COOPER: As we mentioned earlier, a whole lot of people are getting out of harm's way and evacuating Florida's west coast should you see plenty of traffic on the interstate around Tampa.
Joining us right now is Chief Barbara Tripp, Tampa's fire rescue chief. I appreciate your time. I know busy you are. You're still dealing with stuff from Helene. How much more dangerous does that make the threat of Hurricane Milton now?
CHIEF BARBARA TRIPP, TAMPA FIRE RESCUE: Well, first foremost, thank you for having us. And it's actually definitely a threat with this magnitude of this storm. Tampa -- the Tampa Bay area is definitely going to feel Hurricane Milton. We are just trying to get over as far as to clean up with a lot of the debris and a lot of devastation that a lot of families held.
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And we're still in the clean-up process. And with this storm and with all of the wind and the damage, we're just trying to make it as safe as possible for the community to be able to deal with Milton.
COOPER: How are evacuation efforts going? What are you most concerned about right now?
TRIPP: I can say the evacuation is going -- I hate to say going great, but which is good because law enforcement is going door to door and a lot of the evacuation areas, which evacuation AMB has been declared by the county and we have here to those ordinance as well.
So with that being said, the interstates, of course, is definitely packed with everyone heading, you know, east or north. And it's been great. People are definitely listen this time. That was one of the biggest concern because when we evacuated with Hurricane Helene, a lot of the residents did not leave their residence. And then we had to do a lot of rescue, rescue those residents, which puts our first responders in danger.
COOPER: So you feel like most people are heating this. What is your message to, you know, to the people at Tampa tonight?
TRIPP: My message to people of Tampa is to continue to heed to the local instructions and laws as far as -- many shelters that are open and we're welcoming all families, friends, pets, to come -- a safe haven place. We know materialistic stuff. Some things can be replaced and some things can't, but most important your life cannot be replaced.
And you can't challenge yourself with mother nature because she definitely will always win. So we want everyone to definitely, you know, hide from the winds and run from the rain. And of course, with this particular storm here, we're expected to have a lot of rain and --
COOPER: Yes.
TRIPP: -- wind, which is going to be very damaging to the city of Tampa.
COOPER: Chief Barbara Tripp, Tampa's fire rescue. I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Coming next, the rising death toll from Hurricane Helene and an update on the situation in western North Carolina, where the storm's destructive power still so evident where neighbors are helping out and we'll take a look at the latest in the relief efforts.
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COOPER: As another extremely dangerous storm, Hurricane Milton takes aim at Florida. The death toll from Hurricane Helene has climbed to at least 235 people across six states. The storm caused widespread damage, as you know, from Florida to the Appalachian Mountains.
Tonight, we have a close -- an up close look at the devastation and hard hit western North Carolina. Here's Miguel Marquez.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Cane River, on the way to Bloody Fork, North Carolina.
DIANA MERZ, STORM SURVIVOR IN BLOODY FORK, NORTH CAROLINA: I'm not leaving unless I have to. If our health doesn't hold up or, you know, if the help stops coming.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Diana Merz and her husband, William, both in their 70s, rode out the storm. More than a week later, Diana sits on her front porch with her gun ready for anything or anyone.
MARQUEZ: And what has the last week been like?
MERZ: Just absolutely unfathomable. I mean, you couldn't imagine how high the water came and what we saw going down the river, you know. One of the graveyards up the river here was compromised and it was casket after casket going down.
You know, that house came right off the foundation without making a sound down the river. It went a trailer came down. I didn't actually see it, but I heard there were people in it. They could not get out.
MARQUEZ: You sound a little traumatized by all of us.
MERZ: I think we probably all are traumatized. It's -- it doesn't seem real. MARQUEZ (voice-over): Their house a bit higher than others survived. Their neighbors, not so lucky.
MARQUEZ: So what I'm standing on is what's left of the driveway of the Merz's home. The road that went along here was down here. It is completely gone. That empty lot across the river, that was their neighbors', that was their house that stood there before.
You could see those cement abutments along the riverbanks. That was a bridge that went across. It is gone. But those people were able to get across to the merges home before the flood completely took their home.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Cadaver dogs now sweeping this area of the river. The hope of finding anyone alive, faded.
MERZ: It is a catastrophe beyond belief. I mean, I'm sure they've seen Katrina and Sandy and this is on a par with those, if not worse because the communities are so isolated and there's nowhere for these people to go.
ELI RODRIGUEZ, HIKING IN TO HELP NEIGHBORS: We're just trying to fill whatever needs they need.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): For now, neighbor helping neighbor. The only communications, word of mouth.
RODRIGUEZ: This past week, we've been just looking for people searching and getting them food and water the day after. Now, I think those needs are met.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COOPER: And Miguel Marquez joins us now from North Carolina. You mentioned the hope is fated for finding people alive, are there search and rescue teams out there still is a mostly recovery effort now?
MARQUEZ (on-camera): There are search and rescue teams or even rescue dogs that we saw today, but there is a lot more cadaver dogs moving in. The problem with finding the bodies right now is that it's such a widespread area and there's so much debris.
Just vast amounts of it, both natural and man-made. There's a car covered in natural debris, a tank or a silo back here that's also covered in debris. This is the main highway here in Micaville, North Carolina as well that goes through the Smoky Mountains.
So it is just going to take an enormous amount of time. A lot's coming back online here, but it's going to take a long time for this part of the United States to cover -- recover. Back to you.
COOPER: Yes. Miguel, thank you for that.
The news continues. The Source of Kaitlan Collins starts now. See you tomorrow.
