Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Milton Now A Cat 4 Hurricane As Florida Braces For Direct Hit; Israel Expands Its Ground Offensive In Lebanon; Milton's Intensity Rebounds, Winds Now 155 MPH, Just Shy Of Cat 5; TikTok Sued Over Alleged Harm To Kids' Health. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 08, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:30:30]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We are back out live in Tresure Island, Florida. This is a barrier island on the Gulf Coast that is within -- well within the cone where Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall as a very powerful storm.

They're anticipating winds upwards of 125 miles an hour here. And if you look behind me, this is a huge part of the concern. This is what Governor Ron DeSantis has been talking about since Hurricane Helene swept through this area a couple of weeks ago.

There are piles and piles of trash. And there's debris that could very easily become dangerous. You have a barbecue. You have what appears to be a dishwasher. There are pieces of glass, buckets, plastic shreds of wood.

There are people's personal keepsakes. I found this photo on the ground just a moment ago. There were children's toys.

All of this very quickly becomes dangerous and a death trap for folks that are on this island, which has essentially one way in and one way out.

And when you pair this with about 15 feet of storm surge, plus a foot, a foot, nearly a foot of rainfall on top of that with nowhere for the water to go, it is an extremely dangerous situation.

And we're seeing scenes much like this all around the west coast of Florida.

I actually want to go live to Paul Murphy, who's on Anna-Maria Island for us.

And, Paul, you are hearing from a local official who said to you that it seems like Hurricane Milton, because of all this trash, was already here.

PAUL MURPHY, CNN REPORTER: That's right, Boris. We're seeing what looks like Hurricane Milton damage. It's not. This is all from Hurricane Helene. The storm surge here, the police chief, Bill Tokoger (ph), just told

me - he's the police chief at Homes Beach (ph) -- he said they measured it at 400 feet on the main road just behind my photojournalist, John General.

These -- we're seeing the same scenes that you're seeing in Tresure Island. There are piles and piles of trash all around this island. And talking with Chief Tokoger (ph), he is saying they're not going to be able to clean up everything.

This is going -- some of this is going to come up and it's going to be projectile. And what is not going to be a projectile, that surge is going to take it over Anna-Maria Island and push it further into Manatee County.

Now, over here you are seeing what residents and businesses are leaving. They've tried to board up as much as they can in a short amount of time that they've had.

But they have gone from a recovery to preparation mode so quick, it is a head-spin. And you're just seeing, as we've gone through Anna-Maria Island, there's another truck just laden with trash. These are -- it is a 24/7 operation.

Chief Tokoger (ph) told us that they're going to try and do as much as they can until tomorrow.

And he had a message, the same message we're hearing for people, from leaders across the state. If you stay, they cannot get you. They we're able to do some water rescues in Helene. That will not happen with Milton.

Once the winds, which are forecasted to start here as tropical-storm- force gusts, once they start tomorrow, that around 8:00 a.m., he expects that by noon they're not going to be able -- they're going to have to evacuate the island themselves.

So starting at noon tomorrow, if you're here, there will not be help coming for you. You are on your own. And he's made that very clear.

It's that same message we're hearing from it from officials: Write your name, write your number, write someone else's number, your date of birth on you because when they come looking for you, they want to know who to contact because you decided to stay.

SANCHEZ: Yes, Paul, that is a somber message that we are hearing from folks.

Paul Murphy, live for us on Anna-Maria Island. We appreciate the update.

There is a tragic irony to seeing people's personal belongings now potentially becoming a bigger part of the problem, compounded by yet another huge storm that's headed this way.

When Hurricane Helene, the outer bands of it swept through here, it was a category four. We're expecting that Hurricane Milton will pack a similar punch as it gets closer to the coast and makes landfall.

And the enormous problem for folks here on Tresure Island is that it's surrounded by water. So if you go past that home right there, there's a bay. And the water is already seeming at a pretty high level.

Once the rain starts coming down, once you get the storm surge and the wind, there is no doubt that this area is going to get flooded.

The other issue here is that when you go the other direction, this is a very thin strip of land. So just over there is the actual beach. And obviously, the waves are going to creep in.

[13:35:06]

Folks in this area, many, many of them have already left. I've spoken to some folks that seem hesitant to leave. They should be aware at this point, because officials have repeated it, that the cutoff for Tresure Island is 7:00 p.m. tonight.

And I do want to leave you with one quick note. There is something tragic, again, about people's personal belongings coming up and being part of what potentially becomes dangerous about this hurricane.

There's a child's keepsakes, other -- there is a child's keepsakes here, scattered in the trash. A kid named Angel, apparently one of the principal's honorables a few years ago. There are photos of him and his mother, what I assume is his mother, and his family.

And it's tragic to see that this enormous pile will soon be into neighborhoods. It'll be into people's homes, and it'll make this storm even more dangerous than it already is.

We'll, of course, keep monitoring the situation and we'll bring you the very latest as we get it from here on Treasure Island, and across the coast of Florida, as we take a live look at images from a drone of what the scene looks like.

Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:40:39]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We're following some breaking news out of the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his military has, quote, "Eliminated the successor to the late Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah."

And this is coming as Israel's fight with Hezbollah only appears to be intensifying. Israel says more than 100 rockets were fired at Haifa, which is in the north of Israel, during a one-hour barrage today.

That's an attack that happened as Israel is expanding its ground incursion into southern Lebanon and stepping up its renewed assault in northern Gaza. In the meantime, U.S. officials are telling CNN that the Biden

administration is no longer pushing to revive a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah.

They say it's instead focused on trying to shape and limit Israeli operations in Lebanon and against Iran, rather than halting hostilities outright.

Let's talk about this now with CNN military analyst and retired Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

General, first off, what is the effect of taking out Nasrallah's successor after taking him out?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, the killing of the successor, a line of succession, the Israelis did not know that that was part of a strike that they conducted last week until just a few days ago when they -- when they found out that Safi Al-Din (ph) was also killed in a strike.

But when you see the amount of leadership that Israel has killed in Lebanon, it just shows how they're trying to make the Hezbollah operation dysfunctional.

And to eliminate and to decapitate the leadership change, they feel is one way to complement their kinetic strikes against ground targets and the amount of missiles that are coming from northern Lebanon.

It's a sporting move, Brianna, but whenever you can eliminate the leadership of an organization, it helps in causing chaos in your enemy's ranks.

KEILAR: So we do have some new video in that has been reported about, which is video of Israeli forces hoisting a flag there on a -- above a village in southern Lebanon.

And Israel is also expanding its operations into southwestern Lebanon sending the 1st Reserve Division of the IDF to operate there. What does that signal to you?

HERTLING: First of all, they are pushing more forces into southern Lebanon. I've been on -- in that area a couple of years ago, Brianna. And it is the high ground. There's great observation into northern Israel from that location inside of Lebanon.

That what -- that is what makes the rocket launchers and the missiles fired from that area and even the anti-tank direct-fire missiles from those areas become so effective against the citizens of northern Israel.

So putting that flag up there, as you just saw in that film, is an indicator that, hey, from Israel, hey, we've taken the high ground. They can no longer absorb our actions. We have eliminated did the enemy from this space.

But as you reported just a minute ago, there's still firing hundreds of rockets at Haifa, which is less than 100 kilometers from that border. So there is still action by the Hezbollah forces.

And now they're claiming they want a peace fire -- a peace fire operation, but they're asking the Lebanese government to do that for them.

At the same time, they continue to fire these rockets and missiles. They fired 200 of them yesterday. They fired 100 of them just this morning.

KEILAR: So what does that mean when you have the -- a top Hezbollah official publicly endorsing ceasefire efforts by Lebanon's president. Does that - you know, does Israel look at that and say that their, you know, escalate to de-escalate strategy may be working. How do you see it?

HERTLING: No, I don't think so. And let me restate ceasefire. I'm sorry, I was stumbling over those words before.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: If you kind of made sense, though.

HERTLING: Yes, it does.

But the interesting piece is the U.S. government saying they're no longer going to push Israel for a ceasefire in this area, that they know that they have to conduct operations because they had been harassed by fire from southern Lebanon for so long.

And you know, frankly, I think President Biden has determined he can't talk Netanyahu out of this action. It is an opportunity for them to squash the Hezbollah operation after they've done the same thing to Hamas, the enemy on their borders.

[13:45:11]

And I also think we certainly still have to be concerned with what Israel may do to Iran, what they have also started to do to the Houthis in Yemen, and what they might even do to some of the forces of that are representing the proxy forces refereeing Iran inside of Syria.

It is now basically a five- or six-front war, which is just going to continue the way it is for a while.

KEILAR: All right, General, thank you so much. We appreciate your insights on this. Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

When we come back, more than a dozen states are suing TikTok. They're accusing the app of getting young people addicted to the platform. And the lawsuits single out certain features that they say specifically are doing the damage. We'll have details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:50:38] SANCHEZ: Breaking news into CNN. We just got an update on the status of Hurricane Milton from federal officials. And it appears the storm is now strengthening only two miles an hour from category five winds. It remains a very strong category four hurricane barreling toward the west coast of Florida.

Want to take you live to the Weather Center to break down this latest alert from officials with CNN's Elisa Raffa.

Elisa, walk us through the details of this update.

ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is showing us that it is still keeping it's intensity. I mean, when you're talking about 155 miles per hour, like you mentioned, you're splitting hairs at that point.

You are at a high-end category four, low-end category five. It takes 157 for it to be a category five. So kind of like that saying, you know, half a dozen or six, you know, you are kind of splitting hairs at that point.

When you look at the satellite, you can see that this eye has really opened up. It's incredibly symmetrical, classic. It is getting a little bit of that look like it had yesterday.

So this is why we we're kind of expecting the intensity to pick up a little bit. It's still has the possibility of teetering -- you know, getting to that category five strength.

But again, it's basically there. We're two miles per hour away. When you're talking about a 150-mile-per-hour hurricane, you know, what's two miles per hour, right?

So just incredible to see it keeping it's intensity in these very warm ocean waters in the Gulf of Mexico that we know traps more heat because of climate change.

And when you look at the track, we haven't gotten too many updates here. we're still expecting it to kind of teeter in the intensity more as it starts to get into some dry air and some of that wind energy.

But still looking at a major hurricane. Even a weakening storm from 155 miles per hour is going to be an incredibly strong and destructive one that we continue to watch for Florida -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Elisa Raffa, live from the Weather Center, thank you so much for that.

Brianna, obviously, this is a community that's been weathered by Hurricane Helene just about two weeks ago. And now it is staring at the massive power of Hurricane Milton.

We're going to be hearing from local officials as well as residents in the area a little bit later this afternoon. So we definitely want you to stay tuned for that.

But if you are listening and if you are within the cone of impact from Hurricane Milton and you're planning to stay, you have to question the wisdom of that decision right now.

Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, Boris, it is staggering looking at the debris behind you, what they've already dealt with. And it's going to cause a lot of difficulty ahead, right? I mean, that's what so many officials are worried about.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Yes, absolutely. They've -- they've put out the word that, at a certain point, there's only so much emergency services can do. So if you find yourself in the middle of the storm stranded in need of a rescue team, they're simply not going to be there.

So if you have the opportunity to get out to get out, to a place that's outside the cone to go to a safer location, now is the time to do just that.

KEILAR: Yes, you don't have to go far, but you do have to go soon.

Boris, thanks for that.

And as if TikTok didn't have enough legal problems, the company is now facing a lawsuit filed by 14 attorneys general across the U.S. They're accusing the app of harming the mental health of young people and addicting them to their platform.

The suits take issue with TikTok over things like endless scrolling, challenge videos that encouraged risky behavior, so-called beauty filters that distort appearances, and late-night the push notifications.

CNN's Clare Duffy is with us now.

Clare, TikTok has already trying to fend off an outright ban by the federal government. Now they're facing this.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, Brianna, they are facing legal pressure from lots of sides. They are fighting against that potential U.S. ban. They're fighting a lawsuit recently filed by the U.S. Department of Justice over children's privacy, alleged children's privacy violations, as well as other state actions related to children's privacy.

And many of these claims include similar allegations that we're seeing from these attorneys general today, taking issue with things, like you said, that endlessly scrolling feed where they say teens just keep scrolling to see what the next video is going to be.

Or these TikTok challenge videos, these viral trends where teens will try to replicate videos created by others and sometimes engaged in dangerous behavior, like riding on the outside of the subway. That's called subway surfing.

[13:55:00]

And, Brianna, we know that there was one teen who died earlier this year from subway surfing. And this lawsuit claims that his mother found videos promoting the stunt on his TikTok feeds.

So lots of sort of issues with various parts of the company's business here.

TikTok, of course, is pushing back on these claims. A statement from a spokesperson today said that the company strongly disagrees with these claims, "many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading. We are proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we've done to protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product."

And some of those features it's rolled out include things like a screen time limit and parental oversight tools.

But these attorneys general say those things are not enough, Brianna.

KEILAR: And they may be facing some financial penalties if the suit succeeds?

DUFFY: Yes, they are seeking financial penalties here, including requiring TikTok to potentially pay back revenue it earned from ads shown to teenagers.

They're also seeking to have TikTok changed some of its business practices here.

And in fact, in New York, the governor actually recently signed a law that would require TikTok to make changes like only showing content in chronological order.

But if these lawsuits are successful, we could see those measures carried out across a number of states.

KEILAR: All right, Clare Duffy, thank you for that report.

Ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, we have the latest on Hurricane Milton. Millions of Floridians are in its path and officials are pleading with people in the evacuation zone to heed their warnings to leave while they still can.

We'll have the new forecast. We'll also have new video from a hurricane hunter after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)