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Politics Amidst Natural Disasters; The Forecast of Hurricane Milton; Matt Myers is Interviewed about Manatee County; An iPhone Upgrade to Help Storm Victims. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired October 09, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:34]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, these are live pictures from Tallahassee, Florida. We are waiting for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He will brief in just minutes as Hurricane Milton is now just hours away from making landfall. The outer bands already being felt. We've had our correspondents, you know, in pretty heavy rain already. The winds are starting to pick up.

The director of the National Hurricane Center told us that some of the storm surge, as the high tide comes in and out over the next 12 hours, they will get some very high storm surge even as early as this afternoon. So, this is fully on at this point. This hurricane already starting to have an impact.

We are following every twist and turn. And it is worth noting, this is all taking place, what, 26, 27 days before a presidential election. All of it intertwined.

With us now, Scott Jennings, CNN's senior political commentator, former special assistant to President George W. Bush, and Kate Bedingfield, CNN political commentator, former White House communications director.

You've both been in the White House when there are events like this beyond ones control.

Scott, let me just start with you. I just have to imagine - and Ron DeSantis is set to speak any minute, and we'll go there when he does - the campaigns can't operate separately from this. They have to be aware of this. I don't know if they pause for today or tomorrow and let this land, but what do you do?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think you - in all of your public communications, no matter what you're doing, you have to always show the American people that you have their fellow citizens in your heart. I mean, this is the kind of historic storm that, you know, some people aren't going to survive it. There's going to be wide-spread property devastation. And you have to just show the empathy that people would expect out of the American president. So that's, I think, campaign communications, number one. Number two, what you can't do is try to insert politics into this. And

I think, honestly, this week, when Kamala Harris attacked Ron DeSantis as he was preparing for this hurricane, that was a huge campaign mistake for her. She should not have done that. Biden came out and corrected the record, said he and DeSantis are working well together. That was the proper response.

BERMAN: Well, the flip side of that, of course, is what the Trump team and Donald Trump himself have done in terms of information surrounding Hurricane Helene, misinformation. And it did seem that Vice President Harris was trying to point that out with Stephen Colbert. We have that clip. I think we can play that right here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Have you no empathy, man?

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": Yes (ph).

HARRIS: No, I - for the - the suffering of other people. Have you no sense of purpose? If you purport to be a leader, to understand that being a leader means lifting people up in a time of need, and not manipulating them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, to my first question, Kate, how do you navigate this moment? You can't just not campaign with 27 days left.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, right. And I think Scott's right, you put empathy front and center. I think if we're talking about not inserting politics into this conversation, I mean, that has unfortunately been what Donald Trump has done from the start here in spreading all of this misinformation, disinformation, confusing people who are on the ground in these areas who need assistance, need help.

You know, so for - for Harris, I think the key here is to allow the government, allow the Biden administration, to run the response, which they have been incredibly aggressive about, despite what Donald Trump has - has tried to say. You know, you've had Republicans from Governor Kemp to Congressman Edwards, who represents western North Carolina, you've had Republicans come out and debunk some of the lies that Trump has told and say that they've been working effectively with the federal government.

So, I think, you know, you take a step back today. You don't do the hyper political campaigning if you're the Harris campaign. You let the government respond, get people the - the help that they need. And then you reinforce that, you know, in your administration, moving forward, governments always going to be there to support people in this time of crisis. But absolutely, politics should take a backseat over the next couple of days.

BERMAN: You know, it just occurred to me that this also does inject two figures who were not supposed to be at this point, at least a few weeks ago, central to this campaign, right into the middle of it, President Joe Biden and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. I am curious, Kate, about the dynamics there. I'm not sure the Harris campaign wants many of these weeks to be about President Biden, but who knows.

[09:35:00]

BEDINGFIELD: Well, so I would actually disagree with that because I think in these moments where you have government responding to crisis, people working across the aisle, that is actually what people want to see their government doing. You know, I worked for President Biden when he went to Florida in 2022 in the wake of the hurricane there, went to Sanibel Island or nearby, you know, met with Governor DeSantis. They stood together behind a podium and talked about the support for that community. President Biden said, we'll be there. You know, the federal government will be there to help you rebuild.

So, you know, these are actually moments where people see their leaders doing the right think, working across the aisle, responding effectively to a catastrophic - potentially we're looking at a catastrophic situation over the next 24, 36 hours. And I do think that's what people want to see their elected leaders doing.

BERMAN: And the DeSantis angle of it, Ron, I mean, Scott, is that, I mean, Republican voters didn't - you know, chose the other guy. They chose the older guy who has a different type of record with natural disasters than Ron DeSantis does.

JENNINGS: I know. And during his whole hurricane period I've heard so many Republicans praising Ron DeSantis. Even Donald Trump has been out there doing that as well.

I mean, he is an emergency management boss. No nonsense. Takes no crap from anybody. Like, tells people exactly what they need to know, when they need to know it. Across the political spectrum there is widespread agreement that Ron DeSantis is the best emergency management government executive in the country. Thank God he is the governor of Florida right now. Doing a terrific job and we're praying for him and his people.

BERMAN: Ron, Republican voters didn't choose him though in the primaries.

JENNINGS: They did not, but he's a young man, and I suspect he'll be around for a long time.

BERMAN: All right, Scott Jennings, thank you very much. Kate Bedingfield, thanks to both of you. It's nice to tap into your experience, both in the political sphere, but you've both been in the White House for situations like this.

And we are waiting to get a live update any moment now from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Hurricane Milton, obviously, bearing down on Florida. And we did just get a warning this morning from officials in Pinellas County.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CATHIE PERKINS, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR, PINELLAS COUNTY, FLORIDA: We expect the tropical storm force winds to start midafternoon. And it will keep picking up hour after hour. If you're not out by then, you will be on your own.

I cannot stress enough to you that your options are quickly diminishing for what you can do to get out of harms' way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[09:42:06]

BOLDUAN: All right, Hurricane Milton now a strong a category four storm. You see the swirl on the left of your screen. On the right of your screen, you're looking at Key West, where you can see the water is - are - the water is churning. People are moving around, but you can also see, just in that corner, that the winds are really picking up.

Conditions are deteriorating and officials say that is going to start up - continue - off. That's going to continue throughout the day and it is going to get worse very quickly this afternoon into this evening. Forecasters fear that this could be one of the strongest storms - strongest hurricanes to ever hit Florida. Record and potentially deadly storm surge is expected. People have been evacuating for days.

Derek Van Dam standing by with me right now.

But some people are still sticking around. The county sheriff that I spoke to earlier today was pleading with them to get out. You might be uncomfortable, but you'll at least be alive is what he said, and safe. What are you seeing right now?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I saw - I saw your interviews with somebody from Sanibel County - or Sanibel Island. I mean, you know, I really hope that they have all the luck in the world with this storm because it is going to be so impactful, Kate.

Look, we've got hurricane hunters flying into the eye of the storm as we speak. Here's their path. And they're getting this critical information for us. And what they're finding is that there has been a slow, weakening trend. So, the pressures have risen a few millibars in the past hour or so. And this is good. The eye has clouded over. So, even though we're not a cat five, I do want to stress that this will - the storm surge will move onshore consistent with a landfall and category five hurricane. And the reason I say that is because the amount of energy that this storm has enacted on the eastern Gulf of Mexico so far will only unfold in the form of water moving well inland from the coastline here in a matter of 18 hours. I mean we're roughly 18 hours away from this most impactful part of the storm, a societal and economic impact of - across central and western portions of Florida.

Now, in terms of timing, we still have a landfall, the most powerful part of the storm, late tonight and into early Thursday morning. But tropical storm force winds are starting to be felt, or will be felt here in the coming hour or two. We still have an explicit category four hurricane that is noted with the National Hurricane Center track. But this path, it's so important. Keep in mind, Kate, that when we focus on the last few frames of this satellite imagery, this is the forecast path from the National Hurricane Center. We have noted a few last frames have done just to the south and east. So, that has great downstream impacts on who will receive the most powerful right-hand quadrant of the storm where it makes landfall.

[09:45:05]

And Sarasota County to Tampa Bay, that's kind of where we're honing in on right now.

BOLDUAN: And let's hone in right there, actually, Derek. That's great. Thank you so much. You see those storm surge levels, what could be forecasts from Tampa on down, how dangerous and threatening they are.

Let's go right now to the emergency management chief of Manatee County, Florida, Matt Myers.

Matt, thank you so much for jumping in.

What's your biggest concern right now?

MATT MYERS, MANATEE COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT CHIEF: Obviously it's that life-threatening surge, ten to 15 feet. Ian-like surge in our community. So, we - we implored people, we called for evacuations of Level A, B, and C. We currently have that evacuation in place. So, there is still time to evacuate. We currently have about 6,000 people in our shelters and 147,000 residents and visitors have been asked to evacuate those areas.

BOLDUAN: I was going to ask you, are people heading to shelters? What are you hearing in terms of, if people are staying, if people are going?

MYERS: So, we're - we're actually seeing a lot of movement. You can see our interstate systems were a little heavy packed. That is a good sign when it comes to us knowing that people are leaving. We are seeing a head of the warning. We're not seeing very many, if at all, anyone on our barrier island. And additionally, our shelters have not been this full and we have plenty of capacity. So, we're expected to see that increase. That gives us hope that people are heeding this warning and getting out of that dangerous area.

BOLDUAN: Matt, how much longer do people have to prepare? I heard from one of - we saw from one official in Orange County, you know, by noon you need to be hunkered down. I spoke to the sheriff in Hillsborough County, he said by lunchtime you need to be where you're going to be.

MYERS: Yes, I mean, that's really our - kind of our comment right now is, there is still time. That wind placement is anywhere from about 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. when we get those tropical storm-force winds. So, we want people in a shelter, in their - in their, you know, standby area, you know, no later than 1:00. Just make sure you're safe. Just be safer than sorry because those winds could shift at any time.

And additionally, you know, those feeder bands, they have the capacity of tornadic activity. They can have gusts in them that are very dangerous as well. So, now is the time to finalize and get everything done and just go ahead and make your final decision. Get yourself to a safe place, hunker down and ride out this system. We will come out of it as long as you take the right precautions.

BOLDUAN: One thing I saw - we saw on GasBuddy that nearly one in four gas stations in the state are out of fuel. That's 1,700 gas stations. What does that mean for you guys?

MYERS: So, we are working very closely with our gas partners to make sure that fuel will be brought into the area when it's possible. They are still working on trying to fill gas stations throughout the state. And we have a close partnership with Seaport Manatee that brings in most of the actual fuel for most of southwest Florida. And so we have, as a county, made sure we stocked plenty for any of the recovery activity, response activity.

So again, that's where that issue lies is people trying to get on the road at the last minute, not being able to find gas. Now is the time to finalize. Find out where you're going to stay and go there now.

BOLDUAN: Matt Myers, Manatee County, thank you so much. Good luck.

MYERS: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: And if you are in Florida, how - ahead for us, how updating your iPhone software could be critical to keeping you safe and keeping you in contact as this storm is coming through.

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[09:53:14]

BERMAN: All right, Hurricane Milton getting ever closer to Florida. Expected to make landfall as a very powerful category four storm. Storm surge, ten to 15 feet in some places.

BOLDUAN: Right.

BERMAN: Unsurvivable.

Now, obviously, that is all very bad, but we are learning about some things that are happening that might help people stay safe. An iPhone upgrade for those in the path of the storm.

CNN's Clare Duffy is with us now to explain that.

What's going on here? CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, so this is a really important

safety alert for anybody in the path of the storm who has an iPhone 14 or later. You need to make sure that you upgrade it to IOS 18. That's going to allow you to use this satellite messaging feature that will let you get messages out to your friends and family and emergency services if cell networks and internet networks go down. So, make this - people should make this part of their storm prep today.

You've got to update your iPhone to IOS 18, and then you can go into your settings and actually do a demo of this satellite messaging feature so that you know how it works if and when you need to use it. To use the satellite messaging feature, you should just hold your iPhone in your hand, you don't have to hold it up to the sky or anything, hold it in your hand, and you need to have a clear view of the sky and of the horizon.

And it may take a little bit longer for messages to go through, but they will go through. And folks should also update their emergency contacts, things like that in their phone, so that those things can get through to emergency services if they end up needing them.

BERMAN: Can I tell you, this is the first I'm learning of this.

DUFFY: I agree.

BERMAN: This is a really big deal. Having been in hurricane zones just after the storm when the cell towers are down, you can't get a call out. Even a text message would be huge.

You know, we have satellite phones, the big clunky things where you can do so some of this stuff, but now you can do it on the iPhone.

DUFFY: Yes, it is really amazing technology. And as we learned just a few weeks ago with Hurricane Helene, this really was a lifesaving technology for folks.

[09:55:04]

There were people - I mean cell networks are still down in some places, and this allowed people to let friends and family know about their location.

But I want to give sort of a really important but here. Folks who are in true emergencies should not use this satellite messaging feature. They should use the iPhone's emergency SOS feature, which also works via satellite, but it gives emergency services a bit more information to help people.

BOLDUAN: Honestly, all of this is helpful, full stop.

BERMAN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: For hurricane and beyond.

Thank you so much. It's great to see you, Clare. Really helpful.

BERMAN: Really helpful. Really appreciate it.

DUFFY: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Thank you all so much for joining us today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL John Berman, Kate Bolduan, Sara Sidner will be back. "CNN NEWSROOM" is up next.

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