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High-Water Rescues, Tornado Damage, Power Outages After Milton; Water Rescues Underway After Milton Causes Severe Flooding. Aired 9- 9:30a ET

Aired October 10, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

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[09:01:20]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Quite happening now, water rescues in Florida as the totality of destruction from Hurricane Milton comes to light. Search and rescue missions underway after multiple tornadoes ripped through the state. Four deaths have been confirmed with fears that that number could rise.

And the candidates are back on the trail. Former President Barack Obama joins Vice President Harris in Pittsburgh as reports emerge of new jitters from the Democratic side. Sarah Sidner is out today. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: A massive trail of destruction and now search and rescue crews working to find people in the debris, debris left behind by several confirmed tornadoes in Florida. At least four people have been confirmed to be killed and that is what is happening on the eastern coast of Florida.

Along the western coast of Florida where Hurricane Milton first made landfall, water rescues we've been watching them happen all throughout the morning. Now, Hurricane Milton is heading offshore, which also now means the work to fully assess the damage left behind is getting underway.

Officials are right now urging people still to stay put and stay safe if they are safe, especially, of course. They say they need people off the roads right now. So first responders can get out there, clear roads and do these assessments to kind of get a true view of the scope of what they're up against now.

Moments ago, Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis gave this update.

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GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses and you have people that are out there assessing damage right now. First responders have been working all through the night to help people who are in distress. And what we can say is the storm was significant, but thankfully, this was not the worst case scenario. (END VIDEOCLIP)

BOLDUAN: Let's get right to CNN's Boris Sanchez. He's in St. Petersburg for us. Thankfully, not the worst case scenario. That is wonderful news to hear. The predictions were so dire heading into this. And also good news that people, many people we've been told by, from official to official that they heated the warnings and most people got to safer ground. What's the latest from St. Petersburg, Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate. Not the worst case scenario, but an ugly scenario, nevertheless. This is Tropicana Field behind me. This is the home of the Tampa Bay Rays, and as you can see, the roof of this baseball stadium was torn up.

It is in tatters right now, and that's significant in part because this was one of the base of emergency operations for the response to Hurricane Milton. They had emergency personnel station there. They had resources there as well. And now it is a wide open baseball park.

The immediate area around it appears to be OK, but that's not all of Pinellas County. We try to access a part of the county that was cut off by sheriff's deputies earlier today. There was a bridge that was shut down. They essentially told us that they were concerned about downed power lines in the area.

And, obviously, we've not yet seen the barrier islands on the Gulf Coast, how well those are faring after the powerful storm surge and the immense rainfall from Hurricane Milton. Keep in mind, many of those islands were suffering after Hurricane Helene, and so officials are warning folks to stay indoors because there are so many unseen dangers that are possible.

We heard Governor Ron DeSantis mention the potential for downed power lines, bacteria in standing water, and of course, the potential for there to be teetering debris that could come down from trees or from structures at any moment. They want folks to stay inside as rescue operations are underway.

[09:05:09]

As you pointed out, Kate, a number of water rescues this morning, including in Hillsborough County, that is just east of here, specifically, eastern Hillsborough County, there was an assisted living facility that had to be evacuated. You had a number of senior citizens that were there getting pulled out by law enforcement.

There was 2 feet to 3 feet of standing water. This is an agricultural area. It's a bit more rural and you'll find here in St. Petersburg. Beyond that, it is still hard to get a full scope of the damage. When you hear that there are fatalities across the state in Port St. Lucie as a result of tornado damage, not worst case scenario, Kate, but an ugly scenario for the state of Florida nevertheless.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Pinellas County, Hillsborough County, and the counties you're mentioning also the hardest hit in terms of power outages, that's still going to be a big, big problem for everyone today.

Boris, thank you so much.

Let's go now to Fort Myers, Florida. That is where Carlos Suarez has been standing by for us. Carlos, what are you seeing? That's not Carlos. There's Carlos. Carlos, what are you seeing?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, so Fort Myers, Florida this morning is waking up to some damage brought on by at least two tornadoes that we believe touched down here in Lee County. We are in a neighborhood just south of downtown Fort Myers where we spent all of yesterday and we saw some of the 3 to 4 feet of flooding there.

This home here behind me, we believe, is one of the homes in this neighborhood that was hit by this tornado. The folks out here tell me that the wind yesterday really picked up at one point in the afternoon and that when they looked outside of their window, all they could see was what they thought was a tornado.

You can see a good part of this roof is gone. It's a little bit difficult to make -- to see inside the actual house, but we did see someone walking in earlier today. You can see some of the debris that covers the front yard of this house here. This belongs to some sort of business. So it's not even from this area.

And then if we go across the street, I'll show you one other house here because the guy that owns this house, he was on the roof just a few minutes ago, taking a look at the damage to his house. He said, look, we put up all this plywood yesterday, all in an effort to try to protect our house and the water and the rain, all of that damaged by this tornado.

And so you can see what the folks out here are dealing with this morning. Kate, I cannot hear you right now. So that's the situation from here in Fort Myers. I know we've been reporting all morning long about the impact of this hurricane outside of the, you know, the gulf coast of Florida, the west coast of Florida, particularly when we're talking about these tornadoes.

I mean, we had at least four that were confirmed. We know one out in the western part of Broward County, another one up in Clewiston which is right where Lake Okeechobee is. And then again, these two other tornadoes that the folks out here are pretty certain is what caused all of this damage. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Carlos, thank you very much. John?

BERMAN: Just for the record. I can hear you fine.

BOLDUAN: Thank you very much.

BERMAN: As always, the mellifluous sounds of Kate Bolduan in my ear.

All right. So, the very latest is that four people have been confirmed dead from the tornadoes. Governor DeSantis suggested that number could rise as we get more information. CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is with us now. Derek, what are you learning?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Well, listen, I think it's something for people in south Florida when they make a decision whether or not to evacuate, especially when you're on the east coast of a gulf coast landing hurricane. Whether or not, hey, it's something you need to do.

Well, here is proof that you should. And the reason is that these landfalling hurricanes are prolific tornado producers, even well in advance and far away from where the landfalling point will actually take place. And here's one such example. Usually, these are brief spin up tornadoes. They cause minor damage.

But sometimes very rarely, they'll create more significant damage where Carlos was reporting from, for instance, and this particular tornado that I just showed you a moment ago, which is on the eastern side of the state in Palm Beach County. But this is incredible because this approaching hurricane actually forced the National Weather Service to issue 126 tornado warnings in a single day.

That is a record for the number of tornado warnings set for the state of Florida. And so we tie this together with landfalling hurricanes and we look back at the most tornado warnings ever issued by National Weather Service in the state of Florida.

2017, guess what? That's Irma. 2024, that's Helene from two weeks ago, setting in that third place. Fourth place, 2022, you guessed it. That's Hurricane Ian with 47 tornado reports. So really saying something that this storm created such a wide swath of tornadoes over the southern portions of the state.

They knocked out power along with the wind from the hurricane to over 3 million customers. That will take days, if not weeks to reconnected electricity.

[09:10:05]

And guess what? We're still experiencing tropical storm force winds along the space coast. A tone of beach gusting to over 50 miles per hour. There's a reason why we're also seeing these live swift water and high water rescues at the moment, John.

It's because two to three months worth of rain fell across the central part of the state. I mean, just follow that pink line right there from Tampa to Orlando, slicing through the central parts of Florida. That's where the most rain fell from the sky. And, in fact, this was a one in 1,000 year event for St. Petersburg, where we had over three times the monthly average rainfall in just three hours.

In total, they received over a 1.5 foot of rain. So incredible to see their just expired flash flood warnings along the East Coast. And there are still concerns about surge and the flow of the water moving out of the bays and inlets here along the East Coast. Back to you.

BERMAN: Yes, one of the things Gov. DeSantis said is that the water level of some of the rivers will continue to rise over the next few days. People need to be very, very careful.

Derek Van Dam, thank you so much for that.

And we are getting new images in the very latest on these water rescues that are still taking place. Stay with us.

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[09:15:47]

BOLDUAN: Hundreds of thousands of people in Lee County, Florida, are dealing with a lot of power outages right now, including in Fort Myers. They're also dealing with multiple tornado touchdowns after the aftermath of multiple tornado touchdowns there.

Our correspondent Carlos Suarez we just spoke with, who was just live in front of a home in Fort Myers, saying that residents told him that they are sure that their home was wrecked and torn through by one of those tornado touchdowns.

Joining us right now is the mayor of Fort Myers, Kevin Anderson. Thank you so much, Mayor. Appreciate your time. What is your biggest concern for the city right now?

Mayor, give me just one second. I think we don't -- I think we're having a problem with your -- with the audio, the connection to your audio. Have we gotten it back yet?

All right, well, we're -- well, the control room is working to get the mayor of Fort Myers hooked back up. We're taking a look, I'm told, this is Fort Myers right now. And there it's Kate Bolduan. Can you hear me now?

All right, we're going to take a quick break. We're going to try to get this all worked out and we'll be right back.

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[09:21:47]

BOLDUAN: All right, let's get back to Fort Myers, Florida. We've reconnected with the mayor there. Mayor, thank you so much. Apologies for the technical glitches these days. Talk to me about what your biggest concern is right now for the city after you all lived through last night.

MAYOR KEVIN ANDERSON (R), FORT MYERS, FLORIDA: Right now, it's getting the power back on, getting businesses open, making sure people have access to gas and food and (technical difficulty).

BOLDUAN: There were at least two tornadoes that were reported in Fort Myers connected with, you know, coming from Hurricane Milton. Any injuries reported?

ANDERSON: None that I've been made aware of. No reported deaths, no reported injuries at this time. BOLDUAN: That's so thankful because it seems a very different story out in St. Lucie County. The governor -- you mentioned the power outages. Governor DeSantis gave an update and across the state, there's more than 3 million people without power.

Fort Myers is definitely, as you've mentioned, you've got a power outage that you guys really need to figure out today. How many people, how much of the city is without power? And do you think you'll be able to get the power back on today? Or, like, how damaged was it?

ANDERSON: We've had about 18,000 people without power. We have not gotten a report back from Florida Power and Light as to the extensiveness of the damage.

BOLDUAN: What was it like for you, for your team for the residents? What did you all experience from Hurricane Milton?

ANDERSON: Well, let me say this. The word of the day here is thankful, because we expected this storm to be much worse than in when it came to water. But we're very thankful that it wasn't. We experienced a lot of wind. As we mentioned the two tornadoes, we got some flooding along the river in the (INAUDIBLE) area. But again we're bouncing back.

BOLDUAN: That's great to hear. Mayor, thank you very much for coming on. John?

BERMAN: All right, I want to get right to CNN's Isabel Rosales, who I believe is at an assisted living center where it's a bit of a dynamic situation right now. Isabel, what are you seeing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on a second.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. Yes, good morning to you, John. You saw the active rescues that were happening over in plant city. Now we have moved on to a different part of Hillsborough County by the University of South Florida.

And my god, just look at this, an incredible amount of flooding, just from all the rainfall and the nearby lake over here. I have never seen this by the university plaza area. And I used to live here for many years. As we were zooming in, you can see cars that are flooded out. You can see the police officers who have taped off a huge, huge section of this road.

And I can also tell you that in that direction, John, there's an assisted living facility where Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office tells me that they are conducting active rescue operations right now. They have over 100 people in there that are trapped and they need to get them out.

[09:25:06]

And you're talking about some people who need to use wheelchairs, some people who -- because they're so sick or elderly, you know, they're red -- bedridden. So complex medical issues where they need the help of HCSO deputies to get them out of there. And how are they doing that in floodwaters like this, through amphibious vehicles.

So Sherp is what they call them. This vehicle that's able to get into these floodwaters with deflatable tires and literally float in this and then come back onto dry land and the tires reinflate to get them out of there. So, you are looking at just a stunning, impressive site here at the University Plaza area of Hillsborough County.

And you can tell from the people over here on the left, if we can pan over this way (technical difficulty) people who have never seen that (technical difficulty) coming out here, getting close to the water as HCSO is conducting active operations right now. John?

BERMAN: Isabel, we're going to stay with you for a little bit because these are remarkable images that we are seeing now in Hillsborough. And this water that is there, is this the rain or these rivers that have overflowed? How did it all get there? Where can it go?

ROSALES: John, a little bit of everything. The impressive amount of rainfall that was unrelentless overnight from Milton. There's also a lake in that direction and retention ponds that filled up from all of that rainfall and then drew it out here. And then there's also high tide.

We heard Tampa Mayor Jane Castor warning that we're not out of the woods yet when it comes to flooding. The tide swelling the rivers and causing flash flooding, causing flooding issues period, where it can be a dangerous situation. And we're witnessing this right now.

I know that they have been throughout the morning checking in deputies, checking in on cars to that have been flooded out to make sure there's nobody in need of their help. But we know again in that assisted living facility over 100 people that do need their help right now.

BERMAN: All right. The other end of this water and assisted living facility, people need to be taken out of. Isabel, if you could have the camera push in again so we can take a look at some of these vehicles that are stuck there.

ROSALES: Yes.

BERMAN: Now, what we don't know is if they were there all along and the water just rose on park cars or as often happens during storms and after storms, people go out and try to drive through things. But one thing I think that is clear, Isabel, right now, and that looks like what maybe happened here because these cars aren't positioned in a way that it looks like the drivers had a choice there.

Just, again, describe how widespread this is and what you've seen among in regards to flooded vehicles.

ROSALES: Right, John. And it's a little windy right now, if you can hear me OK. What caught Sheriff Chad Chronister by surprise as I was talking to him this morning was how many areas of Hillsborough County, his county that would normally never dream of seeing this flood. People woke up and were suddenly blindsided by this flooding. That's what he told me. I don't believe that this is an area that would normally experience something of this nature. When I was over in Plant City, folks who were stuck at a Holiday Inn over there, they told me they woke up and suddenly they were sloshing their feet on the ground floor there of the hotel.

So they weren't expecting that. These were people who did, you know, everything right. They were not in evacuation zone A or B. They were further inland, never anticipating the flooding to reach them. And suddenly, they have found themselves in this situation.

Now, with these cars, I'm with you, John. I don't know, you know, what led to this situation. If, you know, suddenly they saw the waters rise and they didn't listen to that old, you know, saying of turn around, don't drown. What happened here with these cars? I don't know.

I'm supposed to meet with Sheriff Chad Chronister here shortly. He were anticipating doing a ride along here as they're conducting these active rescue operations and hopefully getting more details --

BERMAN: Oh wow.

ROSALES: -- as to how we got to this point here in the university area.

BERMAN: Yes, I didn't even see that sedan parked underneath that Bank of America sign there. There's barely the roof of a car sticking out there. You can get a sense of just how deep the water is.

Isabel Rosales, you and your team have been running all around the state in the Tampa Bay area. Thank you so much for your hard work. We'll let you get back to reporting there to link with the Hillsborough County Sheriff and tell us what you can about these rescues that are happening sort of on the other end of this water you're seeing right there.

So Isabel, to you and your team, we appreciate it.

Again, we are getting the very latest information, new pictures that you just saw of these rescues. Stay with us.

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