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Legendary Bears Head Coach, Mike Ditka Has Passed Away At The Age of 86; Isaias Expected To Make Landfall As Cat 3 Hurricane; People On Gulf Coast Brace For Threat Of Storm Surge; Paxton Vents About Cornyn As Texas Senate Race Tightens; 7.6 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Panama; White House Chooses New Press Secretary. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 09, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(CROWD CHEERING)

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORT ANCHOR (voice-over): Ditka also appeared on late night talk shows, as well as cameos on T.V. and film.

MIKE DITKA, FORMER FOOTBALL PLAYER AND COACH: Hey, shut up you little rat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're just showing their appreciation.

DITKA: Hey, forget the appreciation. I want to win a soccer game.

SCHOLES (voice-over): Always the competitor, football was more than a game for Mike Ditka. It was his lifeblood.

DITKA: Football doesn't owe me a thing, but I owe my whole life to it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Final approach, Hurricane Isaias, hours away from making landfall on the Gulf Coast, now expected to hit as a dangerous Category 3 storm.

And plans for a public livestream. A top religious official and a handful of Republicans joining Democrats in slamming the Pentagon's plan to broadcast a firing squad execution.

And President Trump's approval rating sinking lower, with more Americans fed up with the state of the economy, how that might impact the midterms.

We're following these major development stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

SANCHEZ: Breaking News to CNN. A tornado watch just took effect in parts of Florida, Alabama, and Georgia as Hurricane Isaias barrels toward the Gulf Coast as a powerful Category 3 storm.

Just moments ago, the National Weather Service putting out their newest update. Let's get right to Meteorologist, Melissa Nord in the CNN Weather Center. Melissa, what is in this update?

MELISSA NORD, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We just got it in, Boris, about one minute ago. And the status of Isaias, the maximum wind, the direction it's moving, the gust that we're seeing, has not changed in the last hour. So this really alludes to seeing that this has kind of reached its max intensity. It will stay a dangerous Category 3 storm in the hours of landfall before it moves inland.

But it has now reached that major hurricane status. Winds are still sustained at 120 miles per hour. We had a wind gust in the last hour of 47 miles per hour in Dauphin Island, Alabama. And you can see the track from the National Hurricane Center. Those tropical storm warnings in blue extend as far north as north of Birmingham in the northwestern Alabama.

So the center of this making landfall late this evening, sometime between 8:00 and midnight or so, and then moving inland. But because it is a stronger storm than what it looked like a day or so ago, the extent of how far inland some of those stronger winds can get pushes further north as well.

Here's the radar. We are getting hourly updates from the National Hurricane Center because we can see the full eye and eye wall on radar imagery here. So we're starting to see those feeder bands moving onshore, and it's going to be right in here, these little red areas. We're going to watch as they hit the coastline. A little added spin and friction helps to produce those inland tornadoes, and that threat increases this evening as Isaias gets closer to landfall.

That tornado watch in effect until 9 o'clock eastern time, and that will include all the Florida Panhandle, even a little sliver there of southwestern Georgia and Southeastern Alabama. Current wind gusts, 23- mile-per-hour gusts, Pensacola. But as we go into this evening past 5 o'clock, those winds significantly increase.

You can see the maximum gusts possible right near landfall there. That includes right along the I-10 corridor, Pensacola and east, over 110 miles per hour. And inland, where it makes landfall, those wind gusts can go well in excess of tropical storm force well north of Birmingham. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Melissa Nord, thank you so much for that update. As we're tracking Hurricane Isaias, residents along the Gulf Coast are especially worried about one threat, storm surge. Rising waters can cause incredible damage to homes and businesses.

CNN's Allison Chinchar is looking at what that can mean as Isaias moves closer and closer toward the coast.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: When we talk about hurricanes like Isaias, we often focus on wind, rain, and tornadoes. But the most dangerous part of these storms is actually storm surge. Simply put, storm surge happens when a hurricane pushes ocean water onto land, creating a wall of water that can rise several feet above normal tide levels.

Now, this isn't like regular flooding, though. This water is fast- moving and can devastate homes, knock down power lines, and turn debris into projectiles, often before the worst parts of the storm even arrive.

So let's break down some of the storm surge levels expected along the Gulf Coast with Hurricane Isaias. At three feet, you're looking at minor surge level. This is enough to flood low-lying streets. And anything that's not tied down, like trash cans, can get picked up and swept away as though they weigh nothing more than a feather.

More importantly, the water is moving fast enough to knock a person off their feet instantly. Now, once we get to five to seven feet, now we enter the moderate range. This is where things start to get destructive. A six-foot storm surge can sweep away small vehicles. It can destroy the first floor of the house, and that's just the water.

[14:05:00]

The debris floating in it, like trees, signs, and trash, become a weapon. Now, these are the levels we're expecting right to the east of where Hurricane Isaias is expected to make landfall. And the water will push inland as far as it can, which in some cases can be half a mile or more.

SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Allison Chinchar for that report.

Still to come, more leaks. Ken Paxton's Senate campaign hit with another release of secretly recorded audio. This is at least the fourth time. Plus, the NYPD releasing bodycam video showing the moments after an ICE officer opened fire on a car with a five-year-old inside. The details ahead.

And later, the vice president addressing the Pentagon's plan to livestream the firing squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter. These important stories and many more, coming up this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:10:27]

SANCHEZ: Now it's a new CNN reporting on the contentious Texas Senate race. Leaked audio of Republican Ken Paxton reveals him complaining about the lack of support from outgoing Senator John Cornyn. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN PAXTON, (R) TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: I'll tell you a story that just happened three nights ago. A friend of mine was at Cafe Pacific, a restaurant in Dallas, and he ended up at a table next to Cornyn. And so he told the waiter I want to buy his dinner, and the waiter thinks that somebody already did. He said OK. But he said his wife's birthday, they didn't buy dessert. So my friend bought dessert. Cornyn called him over to shake his hand. He got kind of in his face almost and said, thanks for the dessert. My friend said, well, you know, I just want to thank you for your service, for all your years of service to Texas.

He goes, I realize it's hard to lose an election, but it shows a lot of character that you're supporting the ticket and you're supporting Ken Paxton. And he -- Cornyn's face went red. He backed off. He said, Paxton is going to lose. We need to teach those Republicans a lesson. It's going to be hard to learn but they need to know that their decisions have consequences.

We need to make sure they understand it. That's what he's trying to do. That's John Cornyn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Patrick Svitek is here with more of this reporting. Patrick, how is the Paxton campaign responding to this, the only the latest leak in the last few days?

PATRICK SVITEK, CNN REPORTER: Right. You know, they argued that this is a non-story, but they did, you know, know in a comment to us that Ken Paxton has reached out to John Cornyn multiple times since their bruising primary runoff, you know, to try to get his support, to try to get together and unify.

And Cornyn, you know, by all appearances is still not explicitly supporting Ken Paxton in this race. Cornyn has said he'll support, quote, "the Republican ticket," but it's clear that he still has some resentments from the primary. And as we got out in this story, I mean, this is a years-long feud.

I mean, this goes back to at least 2022. You know, Cornyn used to be attorney general himself. He's made it clear for years that he believes Ken Paxton has disgraced that office. Ken Paxton has weathered a number of scandals.

And so, I mean, this rift between these two leading Texas Republicans is much bigger than just this current Senate race.

SANCHEZ: Is it clear where these leaks are coming from at this point?

SVITEK: Well, we attribute it to audio -- an audio recording we obtained from someone at this event who does not support Ken Paxton.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

SVITEK: And so you can draw your conclusions from that. But there have been a series of these leaks. Obviously, this is the fifth one, at least that I'm aware of, that have been reported by media outlets.

SANCHEZ: We should note Paxton's opponent, James Talarico, has been off the campaign trail at least for 12 days. The candidate saying that he's been dealing with the flu. What do you make of his absence from the campaign trail?

SVITEK: Yeah, it's a little peculiar. I mean, just because of how close we are to the election. You think about the last time there was a lot of excitement around a Senate race in Texas. At least one of the last times is 2018, when Beto O'Rourke was a Democratic nominee.

You know, he ran a very spirited race. And in those final weeks, especially, he was crisscrossing the state, you know, holding multiple events per day. And so, obviously, to have the Democratic nominee off the campaign trail at this point is certainly a contrast with that closing stretch of the last Senate race.

SANCHEZ: Patrick Svitek, appreciate the reporting. Thanks.

SVITEK: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Back to Hurricane Isaias now. These are live images from Gulf Shores, Alabama, where officials are warning residents along the coast, who are not evacuating, to make final preparations and brace for impact. The mayor of Fairhope, which sits on Mobile Bay, had this message for those that are planning to hunker down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR SHERRY SULLIVAN, FAIRHOPE, ALABAMA: The storm surge is going to be something that everybody's going to watch. We have a lot of low- lying areas, a lot of flood-prone areas, but most people will stay. So, again, the most important thing is to be prepared at home, have everything you need there, but don't get out on the roads if you don't have to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Pretty good advice.

We're joined now by Mike Evans. He's the Director of the Mobile County Emergency Management Agency. Sir, thanks so much for being with us.

What are you seeing in Mobile right now as landfall gets closer?

MIKE EVANS, DIRECTOR, MOBILE COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: Hey, thank you for having me. So what we're seeing right now, we're starting to see here in greater Mobile County and the coastal part of Mobile County, we're seeing outer rain bands and some of the outer wind bands.

So, it's getting gusty, and we're starting to get some pretty sustained rain. So that's kind of where we're at, and we know that that's the start. It's going to continue, and it's going to get much worse before it gets better.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, parts of the county are under mandatory evacuation for visitors.

[14:15:00] There's a voluntary evacuation for that Zone 1 coastal area. Do you know how many people are heeding those warnings and leaving, and how many are deciding to stay?

EVANS: Yes, sir. So we worked with the governor's office yesterday, the coastal counties in Alabama, to get the governor's team to help us with the mandatory. And that's mostly for people down here that are visiting and on vacation. But then that Zone 1 in Mobile, we have a lot of our citizens. You know, people today like to live near and on the water.

So we were concerned about them. So here's what I can tell you from the monitoring. Our road networks, the U.S. highways and the interstates are full. So that means people are moving. We also opened some shelters in Mobile County in areas that are safe and not in surge zones. And we're starting to have -- the population in those shelters is picking up.

So that would tell me that people are heeding that warning. Also, you know, we've asked people, hey, if you have friends, family or relatives in a safer area, please go spend time with them. If you don't have that opportunity, then please come to one of our shelters.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. Are you in touch with folks that are choosing to stay? What is your message to them?

EVANS: You know, the message to them is, if you choose to stay, number one, are you in a surge zone or a flood zone? Because if you are, then my message is you need to go outside of those zones and go to a safe place.

If you're in, we have quite a bit of high ground in Mobile County. And so there will be people who will stay, you know, so then their concern is not necessarily the surge or the flood, the rapidly rising floodwaters, but their concern would be wind.

And so if they choose to stay and they're in some of those safer zones, then my advice to them is stay inside and don't go outside, you know, when that wind is really blowing hard and fast in your area.

SANCHEZ: Definitely. It's been a couple of years since a hurricane made landfall in the U.S. Do you think people may not be taking this one as seriously because it's been a while?

EVANS: You know, I'm always concerned about complacency, you know, human nature. And basically what you said, the farther we get away from one of these storms, you know, you have to -- you have to ask the question, are people taking it seriously?

You know, not only that, I get concerned. I mean, it's been almost a decade since our last major storm. So I often wonder, you know, we have adults now who make decisions who were not adults then. So I hope they get the message, heed the message and make a safe decision for them and their family members. So, yes, complacency always concerns me.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, it's important to be ready when a storm like this comes. Mike Evans, appreciate your time.

EVANS: Hey, you all have a great day. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much. We're now tracking a major earthquake in Panama as well. The USGS reporting that a 7.6-magnitude quake has hit the southern part of that country. We have the latest on this news after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:23:00]

SANCHEZ: We're following Breaking News out of Panama where a 7.6 earthquake has just been recorded. Joining us now is Seismologist, Jeffrey Park. Sir, thanks for being with us.

What does the initial statistic tell you about this quake?

JEFFREY PARK, PROFESSOR OF EARTH & PLANETARY SCIENCES, YALE UNIVERSITY: Well, its initial size, its reported size, and also its location is really a red flag for the tsunami warning because it's occurring near the southern coast of the southern extreme of Panama. And if we're not sure exactly what its earthquake source mechanism is, what its faulting is like, but it has the possibility of leading to severe tsunami damage along the southern coastline of Panama.

SANCHEZ: What are the possibilities for that faulting dynamic?

PARK: Well, what's happening in this region is very complicated. And this portion of Panama is not a simple fault or a simple plate boundary, although there are earthquakes there. So it's not immediately easy to predict what the shape of the earthquake is or what its faulting mechanism is.

We have to wait until the seismic locations and the U.S. Geological Survey give us some more information on that.

In the meantime, there should be an alert and people should be very careful. There's predicted shaking that is very strong in the southern region and strong throughout most of Panama.

SANCHEZ: What are you watching for in terms of aftershocks?

PARK: There'll be a lot of aftershocks to this. It's shallow, it's about 10 kilometers deep, and therefore, it's probably going to have a significant region in which there will be aftershocks afterwards because in a complicated tectonic area, something that's not simple, that you you're going to have a lot of other faults that will get stressed by this.

[14:25:00]

And then they'll be -- they'll have been close to their rupture point and that this will tip them over.

SANCHEZ: Typically, when you hear that there is a 7.6-magnitude earthquake and that it's at roughly 10 kilometers depth, what kind of damage do you see from that sort of earthquake?

PARK: Well, that can cause a lot of extensive damage close to the epicenter and within maybe about a hundred kilometers or maybe 60 miles or so. And if -- right now, the location is not near a major city. Panama City is a bit farther away, so I don't expect there to be a great deal of damage there, but everything depends on the local geology and also the sturdiness of the local construction.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, this is obviously a part of the world where just a few months ago, we saw a lot of seismic activity. In Venezuela and Colombia, we saw earthquakes over the summer, some nearing this magnitude. Is there a geological connection between all of this activity?

PARK: Well, they are all connected in the same system of plates and fault systems, but this region is a little too far away from Venezuelan earthquakes and the Colombian earthquakes to be directly influenced by it. However, it's not too surprising to have a number of significant earthquakes that are -- that occur in kind of a general region over, you know, a period of time of a year or two.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. Back to your point about concern over potential tsunami and it's important to signal that we don't have indications that there is anything imminent happening right now. It's literally unfolding as we speak, but we do want to be cautious. What are your biggest concerns about a potential tsunami threat?

PARK: A potential tsunami threat is that if there are communities that are along the coastline, they're in danger, specifically, you know, beach communities, beach resorts. If you are in that region of the world and you see, you know, a tsunami warning sign, you know, it has an arrow where if you feel an earthquake that starts to shake things around a lot, you follow the arrow and just start running.

SANCHEZ: Jeffrey Park, appreciate the expertise. Thanks for joining us.

PARK: Yeah. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: We're also tracking Breaking News out of the White House, the selection of a new press secretary replacing Karoline Leavitt. We'll take you to 1,600, Pennsylvania Avenue after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)