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Hurricane Helene Makes Landfall in Florida as Category Four; Death Toll at 3 for Hurricane Helene; Helene Weakens to Category One; Power Outage Expected for Days, Even Weeks; Hurricane Helene Made Landfall As Cat 4 Near Perry, Florida; Shigeru Ishiba To Become Next Japanese Prime Minister. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired September 27, 2024 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST: Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. We begin with breaking news as we track Hurricane Helene. At least three people have been killed in Florida and Georgia as the storm continues to pummel the southeast. The National Weather Service is telling residents to stay in their safe place. Helene is now moving over south Georgia as a Category One storm with 90 mile per hour winds.

Officials say it's still an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation. Now, it made landfall a few hours ago as a monster Category Four hurricane with winds of 140 miles per hour. It's the strongest storm to ever make landfall in Florida's Big Bend. The National Weather Service is describing it as unsurvivable with up to 20 feet of storm surge expected in some areas. Helene has knocked out power to more than a million and a half homes and businesses in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON DESANTIS, GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA: You need to be right now just hunkering down. Now is not the time to be going out. Not only do we seeing it hit landfall here in northern Florida, you're still seeing a surge in water rising in parts of Florida far south from the Big Bend area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: And we're getting word about 40 people have been rescued from rising water in Pasco County, just north of Tampa. And rescues are still underway. The hurricane went from a Category One to Category Four in just 24 hours. Officials in one county told people who didn't evacuate to write their name and birthdate on their arm or leg in order to be identified if needed.

All right. I want to bring in CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar. So Alison, it's already turned deadly. It is weakening, which is good news, but take us through where it is right now and where it's headed. ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. We knew it would weaken.

The key thing with this one, because it's moving so fast, Kim, is that it can make it very far inland and still be a hurricane. So you have some cities hundreds of miles from the coast that are still going to be feeling those hurricane impacts. Now it is just down to a Category One hurricane, sustained winds of 90 miles per hour. But you can see the center of that storm just east of Albany, Georgia.

Again, Albany, Georgia is not on the water for those who are unfamiliar with it. This system is well inland at this point still has that little bit of an eye right there that circulation. So it's still going and it's still going to bring some impacts here over the next several hours. It is not expected to weaken until down to a tropical storm until it gets to the gets close to Atlanta, Georgia, and then from there it will continue its trek up into Tennessee where it's just going to kind of hover.

That's a concern because that means it will sit there and be able to dump a tremendous amount of rain over a pretty decent period of time. Here's a look at the radar again. A lot of the moisture up there on that north side and a lot of the stronger storms on that northeastern quadrant. If you think of like the face of a clock, we're talking about between the 12 and the three on a clock. So that's going to be the most dangerous area, especially in terms of tornadoes. You still have a tornado watch in effect for areas of Florida, Georgia and even the Carolinas.

Most of these expiring not until local time. That's about four hours from now. Here you can see we've got a couple of tornado warnings at the moment across portions of South Carolina. We've had many of these off and on throughout the last 12 hours and it's going to continue that way. Here you can see a lot of that moisture surge continuing to spread up into portions of Georgia, also Alabama, Tennessee, as well as the Carolinas. And this area does not need any more rain.

So many of these locations, you can see this color right through here, the yellow, that indicating at least four inches or 100 millimeters of rain. We are still anticipating at least another where you see the orange and the red, another six to 10 inches of rain, so another 150 to 200 millimeters of rain on top of what these areas have already had. So that flooding concern is going to continue throughout the day today.

Even after the rain dies down, you have to remember rivers, creeks and streams, that's more of a delayed effect. So those will continue to go up even through the weekend after the rain has finally ended. You have a lot of these green areas under a flood watch. The red indicates a flash flood warning where we have active flooding taking place at the moment. As we mentioned, more expected on the way. So remember the other map that we showed where all of that rain had already fallen. Now you're going to be adding more rain on top of it.

Again, the yellow color indicating at least four inches or 100 millimeters, and then we start to see some of those darker colors, the oranges and the reds, indicating even more rain on top of that.

[02:05:02]

So again, Kim, you're going to be looking at a lot of different factors here. You're still going to have the wind because it's still a hurricane. You're still going to have the rain, and you also have the potential for tornadoes for at least the rest of the day, Friday.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, it's just crazy as you say, moving so fast that it'll affect areas like here, Atlanta, which usually aren't in the path of a hurricane like this. Thanks so much. Listen, we'll come back to you later in the hour for an update. Really appreciate it.

All right. I want to go now to CNN's Ivan Rodriguez, who's live in Tallahassee, Florida. So Ivan, what do conditions look like right now where you are?

IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kim, even though Hurricane Helene has already passed, especially that eye wall, we're starting to feel some of that outer band come back around. And I really have felt some strong winds here in the last couple of minutes. The rain itself, which has been continuous for several hours, has begun to die down a little bit. We were expecting that to happen right around this hour.

The wind we know is going to carry around and stick around here in the Tallahassee area for a little bit longer. And that's currently what we're experiencing here. What we are also keeping a close eye on are power outages. Just here on this street where I'm standing, these street lights have flickered on and off now at least three times.

Power outages across Leon County, holding steady now for about 130,000 customers, which doesn't sound like that many customers without power, but when you put it into perspective, there's only about 300,000 people who live in Leon County. You can sort of feel some of that wind coming in here again.

Across Florida though, it's a different story. More than a million people are without power. And then when you begin to add Georgia and also the Carolinas, you're looking at 1.5 million customers without power. A lot of people are still sheltering in place. That's been the communication even from Governor Ron DeSantis asking people to stay either in their homes or in the shelters that are being run by either the cities or the counties.

We've also gotten updates from the governor here of Florida on a fatality in the Tampa area. Another two confirmed fatalities in Georgia as well because of a tornado attributed and because of Hurricane Helene really just showing how dangerous this storm has been so far and continues to be for millions of people.

BRUNHUBER: All right, so I really appreciate getting your update. Ivan Rodriguez in Tallahassee, Florida. Thank you so much for that. I want to go now to Clearwater, Florida, where Mayor Bruce Rector can give us an update on the situation in his area. Thank you so much for being here with us this early. So when it hit the Big Bend, it was record strength for the area. So things obviously looking better now, but just take us through sort of what you're seeing. BRUCE RECTOR, MAYOR OF CLEARWATER, FLORIDA: Yeah, well, we're in

Clearwater, so we're south of Big Bend, but we had we had a very devastating night here in Clearwater. It shows the size of this storm. We are about 100 miles away from the center of this storm. And still, we had record storm surge, almost a full meter above the prior record. That caused unprecedented flooding on our coastal community, part of Clearwater, and caused tremendous damage.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, and we heard from an official in Tampa saying basically the roads look like an ocean, catastrophic flooding, which you've been talking about as well. Any idea how much damage has been done already?

RECTOR: Well, we won't know for sure until the sun comes up and we can see it in daylight. But the police report and fire reports share that almost the entire island of Clearwater Beach was underwater. The buildings weren't, but all of the streets and roads were completely submerged at one time at the peak of the storm surge. So that caused infusion to many, many businesses and homes, and we had to rescue several folks from their homes. So, it's -- I'm sure it's going to be significant damage tomorrow.

BRUNHUBER: And I know certain areas were under evacuation order. How hard has it been to convince folks to leave?

RECTOR: Very hard. People had no real frame of reference for how bad it would be. I talked to several folks, tried to convince them to leave the island earlier today. And they told me that the water had never threatened their homes, so they were going to stay.

[02:09:55]

And those same folks called me later in the evening telling me that they were very scared because the water was at their doorstep and they were worried about it. So it was just something tonight that most folks, even folks who have lived here all their lives, have never experienced. So it was hard. That said, most people did leave the island, but we still had a few residents stayed out there.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, so storm surge and flooding, that's one threat. The other problem I imagine is power. What is the situation there?

RECTOR: Well, we've lost quite a bit of power. Their power line's down. And of course, electricity and water are not a very good combination. So our goal tomorrow will be, or later on this morning, will be to assess the damage, but also make sure people stay out of the water. Often, it's contaminated because so many things get mixed with the water when it floods like this. But also, we have downed power lines and it's very dangerous for folks to be out in the streets tomorrow. So we'll be encouraging folks to not go out, stay in their homes until we can make it safe for them.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, that's a good point to warn people about that. I mean, you're obviously far from out of the woods right now and people might have to get used to living without power for a while, is that right? RECTOR: Well, unfortunately, yeah, it just depends. I think probably

what helps is this was more of a storm surge, storm for us and less of a windstorm. We did have very high winds. We had some wind gusts up to 78 miles per hour, which also I believe was a record. But I think that they will be able to get the electric service back faster than we'll be able to repair a lot of the flood and water damage.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. Well listen, really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us and certainly want you and everybody in your area to stay safe. Mayor Bruce Rector in Clearwater, Florida, thank you so much for speaking with us.

RECTOR: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Still ahead, Hurricane Helene is moving fast and leaving a trail of destruction across the southeast. Our coverage of this extremely dangerous record-breaking storm continues. Stay with us.

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[02:15:00]

BRUNHUBER: Hurricane Helene is now moving north over the state of Georgia, threatening millions in the hours ahead with torrential rain and fierce wind. Helene was downgraded to a Category One hurricane minutes ago, but it remains extremely dangerous. The storm is blamed for at least three deaths across Georgia and Florida, and authorities have rescued dozens of people from flood waters.

Helene made a historic landfall late Thursday night hitting Florida's Big Bend region as a massive Category Four hurricane larger than Katrina in 2005. Now before landfall, hurricane hunters with national weather agencies flew by and captured data. CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam is on the scene in Apalachicola, Florida, just west of the spot where Helene made landfall.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hurricane Helene making landfall in Taylor County in the Big Bend of Florida just after 11:00 p.m. coming in with winds of 140 miles per hour. This is the fifth hurricane to strike the state of Florida since 2017 and it is the most powerful hurricane to strike the Big Bend region of Florida.

Just to put it into context, this storm was stronger in terms of a central pressure compared to Hurricane Ian, which struck the Fort Myers Beach region in 2022. That recorded a 941 millibar central pressure. This, Hurricane Helene, rolled in with 938 millibars. That, of course, the lower the number, the stronger the hurricane. And we have seen anywhere from extreme storm surge values that have set records in Cedar Key. We have seen extreme wind warnings stretch from the coast, inland into southern Georgia.

And we know that because of the forward speed of this storm that the storm is not done. It is moving quickly and it will impact several U.S. states overnight and into the days to come. Particularly hard hit will be the state of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. And we're thinking about the tropical storm force and hurricane force winds that will impact areas that don't normally experience them. This will bring down trees, take down power, and also the flash flood threat potential with this system is extreme.

We cannot overstate that enough. The amount of rain that is falling from the sky here is, quote, "unprecedented." It will be historic in nature, especially for those mountainous regions. Even the National Weather Service talking about the potential of landslides in some of those vulnerable mountain communities of South Carolina and North Carolina. So we are going to really think about the people who are impacted by this storm, this monster of a storm.

And as a meteorologist, knowing how powerful this storm was as it made landfall, I fear what daylight will bring to the Big Bend region and the southeastern U.S. as this expansive, expansive storm continues to roll on through. I'm Derek Van Dam in Apalachicola.

BRUNHUBER: Well, as Derek just said, the storm was a Category Four monster when it made landfall in Florida. Have a look at this.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

[02:19:56]

BRUNHUBER: We'll hear more from this reporter who stood against the extremely powerful winds that's coming out. Please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: All right. We continue to track the path and the impact of Hurricane Helene as it barrels north into the state of Georgia. The storm has weakened to a Category One, but it is still dangerous and life threatening. At least three storm-related deaths have been reported, one in Florida and two in Georgia. Now, the eye of the storm bypassed Tampa Bay, but the massive size and the strong winds created a powerful surge in that city.

Helene made landfall in the city of Perry in Florida's Big Bend as a Category Four storm and a local reporter described the situation there. Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ASEBES, WJXT REPORTER: In the Big Bend area, Hurricane Helene is packing a punch right now. The rain is (inaudible). It's got a little bit of a bite to it. This is all kind of in the last hour or so really on time is what we expected. My anemometer has been reading around 30 miles an hour but I'm about to put this thing down because I think that the wind is far stronger than that.

So this is what the scene is like here in Perry, Florida and I can only imagine with the storm surge and what we saw earlier at Keaton Beach, those areas are also going through it right now. Minus this bank, I think the power is out all over Perry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BNRUNHUBER: I want to bring in CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar. So Allison, it's been a one in 1,000 year rain event for some areas, plenty of records set with this.

CHINCHAR: Yes, and the power outages alone. I mean, we're talking 1.6 million people without power and that number's only going to grow because you know the early ones likely aren't going to get their power back for hours if not days.

[02:25:01]

But then we're going to start to see more power outages across Georgia, the Carolinas, and then even into Tennessee where it really hasn't even made it there just yet. So yes, we're going to continue to see it.

It has weakened to a Category One storm, but I want to emphasize that the area that it's moving over right now as a Category One are areas that are simply not used to having a hurricane. They are well inland. Power outages are still expected to expand and then the flooding rains are going to continue, especially as the storm starts to slow down over states like Tennessee.

Here's a look at where the storm is. We are finally starting to see that eye wall begin to close back up. A good sign that this is continuing to weaken as it makes its way inland. But again, those sustained winds, still 90 miles per hour. Now it's going to continue its trek, but even as it does, it's still expected to be a very high end tropical storm when it crosses over a city like Atlanta, Georgia, which for reference is hundreds of miles away from the ocean.

Then it will continue to head up into Tennessee and Kentucky and really just kind of sit there, which is going to be a problem in terms of rainfall because it's not going to be moving as quickly there. So it will have more time to dump a lot of rain. We've talked about the winds. Look at some of these numbers. Perry, Florida, which was the area where it made landfall, recording a 99 mile per hour wind. Other areas of Georgia looking at 90 and 88 mile per hour winds.

Again, these are areas that are not necessarily right on the water. Valdosta is inland, just kind of north and east a little bit of Tampa looking at some pretty high wind gusts and then also a few other areas in Florida and Georgia. Savannah, Georgia on a different coast, not on the Gulf Coast, but the Atlantic side picking up a wind gust of 75 miles per hour.

We've also been talking about substantial rainfall totals already. We're looking at areas of well over a foot for portions, not just to Florida, but Georgia and North Carolina too. And then you've also had some that are close. Keep in mind some of these numbers are going to continue to go up as we go through the day today because the rain is not yet over. And here you can see it is a wide, a very large storm in terms of size.

The eye center right there over southern Georgia, that's going to continue to slide to the north and then eventually go a little bit more northwestward. That's why you're going to see more of that rain begin to push to areas of western Tennessee as well as into Kentucky. But again, all of this rain surging up. Keep in mind for some of these areas, they had a cold front move through about 48 hours ago. So the ground was already saturated before this storm even came in. That's what's triggering a lot of the flooding concerns.

Yes, Helene alone would cause flooding, but the fact that the ground was already saturated before this came in, that triggered a lot more widespread flooding concerns. We also still have the potential for tornadoes, not just in Florida, but also Georgia and the Carolinas. So all of these areas you see here in red are under a tornado watch. Most of them are not set to expire until 6:00 a.m. local time. That's in about 3.5 hours. And some of them they may even be extended, especially if the potency of this storm is still ongoing.

There's no need to cancel those right away. We've had off and on tornado warnings throughout many of these states, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Here you can see the bulk of that really heavy rain on the north side of that center. Just now starting to spread into Macon will eventually make its way into Atlanta and Augusta. So you've still got a lot more rain to go.

And then you have to think about, okay, that this is on top of how much has already fallen. Look at all of these areas here. The yellow alone accounts for at least four inches of rain or 100 millimeters. Now you're going to be looking at some of the oranges and the reds. Now you're talking six to eight inches or 150 to 200 millimeters of rain. And then we're going to be adding more rain on top of those numbers.

All of the areas you see here in green are under a flood watch, meaning the potential is there for flooding to occur at any point. The red ones mean it's already happening. There are either roadways, underwater creeks, overflowing, things like that, and it's likely going to continue to spread because here's the rest of the rain that we anticipate getting for the remainder of the day today, and really just through the rest of Friday.

Keep in mind that some of these areas of Tennessee and Kentucky, it won't stop on Friday. They will still continue to get rain on Saturday too. So some of these numbers could even be higher, but you're still looking at a lot of these yellow areas, widespread totals of another two to four inches, again, upwards of 100 millimeters of rain, and then some areas that could even be more on top of that.

So again, Kim, you're talking still, again, we talk about this, just because it made landfall doesn't mean the storm is dead, doesn't mean it's over and the event is long gone. We still have a lot more impacts to go here for at least the next 24 hours.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely, both with flooding and what you started off with, the power situation for so many people across the south there. Thank you so much, really appreciate it.

All right, and joining me now with more, I want to bring in Cole Washko, Public Information Officer for Sarasota County, Florida Emergency Management. Thank you so much for being here with us. So as we were just hearing there from Allison, it's in passing through Florida now, coming up here to Georgia.

So where you were at its worst, how bad was it?

[02:30:04]

COLE WASHKO, SARASOTA COUNTY, FLORIDA EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (via telephone): Sure, sure. Well, firsthand. Thank you very much for having me on this.

You know, this storm, obviously, it was predicted by the National Weather Service to really just be a gigantic storm that really was going to bring a lot of wind and a lot of rain, and we're still seeing that as the storm is moving northeast.

But, you know, once we saw the prediction from the National Weather Service, we knew that it was time to strap in and we immediately activated our JIC, joint information center, as well as our emergency operations center. And we immediately started staging emergency response equipment, public works and are public look utilities department started making their ways to different spots throughout the county to really prep their different operations, their different procedures, and it really just make sure that we were prepared for this storm, but it really did dump a lot of rain.

And throughout the county and were seeing at a minimum of six feet of storm surge, which is exactly what it was predicted by the National Weather Service.

BRUNHUBER: Wow, so six feet of storm surge. You were talking about the wind, the rain. What is the biggest threat or concern right now?

WASHKO: Sure, sure. Well, you know, obviously, I think what's most important is first is lifesaving operations, right? It's -- we care about our community members. We care about the residents of Florida, and that's always going to be the most important thing. So really right now, that's our focus at this point, is lifesaving operations.

But obviously, once we get into tomorrow morning and we get some more daylight and that water recedes. We can really start to get our hands- on. What are we dealing with? What is this damage look like, and how can we best help our community get back up on their feet?

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, you'll have to wait for daybreak to really do that damage assessment. But so far, just with what you've seen, how does it compare to other storms, say, to Hurricane Idalia or Ian?

WASHKO: Sure, sure. Well, you know, obviously, we live in Florida and we are no strangers to these hurricanes. Unfortunately, it's just the price for paradise, they say.

But, you know, all of these storms, every storm is different. Some storms or rainmakers, some storms have a lot of storm surge or they have heavy winds. So this storm really, its a lot of people are saying reminds them of Irma and Hurricane Michael. So we really just tried to take as much precaution as we could as soon as we saw these predictions come in, and we started putting out messaging for evacuation centers and evacuate throughout our county. Just to make sure that our residents really understood what we were going to be up against.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, adding to the difficulties, of course, there is something like 1 million customers without power in the state, what is the power situation there where you are?

WASHKO: Sure, sure. So we still do have some community members throughout the county that are without -- without power, just like in many other counties throughout Florida unfortunately.

But again, you know, as tomorrow comes around, as that daylight presents, itself and those water levels proceed recede rather, we can really get are team members out there, members of our public utilities, you know, some of these different utility companies can come out as well. And I know that we have different volunteers and such from even out of out-of-state, as well as some of our other local resources and federal resources that are really all going to ban together as one team, one community, and help get this power back online and help build our community backup.

BRUNHUBER: So, still a long way to go, even though the storm itself might be passing by. What is your message, finally, to folks out there right now in your community?

WASHKO: Sure, sure. Well, my main message would be, even though were not we still have this arm around, but you got to stay where you're at, shelter in place, do not go walking through those floodwaters.

You know, there's reports of downed trees, down power lines, et cetera. And, you know, when you're walking around in these waters, you may not know what's in them. And we really just want our community members and all of Florida to stay safe, stay vigilant, and stay updated. There's a plethora of information, both from Sarasota County in many of the other great counties in Florida. And I just highly recommend that community members keep that knowledge and stay safe.

BRUNHUBER: And I'll just echo that message to your community members end to you, yourself.

Cole Washko, stay safe. Really appreciate you joining us. Thank you so much.

WASHKO: Yes, thank you so much, Kim, really appreciate it.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Well, northeast St. Petersburg residents, they can shower, flush toilets, or a drain sinks for at least 48 hours.

[02:35:02]

Now, after the city announced that power was cut to a water treatment facility.

CNN's Carlos Suarez reports from St. Pete on the unprecedented storm surge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, we began today out in Gulfport. That is about 20 minutes from where we are, but because of the storm surge that they are late this afternoon, anywhere between four to six feet of it, we had to find higher ground and then from there, we tried to make our way back to Hillsborough, which is the Tampa area, but because several bridges have been closed because of this storm, we decided to stay put in St. Petersburg and the flooding here is just as bad as it was over in Gulfport.

If you can kind of make out where I'm at, because much of this neighborhood is without power, you can see just how much of the bay has pushed into this one street out here. The white stuff that you might be able to make out in some of this water here, some of this bay water, we believe to be a part of some Styrofoam, a part of a concrete, a dock that was broken in half, that sits just behind me, but its really difficult for you to make out just because again, there's no power out here and its really difficult to put a light considering the amount of flooding that is going on at that place there.

Going into the storm, the concern from emergency officials in Pinellas County was the fact that even though the hurricane was going to track north and west of us, and so this area was not going to get a direct hit. The concern was that these low low-lying areas would flood no matter what. We have prepositioned in Pinellas County the last two years in a row to cover to other hurricanes. One hurricane was Ian two years ago, that hit to the south.

And then last year, we were in Pinellas County to cover Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall to the north, and in both of those hurricanes, this part of Pinellas County flooded and it flooded pretty bad. In fact, last year during Hurricane Idalia, which again stayed off the coast, state to the west, went to the north, did not have a direct impact on things out here. Laura, more than 1,500 homes here in Pinellas county were damaged in the flooding.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right. I want to go live again to CNN's Ivan Rodriguez in Tallahassee, Florida.

Looking at the pictures there, Ivan, looks like still very windy and rainy. Where do things stand?

IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, that's exactly right.

Even though we're no longer closer that eye wall of the hurricane, we're feeling some of those outer bands still. And that's bringing in some strong winds. And also some heavy rain. The rain seem like it had gone away maybe 30, 40 minutes ago. Now it's coming back again.

We're probably going to experience this now for the next hour or so. We are expecting the rain to begin to die down completely in the 3:00 hour. And then the winds are going to stick around with us here in Tallahassee until about 5:00 in the morning.

Now, it's those two reasons why a lot of communities like this one here in Tallahassee are still asking people to shelter in place, whether they're staying here at their home or there at a shelter. One of the shelters here in Leon County, for example there still wanting people just to stay in place, ride out this storm completely until it is safe to go outside.

Now, here in shelter specifically, we know that there's 1,700 people in shelters where we are in Leon County. Another thing when paying close attention to is power outages. It seems like it's just increasing by the hour about 1.5 now, more than 1.5 million customers are without power in Florida, Georgia, and also in the Carolinas.

Here where we are in this county, we're right around 130,000 customers without power, but to put it into perspective, there's only about 300,000 people who live in Leon County. So you're talking about a good amount of people here who are experiencing power outages.

As I look out, where from where I'm standing on this little vantage point, I get a good view of other parts of Tallahassee, some areas still have their lights on from what I can tell. For example, we're standing even on this street, these street lights flickered on and off now a few times as well.

So power restoration, Kim, is going to be a big focus going in to tomorrow. A lot of communities and a lot of officials have said, what is it going to look like in the morning when we do go out? What's the damage is going to be?

Here in Tallahassee, it seems to be okay so far. No signs so far from what I can tell of downed trees or down power lines, that's going to help when it comes to getting that power back.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely.

And then, you know, Tallahassee, home to at least eight colleges, Florida State University, of course, obviously, a huge college population in the city. So how are the students seeing out the storm?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, specifically, Florida State University, they were sending out several alerts leading in to landfall, what we thought was going to be a direct hit initially here in Tallahassee.

[02:40:07]

But the students that remained on campus, Florida State University were told by the college they actually went into a conference center at the -- at the university, which was redesigned, revamped, you could say to become a shelter and to be able to withstand a major hurricane.

It has hurricane shutters, for example. It has a generator that can supply air conditioning into that conference room. So, at least those students I would feel a little bit more comfortable, but especially when were looking at it and talking about a university, a lot of these students haven't experienced anything like a hurricane before either. So, definitely a scary experience for many of those students

hopefully, and thankfully, they didn't experiencing anything too bad luck like we have seen in other Florida communities with storm surge and also flooding, which is going to be a problem now for days to weeks to come.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. All right. I appreciate those updates. Ivan Rodriguez in Tallahassee, Florida. Thanks so much.

Hurricane Helene barrels through Georgia following his landfall hours ago. Now, the storm is visible from space as it stirs up trouble for air travelers and wreaks havoc on the ground.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN DAILEY, TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA MAYOR: You could tell we have one heck of a storm going on outside right now. And, yeah, my -- I'm thinking about also all the surrounding communities outside of Tallahassee. We are all getting hit very hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: All right. That was the mayor of Tallahassee speaking as Hurricane Helene came ashore just south of the city a few hours ago. Helene is now moving through southern Georgia as a category one storm after losing some strength. Forecasters say it's still creating catastrophic winds and no one should go outside until it passes.

[02:45:02]

Earlier, Florida's governor urged residents to stay indoors and away from roadways because of storm surge and flooding. At least three deaths related to the storm has been confirmed so far, one in Florida, and two here in Georgia.

Japan's ruling liberal Democratic Party has voted on its new leader who will soon become the next prime minister.

I want to go straight to CNN's Hanako Montgomery live in Tokyo.

So, Hanako, I guess, fifth times the charm for the former were defense minister. Take us through what we know about him and how he won this closely fought contest.

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESOPNDENT: Yeah, Kim. I'm just outside a liberal Democratic Party's headquarters. As you can see from the many police officers behind me and also these announcements. And they just elected there next party president, Shigeru Ishiba, who will go on to become the country's next prime minister.

Now, this was a very hotly contested race with nine candidates actually running. But as we've seen with Ishiba's win, when his political acumen, his experience in policy and foreign policy led to him securing the top job.

Now, a little bit it about Ishiba. He has formerly served as the country's defense minister, and he's quite well liked within the general public for his work in rural revitalization. He's also proposed the idea of an Asian NATO.

But I've spoken to a couple of experts and they're quite surprised by his win because he's actually not really very well liked within his own party. He's has actually been quite a sharp critic of his many politicians within his own party, and he's been once known to the tray I his own party after leaving it once it lost power.

Now, again, however, we do have to remember that the Liberal Democratic Party is going through a bit of an identity crisis right now, has been marred by two very large scandals that actually led to the former Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida's popularity dip significantly.

So, the LDP and Kishida himself recognized that they needed a new face to lead this party if they were going to win at the general elections. And Ishiba looks like he is going to be that choice. So even though he's a sharp critic, he is a very well-known to be a very good politician who has a lot of stern and concrete beliefs -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Hanako Montgomery in Tokyo, thanks so much for that.

Israel's prime minister is due to speak in the coming hours at the United Nations General Assembly. Benjamin Netanyahu is brushing aside calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, vowing to fight Hezbollah with full force. Israeli attacks on the group have killed more than 600 people, including many civilians. The U.S. says, it is still committed to achieving a ceasefire. Netanyahu's office says, it is open to discussions.

Now, the Lebanese foreign minister used his address at the general assembly to call for a ceasefire on all fronts. He's warning urgent actions needed before the situation spirals completely out-of-control. Officials in the country who have documented more than 100,000 people displaced by the fighting. They'll be actual figure is likely much higher.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to meet with former president Donald Trump in the coming hours at Trump Tower. That comes on the back of the Ukrainian leader's meeting with President Biden, where the two men focused on new allowances for weapons on the battlefield to achieve victory. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Today, we have a new support package, $7.9 billion. This will be a great help. And I raised with President Biden plan of victory today. We are preparing to discuss the details to strengthen the plan.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me be clear, Russia will not prevail in war. Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail, and we'll continue to stand by you every step of the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Zelenskyy also met separately with Vice President Harris, their sixth meetings since the war began.

Hurricane John has come back to life with a vengeance causing havoc along Mexico's Pacific coast. Acapulco residents got caught up in life-threatening floods, as you can see that roar through their neighborhoods with force, and another dramatic video shows people still inside a taxi as it was swept away. Now luckily, it came to rest in the passengers were pulled out to safety. John slammed into Mexico's a category three hurricane on Monday. It weakened to a tropical storm before regaining strength and returning as a category one hurricane.

All right. After the break, there are hurricane evacuation warnings for Florida, but some people aren't going anywhere. Well have more on Hurricane Helene coverage next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:53:30]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE RHOME, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: People seem to think they can predict these things, or they can look at a model and determine what's going to happen, and you just see so many innocent people who mean well make bad decisions and poor decisions. And, you know, I hope people just take this seriously. If you don't have to be out driving -- I mean, I'm seeing videos of people out at the coastline wandering in the surf, I mean, there's just no need to do that. People just need to go home and just stay home until this is done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: A warning from the National Hurricane Center, though, many people did stay behind.

Now, earlier, CNN's Laura Coates spoke to one Tampa Bay resident who was sort of prepared for the storm. Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT HALLER, TAMPA BAY RESIDENT: The storm started really slowly and then, all of a sudden, I live on the water here in the storm, just kind of came in and it's been rising and rising since, according to our tides is going to keep rising until about 3:00 a.m. So we've got our fingers crossed that the boat stays intact.

We just lost power. We've got a couple of battery packs, so are hoping that carries us through. And I'm talking to you guys on candlelight at the time being.

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: Wow, I mean, how long did it take for that flooding to reach that level in your home, where he talking a matter of minutes, hours, what?

HALLER: One, it just came out of nowhere within probably an hour-and- a-half. It went up about four feet from nothing. We didn't think we were going to get hit by the storm. It didn't even really rain all today, and then just the wind and the storm surge, it's just -- the homes flooded before.

[02:55:05]

We've had an inch of water here or there but nothing like this. This is definitely the biggest, biggest flood we've ever had. We thought it was going to go west and stay out in a gulf and we just didn't expect this much storm surge, but it was kind of like a really perfect storm, pardon my upon, with the wind and the tides. So that's where were just getting this incredible storm surge right now, although the hurricane and hit us in the rain didn't hit us, we're still getting blasted here.

The kayak was it was my escape plan, you know, in case stuff got to hairy, we can get out, so we have two kayaks. I didn't think I was going to need it in my living room. So yeah, I was floating around almost. Yeah. I'm surprised the power stayed on as long as it did.

I have my little security cameras everywhere, so I'm going to compile all that together should be some funny video. But it's a bummer also because of the elevation of the home were hooked up to a septic system, not the sewer. So the water is really nasty.

I came upstairs and showered him thing off and shortly after the power died, so we're all good, made it in the nick of time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Officials in lee county in southwest Florida posted this dramatic video on social media, shows marine deputies performing a boat rescue in Fort Myers Beach on Thursday. The sheriff says a resident called emergency services asking to be saved from rising waters at his home. Marine deputies were able to get them using their rescue boats and the rest of it is said to be doing well.

And Helene is creating travel nightmares for some airline passengers, close to 1,300 flights coming into or originating in the U.S. were canceled yesterday and more than 5,600 were delayed according to the tracking website, FlightAware. The most affected airports are in the southeastern U.S. The website says close to 600 flights so far have been canceled today with over 300 delayed.

All right. We have much more on Hurricane Helene coming up. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back in a moment with more. Please do stay with us.