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Two Million+ Customers in the Dark Amid Hurricane Helene; Helene One of Largest Storms in Gulf in the Last Century; Netanyahu to Speak at U.N. Amid Hezbollah Fighting; Zelenskyy Expected to Meet Trump in New York Today. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 27, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London.

We are closely tracking Hurricane Helene, which has weakened to a Category 1 storm, but it still poses life-threatening danger to millions of people in the southeastern U.S.. More than two million households are in the dark right now. Officials are bracing for unprecedented flooding and catastrophic damage in some areas when the sun rises in just a few hours' time.

The storm is blamed for at least three deaths in Georgia and Florida. Rescues are ongoing. Helene was the strongest hurricane on record to slam into Florida's Big Bend region.

And the massive Category 4 hurricane was larger than Katrina in 2005. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is urging residents to stay put and stay safe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON DESANTIS, (R) FLORIDA GOVERNOR: We know that travel on the roads can be hazardous, and we typically, unfortunately, will have fatalities in every storm from that. When you are out on the roads in the middle of one of these storms, that is very, very dangerous. So please do not do that. Stay put.

Also, if you're sheltering in place, know your surroundings in terms of trees. You are going to see trees that are going to get knocked down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: We're going to bring in CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar because obviously it's moving rapidly, and we need to consider the aftermath and the storm surge as much as the storm itself.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, yes. And the one thing to note is just because it has made landfall does not mean the storm is over. In fact, for some of these communities, the worst is yet to come.

We take a look at the current statistics. It's now 75 miles per hour sustained winds, still a Category 1 hurricane, but we're continuing to that gradual decrease in the wind speed as it continues to make its way inland.

Still moving due north at about 30 miles per hour. That is incredibly fast for a tropical cyclone, especially this low in latitude. Again, you can see we're going to start to see that westward curve back, and that's going to then take a lot of the bulk of the rain with it back into states like Tennessee and into Kentucky.

In the short term, however, still going to be producing wind gusts of 60 to 80 miles per hour for cities like Macon, Atlanta, and Augusta, Georgia, as it continues to weaken off to the north.

Now when we talk about rainfall totals, there have been some substantial rainfall amounts already, and it's not done yet. Florida picking up over 15 inches of rain. Portions of Georgia and North Carolina have had over a foot, keeping in mind that those two states still have more rain that they are expecting for the day today.

Winds have also been very potent. Take a look at this Perry, Florida. That's near the landfall location. Wind gust of 99 miles per hour.

Other thing, Douglas, Georgia. That is 90 miles away from the coast -- 90 miles. This is not a beachfront community. They still had a wind gust of 92 miles per hour.

So here's a look at the storm. Again, you can see a lot of the bulk of that rain is really on the northern half of the storm. You've also got several tornado warnings. That's those little pink boxes you see there across South Carolina. Those are going to continue throughout the day today. It's why we have a tornado watch in effect for portions of Florida, Georgia, as well as the Carolinas. This includes cities like Jacksonville, Charlotte and even Charleston.

All of these areas are still looking at this particular watch to stay valid for at least another hour and a half. But it's very likely we're going to see additional tornado watches come out and extend that timeline because the threat for tornadoes from Virginia all the way down through South Carolina exists through the day today. So that is not a threat that is going to go away anytime soon.

In terms of rainfall, we mentioned some of those totals, but you can see here the map version just to show you how widespread some of this rain is. Asheville, North Carolina, which is in the western portion of the state, well away from the ocean, has had a substantial amount of rain so far. Now we're going to be adding more rain on to it. That's why you can see all of these areas that are in green. That is a flood watch, meaning conditions are there for potential flooding as we go through the day today.

The red color, that indicates flooding that is ongoing right now. So that's something we're going to have to keep a close eye on in the coming hours -- Max. [04:05:04]

FOSTER: Allison, thank you.

CNN's Ivan Rodriguez is with us live from Tallahassee, Florida. And it's not as bad as you thought there, but the areas surrounding you are really suffering.

IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Max, a lot of people here in Tallahassee are breathing a sigh of relief. We, hours ago, were expecting possibly a direct hit from the hurricane here in Tallahassee. And we were able to, here in this area, stay a little bit west of the eye wall. That trajectory continued eastward.

Here we did see some rain. And we saw some wind throughout the last several hours. Now you can see it's pretty much dying down now, just remnants of some wind that still exists here throughout the city.

But in terms of outages, we know, as you mentioned, more than 1 million just in Florida customers are without power. Here in Leon County, that number is right around 72,000 customers without power. Population size here in this county is right around 300,000. So still a good amount of people here who are without power.

But one thing that's going to make the restoration process easier is that the roads aren't massively blocked off because of fallen trees or down power lines. So crews, at least in this county, will be able to get up here the next couple of hours and get that power restoration going.

But we are getting more reports of rescues than other counties here in Florida as well. For example, 65 people, we're learning, have been rescued and more than 100 water rescue calls have come in in Pasco County. That's just north of Tampa. The sheriff's office there says that rescue efforts remain ongoing.

So really, the news that we're getting from a lot of these other communities and counties is not the best. We are getting also reports from other counties in terms of the destruction and we're expecting it to be extensive. Once that sun is out, we're going to be able to really get that full extent of exactly what these communities are going to be dealing with in the hours to come.

Here in Tallahassee, we're also a big student population here is in place. They sheltered in place at university campuses across the city here as well. For many of these students, it was their first time going through a hurricane, for example, Max, so a very scary experience for them, but one that they're happy now to be on the other side of.

FOSTER: OK, Ivan in Tallahassee, thank you so much for the update.

Hurricane Helene pushed water surges in the Tampa area to levels never seen or experienced since records started being kept in 1950. At least five local areas had water levels almost two meters higher than normal high tide, sending water over bridges and roadways causing damage and closures.

Tampa General Hospital battled the flooding with an aqua fence designed to hold back surges of up to 15 feet. The massive size of the storm meant levels were still rising as of late Thursday evening.

Northeast St. Petersburg residents can't shower, flush toilets or drain sinks for at least 48 hours. This 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: Pinellas County was hit hard by flooding. Here in St. Petersburg, as you can see around me, parts of the bay pushed out onto this street late Thursday. A part of a dock and a seawall was damaged by the storm here and the power has been knocked out for parts of the county.

Now to the southwest of us in the city of Gulfport, four to eight feet of storm surge hit that part of the county. As a result of the strong winds and some flooding, several bridges that connect Pinellas County to Hillsborough and Manatee County have closed. Now authorities tell us that they will reopen once the roads are deemed safe again.

The flooding, we're told, is not expected to recede until Friday morning and that's when we'll get a better look at the damage and the recovery effort that lies ahead.

Carlos Suarez, CNN, St. Petersburg, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: And that is the sound of an evacuation alarm in Manatee County, Florida. Hotel guest there had to clear out when rising water threatened the Ramada Inn where they were staying. Manatee County is located on Florida's west coast between Sarasota and Hillsborough counties.

The local sheriff's office says the number of road closures across the county is rising due to flooding and storm damage.

Well, hurricane Helene is barreling through Georgia as it makes its way north. We'll have the latest on its record landfall and the damage along the Florida coast.

[04:10:00]

Donald Trump hasn't had the best things to say about Ukraine's president this week, but they're set to meet today in New York. Details just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: We are keeping an eye on Hurricane Helene as it moves north after slamming to Florida just a few hours ago. Helene is now rolling through southern Georgia as a category one storm with sustained winds of 75 miles or 120 kilometers an hour. So far blamed for two deaths in Georgia and one in Florida.

Power outages are now affecting more than two million customers across those two states and the Carolinas. Helene is expected to keep weakening but can still bring deadly winds, rain, flooding and tornadoes.

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

Police arrested several pro-Palestinian protesters outside his hotel in New York. Mr. Netanyahu had delayed his trip by a day to deal with the conflict with Hezbollah.

Now the Lebanese foreign minister used his platform at the General Assembly to call for a ceasefire warning the situation could soon spiral out of control. Cross-border fighting continues following the announcement of the U.S.-led proposal. Lebanese officials say more than 100,000 people have been displaced but the actual number is thought to be much closer to half a million.

Hezbollah has now confirmed the death of another senior commander. Video released by the Israeli military purports to show the strike on southern Beirut that killed him.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to meet with former President Donald Trump today at Trump Tower.

That comes on the back of the Ukrainian leader's meeting with President Biden where the two men focus on new allowances for weapons on the battlefield to achieve victory.

[04:15:04]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Today we have a new support package 7.9 million dollars. This will be a great help and I raised with President Biden's plan of victory. Today we are preparing to discard 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)

FOSTER: Zelenskyy also met separately with Vice President Harris. Their meeting their sixth meeting since the war began. Harris spoke after the meeting about the importance of supporting Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: History has shown us if we allow aggressors like Putin to take land with impunity they keep going and Putin could set his sights on Poland, the Baltic states and other NATO allies. We also know that other would-be aggressors around the world are watching to see what happens in Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: For more we're joined by Melissa Bell in Paris. You could argue couldn't you Melissa that the meeting with Donald Trump is almost more important than the one with Harris because we sort of know how Harris is going to deal with Ukraine if she gets elected but it's not very clear how Donald Trump will.

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Clearly a great deal of uncertainty about what would happen if Donald Trump takes the presidency for Ukraine for its continued funding. It's been one of the points of tension that we've seen over the last few months really. The Republican Party making it increasingly difficult for Democrats to get the continued funding through.

And of course the barbed remarks that have been made from Donald Trump these last few days towards President Zelenskyy describing him as the greatest salesman on earth even as he came to Washington to get that latest bunch of funding $7.9 billion that you heard just there announced.

It wasn't clear whether President Zelenskyy would be meeting with Donald Trump. In fact for a while president -- for the former president's campaign team had suggested that a meeting between the two men was highly unlikely.

Now we know that they will meet later today at Trump Tower and even as he announced it Donald Trump explained once again that he believed he would bring a swift end to the war in Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I believe I will be able to make a deal between President Putin and President Zelenskyy quite quickly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What does that look like? And what does that look like?

TRUMP: I don't want to tell you what that looks like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: So very little on the specifics of what he mean but he said that he's made that claim before of course, Max. As one European -- senior European diplomat told me recently though he believes that there is no deal in which Moscow wins and the United States wins that he believed that reality would also catch up with Donald Trump should he come back to office. But again a stark contrast between the position of the former

president and the one you heard just outlined by President Biden and Kamala Harris.

So this meeting really interesting to see what comes out of it. For the last few days we've heard Donald Trump criticizing President Zelenskyy repeatedly and President Zelenskyy saying that he doesn't believe in an interview that Donald Trump really has any idea of how he would bring the war to a swift end. So interesting to see what emerges next.

FOSTER: OK Melissa in Paris thank you so much we'll be watching that one.

Former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba poised to become Japan's next prime minister. Members of the Liberal Democratic Party selected him in a runoff election a short time ago. The 67-year-old political veteran was making his fifth and final bid for the office. He's known as a progressive and has been sharply critical of his own party. Ishiba has called for establishing an Asian version of NATO.

Hurricane Helene has one Florida man kayaking outside his house and inside. Our hurricane coverage continues after the break.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Florida counties are reporting extensive damage and severe flooding as Hurricane Helene moves through the southeastern U.S. Now a category one storm Helene slammed into Florida's Big Bend coastal area with 140 mile per hour winds. That's the strongest hurricane on record to hit the region. Currently Helene has sustained winds of 75 miles per hour and it's expected to continue causing damage as it passes through central and north Georgia.

One Tampa Florida man was prepared for the storm sort of. He resorted to navigating his home flooded in with a kayak after Hurricane Helene hit. This is Matt Heller. He's paddling inside his home with objects floating around him. Earlier he spoke to CNN's Laura Coates about his experience amid that rising water.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT HELLER, TAMPA BAY RESIDENT: 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 we've had you know an inch of water here or there but nothing like this. This is definitely the biggest, biggest flood we've ever had. So it's kind of a bummer. I self-insure but I moved all the cars out of the way. I'm just hoping that the boat holds on now. So it is what it is.

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR: That's I love your attitude and positivity in this. I can tell you I would be pulling out my hair going I'm sitting in a kayak four feet of water. You've got a positive attitude.

Let me ask you this though. You know, is the water still coming into your house?

HELLER: Yes it's still rising.

COATES: Really.

HELLER: Yes, yes, the wind. I keep checking the weather apps and checking CNN for the weather and I don't know it's just getting worse and worse. I'd like to say I could go to sleep. I have a headache for some reason but I don't think I can sleep. So I'm just up watching.

COATES: It's not for some reason. Your house is flooded right now Matt. I think we can identify the cause of that particular headache. I'd say I don't even have medical degree on this. But I just wonder.

[04:25:00]

I mean I'm -- my heart is going out to you and so many people this must be representative of who are having this flooding inside their homes. How do you even begin to clean up something like this?

HELLER: It was saying according to the Tide app the water is not going to recede until about 1:30 p.m. tomorrow. So I'm sure it's still going to be up.

I don't I don't know. I've never dealt with such a clean up like this. Can't say I'm looking forward to it but again we have our health and you know we lost the power for now but we're still kicking. So --

COATES: Why did you decide to stay and ride this out. You didn't think it was going to hit.

HELLER: Yes, we've -- we didn't think it was going to be this bad. Typical famous last words. And they, you know, they told us, you know, we thought it was going to go west and stay out in the gulf and we just didn't expect this much storm surge. But it was kind of like a really perfect storm -- pardon my pun -- with the wind and the tides.

So that's where we're just getting this incredible storm surge right now. Although the hurricane didn't hit us and the rain didn't hit us we're just still getting blasted here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: What a great attitude. He's got to all despite all that destruction. And we can now tell you that Helene is now a tropical storm rather than a hurricane. So that's some good news but it doesn't get rid of the concerns about storm surge and the like.

It's creating travel nightmares for some airline passengers. Close to 1,300 flights coming into or originating in the U.S. were canceled yesterday while more than 5 800 were delayed according to the tracking website Flight Aware. The most affected airports are in the southeastern U.S. as you'd expect. The website says close to 600 flights so far have been canceled today with more than 300 delayed.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. Our coverage of the tropical storm now Helene will continue on CNN "THIS MORNING" after the break.