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Interview With Orlando, Florida, Mayor Buddy Dyer; Outer Bands of Hurricane Milton Hit Florida. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired October 09, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:53]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Good morning. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Pamela Brown in New York.

Major breaking news this morning. We just got an update from the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane Milton, it's still a Category 4 storm. But we're keeping a close eye on it because things are changing minute by minute.

Outer bands have already reached Florida and brought a tornado threat with them. This one right here, take a look. This was spotted in Alligator Alley near Naples as people are trying to flee. See the roads there, cars on the road.

We're just hours away from the massive Category 4 storm making landfall. And the window for people to evacuate is closing fast. One official in Tampa saying -- quote -- "I have never seen anything of this magnitude."

We have team coverage with CNN's Randi Kaye standing by in Sarasota.

But, first, let's go to meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

What do we know right now, Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: All right, Pamela, we're getting that 11:00 a.m. National Hurricane Center update, passing you the latest information at this critical juncture, this critical moment in time.

Still a Category 4 storm, although there has been some observed weakening. I do want to stress that this storm and the storm surge potential will come on shore very consistent with a Category 5 hurricane, even though the winds may not say so, because of the amount of energy that this has pushed up from the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Nonetheless, an impactful storm is bearing down on Florida and we're already feeling the outer effects of the rain bands from Hurricane Milton. This is also new with the 11:00 a.m. Update, a Category 3, but there is explicit language within the National Hurricane Center's discussion that we are just getting now that this will be teetering on a Category 3/Category 4 strength as it makes landfall still overnight tonight. So that is going to complicate the scenario here as this will be, of

course, during the dark of night, making it that much more difficult for anybody who decided to actually ride out the storm to deal with surge and the wind impacts and the tornado threat as well.

This is ongoing. You saw the image that Pam flashed on the screen a moment ago of these tornadoes that have been popping up across Southern Florida, some of which have been rather large, and they have been confirmed not only visually, but on radar as well.

There it is on your screen. That is an impressive tornado. In the language from the forecast discussion at National Hurricane Center, they're saying tornadic supercells have been spawned over Southern Florida and will continue to do so.

And you can see several warnings ongoing, with a tornado watch valid through 9:00 p.m. tonight anywhere from Tampa Bay southward all the way to Miami-Dade County. Now, one fact that we want to hammer home here is that there will be a lot of rain that will fall from the sky.

So not only do we have this very rare high risk that's only issued 4 percent of the time, but 40 percent of fatalities and 80 percent of damages comes out of that area. We kind of learned what happened with Helene two weeks ago in North Carolina.

But this is going to work against the storm surge that will be pushed in from the ocean. So the water has nowhere to go but up. This is the current wind gusts that are actually taking place across the western coastline of Florida. And they're edging closer and closer to that tropical storm force.

And the reason I bring that up is because there are so many bridges that line the barrier islands here. And those will be shut down once this becomes sustained tropical storm force. So the window is narrowing for anyone who decided to actually ride out this storm that they want to leave now, because the worst of the storm is going to start to really settle in, and catastrophic wind with a Category 4 hurricane bearing down on Central Florida as we speak, Pam.

BROWN: All right, Derek Van Dam, thanks so much.

I want to bring in Randi Kaye, who is in Sarasota, Florida, right there on the ground.

Tell us the latest there, Randi.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pam, we're here on the south shore of Sarasota. And we're at a neighbor's home who has evacuated, but he gave us the right to use his backyard here. He's not sure if his boat is going to still be here when he returns.

That is because of the storm surge. We spoke to the mayor here, Liz Alpert, and she said her biggest concern here in Sarasota is that storm surge likely going to be 10 to 15 feet. As you were hearing, Derek has been talking about that all morning.

[11:05:07]

Of course, a Hurricane Helene was a storm surge of about seven feet. So that is very concerning for residents here. All morning, Pam, we have been seeing sort of the different bands coming through. We have had some heavy rains. We have had some thunder, some lightning.

Wind is certainly concerned. Even just a few hours from now, we're expecting to see 40-, 50 mile-an-hour winds. So that is why there's concern about that boat here behind me and other boats along this waterway. And you can see there out in the homes, the homes there in the distance, those homes are all boarded up either with hurricane shutters or with plywood, just like all of the businesses in town.

The restaurants have closed. This is really pretty much a ghost town here in Sarasota. That's because people are very concerned, given what they saw happen with Hurricane Helene. There's debris everywhere there, everywhere around these neighborhoods that we have been driving through.

People told me that they spent 15 hours a day just pulling out ruins from their home, the remnants of what happened after Hurricane Helene. So much of the homes were destroyed.

So we did speak to one woman who said that they are planning to ride out Hurricane Milton, even though they said that Hurricane Helene had destroyed the home that they'd been living in on Siesta Key for 25 years. Here is what she told me about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

K.T. CURRAN, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Now, as this hurricane is barreling down directly on our community, it feels like maybe Helene was just a rehearsal for what's to come. They're talking possible 15-foot storm surge.

None of us in 100 years have seen anything like this. It is shocking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Now, they lost all of their belongings and their home, all their clothes, all their furniture, everything, Pam. They are planning to ride out Hurricane Milton the ninth floor of a condo building in downtown Sarasota. That building is built to withstand a hurricane Category 5, so they are hoping they will be safe.

But they did tell me that they have actually counted the number of steps it will take to get to the stairwell, just in case, because they do expect the elevators will go out in case of an emergency.

And I did speak to the mayor, as I said here, and she said that even for people who stay, they should have one week's worth of water, one week's worth of food, because they just don't know how long it will take first responders to get to them, when it will be safe for first responders to head out to the areas -- Pam.

BROWN: All right, Randi Kaye in Sarasota, Florida. Thanks so much, Randi.

Joining us now on the phone, Jodie Fiske, the public safety director for Manatee County. That's right between Sarasota and Tampa.

Thanks for being here with us on this busy morning.

I want to get your reaction to the woman we just heard from Randi's report who is running out the storm in Sarasota. As Randi noted, she's going to be on the ninth floor of a condo building with her family. What do you say to these residents who decide to make moves like that as the storm is about to bear down on Sarasota and the area where you are right now?

JODIE FISKE, MANATEE COUNTY, FLORIDA, PUBLIC SAFETY DIRECTOR: I would say please, please consider going to one of the shelters or instituting your plan to get to wherever it is that you were planning to go to.

Ten-to-15-foot storm surge, it's not just about getting high. It's about whether or not rescuers can get to you if you need them. And with this type of storm surge, sometimes, that is just not possible, especially with the wind. There will come a point where we're not going to be able to run rescue vehicles.

And so that becomes incredibly dangerous for anyone to try to stay.

BROWN: This morning, nearly one in four gas stations in Florida are out of fuel. More than half of Tampa gas stations are empty, according to GasBuddy.

How dire is the situation with the gas shortages in your area?

FISKE: So we are providing transportation to our shelters. The state of Florida has also made an arrangement with Uber to provide transportation. So if somebody doesn't feel like they have enough gas that they can get to a shelter, there are there are mechanisms in place for us in Manatee County.

If they dial 311, that will connect them to one of our operators. They can tell us where they are. We can tell them where our pickup point is. And if there are special needs, then we can arrange for transportation to our special needs shelter.

BROWN: I think that's really important. And it actually brings me to my next question, the people who might not just be able to hop in a car and flee. I want to ask you about the homeless living in the Tampa-St. Petersburg metropolitan area.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness says there are nearly 16,000 people living on the streets and in shelters, one of the highest rates in the country. Have there been special efforts to care for these people who so often slip through the cracks?

FISKE: Yes, ma'am. Here in Manatee County, we have a very active community paramedics

program. They do a lot of outreach during regular blue skies with the homeless community. And they have been working nonstop over the last few days to make contact with those folks, let them know what's happening. Let them know where the shelters are.

And our Manatee County public transportation has arranged pickup points for all of those folks to be picked up and taken to a shelter, where they can ride the storm out safely.

BROWN: That's very good to hear.

Jodie Fiske, thank you and best of luck.

FISKE: Thank you so much.

[11:10:00]

BROWN: And we will continue to monitor this enormous storm as it rapidly approaches the west coast of Florida.

Data shows, we just pointed out, one in four gas stations statewide is completely out of gas. That makes last-minute evacuations even more challenging. I will speak with the mayor of Orlando next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:15:04]

BROWN: Well, right now we are keeping a close eye on Hurricane Milton and its dangerous track towards Florida's Gulf Coast.

The hurricane has weakened to a Category 4 storm. But even though its wind speed is down slightly, the storm is growing in size. Officials say Milton could become one of the most destructive and costly storms on record.

I want to bring in Orlando's Mayor Buddy Dyer.

Buddy, I know that your city has been preparing for this serious, life-threatening storm. Tell us about that.

BUDDY DYER, MAYOR OF ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Well, thank you for having me on.

Yes, we are in that waiting, hunkered-down stage. We have done everything we can to prepare. I'm very proud of our residents for taking this storm extremely seriously. We had Charley 20 years ago, and we're likely to get the winds we had in Charley and the rain that we had in Ian both in this storm.

So we will get it late tonight. Early into tomorrow morning will be the worst of it. So we have done everything we can do to prepare and we're just waiting now.

BROWN: So, what does that mean for you, the fact that it's supposed to hit overnight? Are you just going to be up waiting for the worst to see what you need to do as mayor?

DYER: No.

Quite honestly, I'm going to get as much sleep as I can overnight, because I know that most of what I need to do is going to start Thursday morning. So we have activated our emergency operations center, we will to Level I, at 4:00. So we have staff there who will ride it out overnight.

But there's not much I can do during the course of the storm. Most of the things I need to do come afterwards, after the storms pass through.

BROWN: Right. And you need to be rested for that because it's going to be probably around the clock having to deal with the aftermath.

For those who are having second thoughts and they want to evacuate now, how quickly is that window closing, in your view? We know that there's issues with people getting gas and that kind of thing that makes it more difficult to flee.

DYER: Well, if you're going to evacuate now, for us, it's probably to one of the shelters that we have set up here locally or to friends.

Or we have 130,000 hotel rooms here in Central Florida. So there's still hotel capacity. And it's more people are evacuating to Orlando. We're going to get hit by Category 1 hurricane, and yet the people from the coast are evacuating over here because they're going to be hit by a 3 or 4 -- Category 3 or Category 4 hurricane.

So we still have hotel rooms that are available here. So you can still evacuate to Orlando or from Orlando if you choose to do that. But I would, say by midafternoon, we're going to get -- start getting bands that are going to make it extremely dangerous to travel.

So you're about at the end of that window.

BROWN: You talked about how you have faced other hurricanes in the past. With this hurricane, what is your biggest concern?

DYER: I think the flooding that we're going to experience. We experienced a tremendous amount of flooding during Ian, and some of these areas that were impacted then will probably be impacted again.

Obviously we're inland so we don't have storm surge, but we do have localized flooding. The other thing, during Ian, which was a couple of years ago, we didn't have hurricane-force winds. So we didn't have a lot of trees down. So, in addition to the flooding, we are likely to have thousands of trees down, which obviously brings power lines down and brings danger in the aftermath of the storm.

BROWN: Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, best of luck. Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: We will be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:23:39]

BROWN: We have brand-new video just coming in as Hurricane Milton is whipping up another major threat in Florida. Right here, you see it, tornadoes.

This twister was captured a short time ago in Broward County. Officer Garby Garcia (ph) of the Pembroke Pines Department managed to videotape it. And this massive tornado was just seen in Collier County that's crossing I-75 in Alligator Alley. The National Weather Service shared the photos and it's reminding people to be alert for warnings. So they're dealing with that as they're trying to flee Hurricane Milton.

And, right now, officials are warning that time is running out to evacuate before Milton reaches Florida. Forecasters expect it to cause a life-threatening storm surge in the Tampa Bay area with water levels up to 12 feet.

Joining us now is Danny Alvarez with the Hillsborough County Fire Rescue.

Thanks for being here.

What are emergency crews doing in these final hours before that hurricane hits?

DANNY ALVAREZ, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA, FIRE RESCUE: Right. Good morning.

Well, we are ready to go. We have, unfortunately, had a little bit of practice with Hurricane Helene and just had all our equipment staged, our personnel called up, ready to respond to any emergencies.

So, as far as fire rescue is concerned and Hillsborough County in general, we are prepared. We have all our equipment, all our personnel staged. And now it's just a waiting game.

[11:25:07]

BROWN: Minutes ago, we just learned that some 10,000 people are sheltering in Hillsborough County. Is the window closing for people to safely evacuate ahead of the storm?

ALVAREZ: Absolutely.

The recommendation was given that they should be in a safe place, in a shelter at 8:00 a.m. today. However, there's still a window for you to find where you're going to ride this storm out. We have evacuation zones that are going to be severely impacted, A and B for locally, and we are letting everyone know it is time to get out.

We will not be able to respond once hurricane winds are sustained at 40 miles an hour. So you will ride this storm out on your own until it is safe for us to respond. So there's still time for you to find where you're going to ride this out. We have 12 shelters available for those that have nowhere to go, five of which are pet-friendly.

We have three special needs shelters. So we are doing our very best to provide our citizens an option.

BROWN: I think that's a really important point that, at some point in this storm, your crews aren't going to be able to respond to folks who stayed behind and are in danger.

And I think that that's really important for those to know, right, that you may not have the help you need if you stay behind. What is your message to those people who think, look, I'm just going to stay here, ride off this storm on my own?

ALVAREZ: Exactly right.

We have tried to provide our community enough information so they can make an informed decision. And we're being up front, very honest with them. I think, in America and generally speaking, when you are in need, you call someone and somebody will show up to your aid.

During a hurricane, it's a little different with sustained winds. Each area has to make a decision when it is deemed unsafe for their personnel to respond. Here in Florida, we're at 40 miles an hour sustained, and we just advise the citizens of this county, if you are going to hunker down in an area that we're telling you to evacuate, we won't be coming if the winds are sustained at that speed.

BROWN: That's an important message.

Danny Alvarez, thank you.

ALVAREZ: Yes, ma'am.

BROWN: And Tony Venezi joins us now -- Venezia. He is the senior director of public safety at Tampa General Hospital.

Have you evacuated any patients to other hospitals? And how much does the actual patient have in that decision-making?

TONY VENEZIA, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SAFETY, TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL: We haven't evacuated anybody yet, and we don't plan to.

We feel like we have some great mitigation plans in place. And we're going to provide the same level of care that we do every day for our patients here.

BROWN: Tell us a little bit more about what you're doing to protect those patients. You say you're not planning on evacuating anyone. I know that the hospital has set up this AquaFence, right, this waterproof barrier that can withstand storm surge up to 15 feet above sea level.

And it's not the first time it's been tested. Or is it?

VENEZIA: It's not.

Well, we have had the fence since 2019. It's really a deployable waterproof fence, like you said. And it does give us that ability to sustain surge up to 15 feet. And we have deployed it every year since we purchased it in 2019.

So -- and, in the last hurricane, it did exactly what it was designed to do. It kept the water on the other side of the fence and it was literally bone dry on the hospital side.

BROWN: Did you have any doctors, nurses or other staff members who are reluctant to stay back and they want to evaluate -- I mean, evacuate?

It's got to be such a difficult predicament to first responders with their own families and their own homes to consider.

VENEZIA: Yes. And it's interesting. We have -- the resiliency of this team is really incredible. And it always -- I think it's pretty cool that these teams are coming in.

We have activated our hurricane teams and they're coming in knowing that they're leaving their families, their homes behind. But they also understand their call of duty to take care of our patients. And that's super cool, right?

And so we haven't had anybody who said: I can't do this.

We do give them that option, but we have got full staffing here. We're ready to provide that world-class care that our community deserves and needs. And we will do that today and into the future.

BROWN: I think about the women who are pregnant, right, and may go into labor during the hurricane. I think about babies in the NICU.

Are you able to give them the care they need once Milton hits?

VENEZIA: Oh, yes, for sure.

So I think we opened our new Central Energy Plant two years ago. And, really, what that did for us, we were able to elevate our fuel, our boilers, our generators 35 feet in the air.