0:00

Paramedics do the incredible.

0:02

They help save lives, and so

0:04

can you? Your CSL plasma

0:07

donation can help create twenty four

0:09

critical lifesaving medicines that may

0:11

give your kid's music teacher the chance

0:13

to see your son play in the season opener

0:16

or give your mechanic the chance to give his

0:18

best man's speech.

0:18

Do the amazing.

0:20

Help save lives. Donate

0:22

today at your local cell plasma

0:24

center and receive up to a thousand dollars

0:26

your first month. There is by location and is

0:28

subject to change.

0:32

This is c n and breaking news.

0:35

Welcome to the lead. I'm Jake Tapper, and we start

0:37

today with breaking news. Hurricane Ian

0:39

has made landfall on the West

0:42

western coast of Florida as a devastating Category

0:44

four storm just after three

0:47

PM East Coast. The eye

0:49

crossed over Kayo coast

0:52

a barrier island near Fort Myers, Florida.

0:54

This is a live look at the satellite right

0:57

now. And you can see the the immense

0:59

size and strength of this hurricane. The

1:01

winds are topping out at a hundred

1:03

fifty miles per hour. That's just

1:06

shy of making this a monstrous

1:08

category five. Now, this was

1:10

the scene just ahead of

1:12

landfall, captured by a storm change in

1:16

Iowa, Florida, again, near Fort Myers.

1:18

These conditions are only expected

1:20

to worsen in the coming hours. Believe it

1:23

or not, right now, more than eight hundred fifty thousand

1:25

customers are without power across

1:27

the state Florida. Another major

1:29

concern today is the storm surge.

1:32

The storm surge is the abnormal rise of

1:34

ocean water that's generated by the

1:36

storm. The Lee County Sheriff expects

1:38

that to be, quote, life changing

1:41

today. Now that area includes

1:43

Fort Myers and the city of Cape Coral, where

1:45

the emergency management manager fell CNN.

1:47

Hurricane Ian will likely be one of the worst

1:50

hurricanes that the region has

1:52

ever seen. Now we're covering the storm

1:54

as only CNN can with our team of journalists

1:56

positioned around the state of Florida to

1:58

bring us all the very latest just north of Fort

2:01

Myers More than one hundred

2:03

mile per hour winds have been whipping

2:05

the coast. Let's get right to CNN's Randy

2:07

Kay and Bill Weir live from Punta Gorda

2:09

Bill, let me start with you and tell us about

2:12

the conditions where you are.

2:15

Well, Jake, we're in the the north part

2:17

of the eye wall. We're pating the eye.

2:19

We may see a little bit of blue sky here,

2:22

and we may see some lessened winds as it

2:24

as it moves over us. But just within

2:26

the last hour, and a half or

2:28

so we've seen such violent

2:30

wind. And we've been spending so much

2:32

time talking justifiably about

2:34

the danger of the storm surge but

2:36

the wind hit a hundred and six miles

2:38

an hour at the airport here in Punta

2:40

Gorda, and then the wind meter broke.

2:43

So we have no idea if it

2:45

got stronger after that. We

2:47

were told to brace for

2:49

possibly nine feet of storm surge

2:52

right here and we're a good

2:55

six blocks from the water's edge.

2:57

But thankfully, we haven't seen any of that kind

2:59

of storm surge kicking up in this

3:01

park yet. The emergency managers

3:03

of Charlotte County had a press

3:05

conference just a few minutes ago. They said

3:07

about sixty thousand people are in the red

3:09

zone. They have no idea

3:11

how many people refused

3:14

to evacuate, but thankfully

3:16

no critical calls. But even if someone

3:18

were to call 911 right now, no

3:20

one could come help them. It's just too violent

3:23

right now. And so, Jack, we're just bracing

3:25

right now. I think Randy

3:27

is not far from me.

3:32

Alright. Randy K? Let's go to Randy

3:34

K. Randy, what are you seeing where you are?

3:38

Jake, we are at the

3:41

top of a parking garage here in downtown

3:43

Punta Gorda, and you're looking

3:45

at some of our pictures here from our camera. This

3:47

is this house that's right across from us.

3:49

And we've been watching it just get whipped

3:52

all these trees. You can see many of them have come

3:54

down just in the last hour,

3:56

a couple of hours or so. The winds have certainly

3:58

picked up to those hurricane force winds, but it

4:00

was raining so hard violently.

4:03

Actually, we saw lightning and there was some

4:05

pretty loud thunder claps. That has

4:08

since lessened. We were told that the eye

4:10

would be passing over us, and we would see

4:12

a little bit lighter rain possibly lighter

4:14

winds. Although it doesn't feel like

4:16

we're getting the lighter winds,

4:18

but you can see just what's going on. We've

4:20

been watching the transformers here as

4:22

well. have been shaking on

4:24

the on the polls just outside here, so there's a lot

4:26

of concern that those could come down. But

4:28

just as Bill said, you know, we're not far

4:30

from Charlotte Harbor where I'm

4:32

standing, even though we're on higher ground,

4:34

we were told about this twelve to eighteen

4:36

foot possible storm surge.

4:38

And I I'm inside the

4:40

parking garage, and this is how fierce the wind

4:42

is. But we haven't seen the storm

4:44

surge down to the streets below

4:46

us that we were expecting

4:48

are being warned about. So that doesn't

4:50

seem to have come just yet. We'll see if it

4:52

comes in the in the hours

4:55

ahead this evening. But for now,

4:57

the streets are still, you know, just pretty

4:59

pretty just a little bit of water,

5:01

but the wind certainly, Jake,

5:03

still very very dangerously

5:05

strong here. AND RANDY, YOU'VE LIVED

5:07

IN FLORIDA FOR A LONG TIME. SOME

5:09

OF THE EXPERTS ARE

5:12

PREDICTING THIS COULD BE ONE OF THE WORST HURRICANS

5:14

TO EVER HIT THE STATE OF FLORIDA.

5:17

Yeah. I mean, I and I've covered

5:19

them here as well. Hurricane

5:21

Irma covered that one years ago back

5:23

in two thousand seventeen. that

5:25

hit in the keys. Certainly, we know

5:27

about Charlie that hit here back in two thousand

5:29

four. This one is

5:31

is tied as far as the winds that

5:34

that and fall a hundred and fifty mile an hour

5:36

winds. But this is serious.

5:38

I I have not experienced a hurricane

5:40

or winds like this one before.

5:43

And I can't imagine people who have

5:45

just moved here or people

5:47

who do live here and have never experienced a hurricane

5:49

before. THIS COMMUNITY IS A LOT OF RETIRIES.

5:51

YOU CAN IMAGINE THEY HAD TO

5:53

GET TO SAFER GROUND. I'M SURE AND

5:55

A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE EVACUATED THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE

5:57

HAVE EVACUATED, BUT IT IS IT IS NOT

5:59

ANYTHING

5:59

THIS FORCE OF WIN THAT

6:02

I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED

6:03

LIVING IN FLORIDA, JAIC. Adrienne: AND BELLEWER,

6:05

YOU'VE YOU'VE A VETERAN, COVER

6:08

OF HERQUE. gains. You've been covering them now

6:10

for decades. What what is it like in terms

6:12

of the experience you're going through right now?

6:17

The

6:17

the winds are up there in

6:19

terms of the strongest I've ever experienced

6:21

personally. The kind that can just take your

6:23

breath away. They're so violent.

6:26

But it really the concern of this, Jake,

6:28

was it been the water thus far. And as Randy

6:30

said, we haven't seen thankfully that

6:32

storm surge that had so many people worried about

6:34

unprecedented. but there will still

6:36

be so many homes flooded in this storm

6:39

that weren't flooded nears previous

6:41

for a lot of reasons. more people,

6:44

more construction near the most vulnerable

6:46

areas. But Punta Gorda, more

6:49

than any other city in Florida has heeded

6:51

the warnings of climate scientists. And

6:53

after they went through Charlie eighteen

6:55

years ago, what's the first community

6:57

to really harden their town? against

7:00

storms like this. Building coats. Whoa.

7:03

Their the roof of their emergency management

7:05

center got blown off by Hurricane

7:07

Charlie. So they moved that they've taken a

7:09

number of steps. This is a huge test for them

7:12

right now, but I I think the thing that I'm

7:14

thinking about, you know,

7:16

thinking back to covering Katrina or

7:18

Irma, Irene, is

7:20

what comes next. And the heartbreak

7:22

that's in store for folks who are gonna deal

7:24

with flooding for the first time, there is an

7:26

insurance crisis In the state of Florida,

7:29

Governor DeSantis mentioned he had to put two billion

7:31

dollars as a backstop into that a

7:33

few days ago. And

7:35

so it's the long term effects of

7:37

these storms. And what it

7:39

does to productivity and jobs

7:41

and businesses Charlie tore

7:44

apart eleven thousand homes and three

7:46

hundred businesses. Charlie cost

7:48

this county alone over three billion

7:50

dollars.

7:53

And as a result of that storm,

7:55

they retired the name Charlie,

7:58

there will never be another storm with that

7:59

name. Jake, I I would

8:02

hazard a bet that there will

8:04

be no more storms named Ian after

8:06

this one. we're seeing things

8:08

flying by you. Can you give us an idea of what

8:10

that is? What the debris is?

8:12

It's it's

8:15

it's garbage. It's it's palm

8:17

fronts, you see blowing across. We've

8:20

got a dumpster sort

8:22

of structure over there when the

8:24

steel doors have come loose and are banging.

8:27

I wonder if they'll hold oh, if those

8:29

hinges will hold. But yeah.

8:31

Let me just

8:33

I'm not a big fan of wind

8:36

acrobatics, but let me show

8:37

you. And this

8:40

is minor. This is This is

8:42

minor to what we've had in the last

8:44

hour or so.

8:46

So it looks like the eye is

8:49

actually a coming our way. a little bit

8:51

of relief. But again, for those people who are

8:53

experiencing this for the first time,

8:55

you can't be lured to go outside

8:57

and let your guard down. If you

8:59

are under that eye because the back

9:01

end of the storm is coming

9:03

and you

9:04

have no idea what's coming next. And

9:06

you're about Bill, you're about six

9:09

blocks from the ocean, you say. And and

9:11

so if the storm surge comes

9:13

or when the storm surge comes, you'll

9:15

have enough time to to get

9:17

on the second or third floor?

9:21

Yeah. We'll be we we have we're

9:23

fine when it comes to that sort of thing.

9:26

We're about six blocks

9:28

from the port of from

9:31

the harbor.

9:34

We're sheltered from the the Gulf of Mexico

9:36

on the harbor side where I'm losing. I'm being

9:38

blown around my directions.

9:39

harvest that

9:41

way.

9:43

But thankfully, we're not seeing that

9:45

any proof of that rising water here.

9:47

But In other places, Naples,

9:49

their all time storm surge

9:51

record was around four feet. They've already

9:53

broken that by two feet. So

9:55

we don't know what's coming next when it comes to the water.

9:58

And we have been downplaying the wind as a

10:00

second sort of supporting actor in this

10:02

disaster film. But right

10:04

now, it is a feature player and it

10:06

is really

10:08

It comes in these

10:10

waves. It comes in these waves.

10:12

Sorry. or you think you can

10:14

relax for a second and then one comes a gust

10:16

comes out of nowhere. Yeah.

10:18

Those are brutal. Alright, Bill. We're gonna we're

10:21

gonna come back to you. Let's go to Derek Fandham

10:23

right now. He's in Bradenton, Florida,

10:25

which is a little farther north

10:27

than we'll than we're Bill, we are and

10:29

Randy AKR right now. Derek talks about the conditions

10:31

where you are. You

10:33

know, I I can echo

10:36

what Bill was saying just a moment ago

10:38

about how these strong hurricane force gust

10:40

they have been coming in waves. And

10:42

just by the pure nature of being in

10:44

this kind of downtown setting

10:46

of Bradenton, you get these little

10:48

eddies or swirls that ricochet off

10:50

of all of these buildings. And

10:52

literally, it's difficult for my

10:54

team and I to stand including my

10:56

cameraman you'll likely see that through the

10:58

course of this this live shot.

11:00

We have had the opportunity to

11:02

drive around and You know,

11:04

what we saw was flying debris debris

11:06

coming becoming aerial within

11:08

Bradenton, downtown. We

11:10

also saw some of

11:12

the transformers actually

11:15

being

11:17

blown behind us and that took out

11:19

the communication. There's one of those.

11:22

You know,

11:23

every time every time those wind gust

11:25

come through, we get pieces of strap, pieces

11:28

of debris that

11:29

come and like bludged themselves in your mouth.

11:31

I mean, they're like splinters when they hit your

11:33

face. This storm

11:35

is progressively

11:37

slowly edging closer and closer to

11:39

us and we know that the eye

11:41

wall as it makes its way

11:43

inland will bring some of

11:45

those outer rain or the outer eye

11:47

wall winds to this particular

11:49

location. So it's hard to imagine

11:52

that in the coming hours, Jake,

11:54

we we have the potential here to

11:56

have double the winds that we're experiencing

11:58

now. and the

11:59

storm surge we actually experienced

12:02

here earlier was considered

12:04

negative storm surge because the Manatee

12:06

River, which is just to my left, was

12:08

literally void of water. We could see

12:10

the dried up riverbed because

12:12

the winds were so powerful from the northeast.

12:15

Remember, we're on the northern side of

12:17

the storm So it pushed the

12:19

water out and literally some

12:21

of the sailboats that we saw on the

12:23

harbor were actually resting on their

12:25

keels. Now that is starting to

12:27

change because there's been a marked

12:29

difference in the winds coming from the what

12:31

was that northeast at first? Now coming

12:33

through a more know the way direction, and we're

12:35

gonna start seeing that water and that surge

12:38

come right back up to Manatee River, right

12:40

back into Bradenton, the nooks and crannies,

12:42

and this is when things are going to start to

12:44

get extremely serious once

12:46

the worst part of this storm arrived in this area,

12:48

Jake. Alright, Derek Van Dam. live from

12:50

Bradenton, Florida. We'll we'll come back to

12:52

you. Thanks so much. At the top of the show,

12:54

we told you that more than eight hundred

12:56

thousand customers are without power

12:58

throughout the state of Florida. That number has

13:00

now been updated. It's more than one million, more

13:02

than one million Floridians no

13:04

longer have power. Let's go to a

13:06

meteorologist Jennifer Gray. She's in the scene in

13:08

severe weather center. So Jennifer show us

13:10

what's going on right now in Florida

13:12

as this hurricane makes

13:14

landfall specifically where our

13:16

reporters ARE EXPERIENCING HURRICANE

13:19

IAN'S IWALL. YOU

13:20

WERE TALKING TO BILL AND RANDY

13:22

OFF THE TOP OF THE SHOW AND THERE IN PUT TO

13:24

GORDA AND I'LL SHOW YOU exactly where

13:26

that is now. Here's Punta Gorda,

13:28

and here's the eye of the storm just

13:31

around them. So you would suspect that they would now

13:33

BE SEEING CLEARING. THEY WOULD GET CALM WINDS, BUT THE WINDS

13:35

WERE NOTHING BUT CALM WHERE THEY WERE

13:37

AND A LOT OF THAT HAS TO DO

13:39

WITH THIS AREA RIGHT here, you can see

13:41

the eye sort of filling in, and

13:43

sometimes within the eye, you'll get these

13:45

mezzavortices, these little swirls

13:48

of when AND VERY, VERY STRONG

13:50

WINDS INSIDE THE I. SO I DO THINK

13:52

THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE DEALING WITH NOW. OF

13:54

COURSE, WHAT'S GOING TO BE QUESTIONABLE AS

13:56

IF THEY actually get that clearing because they're

13:58

gonna be so close to that backside

14:00

where they're gonna continue to get very

14:02

strong winds. They were in

14:04

winds of more than one hundred miles

14:06

per hour for more than an hour and a half

14:08

consistently. So they have really gotten the

14:10

brunt of this. Bradenton is fifty

14:12

miles to the north, and you saw how strong the

14:14

winds were for Derek as well. So

14:16

this storm storm is very big

14:18

and that's what makes it different from Charlie.

14:20

Charlie was a small storm. This

14:22

one's massive. What's also very

14:24

concerning for me is if down

14:26

to the south, the storm surge is

14:28

going to continue for Fort

14:30

Myers in Naples. We've already seen

14:32

record storm surge as

14:34

long as the winds are continuing in

14:36

this direction as they are, and you

14:38

can see the motion of this storm,

14:40

that water is going to continue to

14:42

push inland and so the water is going

14:44

to continue to rise as

14:46

long as that's happening. And so that's the

14:48

worrying part about the storm.

14:50

This has winds of one hundred forty

14:52

five miles per hour, so it is

14:54

slowly starting to back down. But these

14:56

winds are going to stay well over one hundred

14:58

miles per hour for hours and hours

15:00

on end. So as the backside of

15:02

the storm comes on shore, that's where we're

15:04

going to see more of those one

15:06

hundred mile per hour winds. This is going to

15:08

cross the state. It is going to weaken as it

15:10

does so. but Jake, we can't forget the

15:12

rainfall that's going to come with this

15:14

storm. We could see areas in Florida that

15:16

receive more than two feet

15:18

of rain. And so when you talk

15:20

about the rainwater, in addition to

15:22

the storm surge, we are going to see

15:24

major flooding. We have already seen

15:26

pictures out of Fort Myers where the water

15:28

is up to the roof line. And so

15:30

the storm surge is incredible.

15:32

The rainfall is going to just

15:34

add TO THAT AS WE GET INTO THE OVERNIGHT

15:36

HOURS INTO TOMORROW. SO

15:38

THERE ARE MORE THAN A MILLION, I BELIEVE

15:40

YOU SAID POWER OUTAGES RIGHT NOW ACROSS

15:42

THE STATE THAT NUMBER IS climbing

15:45

quickly. Here's a look at the radar. You can

15:47

see the rain is far reaching. There's

15:49

the center of the storm right there, but the rain

15:51

stretches all the way up to

15:53

North Florida as this Chris crosses

15:55

across the state and then impacting

15:58

portions of the southeast coast, we are going

16:00

to be continuing to talk about this for

16:02

the next several days, Jake. But

16:04

right now, the strongest winds are still right

16:06

there on that southwest coast, and we are

16:08

far from this over. We are going to be in

16:10

this for several, several more hours in

16:12

that same

16:12

spot. And, Jennifer, let me just

16:15

answer a couple of my ignorant questions. since

16:17

here, I'm I'm nowhere near the next

16:19

spot on weather. First of all, the

16:21

risk that the hurricane just

16:24

stays over a major metropolitan

16:26

area and and and

16:28

hovers for a day or two. We've been talking

16:30

about that risk for for a

16:32

while now, and we've seen it in previous

16:34

storms. When

16:36

will we know whether or not

16:38

it's going to do that? Well, it

16:40

it did slow a little bit. The good news is

16:42

it didn't slow as much as previously

16:45

forecasted. We were talking about this storm slowing

16:47

down to three miles per hour, so

16:49

Right now, it's moving at about ten miles

16:51

per hour, maybe just a touch

16:53

less. This storm is moving very

16:55

slowly. So basically, that simply

16:57

means that the impact are going to be felt for

16:59

hours and hours on end. What we love

17:01

is a storm to move quickly because it

17:03

gets in and out. When you have a storm that just sits

17:05

over an area for long periods of

17:07

time like this, it only makes

17:09

the storm surge worse because that wind

17:11

is continuing to push that

17:14

water inland into the rivers, into

17:16

these canals. you know, Florida has so many

17:18

canals right along the coast and

17:20

even far inland in all of the rivers. So

17:22

that's just going to continue to

17:24

pile up. And then the rainfall

17:26

with these slow moving systems is

17:28

what is hugely impactful.

17:30

We saw with Harvey. Remember how

17:32

slow that storm move. We saw forty

17:34

inches of rain with that storm. With this

17:36

storm moving slowly like this, you can

17:38

expect totals topping

17:40

two feet around central

17:42

portions of Florida. We're including places in

17:44

that, like Tampa and Orlando. So even

17:46

though you're not right

17:48

in those one hundred and fifty mile per hour winds, you could get huge

17:50

impacts from the rainfall. My other question for

17:52

you right now, Jennifer, and I'm gonna have them throughout

17:54

the the two hour period. I've given the show

17:57

here. when should

17:59

Bill and

17:59

Randy expect the

18:01

storm surge that that flooding

18:04

from the ocean? When will

18:06

that come? SO IT'S

18:07

GOING THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE TO HAVE A SHIFT

18:09

IN THE WIN. I DON'T THINK THAT THEY'RE GOING TO

18:11

SEE THE STORM SURGE THAT WAS PREDICTED

18:14

BECAUSE The storm is coming in just

18:16

to the south of them. So you have to have

18:18

that onshore wind to get the

18:20

storm surge to push in. When the winds

18:22

are pushing offshore, when they're pushed

18:24

from east to west, you actually get

18:26

the water pushing out. So where they

18:28

are right here, we need a wind that's

18:31

going to come in from

18:33

the And so I think on the backside of the storm, once

18:35

the storm

18:35

pushes farther inland, they may

18:37

get

18:37

some surge then. They will get some

18:40

surge then. I don't think it's going to

18:42

be to the heights of, say,

18:44

ten feet. I don't think it's

18:46

going to be that

18:46

at all. Alright. Well, let's hope that you're correct.

18:48

Jennifer, and I'll come back to him a little bit.

18:51

Hurricane Ian is just getting started,

18:53

unfortunately. This is Collier County in the

18:55

Naples area. CNN has reporters covering this

18:57

monster storm across the state of

18:59

Florida as it makes landfall with one hundred

19:01

fifty mile per hour winds and

19:03

historic storm surges and parts of the state go. Don't

19:05

go anywhere. We'll be right

19:07

back.

19:09

Overwhelmed by headlines this week. You may be

19:12

asking yourself, which one should I really pay

19:14

attention to. I'm

19:14

David Rhine, hosts of CNN's One

19:17

Thing podcast, and I'm here to help. Each

19:19

Sunday joined me and a rotating cast

19:21

of CNN correspondence to make sense of

19:23

the news everyone's been talking about.

19:25

This week, CNN's Priscilla Alvarez

19:27

tells his wife, Florida's governor, sent a group

19:29

of migrants to Martha's Vineyard, and how

19:31

it's shaping the immigration debate. listen

19:33

to CNN one thing, an Apple Podcast

19:35

Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you

19:37

listen to podcasts.

19:42

You're looking right

19:42

now at the at the west side of

19:45

south Tampa, Florida, the

19:47

churning water where

19:49

I've following the breaking news down in Florida Hurricane

19:51

Ian officially making landfall just just

19:53

about an hour ago along the southwestern

19:56

coast winds near one

19:58

hundred fifty miles per hour just

20:00

devastating making Ian a high end

20:02

category four hurricane, almost a high high

20:04

category five. Let's go to CNN's Carlos

20:06

Suarez. He's he's in a different part

20:08

of Tampa, where the water

20:10

is actually being pulled out

20:13

of of the city. And and Carlos, Tampa's

20:15

mayor was warning residents Don't let your

20:17

guard down ahead of the storm. Is

20:19

the city prepared, do

20:20

you think? Well, their

20:23

hope

20:23

is that folks

20:25

don't venture out just because there's not a whole lot of rain and

20:27

wind to speak of right now. That being

20:30

said, some fifty thousand

20:32

customers across the Tampa area are

20:34

without power at this

20:36

hour and over seven

20:38

thousand five hundred of them are at a

20:40

hurricane shelter. And as you

20:42

said, this is how the Hillsborough

20:44

Bay looks at this hour You can see

20:46

the riverbed out here. Ian's strength has taken

20:48

all of this water out into the

20:50

Gulf of Mexico. It is also pulling

20:52

water from the nearby

20:55

Hillsborough River. Of course, all of

20:57

that water has to make its way

20:59

back in, and so the expectation

21:01

is the worry is that when that water comes

21:03

back in, we're looking at a storm surge of

21:05

anywhere between five to six

21:07

feet. And then when you add into that

21:09

the nearly foot or so

21:11

of rain, that is expected to fall

21:13

across the Tampa area. That is

21:15

when officials believe we might start seeing some

21:17

of the severe flooding along

21:19

Bayshore Boulevard which hugs the the

21:21

river out here. Officials for

21:23

the last couple of days have been telling folks

21:25

that they lived in one of these two

21:27

evacuation zones they really needed to get

21:29

out just because they were worried

21:31

about the storm surge associated with

21:33

hurricane. Ian, folks have been coming out

21:35

here the entire day to take a look at

21:37

this site. because it is

21:39

quite rare. When we first got here this

21:41

morning at around five, five thirty in the

21:43

morning, you couldn't see the river bed and now you

21:45

can make out all sorts of debris that's

21:47

out there including these

21:49

crab traps as well as other items

21:51

there. And officials are trying to say, look,

21:53

don't come out here. Don't try to take

21:55

pictures. Don't try to record any

21:57

video. because at some point this afternoon, as Ian

21:59

makes its way

21:59

up north, all of this water is gonna come

22:02

right back in. And the last thing they

22:04

want is folks anywhere alongside

22:06

the Hill Burrow Bay or the

22:08

river out here because once you start seeing

22:10

that surge, it becomes quite

22:12

unpredictable. Rain, it's not

22:14

gonna let up. The wind is not gonna go anywhere. They're

22:16

just urging folks to go

22:18

ahead and stay put. Charlotte Carlos, I'm

22:20

gonna ask your cameraman if you could pass this

22:22

on to him I'm not sure if you can hear

22:24

me. To to pan over the the

22:26

riverbed that you're describing, and

22:28

if you could just explain while he

22:30

does this, what this normally looks

22:32

like and what happened so that so that we're

22:34

now seeing all of this riverbed instead

22:36

of river, if you could ask him to do

22:39

that. Yeah. So yeah. Of course. Dom, so if you can go

22:41

ahead and just pan over so we can show the riverbed.

22:43

You see that trap right there, that

22:45

crab trap. When we got here this morning, you

22:47

couldn't make it out. The

22:49

water used to come all the way out here to the

22:51

very beginning of where we are

22:53

live at. We're being told by our team

22:55

of meteorologists that at one point out

22:58

here, Iain's strength was so powerful

23:00

that during high tide. Right? So when the

23:02

water was supposed to be coming in,

23:04

Iain's strength was going again

23:06

that was taking the water out, so it

23:09

was more powerful than high tide.

23:11

At that moment, you can see it doesn't get a

23:13

whole lot better that overpass over

23:15

there you can see is pretty much

23:17

just all

23:17

riverbed. You take this all the way

23:20

down for a few more miles and it is the

23:22

exact same thing Tampa's

23:24

mayor

23:24

was out here earlier this afternoon.

23:26

She got a look at the site herself.

23:29

Tampa police, they've got a number of

23:31

officers going up and down, Bay Shore Olivar,

23:33

trying to get folks away

23:35

from going inside of this river of

23:37

this bay because, again, the concern Jake

23:40

is Once that water starts to fill back in,

23:42

then we might have some serious problems

23:44

with any folks that find themselves on

23:46

the other side. of this bay. And,

23:49

Carlos, how how quickly does that happen when

23:51

the water returns in this

23:53

bizarre phenomenon of

23:55

a hurricane? how quickly does the water come

23:57

back? I mean, is it the

23:59

kind of thing where you can actually be

24:01

trapped and and and the

24:03

water life threatening? Oh,

24:07

there's no doubt. You could easily be

24:09

out there and not realize that the water's

24:12

coming back in. That said, we've been here since

24:14

about five, five thirty this morning and it's

24:16

just been going out, out, out.

24:18

I don't know, Dom, if you can go ahead and show the

24:20

mouth of the river here. That's

24:22

the Hillsborough River. That goes right up along

24:25

the Tampa General Hospital out

24:27

here. That right there, that current has been

24:29

going out the entire morning.

24:31

It has not stopped once.

24:33

That water at some point is gonna

24:35

make its way out onto where we are,

24:37

coupled with all of that rain that's

24:40

timetable for when that happens, really

24:42

depends on how fast this storm

24:44

moves and just how much of that rain

24:46

ends up falling in this part

24:48

of Tampa. Alright, Carlos. That's

24:50

fascinating. Thank you so much. Please stay safe.

24:52

Let's talk about the dire situation

24:54

in Florida right now with Republican

24:56

senator Marco Rubio. Florida senator.

24:58

Your Twitter feed is full of

25:00

your expressions of concern and also

25:02

dire warnings to Floridians. One of the

25:04

things you wrote this morning about the storm surge quote,

25:07

you ignore evacuation orders, you are

25:09

going to drown. I

25:11

assume that these kinds of warnings need to

25:13

be said this starkly because

25:15

people don't necessarily heed them.

25:17

Well, when we talk about

25:19

storm surge and how it kills people, that's

25:21

how it kills people. maybe we want to be

25:23

blunt. I mean, that's people that die in storm

25:25

surge, people that die in water is

25:27

because they drown. We're talking about projected

25:30

between twelve and eighteen feet. You know, the National

25:32

Hurricane Center had to redo their storm

25:34

surge projection map. They didn't have a color for

25:36

twelve to eighteen feet. So we're seeing some of those

25:38

images now. If you see some of the luckily, it looks like

25:40

most people who needed those warnings, a few may have not

25:42

may not have. Obviously, some of the people sending

25:44

us videos did not.

25:47

But part of the challenge now is how do you

25:49

get to people? because that water is not

25:51

just gonna go away for hours and then it leaves

25:53

behind all kinds of dangerous conditions on the

25:55

ground. So the storm surge to

25:57

wind. This

25:57

is a

25:58

already a catastrophic event, and I think the

26:01

worst is yet to come between the rain and the

26:03

areas it's gonna go through. And this thing's gonna march

26:05

right up by for up towards

26:07

Northeast Florida, maybe Jacksonville, Daytona.

26:09

A huge swath of Florida's population is

26:11

going to be impacted by this in one way

26:14

or another. the

26:14

i four corridor as it's known from

26:16

Tampa St. Pete all the way to the east coast of

26:18

Florida. There's likely gonna be widespread damage

26:20

up and down this coast to

26:22

tell ANY FLURDIAN IS WATCHING WHERE

26:24

CAN THEY GO FOR RESOURCES THAT THEY'RE GOING

26:26

TO NEED AFTER THE

26:29

STORM PASSES. Well,

26:30

obviously, we've been posting that on rubeo

26:33

dot senate dot gov. We're gonna have it up there. We'll

26:35

have it on my political website,

26:37

which we're gonna just use for for the next few

26:39

days just to put out information about that

26:41

as well, mark arugio dot com. But then look,

26:43

there's the state emergency disaster

26:45

dot org that in Florida that does that and

26:47

has it available to you.

26:49

So that's obviously assuming that you

26:51

have access to the Internet. I'd also ask them

26:53

to tune into local news and broadcasters because

26:56

they're gonna be putting out this information after the

26:58

storm people are going to be eligible for

27:00

FEMA assistance, maybe SBA assistance.

27:03

We proactively, couple days ahead, began to

27:05

put out some of the documents people

27:07

are gonna need to have to access that. We spoke

27:09

to FEMA director this morning.

27:12

They have simplified their process

27:14

coming into the hurricane season to make it easier for people

27:16

to access it. But there are going to be people left without

27:18

homes, without access to money

27:20

and food for a substantial period

27:22

of time and We want them to know we'll be

27:24

out there helping to make those resources available

27:27

after the

27:27

storm is passing conditions are staged. Howard Bauchner: So

27:30

Governor DeSantis recalled

27:32

earlier that it took several days to

27:34

reach Mexico Beach after Hurricane

27:36

Michael in two thousand eighteen. I

27:38

assume post storm access is

27:40

a real concern.

27:42

Well, there's two things that limit the access. The

27:45

first obviously is standing water because this is not

27:47

just storm surge. It's the amount of rain. You

27:49

know, this this Peace River

27:51

which which goes through multiple counties from through

27:53

Hardie and all the way up to Polk County. And

27:55

the low lying areas there are gonna be flooded by

27:57

both rain that's been happening now for a few days

27:59

along with the storm surge. the

28:01

water impediment, but then there's also road debris. One

28:03

of the things we talk to FEMA about is the

28:05

removal of debris is something that needs

28:08

to happen because without the debris removal, without the bulk

28:10

collection and your moving trees and limbs and all the stuff that's

28:12

on the road, you can't get emergency crews in

28:14

there, you can't get power restoration

28:16

going. So that's gonna be one of the first

28:18

tasks once it's safe and conditions allow

28:20

is debris removal in addition to

28:22

the water situation in these low lying

28:24

areas, which could stand for some days.

28:26

industries across Florida are gonna feel

28:29

the storm acutely. Maxar technology

28:31

says at least seventy five percent of

28:33

Florida's citrus belt is under threat of

28:35

heavy flooding. the fertilizer company

28:37

Mosaic, which is based in Tampa, bracing

28:39

for substantial impact of its mining and

28:41

production facilities in the state, that's obviously

28:43

important because high fertilizer prices

28:45

have made Food prices soar worldwide.

28:47

What resources are going to

28:49

be there to provide to these industries

28:51

if they do in fact

28:53

take these projected hits? Well,

28:57

for

28:57

the first time ever back four

28:59

years ago, we were able to get the Department

29:01

of Agriculture to include Agriculture last

29:03

some of those catastrophic losses as part of the

29:06

loss. We're gonna have to do that again. The Citrus

29:08

industry in Florida is already teetering on the

29:10

brink because of Citrus Greening. They lose

29:12

this huge prop and a bunch of trees you

29:14

can't just restart that. That takes time in the

29:16

planning season and the growing season and so forth. So

29:18

it's going to be a big hit for them. The

29:20

phosphate industry, obviously, with

29:22

the fertilizer industry, that's a

29:24

new dynamic and where there's two issues of

29:26

concern there. One is environmental. The impact it

29:28

might have because that water is going to flow back in

29:30

other places. And the other, as you said, is the

29:32

loss of this fertilizer supply.

29:34

And it's one that we're going to rather have to examine.

29:36

It's one of first impression. It's the first time we'll

29:38

face of loss, and we'll have to see

29:40

how we work that into any disaster relief. It's

29:42

hard to tell until there's a full assessment. This is

29:44

going to be a multibillion dollar event,

29:47

unfortunately. Alright.

29:47

Well, stay in touch with us, senator Rubio. Obviously,

29:50

we wanna help you and the citizens

29:52

of Florida get the message out as much as we can.

29:54

Appreciate it. Thanks for

29:56

coverage. If Ian holds

29:58

its current intensity, this

30:00

will be the strongest hurricane to

30:02

ever make landfall on the

30:04

West coast of the Florida Peninsula more of

30:06

what that looks like in real time

30:09

next.

30:14

Welcome back.

30:16

I wanna dip into our affiliate right now,

30:18

WJXT and a reporter

30:20

in Northport, Florida. Just just watch

30:23

and listen. Fort. We're about forty

30:25

five minutes from Fort Myers, and

30:27

people here say they have never actually

30:29

had a direct hit from

30:31

a hurricane. until now. They are

30:33

certainly getting it. That is the

30:35

powerful hurricane, Ian,

30:37

right behind us. You can see it is

30:39

absolutely just punishing

30:41

these trees, the vegetation,

30:43

and everything in its wake.

30:45

We have seen trees snap. We've

30:47

seen trees come down the road. All

30:49

the stop signs are gone. and some

30:51

roofs from nearby buildings have been

30:53

ripped off. So you may be wondering how

30:55

I'm able to stand up in this when these

30:58

wind gusts are over

31:00

a hundred fifty, hundred and sixty miles

31:02

an hour. Well, because we

31:04

are at this fire station. This

31:06

is fire station eight me one

31:08

in Northport, the firefighters

31:11

keeping watch on the

31:13

area and us. So this is a category

31:15

five rated building they tell us.

31:17

And certainly, this is the

31:19

only thing keeping us from being

31:21

out in this. I wanna show you what it looks like. We

31:24

saw this tree come down before our

31:26

eyes. We've seen roofs.

31:28

We've seen pieces of metal coming down the

31:30

road right there. Branch is actually

31:33

going into fire rescue. And

31:35

I talked with firefighters Police

31:37

officers, sheriff's deputies here, they

31:39

are not responding to any calls

31:42

right now. They're not responding to any nine

31:44

eleven calls they can't rescue

31:46

anyone because it's just too

31:48

dangerous for them to be out on the

31:50

roads. So we've been looking. They

31:52

have been getting calls And

31:55

unfortunately, people out here who were told

31:57

to evacuate days ago just

31:59

have to fend

31:59

for themselves until the worst of

32:02

this storm comes through. You

32:04

know, I've been in a lot of hurricanes throughout

32:06

the state of Florida, throughout the southeast.

32:08

This is an incredibly powerful

32:10

one. It reminds me of Hurricane Michael

32:12

back in twenty eighteen out

32:14

there in Florida's Panhandle

32:17

absolutely devastating parts of Panama

32:19

City wiping out Mexico Beach.

32:22

Hopefully, hopefully, this area

32:24

fares better but we won't know until this

32:26

storm goes away. Alright.

32:28

That's from

32:29

WJXT. wanna

32:32

bring in Dave Reuter, who's the chief communications

32:34

officer for Florida power

32:36

and light. So governor Rhonda Santos is warning

32:38

Florida residents to expect widespread

32:41

power outages already more than one

32:43

million people in Florida without power.

32:45

How many people are you anticipating will

32:47

be affected ultimately? Yeah.

32:49

Good afternoon, Jake.

32:52

So with the with the nature of this storm

32:54

and the fact that it is now made

32:56

landfall and is making its way across

32:58

the peninsula, It's hard to say exactly many

33:00

power outages will have, but there

33:02

are several million fluoropolymer like customers

33:04

in the path of this storm.

33:06

I can tell you that right now, we have

33:08

just about one million outages. We

33:10

have been restoring power to customers for

33:12

the last twenty four hours. as the outer

33:14

bands start to come through our service area.

33:17

So we've restored power to about three

33:19

hundred and fifty thousand customers so

33:21

far. but presently we have about one million

33:23

customers out of power. Are

33:25

you expecting all the outages or most of them

33:27

to be on the West Coast of Florida or

33:29

could they go into the center part, central

33:31

part of the state as well. We're

33:34

expecting power outages

33:37

throughout the service territory, through the path of

33:39

a storm. The reality with a storm like

33:41

this is, of course, you expect power to

33:43

be out as a as a category

33:45

farm. Storm will hit coastline. But

33:47

as it goes through the state, there

33:50

will also be additional outages due

33:52

to tornadoes. flooding

33:54

and the high winds that it will accompany

33:56

the storm all the way across the peninsula.

33:58

You know, the expectation from

34:00

the National Hurricane is

34:02

that this will still be a category one storm when it

34:04

exits Florida on the East Coast possibly

34:07

tomorrow. How quickly Are

34:09

you

34:09

able to restore power? Or do you

34:12

need to wait for the

34:14

storm to pass before you take any

34:16

action to try to

34:18

restore power? So generally,

34:19

we can get out

34:22

and start assessing the damage

34:24

and figuring out how long it's gonna take to

34:26

restore power about twenty

34:28

four hours after the storm has passed a specific

34:30

area. And so that's our intention. The

34:32

challenge will be tomorrow,

34:34

particularly on the West Coast

34:36

of Florida, what does it look like in terms of in

34:38

terms of flooding, we would be able to

34:40

get into those areas. We're going to use all

34:42

of the tools that we have at our disposal

34:46

our drone technology, the diagnostic

34:48

systems that we have to figure out where the

34:50

power is out and what we may be able to do to

34:52

get it back on. safely and

34:54

as quickly as possible. However, the expectation is

34:57

the floodwaters will probably be the biggest

34:59

challenge that we're gonna face in the next

35:01

twenty four to forty eight

35:03

hours. that initial twenty four hour period

35:06

after the storm has passed, after

35:08

that, how long does it

35:10

typically take to

35:12

restore power? So in the

35:14

case of this storm, it

35:16

could be a complete rebuild of the

35:18

system in certain parts of the

35:20

West Coast. Obviously,

35:22

if it's a windy storm, maybe

35:24

a CAT one or CAT two or three depending

35:26

on how it comes in, Generally,

35:30

we can restore power in a matter of

35:32

hours to a matter of days. When

35:34

you're talking about a system a storm of

35:36

this magnitude, and what we're

35:38

seeing already just from some of the early

35:40

visuals, we expect that there are

35:42

going to be parts of our system on the

35:44

West Coast, which will need to

35:46

be rebuilt and that is going to take longer. Could be

35:48

number of days, could be a matter of weeks

35:50

depending on exactly what the nature of

35:52

the damage

35:54

is. Alright.

35:54

Thank you so much. Really appreciated. Florida Republican senator, Rick

35:56

Scott, is here with me in in

35:59

studio to discuss. Senator, what

36:01

are you hearing about storm,

36:03

have you been briefed on the very latest? Yeah.

36:05

I've been talking to sheriffs and

36:08

mayors, state officials, you know, all

36:09

day long, being long. The first thing,

36:11

I gotta make sure that makes So what

36:13

my hope is, is that everybody, you know, took

36:15

care of themselves and were in a safe

36:17

place. I know that we've

36:20

got my hometown in Naples as an example. I've talked to the mayor a few

36:22

times today, unbelievable amounts of water.

36:24

I've been talking to, like, the

36:26

sheriff in Lea Lea County.

36:28

unbelievable amounts of water. The problem you have is that if you look at the West Coast, you got

36:30

a lot of low line areas and some of

36:33

these homes are built in pretty above

36:36

hiding, high median type and along the

36:38

rivers and the base. So

36:40

so we're we're gonna see

36:43

a lot we're gonna see a lot of damage. I hope we don't lose

36:45

any lives. That's my biggest concern is keep

36:47

everybody alive because as you know, you can rebuild

36:49

your house. You just can't rebuild

36:51

your life. So we're gonna have a lot of

36:53

damage. A lot of damage. So you governor for two terms. So

36:56

you you know from hurricanes, you've I'm

36:58

used to seeing you. I was

37:00

saying before, with your navy on the Response

37:02

Center on Tallahassee. What

37:05

is the reason for people

37:07

losing their lives? I

37:10

mean, obviously, the storm, but is it it

37:12

out and they're just in the storm's path? Is

37:14

it people who are lulled into a

37:16

false sense of security

37:18

because of the eye of the hurricane or because of water

37:20

is being removed from an area. What is

37:22

the most dangerous part of this? In

37:25

our four storms, the one that was the hardest to

37:27

make sure we didn't lose somebody was Michael. And

37:29

here's why. In two thousand eighteen -- Yeah. -- like that.

37:32

It happened. And I think over went

37:34

from a storm to category

37:36

five. Then would people

37:38

focus on they focus on, oh, it's

37:40

a four. Alright. Oh, I've

37:42

done it, you know, I've a one I've been through a one

37:44

before. That's not the problem. The problem is

37:46

storm surge. The water is what kills you. I

37:48

mean, the the wind might you know, be be a

37:50

real problem. But actually, the water's what kills

37:52

you. You know, 6789

37:54

ten foot of storm surge coming

37:56

up, you can't

37:58

survive that. you're maybe building can't survive that. And so we're we're trying to

37:59

figure out I've been talking to the hurricane center,

38:02

the national weather service. How do we get

38:04

people to understand the

38:05

storm surge hits

38:07

happening? there's better graphics all the

38:09

time. You guys have put out really good graphics. National Hurricane Center has.

38:11

But that's that I think is the biggest and the

38:13

all this party. The state was

38:16

already saturated.

38:17

Right? So first thing is what you

38:19

want is evacuate,

38:20

be careful. Then afterwards, you got you're

38:23

gonna have down power lines. You're gonna have a lot

38:25

of down power lines because the

38:27

state was so saturated with water, and then this wind is

38:29

just gonna knock down a lot of stuff. They're

38:31

gonna have standing water. You're gonna have people go

38:33

use generation that don't know how to use generator.

38:35

You're gonna have people that go use power tools.

38:37

They don't have to use them. It's a lot of aftermath.

38:40

Yeah. I mean, that's what I what I worry about

38:42

is it's thing like everything can get rebuilt. It's

38:44

just we gotta keep everybody alive. you got guys

38:46

do to just educate people is really important.

38:48

So the the the and that's

38:50

another reminder for me is

38:53

to tell people, as you just were

38:55

suggesting,

38:55

don't go anywhere near downed power

38:57

lines. It's why it's so one of the reasons why

38:59

it's so dangerous out there, those downed

39:01

power lines. And people In some in some of these

39:03

emergencies, more people die after the storm than actually during

39:05

the storm. Oh, most of them. At least the

39:07

wind that while I

39:10

was governor, they you'll see trees fall afterwards. Right? We've

39:12

had we've had an individual dive afterwards

39:14

because it's tree fell on them.

39:16

You've had people types of power

39:18

lines, you have people hurt themselves with a power

39:20

tool. You've had people use a generator and

39:22

don't know how to use a generator. You got it. You

39:24

use it. You just you know what? Just don't take

39:26

rips. Right? stay alive, don't

39:28

take risk. And and the storm surge we're

39:30

talking about, this is gonna be twice as high

39:32

in anticipated as Hurricane

39:34

Charlie, which hit in two

39:36

thousand four. you must be very worried about travel travel planning. So if

39:38

you if you go back to Michael, if you remember the pictures

39:40

of Mexico Beach -- Yeah. -- it was just nice

39:42

day there. Yeah. So nine foot of

39:44

storm surge, basically, it moved

39:46

home. Yeah. I didn't move home to

39:48

the other side of the road. I and

39:50

unfortunately, the day after I was there and there are

39:52

families that lost their loved ones and they

39:54

were just It's always been through hurricanes, stayed there, and they were swept

39:56

away. So anyone listening right now who's in

39:58

Florida, what's your message to them? You gotta

40:00

just them stay

40:02

safe. you know, look, you've if you're along the coast, you've already made your choice.

40:04

Right? Now, just be careful. If you're

40:06

if you're up because, you know, as you've seen in

40:09

the map, it's gonna flow up through there. We're gonna see a lot of flooding, a

40:11

lot of down power lines. And so

40:13

be careful. What about the people in the

40:15

center part of the state? What about people

40:17

in Orlando. What about the people on the East Coast?

40:20

So if you go if you go all the way up, you

40:22

go up to Orlando, go up to Jacksonville. Here's what

40:24

they're gonna get. They're gonna get a lot of down power

40:26

lines. The state's wet. You're gonna see a lot of

40:28

trees falling down power lines. You're gonna see a lot

40:30

of flooding, so don't drive in the standing

40:32

water. And you and you can't tell how deep

40:34

water is. So you just you

40:36

just cannot you just can't do that.

40:38

Don't even take a chance. They go, I've got a high water

40:40

vehicle. I mean, who knows? Don't do

40:42

it. And and don't put anybody else in harm

40:44

way, your kids your family members or first responders. Yeah. Absolutely.

40:46

Senator Rick Scott, former governor Rick Scott, thanks so much

40:48

for being with us and sharing your

40:50

expertise, sadly, on

40:52

this subject. Listen to some of

40:54

the wind gusts along Florida's

40:56

West Coast. One hundred seven

40:58

miles per hour at San Diego Island,

41:00

one hundred and twelve miles per

41:02

hour clocked at Naples Grand

41:04

Beach, one hundred twenty six

41:06

miles per hour, Captiva. Again, these are

41:08

wind gusts. What to expect as

41:10

Ian crosses the state of Florida that's next

41:12

day with us? Overwhelmed

41:13

by headlines

41:14

this week, you may be

41:16

asking yourself which one should I really pay

41:18

attention to? I'm David Rhine, host

41:20

of CNN's one thing podcast. and I'm here

41:23

to help. Each Sunday joined me and a rotating cast of

41:25

CNN correspondents to make sense of the

41:27

news everyone's been talking about. This

41:29

week, CNN's Priscilla Alvarez tells his wife,

41:32

Lord's governor, sent a group of migrants

41:34

to Martha's Vineyard and how it's shaping

41:36

the immigration debate. listen to

41:38

CNN one thing, an Apple Podcast

41:40

Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you

41:42

listen to

41:44

podcasts. Sticking with

41:45

our breaking news, the powerful

41:46

hurricane, Ian, the strongest storm

41:48

to make landfall on the West Coast

41:52

of Florida. since

41:54

two thousand and four, you see the eye

41:56

passing right there right over Punta

41:58

Gorda. Experts warn that Ian's effects

42:01

could be far greater, however, than two thousand

42:03

four, given the the huge size

42:05

and slow speed of her opinion. Let's

42:07

bring in the mayor of Homepage,

42:10

Florida, Judy Titsworth. Homepage,

42:12

a small community on the barrier island

42:14

just west of Bradenton, South of

42:16

Saint Pete, Matamare. Thanks for joining us. You're writing out

42:18

the storm in your community. We're showing a

42:21

map now, showing we're home speeches. THERE

42:23

WAS A MANITORY EVACUATION ORDER OF COURSE,

42:26

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO

42:28

STAY? WELL, I REALLY

42:29

WASN'T GOING TO

42:32

STAY. I'VE evacuated every time. And I

42:34

tend to leave at the same time

42:36

as the police ever since I've been in office

42:38

so I can offer them

42:40

my support. It was

42:42

about nine:thirty this morning

42:44

that the police decided that the guests

42:46

got up to around forty or forty five

42:48

miles an hour that they decided they were

42:50

going to leave. And at that time,

42:52

everything showed that the anemia was in the clear

42:54

from that storm surge. That storm

42:56

surge would have been devastating

43:00

to the Santa Maria Island.

43:02

They were talking anywhere

43:04

between ten and fifteen feet. people

43:08

couldn't have survived. So

43:10

I'm very, very, very proud

43:12

of our residents. I believe

43:14

we had probably ninety five percent

43:18

evacuation. It was a

43:20

ghost town here. I'm very,

43:22

very proud

43:24

of everybody. You know,

43:25

what I think people might

43:27

not know from the map that we showed,

43:29

which was rather a large

43:32

map is that antamories on of peninsula

43:34

right near Bradenton Beach, north of

43:36

Bradenton Beach. Just looking at it,

43:38

it looks very vulnerable. Do you know

43:41

how many OTHER RESIDENTS CHOSE TO TAKE

43:43

THE RISK AND HONKAR DOWN AT HOME?

43:45

I DO

43:46

NOT KNOW HOW MANY RESIDENTS BUT

43:48

IT'S very minimal

43:50

amount, probably from the people

43:52

that have reached out to me as time

43:54

can count them on two hands. people

43:58

really -- I've never seen as

43:59

many people at the sandbag

44:02

pile. We've

44:04

had We continue

44:06

to bring more and more loads of

44:10

sand. The city hall has never

44:12

been as prepared to deal

44:14

with a hurricane

44:16

of its magnitude. We went farther

44:18

on this storm than we did on

44:20

any of the ones previous. Alright. Mary Tetsworth, so much.

44:22

Good luck to you and the citizens of

44:24

home speech. Live picture is now in Punta

44:26

Gorda, Florida, a calmer image

44:29

there now because the eye of the storm is

44:31

traveling right over that area. We're gonna have more life

44:33

coverage next day

44:36

with us.

44:39

This is CNN

44:42

breaking news. And we start this hour of the

44:44

lead continuing with the

44:46

breaking news on hurricane in a monster category

44:48

four, almost a category five

44:50

storm that has made landfall this

44:52

afternoon on the southwestern coast of Florida

44:54

with winds up

44:56

fifty miles per hour, the conditions are

44:58

already being described

45:00

as catastrophic. The

45:06

wind so strong in Englewood, Florida

45:08

almost sounds like a freight train. We're already

45:10

seeing record breaking and terrifying

45:13

storm surges throughout Florida and Fort Myers, the water so high

45:15

pickup trucks are almost completely submerged.

45:18

Measurements show the water levels and Fort Myers

45:20

have risen more than six feet

45:22

in the past seven hours

45:24

higher than has ever been observed in

45:26

that city and the waters continue to rise. So

45:28

let's get to meteorologists Tom Sader.

45:30

He's in the CNN severe weather center and Tom

45:32

an updated forecast for hurricane

45:34

Ian, should come any minute

45:36

now. What should you

45:38

expect? Yeah. I

45:38

was just handed to me. I was I was waiting for

45:40

it. So forgive me for reading again, here's

45:42

what we have. We still have a category for hurricane. It's

45:45

currently just five miles east

45:47

of Punta Gorda here. The

45:49

winds are down to one hundred and forty. That's not much

45:51

of a drop, so it's still a

45:53

major hurricane. And most likely, Jake

45:55

will stay at hurricane strength all the

45:57

way up toward Orlando. So this

45:59

is

45:59

gonna rake the entire

46:02

peninsula. We had Grove City, a gust of

46:04

one twenty eight. Now when we

46:06

talk about this Southern side here. A better picture on radar will even

46:08

give you an indication of what we're looking at. But

46:10

first, here is the new track.

46:12

Keeps it as four, of course, as now

46:14

moving inland.

46:16

but notice it's category one. It will lose some strength now that it's

46:18

interacting with a land mass. That's

46:22

typical. However, The winds have

46:24

expanded now as these storms

46:26

do. In fact, in the last advisory,

46:28

hurricane force winds now extend

46:30

outward fifty miles in

46:32

each direction. That's

46:33

a hundred mile swath

46:35

that

46:35

will rate the entire peninsula

46:38

with hurricane force winds. We talked about this

46:40

yesterday that every one of these tracks from the

46:42

National Hurricane Center was inching a little

46:44

bit to the east and to the south.

46:46

Because of that, it changed the timing

46:48

of our landfall, which was 103

46:50

at a category four. But instead of fall landfall between five

46:53

and eight o'clock, we thought maybe between

46:55

two and four. And so

46:57

it was earlier. but also because of that projection

46:59

and that movement, it's now instead of just

47:02

crossing, you know, the northern quarter,

47:04

the northern half of the peninsula, it

47:06

moves up

47:08

and the entire peninsula and out will be feeling the effects.

47:10

Tropical storm force winds

47:12

extend outward a hundred

47:14

and seventy five miles. on

47:17

each end of the storm. For

47:20

the last couple of weeks, they've been

47:22

inundated with heavier than

47:24

normal rainfall. almost twice as much as they would typically have.

47:26

This is the rainy season for them. When you

47:28

look at the radar and we'll show you some of the

47:30

rainfall estimates, this is a big

47:32

deal here. First of all,

47:34

notice how it's kind of in this little comma

47:36

shape. We're getting dry air

47:38

filtering across the south, into the

47:40

southwest, into the southeast from

47:42

quadrant. That that's gonna cut these rain

47:44

totals off big time. That is wonderful news. That was never the problem.

47:46

The problem is, Jake, we've had

47:48

this

47:48

trough moving in from the Eastern US.

47:52

That's the straw that was gonna push the system and nudge it toward

47:54

the coast. However, there's been a battle

47:56

between these two air masses, which was

47:59

gonna win out. Well, it looks like

48:01

Irma's pretty much winning even though was edging a little eastward. But the

48:04

problem is underlying in

48:06

this rainfall. That is

48:08

sending winds from the north at the

48:10

surface. Irma's winds at the

48:11

surface are moving northward. Where

48:13

they both converge, From

48:15

around the Tampa St. Pete area to the

48:18

Lakeland, toward Orlando, that

48:20

convergence causes the air to

48:22

rise. That's gonna

48:24

squeeze out much much more in the way of rainfall. Take the

48:26

landfall of Ian out of the

48:28

equation and we've got ourselves one

48:30

to two feet

48:32

of rain. rainfall rates at two to three inches an

48:34

hour, hour after hour, after

48:36

hour, no community can

48:38

withstand that. So

48:40

considering how far away so many communities

48:42

are to the north, we're gonna have nine

48:44

eleven calls, numerous

48:46

of them. You can start to see

48:48

radar estimates right now over ten inches right now north of Fort Myers.

48:50

Now the worst surge of course

48:52

is down to the south

48:55

where you get to around Naples. Now the

48:57

surge we believe got as high as

48:59

seven feet in Naples until

49:01

the monitoring equipment went

49:02

dead. It's much higher than that. I fear

49:03

the pictures we're gonna see out of Naples and

49:06

areas of Fort Myers. It's gonna

49:08

be quite a saddening

49:10

scene tomorrow. But this

49:12

band already of ten inches of rain is gonna

49:14

lift northward as the storm

49:16

lifts. And that's where the convergence sets in

49:18

Jake, and that's where the heavy rain

49:20

sets in. However, It's not over

49:22

with. Remember I told you

49:23

how much rain they've had in the last couple of

49:25

weeks. The ground is completely saturated. The soil

49:27

type in Florida can only

49:29

absorb so much. sandy type of soil, water runs quickly

49:31

across it. We're getting some pretty good wing dust. In fact, I

49:33

just mentioned the one twenty. Here's

49:36

the problem. systems

49:38

of trees are going to be extremely

49:40

weak and saturated with rain

49:42

and more rain to come. You

49:45

toss this band of rainfall on that area,

49:47

and then you toss a swath

49:49

of tropical storm force winds well over

49:51

three hundred and fifty miles

49:53

You're going to have tens and tens and tens of thousands of

49:56

trees down, downing power lines. We've got over

49:58

a million without power now. That's just

50:00

the beginning. water

50:01

rescues, power outages across the entire

50:04

peninsula of Florida. So as a

50:06

meteorologist, we need to look forward even though the

50:08

reporters and photojournalists are

50:10

giving us a picture to the south. We're going to

50:12

have problems. In the last adviser, Ellen, with

50:14

this, more watches and warnings for the

50:16

Carolinas. We'll get into that a little

50:17

bit later in the show. Alright. Tom Zater, thank

50:19

you so much. Let's bring in CNN's Derek Van Dam again. He's live in

50:21

Bradenton, Florida for us. Derek tells

50:23

what you're seeing. Jake,

50:26

it it this

50:28

the wind here is

50:31

extremely violent. It's the strongest that we have felt up

50:33

until this point. And I know we're getting

50:36

so many of those consistent pictures, but we

50:38

were anticipating

50:40

this because earlier

50:42

this morning, we had a northeastily wind

50:44

that was coming up. And now that the eye

50:46

wall is just scraping to the south of

50:48

us, the direction of the wind has changed.

50:50

And why that's important is because it's it's literally

50:52

making these kind of vortexes almost

50:55

little eddies of wind

50:57

off of the building and they become so violent. They almost slap you

50:59

in the face when they come off of

51:02

these buildings and it becomes extremely

51:04

intense. We

51:06

have walked around within this area, been doing live shots for

51:08

several several hours, and

51:10

we've noticed transformers lighting

51:13

up the skies literally knocking out some of

51:15

the communication to my producers, the electricity,

51:18

and the blocks behind me, the all

51:20

two familiar

51:22

sounds of alarms going

51:24

off in the buildings here as the water

51:26

seeps into some of

51:28

the the the local businesses within

51:30

this area.

51:33

I don't know if

51:34

you just heard that sound,

51:36

but

51:36

that's the sign, that

51:39

road sign there shaking back

51:41

and forth, and that is

51:43

why We take the precautions that we do.

51:45

I've got people on either side of me looking

51:47

out for that type of

51:49

thing. But those thing can become

51:51

projectiles very easily in wins like this, so we're gonna monitor that.

51:54

And we have also seen a

51:56

reversal of

51:58

what was

51:59

a the the Easterly winds taking the storm

52:02

surge or the river water from the Manti

52:04

River over my left.

52:06

There's one of those intense

52:10

wind gusts out of the river

52:11

here. And now that the wind direction has changed,

52:13

we have seen that water start to come back

52:15

in. So storm

52:18

surge here still a concern. When we talk

52:20

about the the rapid

52:22

intensification of major hurricane

52:24

Ian upon its arrival, You

52:28

guys gotta bear with

52:30

me on

52:31

this.

52:34

This guster making it

52:34

difficult for us to stand up.

52:37

There are Derek, what Derek, why don't you

52:39

go to someplace safe right now? I'm getting

52:41

concerned about you. Why don't you guys go

52:43

to someplace safe? that. Thank you. You wanna go

52:45

to someplace safe. We will we will do

52:47

Please do that. We do we do have shelter. Okay.

52:50

Please go do that right now. Let's go to

52:52

Bill Weir in Punta Gorda right now.

52:54

Bill, you're in the eye of

52:56

Hurricane Ian. Tell us what

52:57

you're seeing. Yeah. Welcome to the eye. It's a dirty eye.

52:59

We don't have blue sky, but we have

53:02

parrots flying around.

53:04

We have Folks who have been

53:06

hunkered down walking their pets of Floridian

53:08

tradition in the eye of the hurricane. Tom

53:10

Slater talking about the saturated

53:12

ground and the trees

53:14

coming lots of examples here in

53:16

Punta Gorda. This trailer from downtown

53:18

bait and tackle flipped twice

53:20

and rolled over in the storm, the

53:23

the wind put it back on its wheels

53:26

as luck would have it. We've got pieces of

53:28

siding wrapped around this tree over here and

53:30

wow, look at the size

53:32

of this this big tree down at the

53:34

end. Now, of course,

53:36

this is not over.

53:36

We're only halfway through this as

53:40

a result. of the eye moving over us right

53:42

now. Those folks not familiar might be lured

53:44

into thinking, oh, the worst of it is over, but the back

53:46

end of

53:48

the storm could still be nasty and that is what will bring up

53:50

the storm surge that we're most worried

53:52

about. Our toll, this is our

53:54

hotel here. Luckily, we have

53:56

a generator We hope they crank that

53:58

thing up because we lost our power a few

54:00

hours by ago.

54:02

But the

54:06

I'm sorry, guys. I'm

54:06

just distracted by what I'm seeing up here. Wow.

54:09

Look at the size of this

54:11

tree coming down.

54:14

again, this is one of those times when the authorities would say, don't

54:16

go check your properties during the

54:19

eye of the hurricane. Don't

54:22

do this. We're doing this for you, but

54:24

it's just a little just a little

54:26

taste of what's happened due to

54:28

those hundred and ten mile an hour plus wind

54:31

speeds here Punta Gorda. That is they

54:34

probably were higher than that, but the

54:36

wind meter

54:38

at The instrument

54:40

actually broke at the Punta Gorda

54:42

airport, so we don't know exactly how

54:44

high it got. But, wow, there's this

54:46

one little example of the

54:49

force of these winds here as

54:51

well. So many of the homes in this

54:53

area and then going south of us are on

54:55

canals, So we're really interested once it's safe to get

54:57

out into these areas, Jake, and and look

54:59

at the flooding because that is

55:01

the life changer. They

55:03

really batten down the

55:06

hatches in this town after Charlie eighteen

55:08

years ago, up the

55:10

building codes, But these storm surges warnings that we've gotten are really

55:12

unprecedented. This will be a first time

55:14

test for how

55:16

you adapt to these new

55:18

stronger storms on a on a warmer

55:20

planet as a result of climate

55:22

change. But we're gonna head back

55:24

inside and brace for

55:26

the second And that's what I wanted to ask you, Bill, because because yeah.

55:28

You're in you're in the eye of the storm right now.

55:30

That's why it's calm. When are you

55:32

expecting to be hit

55:34

by that the other

55:36

semicircle of the storm coming your

55:38

way.

55:39

Within an hour,

55:42

probably. We've been watching it. It's hard to

55:44

tell exactly and who knows where the storm could

55:46

turn? I mean, sometimes they could take

55:48

a left and surprise everybody. But

55:52

of course, as as we've been talking about, the damage going north, if this

55:54

thing does what Donna did say,

55:56

you know, back in the sixties

55:58

and goes, ranking up the

55:59

peninsula and even over to the east coast, it could

56:02

be much, much more destructive. We don't

56:04

know. We're at the mercy of the end. And

56:05

how how long will it take you to get

56:08

to shelter? if you if you saw

56:10

the the the other side

56:12

of the storm, the other side of the hurricane coming

56:14

your

56:16

way. It would take

56:17

me as long as it would take to walk over those

56:20

stairs. We're staying very

56:22

close. Here, Randy k amazing

56:26

colleague. She's a few blocks away from us in

56:28

a parking garage up high. Unfortunately,

56:30

the alarm is going off

56:33

this, you know, as a result of the power

56:35

outages now, we've seen, I guess, Florida

56:37

Power and Light announced it's over a

56:39

million customers now without power. It's no surprise

56:41

around here see this kind of tree down

56:44

action. But Randy

56:46

is

56:47

there. We are fully

56:49

prepared to hunker down for the for the back end of

56:51

this thing when it comes around. And

56:53

and Bill, when the I

56:56

mean, the town abandoned behind you. I don't

56:58

know how many people are are just hunkering down and how many people have

57:00

evacuated.

57:03

Yeah.

57:03

So it's hard to tell. Again, the eye is a good

57:06

gauge of that because that's when people kinda sneak

57:08

out and wanna drive around and take

57:10

selfies, you know, and and check out

57:12

the damage. We've seen a little bit of that just during the

57:14

eye, but most of what we saw

57:16

driving around this morning, we saw no real

57:18

signs of life other than officials from

57:20

the state who are at

57:22

checking checking on things

57:24

thankfully. So again, this is a this

57:26

is a town that that went through

57:28

some real hell eighteen years ago

57:30

with Charlie, It's a town of

57:32

about fifteen thousand. The

57:34

majority of folks are well over half are

57:36

retirees. And so you got

57:38

to wonder some are more vulnerable than others

57:40

in that particular case. But this

57:42

isn't like you might see in

57:44

Daytona or I was watching this

57:46

morning on one of the local stations

57:49

or knuckleheads like

57:51

swimming under the pylons of a pier as

57:53

the waves we're crashing in. We see

57:55

that with every storm. Thankfully, I haven't seen a lot

57:57

of that out here right now. Alright, Phil. We're gonna check-in with you in

57:59

a little

57:59

bit. Thank you so much. Let's go to Tom Sayder

58:02

right now. Tom, when

58:04

when can Bill expect to be hit

58:06

with the the other side of the

58:08

eye? Yeah. He's

58:09

he's got maybe I think

58:11

within the hour it's interesting to watch the system. If you look at

58:13

the radar here, look at the brighter colors and where

58:15

they are. They're on the northern,

58:18

northwestern, and

58:20

western flank. Notice how light

58:22

green it is in areas of the

58:24

southeast. That's that dry air that we were mentioning

58:26

that's infiltrating the system. So the rain

58:28

totals are lower here. However, with this

58:30

brighter colors and this heavier

58:32

rainfall are still some tremendous

58:34

winds. So here he is in

58:36

Punta Gorda, and there's a little bit of rainfall trying to left

58:38

turn flank. But as this whole system

58:40

moves off in this direction, he's gonna

58:42

be hit by these back winds

58:45

it's gonna take a while because they're really out here

58:47

to the west. As the whole system slides,

58:49

he's got a massive eye wall that he has

58:51

to contend with. just as long as it took him to get

58:53

to the eye, it's gonna take him that much time to get

58:56

to the through the other side of the eye wall,

58:58

maybe longer because we're seeing

59:00

that expansive

59:02

a rain shaft that's back in and around that western flank. So even

59:05

though this is this part of that wind

59:07

a down tree problem we're

59:10

talking about that when this system moves north on the saturated ground all

59:12

this heavy rain, these trees are putting

59:14

up with wind direction coming

59:17

from one angle for, let's say, six, seven hours.

59:19

And then that tree's gonna be blown in the other

59:22

direction just as strong. And that goes

59:24

for every

59:26

structure. And typically, we find it as some of the structural damage you'll

59:28

find in some of the homes. It's not on that initial

59:30

band. It's on that return band as

59:32

well because there's almost there's only

59:36

so much that these roof shingles can take. So I think we give him about

59:38

maybe an hour at the at the

59:40

most. But again, he's gonna get

59:42

hit just as hard and that wind

59:44

force and that

59:46

wind direction is gonna go completely in the other direction. And the

59:48

surge will change as well for many

59:50

locations. Alright, Tom Saver. Thanks so much. Let's bring

59:52

in the mayor Fort Myers

59:54

Florida Kevin Anderson. Mary Anderson,

59:56

you're in Fort Myers right now. Tell us what

59:58

your city's

1:00:00

dealing with. Hello,

1:00:01

Jake. I'm standing at

1:00:03

person Henry Street, which is in the

1:00:05

center of downtown. I'm about two

1:00:08

blocks away from the river. I'm I'm

1:00:10

watching this FedEx box.

1:00:12

When I got on this phone call, it

1:00:14

was about two feet from the top

1:00:16

within that period of time that the weather

1:00:18

has risen six inches.

1:00:20

Six inches,

1:00:21

just in that that brief amount

1:00:23

of time. Your city could experience

1:00:25

a storm surge It's anticipated up to sixteen

1:00:28

feet in the county just north of ULEA County. The

1:00:30

sheriff says the storm surge could be

1:00:32

life changing Are

1:00:34

you anticipating something similar where you are?

1:00:36

I can tell you, I'm looking

1:00:38

at the businesses downtown that

1:00:40

are all flooded. Windows blown out

1:00:44

Yes. It's it's it's gonna be a

1:00:46

significant event or it

1:00:48

already is. Now we

1:00:50

just gotta wait and see. We're coming out

1:00:52

of the the edge of the

1:00:54

eye. And who knows what the

1:00:56

next couple hours will bring?

1:00:58

Now at

1:00:59

first, stronger up north of the

1:01:01

Canpar Canpar area, then

1:01:03

the forecast shifted downward

1:01:06

slightly. Are you worried that that means that there

1:01:08

were residents who may not have been able to

1:01:10

evacuate in time? there

1:01:12

are always residents who

1:01:14

choose not to follow the

1:01:16

evacuation orders.

1:01:18

and and to hunker down. And so as it is right now, they're

1:01:20

stuck. I mean, the streets are

1:01:24

flooded and emergency

1:01:26

services couldn't get to them if they wanted

1:01:30

to. It's unfortunate people

1:01:33

decide not not believe, but that's what we deal

1:01:35

with. What reasons did they give? because this is

1:01:37

I'm sure not the first time you've been through something

1:01:39

like this and and wondered why anybody

1:01:42

would stand. I've

1:01:44

been here since the mid seventies. This is

1:01:46

actually by far the worst storm I

1:01:48

have ever seen. I am actually watching

1:01:51

a guy out in the intersection

1:01:53

right now, the walker up past his knees

1:01:55

and he's out there taking pictures. Why

1:01:57

people choose not to do

1:01:59

the prudent

1:01:59

things. But who knows?

1:02:02

What resources will be available

1:02:04

to to those individuals to

1:02:07

of decided to stay in Fort

1:02:10

Myers. I'm

1:02:10

very confident that we as

1:02:13

Floridians are very resilient when

1:02:15

it comes to hurricanes. Our

1:02:18

emergency management team is on standby.

1:02:20

They are ready to respond

1:02:22

and start the recovery.

1:02:24

As soon as it's I've been

1:02:26

in contact with the President, the Governor and the Senator

1:02:29

as well as several

1:02:30

other mayors and there's

1:02:32

the resources that are available

1:02:35

are going to be very helpful water

1:02:38

equipment, whatever it takes. They've all said

1:02:40

we're going to make this

1:02:42

recovery happen. What are

1:02:43

you hearing about conditions on

1:02:45

on Santa Bell and Captiva Islands, which

1:02:47

are which are just off

1:02:50

Fort

1:02:50

Myers? I was watching the news prior to losing power and I

1:02:52

could see the flooding. I can tell you

1:02:54

if we've got this much water in downtown

1:02:58

Fort Myers in the beach and the islands have to be much

1:03:00

worse. I can't imagine Santa Claus

1:03:02

right now. Thank you so much,

1:03:06

mayor, Kevin. Anderson, the mayor of Fort Myers. Thank you. Really

1:03:08

appreciate your

1:03:08

time. No problem. We're tracking the breaking

1:03:11

news. You can see the choppy waters

1:03:13

there in Bradenton, Florida. hurricane

1:03:15

Ian delivering historic flow, pounding

1:03:18

Florida with winds up to a hundred and fifty miles an hour,

1:03:20

record breaking storm surge. The eye is over

1:03:22

point of gourder right now. We have much more

1:03:24

to come stay with us.

1:03:25

Overwhelmed

1:03:27

by

1:03:29

headlines this week, you may be asking

1:03:31

yourself which one should I really

1:03:33

pay attention to? I'm David Rhine, hosts of CNN's One

1:03:35

Thing podcast, and I'm here to help. Each Sunday

1:03:38

joined me and a rotating cast of

1:03:40

CNN correspondent

1:03:42

to make sense of the news everyone's been talking about. This

1:03:44

week, CNN's Priscilla Alvarez tells his

1:03:46

wife, Florida's governor, sent a group of migrants

1:03:49

to Martha's vineyards. and how it's

1:03:51

shaping the immigration debate. Listen to CNN one thing, an Apple Podcast

1:03:54

Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you

1:03:56

listen to

1:03:58

podcasts.

1:03:59

We're

1:04:00

following the breaking news

1:04:02

hurricane Ian making landfall along the

1:04:04

southwestern coast of Florida winds as high

1:04:06

as one hundred fifty miles per hour.

1:04:09

making

1:04:09

Ian a high end category four hurricane,

1:04:12

almost a category five. Already

1:04:14

more than one million

1:04:16

customers are without

1:04:18

power in the state of

1:04:20

Florida. Let's go to Brian Todd in

1:04:23

Saint Petersburg, Florida right now.

1:04:26

Brian tells us what you're

1:04:27

what you're seeing. Okay, Jake.

1:04:29

We

1:04:30

got wind of a

1:04:32

some damage here a manufactured home park, and

1:04:34

we're here right now. We just checked it out.

1:04:36

We consulted with a local policeman who said

1:04:38

that there's another one here. Another home here

1:04:41

in similar condition, but check this

1:04:43

out. a roof almost completely ripped off this

1:04:45

mobile home here in Largo,

1:04:47

Florida, which is just outside Saint Petersburg.

1:04:49

You see the debris over here

1:04:51

Police tape here. We knocked on the door of

1:04:54

this one no one answering. We're

1:04:56

also checking out some of the neighbors to see if anyone

1:04:58

in here was hurt. We did get

1:05:00

word from the Pinellas County Emergency

1:05:02

Management Office that there were other

1:05:04

roofs ripped off of this of homes in

1:05:06

this area they told

1:05:08

us initially that no one was hurt, but we're kind

1:05:10

of sweeping the neighborhood to see if

1:05:12

anyone is around, and anyone can tell us if

1:05:14

anyone was injured in this

1:05:16

building here. We have some other updates for you, seventy eight thousand

1:05:18

customers in Pinellas County

1:05:20

without power. That is according to the Pinellas County

1:05:22

Emergency Management

1:05:24

people. And there again, we're just bracing for the worst

1:05:26

of this because we still could

1:05:28

get some really strong wind and rain

1:05:32

in the next few minutes to an hour as more

1:05:34

of these bands come through here. But this

1:05:36

whole area in Pinellas County really

1:05:39

got slammed just a short time ago as you

1:05:41

can see some of the damage here. Our photo

1:05:44

journalist Mike Love can just kind of pan around

1:05:46

this area with all the debris here and everything. You know, again, we've

1:05:48

been sweeping around these neighborhoods, trying

1:05:50

to ask people, you know, how they've been holding up a

1:05:52

lot of people. evacuated

1:05:54

this area because we have found a lot of

1:05:56

these homes are not occupied right now. And

1:05:58

we were told by, again, by Pinellas County,

1:06:01

that at least one of these houses that had the home

1:06:04

that they had the roof ripped off, no

1:06:06

one was here and no one was injured. I'm not sure if

1:06:08

this was this one. or the other one. We

1:06:10

also got word of a home

1:06:12

that was burned down completely,

1:06:14

but no injuries in that. So this

1:06:16

area, we're just kind

1:06:18

of now starting to be able to get out and sweep some of

1:06:20

these areas around Saint

1:06:22

Petersburg. But

1:06:24

they've got all sorts of

1:06:26

issues in there. They've got down power

1:06:28

lines because of down trees. The the the

1:06:30

ground was saturated in Saint

1:06:32

Petersburg already. and so they're gonna be sending emergency

1:06:34

response crews out to places like

1:06:36

this. We did see one police officer here,

1:06:38

but no one no one else responding to this

1:06:40

so far.

1:06:42

Again, This is the time when some emergency

1:06:44

responders might just be able to get out

1:06:46

and start to respond. But even then,

1:06:50

Jake, in a lot of cases, at least we're told by officials

1:06:52

in Saint Petersburg, they may

1:06:54

not be able to get out just yet because the

1:06:56

danger hasn't passed yet. And we're

1:06:58

getting another really strong

1:07:00

burst of wind and rain here too. Alright,

1:07:02

Brian. Todd. Thank you so much. Appreciate

1:07:04

it in Saint Petersburg there. and

1:07:06

and we still we have a senator, Rick Scott,

1:07:08

in in studio with us right now.

1:07:11

Your reaction to what

1:07:13

we're seeing that you heard mayor of Fort Myers talking about

1:07:15

how he's been in Fort Myers since

1:07:17

the nineteen seventies and he's

1:07:19

never seen anything this bad. Yeah. I

1:07:21

talk I talk to Mary Anderson this morning. yeah, you can look at all those pictures

1:07:24

and this unbelievable storm surge. And so

1:07:26

there and there's a lot of

1:07:28

low line areas in all these

1:07:30

areas. So and you're gonna have that wind. Now

1:07:32

these trailer parks, it can be people gonna if

1:07:34

they're in them, you know, they they might not

1:07:36

survive. the water has pushed up so high, and it takes a long time for that

1:07:38

to recede. Plus, look at the look

1:07:40

at the map how much rain we're gonna get. We're not

1:07:42

even close to how much rain we're gonna have.

1:07:45

We're gonna have a lot more power losses. Hopefully, you don't

1:07:48

want

1:07:48

losing lives, but this is not over at all. And we're

1:07:50

gonna have the rest of our state impacted by it.

1:07:52

So pretty scary. It's just

1:07:54

the start, really. I mean -- Yeah. -- don't you

1:07:56

think? I mean, so we've seen really

1:07:59

devastating

1:07:59

effects on Sanibel

1:08:00

Island, Fort Myers, and then you just

1:08:03

saw Brian Todd up the

1:08:05

coast in Saint Petersburg.

1:08:08

Is that because the storm is moving up the coast or just because it's so giant? First of

1:08:11

all, it is giant. It's it's moving

1:08:13

up the coast. We we're getting, as

1:08:15

you know, on the On

1:08:17

the left side, we're gonna get a lot a lot more

1:08:19

rain. It looks like a way, way, way more rain. You get twenty inches rain with saturated land. I mean, there it's gonna be a hard

1:08:21

time for as it as it goes up these rivers,

1:08:23

it's gonna be have

1:08:27

a hard time coming back down. So it's we're gonna have

1:08:29

water for a long time here. And we were talking

1:08:31

about this earlier, but

1:08:34

how most people die not when the storm hits, but in the aftermath. And

1:08:37

you saw Bill Weyer

1:08:40

in in in in in

1:08:42

in in his and his

1:08:45

He's there was a Punta Gorda,

1:08:47

rather. Sorry. And there was a tree, a giant tree that had just fallen because because

1:08:49

here's some live pictures

1:08:51

of Punta Gorda. and

1:08:54

then and these trees are falling because the ground

1:08:56

is so saturated and they're gonna keep falling.

1:08:58

Alright. They're gonna keep falling. So you gotta

1:09:00

be careful. There's people gonna If you're not careful,

1:09:02

there's no people lose their lives afterwards because the tree

1:09:05

falls after this happened because it's so wet.

1:09:07

But on

1:09:07

top of that, these type of power lines, you

1:09:09

gotta watch those And and everybody's needs, if you're gonna

1:09:11

use a generator, learn how to use it. If you're

1:09:13

gonna use a power tool, learn how to use it.

1:09:15

I mean, just be cautious. Now, I'm I'm

1:09:18

you're scared of the death of losing people before

1:09:20

the storm, during the storm, and then afterwards

1:09:22

when people make decisions that they shouldn't have made, that they could be safe.

1:09:26

And

1:09:26

and how are the citizens of your state gonna handle the next

1:09:28

few days with all of this water? It's it's

1:09:30

gonna be it's gonna be hard. They're gonna

1:09:33

I mean, first off, all the

1:09:35

water, they're gonna

1:09:35

lose power. So they're gonna lose power.

1:09:38

They're gonna be they're gonna be careful and they're gonna be careful have to be careful where they go because there

1:09:40

are many places

1:09:43

you can't get anywhere. Partially

1:09:45

because it's flooded, maybe partially because there's so much debris

1:09:47

out there. So all these first response, we're gonna

1:09:49

have to get down there

1:09:51

as quickly as possible. highway

1:09:53

patrol and others will be cleaning this areas to get down there and do

1:09:55

it. What you just heard, checking those trailer homes and saying there's

1:09:57

anybody in there. They're gonna be doing

1:09:59

that all across all

1:10:02

up and down the coast. He'll be doing that.

1:10:04

Let's go to Derek Fandam

1:10:06

who assures us that he is

1:10:08

in a safer situation. right now

1:10:10

in in Bradenton. Derek tells us what you're seeing and what's going on there. Jake,

1:10:16

Bear

1:10:18

with me. I'm not a,

1:10:20

you know, I'm not

1:10:21

a very heavy guy. So

1:10:24

these wins are knocking me

1:10:26

around pretty heavily, but this violent violent

1:10:28

wind and it stings when it

1:10:30

picks up the water from these

1:10:33

sheets of rain that

1:10:35

continue to blast through the

1:10:37

city streets of downtown Bradenton. We're in the historic district

1:10:39

of Bradenton. We've moved into almost a sheltered

1:10:41

area just so my

1:10:43

team can stay somewhat

1:10:46

stable during our live shot. That's

1:10:48

not the most important thing here. The

1:10:51

idea is to pass along to

1:10:53

people why we are doing this

1:10:55

We are showing people what they

1:10:57

evacuated from. Why did you

1:10:59

leave your homes

1:11:01

in Manatee County in further south

1:11:04

towards Fort Myers and put to

1:11:06

Gorda. This is the reason why

1:11:09

because these conditions are grueling and it has

1:11:11

been a snail's pace with this with

1:11:14

this monster monster storm

1:11:15

that continues to

1:11:17

grow in size. You know, as a

1:11:19

meteorologist, looking at all the available tools

1:11:22

that I have at my disposal,

1:11:24

including radar

1:11:26

imagery and and and and what it's telling me is

1:11:28

that the storm is still feeding off of

1:11:30

the Gulf of Mexico right now. We're

1:11:33

on more or less

1:11:35

the northwestern side of the strongest part of

1:11:38

Hurricane Ian right now. And that is still taking in some of

1:11:41

that

1:11:42

energy from the warm shallow waters of the Gulf of

1:11:44

Mexico and it's allowing for these thunderstorms

1:11:47

and the

1:11:47

intense wind and

1:11:49

rain bands

1:11:50

to form over Manatee County where I'm currently located

1:11:52

right now. So this

1:11:55

storm hasn't weakened

1:11:57

just yet, even though we've

1:11:59

had incremental decreases

1:11:59

in the wind. I'm still

1:12:02

feeling maximum maximum hurricane force,

1:12:04

the violent waves of

1:12:06

energy that continue to come through

1:12:08

here. I mean,

1:12:09

if I can summarize it, this is the best way I can do it. I've got

1:12:11

a four year old son. He

1:12:15

loves car washes. this

1:12:17

reminds me of walking through a car wash

1:12:19

or literally driving through your car wash

1:12:21

and rolling your

1:12:24

windows down. My son would

1:12:26

understand that that comparison, but literally, it's just spraying you in the

1:12:28

face. almost

1:12:32

stinging as it does. And I

1:12:34

can't imagine anyone who decided to

1:12:38

ride this out what they must be thinking at this moment

1:12:40

in time. My producer has friends

1:12:42

in the area here, closer to

1:12:44

Fort Myers that decided to

1:12:46

ride the storm out and in

1:12:49

my mind, I was thinking, Jake,

1:12:51

you know, if there is one family who decided to ride out this storm,

1:12:56

then there are multiple families who

1:12:58

decided to ride out this storm. We have seen transformers

1:13:00

blowing across the

1:13:03

skies, lighting them up like

1:13:05

fireworks. We have seen debris like some of the awnings of

1:13:07

the buildings as we

1:13:10

were driving around earlier. getting

1:13:13

locked it into the sky, becoming projectiles

1:13:15

projectiles as it does. I had seen something today that

1:13:18

I had never witnessed before after

1:13:20

the numerous

1:13:23

hurricanes I've covered for CNN. The storm the

1:13:25

winds

1:13:25

from this storm were so

1:13:28

intense that it drew the

1:13:30

water off of the Manatee River. We saw that in Tampa Bay

1:13:32

as well. It was almost

1:13:35

an eerie, just

1:13:36

cathartic experience because we knew

1:13:38

that the storm meant business. And

1:13:40

now that the winds are changing direction, we expect

1:13:42

expect that surge to really come in earnest here in the in

1:13:47

the coming hours. Jake. Alright. Great. reporting, Derek. Please I

1:13:49

I know you're in a safer place now than

1:13:51

you were, but please continue to

1:13:55

to stay safe. where you are. And

1:13:58

senator Scott, we've seen this phenomenon now, these rivers

1:13:59

get emptied. And

1:14:02

then, sadly, some people go

1:14:06

out there and enjoy the the

1:14:08

the freakish nature of this fact. And don't

1:14:10

realize that

1:14:11

water's coming back, and it might

1:14:13

come back, yes, come back fast. You don't know how fast it's

1:14:15

gonna come back. You know it's gonna come back fast.

1:14:17

It's gonna come back higher. Right?

1:14:19

And so, I mean, just don't I mean,

1:14:21

don't take chances like this with your life. And don't take a chance that

1:14:23

you put a responder or your family member at risk. I

1:14:25

mean, you just can't do that right now. You

1:14:28

gotta you gotta stop and

1:14:30

think about this and be careful.

1:14:32

Alright.

1:14:32

Senator Scott always appreciate your expertise when

1:14:34

it comes to this. You've sadly supervised a a response in Florida

1:14:38

to to too many too

1:14:40

many of these events. Thank you so

1:14:42

much for being here. We're standing by for a news conference from Senator Scott's successor, Florida

1:14:47

Governor Ron DeSantis. as hurricane Ian

1:14:49

slams the state with wings up to a hundred forty miles per hour, we're gonna bring that to your live stay

1:14:52

with us.

1:14:58

New video

1:15:00

just in. You're looking at a water rescue that

1:15:02

just took place in Naples, Florida. You

1:15:04

can see the devastating storm surge

1:15:06

there, water waste. people just try to get

1:15:08

to safety. We're standing by for an update now

1:15:11

from Florida governor, Rhonda Santos, who

1:15:13

is scheduled to

1:15:15

hold the press on for any minute

1:15:18

now is this monster category four hurricane, almost a category five, slams his state.

1:15:20

Until that time though, let's now

1:15:22

talk to the mayor of Orlando, Florida

1:15:26

buddy dyer, mayor dyer. You're starting

1:15:28

to get some heavier rain in Orlando as

1:15:30

the storm makes its way into

1:15:34

the state moving east.

1:15:36

how worried are you about scenes such as the

1:15:38

one we saw in Naples just a second ago playing

1:15:41

out in in

1:15:44

central Florida. So we finished

1:15:46

our preparation and we're kind of in weighted out

1:15:48

mode. think

1:15:52

we'll get the

1:15:53

worst of it tomorrow. And

1:15:55

certainly, we anticipate at

1:15:58

least dropping

1:15:59

the storm strength winds

1:16:01

if if not hurricane force winds and it's on a

1:16:03

path kinda like Charlie was

1:16:06

back in two thousand and

1:16:08

four. but

1:16:10

we think we'll have it for a

1:16:12

much more extended time. Charlie came

1:16:14

to Orlando in about an hour

1:16:16

and looks like we'll have this storm

1:16:18

for many hours. And when Charlie

1:16:21

came through, we lost ten

1:16:23

thousand

1:16:23

trees. So we're anticipating that

1:16:26

we'll have a

1:16:27

lot of damage to our trees, a

1:16:29

lot of power will

1:16:31

be out.

1:16:33

So we're extremely concerned but

1:16:35

I can say that citizens have

1:16:37

responded to heath call

1:16:40

to understand that this is

1:16:42

gonna be a very powerful event

1:16:44

Your

1:16:44

colleague, Fort Myers mayor Anderson

1:16:46

told us he's been in the

1:16:49

area. I've been

1:16:52

in Florida's in nineteen seventies.

1:16:54

This is the worst storm he's ever

1:16:56

seen. I

1:16:57

well, Charlie's the worst storm that

1:16:59

I've seen, and this is CERTAINLY

1:17:02

GOING TO RIVAL CHARLIE MY ESTIMATION.

1:17:04

Reporter: FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT IN

1:17:07

YOUR AREA AT LEAST UNTIL TOMORROW

1:17:09

EVENING. HOW CONCERNED ARE YOU

1:17:11

ABOUT ALL you have there

1:17:14

overflowing? So we had the ability

1:17:17

to reduce

1:17:20

the depth of lakes. So we've

1:17:22

drawn them down to the extent that we can. We're still extremely concerned about

1:17:27

flooding because possibility twenty inches

1:17:28

of rain over the course of thirty

1:17:30

six hours, and we have never experienced

1:17:34

that type. of that. So the water has to

1:17:37

go somewhere. What have

1:17:38

you what's the

1:17:41

situation with people in

1:17:43

a retirement home or assisted

1:17:45

living facilities who who don't have the ability to

1:17:48

evacuate what precautions

1:17:50

have been taken for

1:17:52

them. Well,

1:17:54

we're really not a a place

1:17:57

that you need to evacuate from.

1:17:59

People from

1:17:59

other areas of the state are

1:18:02

evacuating to us were one of the higher points

1:18:04

in the state were ninety eight

1:18:06

to one hundred feet above sea level.

1:18:10

it's kind of funny in the case of Charlie as

1:18:12

well. A lot of people evacuated to

1:18:14

Orlando thinking that Orlando was gonna be

1:18:17

spared and then it turned and kind of

1:18:19

Same thing has happened here. We've had people that evacuated

1:18:21

from the West Coast that it turns

1:18:23

out they're still going to

1:18:25

be in the path of the hurricane.

1:18:27

So we have checked on all of senior facilities

1:18:31

in various places that

1:18:35

we would do wellness checks on and everybody's

1:18:37

in good shape for

1:18:39

now. Oh, that's good news for now.

1:18:41

Mayor of Orlando, Florida, buddy Dyer. Thank you

1:18:43

so much. Appreciate your time. We

1:18:45

are standing by for that news conference from Florida governor Rhonda Santos as hurricane

1:18:47

Ian slams into

1:18:51

the state of Florida with winds up to a hundred

1:18:53

forty miles an hour. We're gonna bring that to you live. The pictures from you and are are unbelievable. The

1:18:55

storm has made landfall. With winds so

1:18:58

strong one of our crews

1:19:00

wind meters broke. Overwhelmed

1:19:02

by headlines this

1:19:03

week, you may be asking

1:19:05

yourself which one should I

1:19:07

really pay attention to. I'm

1:19:10

David Rhine, host of CNN's One Thing podcast, and I'm here to help. Each Sunday joined me and rotating

1:19:12

cast of CNN

1:19:15

correspondence to make sense

1:19:18

of the news everyone's been talking about. This

1:19:20

week, CNN's Priscilla Alvarez tells his

1:19:22

wife Florida's governor sent a group

1:19:24

of migrants to Martha's Vineyard and

1:19:26

how it's shaping the immigration debate. listen to

1:19:29

CNN one thing, an Apple Podcast

1:19:31

Spotify iHeartRadio, or wherever you listen to podcasts.