Transcripts For CNN The Source With Kaitlan Collins 20241010

Being felt everywhere. It has come in as a category three storm with 120 mile per hour sustained it went even higher gusts according to the national hurricane center, we are talking to Rental Rain extremely dangerous wind. What is being described is lifethreatening Storm Surges that are now pounding portions of the state. At this hour, a Lifethreatening Flash Flood warning has just been issued for nearly 2 Million people. That includes tampa, saint petersburg, and clearwater. You just saw Bill Weir in st. Petersburg. You could see all of that developing there right now, over half 1 Million homes and businesses have lost power with conditions deteriorating by the minute this storm has also spawned a Record Number of tornadoes, all across the state of florida, far beyond where the storm has actually making direct hit tonight, there have been 19 confirmed tornadoes. So far, the sheriff Of St. Lucie county has just confirmed that there have been multiple fatalities after an outbreak of tornadoes. There many more warnings of course just to give you a sense of how massive and intense the storm that is hitting florida right now is. Look at this Satellite Image fitch showing Lightning Strikes and breaking out everywhere. We have reporters fanned out across the storm zone, across florida, anderson, youre in bradenton, florida. We were just looking at you and the Manatee River as clearly youre just seeing how much this is developing nearly by the minute yeah. Yeah. Kaitlan, it is really changed. I mean, really two minutes or so that youve been speaking, it is its changed a lot. I mean, again, it is the storms are just so so strange. Its so unpredictable when youre on the ground, you know, you think that the i made landfall down probably about 15 or so minutes ago south of sarasota. It seemed like things were calming down here a Little Bit, but boy, wow, the water is now is just slamming into the riverwalk here in braid it in this this i mean i dont know neal, if you can i dont know if you can see this. I mean, this is its like the ocean here, this river now, All Of A Sudden, bill howard, things in st. Petersburg do you what do you want . Oh, it its getting rough here. Anderson is get has gotten so much more violent just in the last few minutes since i talked to you were sort of pinned down in the corner . Of this Building Importer Of First and university appreciate deluge this fall five inches, three hours. Were expecting another five in the next couple hours so the Freshwater Flooding thats happening here i just kept i Cant Help think about all those souls who went through helene, who already had to deal with Moldy Drywall and now this is going to cause so much harder to divestment, so much stress across the Border Night and these tornadoes, theres no good day for tornado to hit your house with a word when it happens right in front of a hurricane like this. And a lot of those folks evacuated from the coast there was that big won over by Super Cells that are more common in texas, kansas kicked up by this also wondering speculating, theres one set of headlights over there. I wonder if somebody was driving another just sort of frozen in place while waiting for things to happen to give you some perspective the coast is this way around the corner, but winds are coming ripping down First Avenue and the municipal both basin and the Yacht Club that way im certain were going to wake up in the morning and see some of those boats on The Street. Whether therell be there by the wind, but the Storm Surge its part of Tampa Bay were in the bottom sort of the entry points on the northern side over across the bay. We had this tampa i got to show, sir, you just read. I got to show her neighbors here from the great brandon miller, our meteorologist nail, who says that this just up. The water is really moving. You can get since ive just how fast the wind is moving there, you can see it in the light there it is now just whipping off the Manatee River. Its coming in from from the north, i guess northeast and the water now is really starting to pour over. If you look at the graph okay that Wasnt Good will probably go inside shortly, but you can see the amount of water here on the ground. This is this is water from the Manatee River. Its also water coming from the land as well. But as you i dont know if you can turn neil. Take a look at this. Theres a bridge over there ive seen some Emergency Vehicles going across the bridge over the last hour or so it looks like theres one about to come across. But you can really get a sense of just how much of that water its coming on shore now, lets check in with brian, todd brian, where are you exactly anderson, im in Downtown Tap on Howard Avenue as it is about the worst its been all night. You can see the violence of this storm right around me. Its starting to flood The Streets weve had six inches of rain in the last couple of hours. Were going to get another five to eight inches of rain in the next probably five hours here. Just look at this. I mean, it is the ward is violent because the wind has been whipping sideways all over this place. These trees have been whipping around there is a lot of debris on the road that is another big part of the story. Youre in Tampa Youve heard the mayor jane castor, say that the contractors didnt show up to pick up the debris from Hurricane Helene. Weve had debris flying around this area to that is a danger but right now, it is just the sheer Volume Water that is hitting us right now that is dangerous. Dreams are overflowing, sewers are overflowing canals are starting to Overflow Weve got Tornado Warnings around here as well again, the wind is just really just pounding us here. And whats also as youve been describing, where you are. The wind does that it just switched directions quickly like right now, were getting hit from my right side to my left, just extremely violent gusts of wind will whip round in another direction. And you dont really know where its coming from. The city has really getting fully with the worst of it right now, if its not at the peak, its got to be near that port, right . Now. I know that Mayor Castor said that maybe my 2 00 a. M. Much of this will pass, but thats a long way to go for these people. Youre talking another five hours here during conditions like this, it is not safe out here first responders cannot come out in this stuff right now. They say that 45 miles an hour wins or higher, they cannot go out and rescue people. We are pretty much at that point anderson, the bridges around here are completely closed impassable. These roads are starting to flood. And again, anyone who ventures out in this right now, vehicle or otherwise, is really running a Risk Aggregating and let me just grab this here. Yeah. I like suffolk just this literal this came from the river. Thankfully, its just Styrofoam Try to try to put it down over here yet that behind a tree so yeah, thats just one of the things were starting and to see stuff thats in the river itself ripping up and then getting airborne will probably move. We have basically when you do this kind Of Stuff, you have several Fallback Locations. So we have several Fallback Locations which will probably shortly goto. But this is interesting. This is the first time, so now the water is really come over the riverwalk and its the water is now staying on the riverwalk, but its also now washing up to this sandy area, which is about ten feet or 15 feet or so from from the edge of the rivers edge. So it is definitely really picking up now yeah obviously, it is. I also just saw a again, a very distinct a flash of blue light, probably some sort of power outage. I dont know neil im sorry. Who you can really see it. I mean, this wind is just picking up this water and its just moving this water. Carlos suarez in Fort Myers. Carlos, what are you seeing there . Well, anderson, its a bit difficult to hear you. The wind really has not led up here in Fort Myers. And were starting to see the worst flooding this entire night at this point where im standing is a parallel to the Kaluza Hatchie River and youre not gonna be able to see from where you obviously, my cameras, but just up The Street here, i can see where the Kaluza Hatchie River has just breached this part of Fort Myers and all of this water out from the river, from the Gulf Of Mexico is now just pushing its way inland here into Fort Myers. This right here is the concern that officials have had going into this storm during Hurricane Ian, the Storm Surge out here was about ten to 11 feet. In terms of flooding, we dont expect that kind of number because the storm is now to the north of us, but were still looking at probably seven to eight if not nine feet of flooding and its something that has started some materialize out on fort Myers Beach to the a west of here in the southwest of here, where were looking at about five to six feet of Storm Surge, right now and then out in naples and collier county, which is about an Hour South of where we are were also looking at floodwaters there at about four or five foot mark. As you can see, just from when i started, theres a bit of a break here, but whats happening . Now is expected to continue for the next couple of hours and into tomorrow morning. And i dont know if stew you can kind of go over to your right a Little Bit and show that they there but were maybe a feet or so from the bay, just breaching that Base And Right theyre a Little Bit further, a Little Bit further up is the actual river, the kaluza achi. And thats already started to come out onto the mainland out here. Anderson kind of what youre looking at here is a confluence of forces. Youve got the Storm Surge coming in from the Gulf Of Mexico as this hurricane continues on its track north. And then youve got all of the flooding. Youve got all of The Rain out by Lake Okeechobee and even central parts of florida. And so all of that water is coming in from the central part of Florida And Youve got all of that water what are coming in from the Gulf Of Mexico . And when all of that comes together, this is what youre going to see this is how its going to be for the next several hours. And we havent even figured in a High Tide yet, thats going to happen around 12 or 1 00 in the morning. So when all those three things happen its Gonna Be A Pretty Ugly situation for the folks that live here in Fort Myers. And this is not going to get better over the next couple of hours. Its not going to get better until probably tomorrow morning. Once high Tide Kind of loosens up a bit and some of this Water Starts to recede but i was here two years ago for Hurricane Ian. This has kind of what happened then. That was a direct landfall. This storm is north of us. And there are some similarities about the source how long the speed of these wins is going to continue for in this area. Because it is really picked up. It is continuing. Were now kind of just moving back away from the edge of the river wisely and i think Theres Location is still okay for for right now, but it is a significant amount of water. I ive just done to how how much the raw there as you can see, the Manatee River, its getting worse by the moment as you are watching all of this, whats remarkable as you are seeing all of these different live shots from where anderson is when were Carlos Suarez. Suarez is from where Bill Weir is every single live shot here there you are seeing the consequences of this storm as it is Making Landfall here in florida, just this hour, we are tracking it closely given just how wide this impact is and the Storm Surges that were tracking. Also the tornadoes that have been spawned as a result of this storm. Cnns Chad Myers is in the Weather Center. Chad, obviously were were watching this very closely. A lot of people still hunkering down who did not get out of this, tell us where this storm is right now because it just seeing every single live shot, its remarkable how they all are experiencing similar, similar conditions as there deteriorating so quickly and whats remarkable, kaitlan, is that the storm, all of this water that you see coming from the sky is on the North Side of The Eye. All the surge that we talked about it on the South Side of The Eye from Punta Gorda back to naples into our reporter there in Fort Myers. But heres whats going on. The northern part of The Eye is still very filled with rain in this wind warning, were winds are been gusting over 100 miles per hour at times, the good news is talked about the tornadoes. They are offshore, they have moved away from florida. They were right along that i95, A1 A Quarter earlier today, but we are still seeing the wind now gusting to 90 miles per hour at the airport heres what has already fallen here, right through here. This entire area of purple tampa, theres the bay thats greater than ten inches and whats to come more in the same places plus moving some of that rain into orlando as well. And then on up toward daytona beach, more areas here of purple, ten inches or greater still to come kayla . Yeah. Im just thinking what the Tampa Mayor tony anderson, just a few moments ago that its 915 there. She thinks this is going to be going for until 2am and youre seeing where a bill were as just the amount of Rain Theyve gotten about five to six inches and just a matter of hours with more to come, chat will continue to check in with you. I want to go back to the ground and florida, thats our Boris Sanchez is and tampa boris, the Storm Surge, not as bad as expected, but still much higher than it was for helene. Tell us what youre seeing right now yeah no question about that. Caitlin, does Storm Surge is part of the reason we moved away from what weve been going live whole day actual water hitting the seawater Tampa Bay. We starting to get to intensive pair that with stronger and stronger win The Rainfall you just heard Chat Outline were just creating upswing a foot more than a foot of rainfall in the Tampa Area . 30 36 inches coming through the evening. Its about to get five to eight more. Theres No Doubt that is going to cause intense flooding where i am now, were experiencing very, very heavy bands of wind it is literally shaking me. Its moving me around the temperature has also drops significantly, so its gotten quite a Bit Street at a residential area where the water appears to be slowly creating larger and larger puddles as the rent continues to go down, there is No Doubt that this area is going to flood. Theres a significant amount of tree cover you can expect branches will come down already seen them come down. Weve also seen other power. It takes several hits in this area potentially could go out fairly soon you add all of that caitlin to that Storm Surge that you were talking about . It is a disastrous situation for folks that decided to stay in Evacuation Areas obviously, officials were warning them to get out for folks that were just outside of Accusation Areas because i decided to hunker down. Theyve been under a shelter in Place Order since this afternoon. Obviously, very dangerous conditions as you noted Tornado Warnings throughout the state of florida, more than 100 today. That is a record for the sunshine state. Many of them going hundreds of miles from where the Storm Made Landfall but ive been watching folks throughout the day. There were a lot of residents earlier in the day. They were walking around trying to get a glimpse of what was happening during the storm during this intense rainfall and heavy wind, there are fewer of them this evening, but there are still folks out there. Officials want them to know it is best to stay indoors at this time because were likely to see very intense flash flooding, not to mention debris he flying around caitlin from Hurricane Helene. Thats been left over these past two weeks i boris, well continue to check in with you are watching all of this playing out. Were seeing the elements of the storm right now. Youre seeing an airplane that has been flipped over completely by the winds of this storm. That is coming in for weather theyre camera that were seeing. You can continue to see the wind in the background of that. Obviously youre going to see a lot more images like this unfortunately, its getting darker and darker, so it is going to be even harder as boris was saying, theyre losing power in some places, its coming back on. Weve got over half 1 Million people and businesses that do not have power right now. And that number is continuing to bro by the hour. What youre looking at right now is in venice florida. I should note, were checking them with all of our reporters throughout this hour, making sure that theyre staying safe, were going to reestablish with anderson as you saw him in bradenton, florida, i want to go now to Randi Kaye. Shes in sarasota. Randi kaye. Obviously you were seeing debris itself start to fly earlier from a Ceiling Fan from a house, i believe. And other aspects of this that was a huge concern that officials had this coming so quickly after helene, what are you seeing right now and sarasota . Yeah, absolutely. Kaitlan. Theres debris that of course became projectiles and thats, thats a scattered all over these neighborhoods. But were just about 20 minutes or so from siesta key, where Hurricane Milton made landfall just near siesta key. So very close to where the storm came across. And when we were in The Eye, kaitlan, it was so tranq will hear the birds started to come out. There was any when there wasnt any rain there were bugs and birds and you could hear the frogs out. Now, The Eye has passed, and we are now back in the thick of it. We do expect that this is going to get much worse for us. Were going to see more wind. Were going to see more rain. We had wind gusts of about 73 miles per hour here were just near sarasota airport. But when we were seeing the worst of it, this fence came down three panels of this fence near this Neighbors House here and this tarp, this White Tarp, im not sure if you can see that kaitlan it was going this way. It was blowing this way when the wind was really bad, then it was on the ground for awhile during when the i was over as when we were in The Eye. And now because The Eye has passed us, the wind has actually changed direction. So now its actually blowing. The other way. That is whats happened here. So we do expect that when we see High Tide around for 30 in the morning, that is going to bring some of the Storm Surge over this way we are about half a mile or so from the water. So we do expect, as i said, conditions to worsen and we will stay here for it. Kaitlan. All right. Randi kaye, well continue to check in with you in sarasota. Thank you for that right now on the phone joining me as Florida Senator Rick scott and senator, thank you for being here. You were governor of Florida Youve dealt with a lot Of Storms like this in your Home State. What are you most concerned about right now as this storm is Making Landfall didnt evacuated shouldve we can we can take care of now and what happened to often is people say, oh gosh, this is really getting bad. So then they want to leave. Unfortunately, you have flooding, you got to get trees down. Youve got Power Lines down, as you know, weve had unbelievable number of tornadoes around around the State Today so you have no choice. Youd have to stay in place now and you have to hunker down and you have to keep yourself alive i worry about our first responders that want to go out and help these people and they have to put their lives on the line, but they do it because they want people to be safe, to be saved. So and then i worry about you and ask this passes are all the problems were going to have trees down, were gonna lose a lot of power were going to worry about are people in Glass Side before its safe and theyre going to be around, trees are going to fall because we have saturated with water by they get in touch down Power Lines. Or they can try to start to generate are not know how it works, or they use a powers saw them. And i know how it works. So you just worry that that if you just look at what happens, one two people dont get out of Harms Way. Number two is afterwards, they make foolish decisions. But on top of that, Today Weve had horrible tornadoes around the state. Ive talked to a lot of sheriffs and mayors all Day Today and about the tornadoes and my heart goes out to everybody going through this right now im in im a Little Bit further south in naples, florida, and i evacuated to waste in the i was in them vacua zone, which i hope everybody did so you gave you had to evacuate your home yeah. We had to vacua. And so im hoping that everybody around me evacuated. Im hoping its not as bad as they had anticipated. Were supposed to get five days for this Storm Surge and a lot of flooding. So i hope its not going to be that bad but you know, these are these are these are deadly storms and so im going to do everything i can to keep people focused and keep people alive. And senator, what you just talked about there, the tornadoes that we saw hitting parts of this state that werent even under, you know, pull evacuation orders, maybe people who were living in Mobile Homes were told to evacuate and get somewhere safer. I mean, these tornadoes that were hitting some of them on near the Palm Beach Area where in st. Lucie county, weve seen these fatalities. Have you ever seen over 100 Tornado Warnings 19 confirmed tornadoes as a part of a hurricane that youre dealing with tornadoes like when michael in 2018, we had a lot of tornadoes spawned off as the went up to panama city, but not like this and not this far away. We hadnt weve had Rain Bands this far away that far away before the tornadoes, weve not had that and so i talked to share some mayors in the weather, had tornadoes in its scary, scary time we had so many tornadoes. So i can i can feel it in peoples voices. How concerned they were some for their own life and some for people they take Care Harris . Yeah. Senator, obviously were thinking of everyone in your Home State tonight is theyre just trying to survive this. Thank you so much for joining us. We want to talk to you more about that Fema Funding and recovery after this in the future. So thank you, Senator Rick Scott thanks. Steven buhbye. And i do want to note for everyone watching who is very concerned, obviously about all of our correspondents and anchors on the ground. Anderson is okay, just obviously understandably difficult to establish a connection when youre seeing whats happening with the wind and The Rain. And obviously the deteriorating conditions by the minute we are going and check with him and with him later on this hour right now that Playing Video that i just showed you in venice, florida, that was shot by jonathan pitch ramallah, who is a Storm Chaser in florida and hes joining me now. Jonathan, just tell me, i mean, this is a remarkable image and just speaks to what we are seeing watching this live right now. Tell me what youve been seeing out on the ground in Florida Weve been in the storm has been on his back side of The Eye after it passed off on shores, made landfall just to the north of where we are. Were in venice, florida. So we have a couple of situations happening here. You have the wind shifting to be directly on shore here. And what thats doing, clearly, its strong enough to knock cover, slip, plane upside down like this, also knocking down trees, Power Lines. There was a staccato of popping from all of the Power Lines blasting off earlier and breaking. And then youve of course, you have the Storm Surge thats really beginning to pour in as well near where we are here at the Venice Airport the low lying areas to esplanade around xanas. And so thats gonna be the next real big issue that people are gonna have to worry about. And they might let their guard down and just do not do that because the backside of the storm, especially south of where landfall is, thats where we expect the main impacts with the Storm Surge and that can stretch all the way down from fort Myers Beach here to venice. And of course up to breakins sarasota area. Is there a concern about a false sense of security of people feeling Randi Kaye was saying earlier that it was just a moment of calm as the i was passing them as they were waiting for more of the bands to come into hit and then All Of A Sudden we checked back in with her five minutes later and you see how quickly those conditions on the ground can change weve had a lot of experiences like that where you are in areas that maybe havent experienced. And i of a hurricane and they go through the front side, they think the worst is over because theyre in The Eye. They dont realize that the backside is coming. It happened when we were in carriacou with hurricane beryl. We were going around yelling at people, hey guys, its not get too far. Or at least in your safe place. Weve got half the storm still. It really shocked them and then backside of the Eye Wall came with hurricane beryl. It was like a tsunami of debris and thats the same thing that happened a little happen here and milton as well and florida, itd be definitely need to be aware of that. And also realize that this storm is bringing that store Storm Surge all the way across the Gulf Of Mexico its like the Gulf Of Mexico was a bathtub and the storm is moving from one side of the bathtubs to the other. And just like youre moving in the bathtub, that momentum of the water is going to go over the edge. And unfortunately the edge here is the state of florida. And so that water is going to come into land. Now the only good thing is its a kind of twisted way to say this we just had Hurricane Helene two weeks ago passed by. House 100 miles off the coast of where i am. But at damaged in the Tampa Bay area alone, over 20,000 homes and businesses severely. So that is fresh in peoples minds. And i think that really helped to push people to evacuate because they were able to finally understand the danger of Storm Surge. And of course, the threat was milton, is that it could bring them much more yeah, that absolutely is a concern, especially as the ground is totally saturated, debris is everywhere still. Jonathan, please stay safe and thank you for showing us just the power of the storm, flipping that plane over. As you warned about that tsunami of debris coming back, anderson is back with us anderson i know that there had been some things have been changing. Tell us what youre seeing right now on the ground yeah. Well a short time ago, probably about ten minutes ago, we were over there on the riverwalk dont know its very dark. I dont know you can see its very dark that area is really no longer accessible. So mike, my Camera Crew has moved actually, they were inside a building right now, which is our first Fallback Position would were on the ground floor. We have a second Fallback Position on the second floor and one on the fourth floor depending on how the evening goes but were not in a safer location. Theres just a lot of debris flying around out there theres still some flying around here. Theres actually a tree which has fallen because the ground is so saturated with water from The Rain. But the five or six or however many inches of rain that are poured down here over the last several hours, this tree has fallen down. Theres still a number of Palm Trees which are standing, but were watching them, obviously very closely but the situation here is really, this is definitely the worst we have seen in terms of the wind and in terms of just the amount of water falling, though amount of rain falling in the amount of water just coming off off the Manatee River. Im very curious to check in with our correspondents into other areas as soon as they kind of come back online, when we have somebody let me know where yeah, go ahead. I ask you because obviously you can see how dark it is right now and you were talking about how much the conditions were changing. Do you still have power there because the outages have doubled in just an hour. We went from over half 1 Million as we were coming on the air. Now its 1. 1 Million homes and businesses that dont have power in florida right now. Yeah. There have been really for the last two hours all over the place, skies this is common, this happens all the time. The sky just lights up with is very eerie blue light. Lets go to im sorry, to Boris Sanchez, whos standing by in tampa boris, i mean, it is it has gotten really bad here just in the last 40 minutes, 30 minutes or so our things where you are anderson, theres no question that there has been a serious intensification of the storm in just the last halfhour or so, the wind is much stronger than its been at any point throughout the day The Rain is coming down significantly harder. It is a massive amount of water. There are trees, theres one off to my left that its making noise all night and it is seeming i think i think i think we lost boris just for now. Well try to get contact. Its very hard maintaining obviously were working off cell towers. Were working off arieti of of technology they just to try to stay on air, just to give you a sense of how of how the power of this storm its so strange because about an hour ago, maybe it was an hourandahalf ago i think a lot of people maybe who were staying at home looking out their windows have this sense of like okay, things are not as bad as maybe some people had thought it was going to be, you know, was downgraded from it was a cat five out there in the golf was a cat three when it came on shore it may be a cat three, but that is a really, really strong storm. I and you can feel the power of it out here right now. Its been i, dont know, ten or so years since ive really done a lot of Hurricane Coverage ive experienced Whiteout Conditions a couple of times in the really the height of the storm were not there yet. We may not get there, but it is it is close to a least in this area. There are so much Rain And Wind and water in the air the sky almost looks white. Its a very areas strange thing Carlos Suarez is in Fort Myers. I want to check in with him. He has south of me in Fort Myers, which was very badly hit. Obviously in Hurricane Ian hundred and 50 people were killed in that storm wow, it is carlos. What is it like where you are not letting up at this point here in Lee County across parts of Fort Myers where we are at this hour. Were looking at gaza ive anywhere between 15 to 60 miles per hour. And so whats happening right now is the flooding is really the big issue for parts of southwest florida. This storm, the hurricane, has made landfall, of course, to the north of me where you and boris and Bill Weir and everyone else and Randi Kaye is located what were experiencing Thank South of you guys is the Storm Surge. All of this water that is being pushed in from the Gulf Of Mexico that has nowhere to go. The Kaluza Hatchie River, which is behind me here is pretty much at this point just blended into this street. Theres really no way to know exactly where River Kind Of Stands because the pier the Beach Area over there, thats at this point all of the water is just coming through on this side. As you talked about, a Hurricane Ian two years ago, this part of Fort Myers saw a Storm Surge with a direct landfall of about ten feet. Of course, were not going to those kind of numbers because the storm has already to the north of us. But the next couple of hours are really going to be difficult and theyre going to be telling because that Storm Surge could be anywhere between eight to nine to ten feet. And were not going to really get a sense of just how much of this flooding is going to happen until tomorrow morning, because thats what we expect High Tide to take place. Thats when we expect all of the flooding for parts of Central Florida to make its way down the kaluza had your river where im at and then thats kind of what youre seeing here. We ive been describing it as a confluence of forces where are you have the water from the Gulf Of Mexico rushing and through the river out here. And then youve got all of the Rain And Youve got all of the flooding from canals and rivers and from the central part of florida. And that water has to go somewhere and at some point when it cant go out into the gulf because of the storm and it cant go inland. Its got to make its way just blocks in. That was really the concern for folks coming into the storm is they knew that this part was going to flood and at this point, anderson, its its flooded at this point, id imagine as far as i can see into Downtown Fort myers at this point, its just become almost a large pool, if you will its really just running parallel to the river and its at times a Little Bit difficult to make out where the river is. Anderson carlos. Carlos, im Gonna Go back inside and just a minute. I want to go back to katelyn right now, kaitlan yeah. Anderson obviously stay safe where everyone is watching you and just want to make sure you get into a safe position. Well check back in with you as soon as you do are watching. Obviously, anderson is in burlington, florida. You can see how much that wind is picking up. This is all happened and just the last 30 he fiveminute we checked in with anderson about half an hour ago as he was standing near the Manatee River, you saw the river is starting to pick up, start to churn now, of course, youre seeing this right now, anderson, we want to make sure youre in a safe place. We are going to continue with our breaking News Coverage. We are live in tampa next, where you are only seeing sir . Urges of that Water Start to take over as the wind is also picking up, were going to check and also with the mayor Of St petersburg, thats where waves are crashing, crashing ashore for the Nine Inches of rain has fallen in just three hours there . Yes. Nine inches of rain. A onceinathousandy Ear Weather Event is underway. Well be back in just a moment. 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Finance, the smile you want for as low as 148 a month per arch schedule, a free Consultation Icy Hop roe massaging bone, easier to grip the massage and the power of two Mac Strength Pain relievers has worked for as he makes it less tonight at ten eastern on cnn while we were in the break, a Flash Flood Emergency, which is the highest level of flood warning, has just been issued for tampa according to the national weather service, is an upgrade of the previously issued considerable Flood Threat that was already there. And this means that between ten and 14 inches of rain has already fallen in that area. Yeah there was a warning from the national weather service. They are saying this in all caps, that this is a particularly dangerous situation in advising people to seek higher ground. Now, im Kaitlan Collins back with anderson cooper, who has embraced enten anderson. Youre a little outside sarasota, your south of tampa where that Flash Flood Emergency was just issued. Just tell us i saw, you moving earlier as you were trying to essentially get by a palm tree, theres obviously a lot of debris flying behind you. Tell us what youre seeing right now yeah so were embedded in what youre seeing this these branches in front of me is a tree that has fallen. A fellow earlier if theyll probably about two hours or so ago because the ground is so saturated. But this is without a doubt the, the height of the storm that we have seen here in britain did. I dont know if its going to get and worse than this, but it is, it is pretty bad out right now theres there is debris going through the air. Im actually fine here. Theres a tree. Most of the debris right now. Its just like pieces of branches and it also honestly a lot Of Styrofoam and im not sure where all the styrofoam is coming, but its obviously its not too bad. So if it gets worse, ill move inside, but i been i think an okay. Location. Right now. Its actually rather sheltered from the wind, if you can believe it, but you can really get a sense ive just how fast this witness moving i mean, it is its extraordinary it is almost all white when you are out here looking around, its like Whiteout Conditions. Its something ive only seen a few times before its not clear to me beyond the ground here in bradenton. They were expecting as much as nine feet of Storm Surge but at least i believe at least six inches of rain have fallen here and bradenton, if not more it wouldnt surprise maybe its more at some communities have already seen i do want to check in with Bill Weir, whos up in st. Petersburg bill. We dont have bill. I think at this point but but kaitlan it is. I got you, anderson. Oh, bill, lets go. Hello. How are things . Our thanks. Bell against all odds, anderson, youve got phil aware against Nine Inches of rain in three hours is what the city is experiencing right now. Good to look at that looks like just coming down harder than any shower in any spot that youve ever been to look at this, its just pounding Freshwater Rain now rushing down the avenues where its sort of a higher elevation. You can see the water moving on The Streets here its st. Petersburg but she has to Wrench A Rain and the wind im not sure if you can hear the hell now its been sort of in and outs but im going to shut up for a second. Just listen depending on where you are in this city, theres car alarms by all these vehicles that were parked high to keep him out of the Flood Zone its going off as there hey, rocked by the wind here its hard to know whats happening just to our left. Thats the boat basin. The harbor is just down The Street here. And we didnt want to venture out in the vehicles for obvious reasons, tried to be a little good, cautious, but no telling we were down there just at sunset at 7 00 and the waves are just starting to pound over the seawall so many boats left in the harbor. So many of those Boats Shirt first flight will reveal so much about what went on here. But what strikes me is much the way that Hurricane Helene picked up trillions of gallons of water dumped them inland, hundreds of miles from the coast this storm is moving so much water across the entire peninsula. And the water is so sad that the ground is so saturated, anderson as you can mentioning, that meets trees coming down Power Lines, coming down theyve want to understand where over 1 Million customers without power in the state of florida already miraculous to hear his habit whats a mess in the morning going to check in with you throughout the night. I mean, this thing is its really changing every couple of minutes its very unpredictable. Kaitlan its fascinating to see up close. I mean, im glad so many people here heated an evacuation warnings. Im glad that there are a number of shelters youre afraid and ten of people. I talked to a number of officials in various counties. People really seem to a heat and a lot of evacuation warnings. And that is when you see the power of this storm right now, that is certainly good news. You can you see power where were at is flickering on and off but its a very dynamic situation here right now. Anderson, everyones tweeting at me asking you about your safety. Everyones safety. Obviously, if you need to go inside, let us know, but, you know, were just getting word from the White House that President Biden was speaking with a bunch of the mayors in the area because that are expected to be hardest hit before Milton Made Landfall were the officials that you spoke with Today Surprise by how quickly this got moved up because at about lunchtime today, we didnt expect this to hit until 11 00 p. M. And then it was moved up to eight. And now of course, were seeing it in full force right now. Were, you are i mean, this storm has changed really fast. A number of times. I mean, as you remember, it went from around simply low Level Category storms is suddenly a cat five storm. It seemed like matter of hours, which was just stunning. I mean, i saw some explanations about the warm waters at various levels of the gulf is the reason why it intensified so quickly. And then obviously went back down to a cat three. But it is it just its been a really, a really surprising, a really surprising couple of hours here and im very curious to hear from officials, from their Vantage Point sorry, it really picking up. You know what kaitlan i want to check in with Randi Kaye, who is in sarasota grandi. Our thanks things have certainly deteriorated since you and i last spoke. We were sort of in The Eye and then on the backside of The Eye and things that really calmed down and then once the Eye Pass and the backside of the Eye Pass, things that really started to get much worse year. So we are now experiencing those very high winds that we were talking about. I know you were talking about finding a place for safety, making sure that nothing is flying around in the air. Were doing the same thing here. Im keeping an eye here on this theres last piece of fence that you can see that standing thats In The House Next Door to us where we are these other two pieces you can see that are on the ground here. Those have already come down. And when the Eye Pass anderson, its really interesting because theres White Tarp that has been blowing here behind us all night because it broke free. It was going it was blowing in that direction and now when i pass in the Wind Direction changes now blowing in this direction that way. So well see if it actually breaks free. There are some Power Lines down. Weve lost power in the place that we are staying. And the windsor just extremely, extremely strong word were experiencing raids, but the winds is really what it is. Its like a punch to the gut when it, when it gets you just at that right moment. So were doing our best to stay safe as you are, of course, anderson all right. Randi, well check in with you. Lets go to Brian Todd in tampa. Brian, where are you avenue . Just tell you that the storm is now. This relentless. It is violent, and it is dangerous out here. Just take a look at how im getting just slam from my left side. When dust blowing horizontally, the reynas horizontal. I even noticed a Little Bit of guilt. Sometimes The Rain seems like its blowing upward. Its just getting so out here weve heard the bill that everybody talked about the figures here, Nine Inches of rain in three hours, three Months Worth of rain. In three hours is what that translates to were not even in one of those zones where they had mandatory evacuations. Now, Head Node that this was going to be this violent, this neighborhood of tampa. They may have paid for mandatory evacuation here, but they did not still there is nobody out here now because it is simply too dangerous to be out here. This road is starting to flood and its getting the flooding is going to get much worse because this water basically has nowhere to go as well. Brian, todd, its kaitlan here. I want to read an update that we just got from the Florida Division of Emergency Management that that is notable and theyre telling people do not walk out into the receiving water of Tampa Bay because this is essentially a reverse Storm Surge and theyre saying that this water will come back and does pose a lifethreatening risks. So if people are seeing that Water Start to recede, theyre saying dont go out there because its about to come back in full force in that space. It certainly will come back. I mean, a lot of the Storm Surge has been pushed out of Tampa Bay and it is going to come back, as you said you know, its interesting how they were so worried about Storm Surge here and tab up and even in the last few hours when they said okay, there was a Storm Surge is not going to be as bad as we thought well look, that is no consolation here because this water just has nowhere to go. Just because of The Rainfall, not because of the Storm Surge. When the Storm Surge comes back if you can just get a sense of how bad it is out here, you know, how bad its going to be when that Storm Surge returns. I mean, brains are overflowing, canals are overflowing here everything is just overflowing. And im not even sure i know where this water is going to go at this point so its just a, you know, this isnt the peak. I dont know just how bad peak is going to be here in tampa. Yeah. It is a triple threat of the storm. Brian todd, please stay safe. Were going to check back in with you as we are watching what is happening in tampa with all of our reporters on the ground or continue with our special coverage here and were going to be joined by the Head Of Femur with the latest response and what they are seeing happening on the ground in florida after Equipment Break Week and ask questions like, what does a Comedy Show doing on scene . Thats too much but i want donald know. Can you slice that i got news for you saturday at nine on cnn . 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And this is cnn are continuing our live coverage as Hurricane Milton is Making Landfall right now. Anderson cooper is embraced and tenor the Florida And Anderson is, youve been watching this. I mean, the wind is picking up. That is the most notable thing that we are seeing from where you are. But also the flooding, saying that this is becoming a Lifethreatening Flooding Event is milton is Making Landfall seems to be one of the biggest takeaways as were watching to see just what the impact of the storm is going to look like. Tell us what and how changing where you are on the ground yeah. I mean, thats the thing. Its its so hard to tell because you feel so isolated in a storm like this that theres a lack of information locally certainly in this area by the river, im this ground is incredibly soft, incredibly saturated with rain fall the amount of water coming off the river it has been extraordinary it is. We were down there as if youve been watching. We were down there probably about 30 minutes ago and we felt back to this location by team is inside but im told right now that are Weather Center said that there are gusts up to 100 of more than 100 miles an hour which is feels about right. I mean, i dont know if you could see out there because theres not a lot of light. But this wind is moving incredibly fast. So these gusts when they come like this one you really, you really get a sense the power of this storm caitlin, i think you have the Fema Administrator yeah. Yeah. Anderson, we do we cant see those gusts behind you and a Fema Administrator also in florida, deanne criswell. Thank you for joining us from tallahassee. I know you just got a briefing saying emergency officials there. It seems administrator like flooding is the number one issue that were seeing the Lifethreatening Flooding happening in florida right now, you tell us what is your biggest concern as milton is Making Landfall . Yeah kaitlan i. Had an opportunity. Ive been here just for a couple of hours right now to talk to my team, but also to get connected with Director Guthrie at the Florida State of emergency operation center. And actually before the storm and the i made landfall, they had multiple Tornado Touchdowns that have caused some pretty bad damage im in other parts of the state, so that was a threat that we knew was a potential and unfortunately, if you did see multiple tornadoes across the state right now, we are seeing the flooding and the wind and the storm is just starting to move across the state. We wont know the full extent of that until the storm continues and gets out of the state but we know that theres still lifethreatening situations out there and administrator, we are getting word now that Hurricane Milton is now a category two hurricane. Obviously that doesnt diminish the impact that were seeing on the ground. What is your number one message to people, to floridians who are watching right now stay but the wind is even though its decreasing the threats are not decreasing, right . With the increased amount of rain with a threat be the Lifethreatening Flash Flooding thats happening. Youd need to stay put. That, go out into this trying to make sure that youre a safe as possible. But one piece of good news, kaitlan is i was told that over 70,000 people are actually its shelters right now, which means people listened to be evacuation orders, which is really encouraging have any sense of just the water on the ground in some of these communities. I mean, do you have a sense yet of the Storm Surge thats occurred or just the amount of rainfall . How many hitches a water has been on the ground, but put on the ground yeah. Anderson, obviously its going to be different in different parts of the state depending on where youre at, where the storm passes. We are still just monitoring the storm and so we wont have real good fidelity until the storm goes through they can get some of that information back in. I think the biggest thing is still just to know that there are a lot of threats out there as youve been reporting, we want people that make sure theres if they didnt evacuate and if theyre not in one of those shelters that theyre staying put their staying out of Harms Way so they dont create lifethreatening situation for itself. Administrator criswell. Thank you so much for all your efforts. I appreciate it. Kaitlan anderson, just Someone Youve covered so many of these hurricanes for cnn. I wonder as youre looking at this, how much worse this is, or how it compares to other storms that youve been in the middle of compare every as you know, i mean, every storm is so different and there are so many variabilities. And its certainly been awhile since ive really been out covering these, but its certainly reminds me of some of the storms. I mean, i remember it being up her up in tampa for charlie where charlie was expected to make landfall in tampon. It ended up really hitting Punta Gorda very, very hard. I have no sense of how this storm compares to others. We wont know that as the administrator said, until later, but the power of this one is its certainly making itself known right now, kaitlan. Yeah, absolutely. Anderson, please stay safe. Thank you all so much for joining us. Dont go anywhere. Our breaking News Coverage will continue. Cnn