Transcripts For CNN The Lead With Jake Tapper 20241010 : com

Following Breaking News as a monster hurricane. Milton is just just hours away from making landfall on floridas west coast. Its already making its presence known through winds and rain and bringing florida, its most Tornado Watch mornings in a day on record, 90 Tornado Warnings and counting, youre looking at one of them. One of those tornadoes crossing and i75, heres a Tower Cam that was airing im on Cnn Affiliate Woio And Kay as a reported tornado tore through matlab shaye. If you want to understand how truly devastating the storm could be, just listen to how president Joe Biden described it in a briefing, just this afternoon looking like the storm of the century, many communities in hurricane Miltons Path do not have a moment to catch their breath between Helene And Milton two historic stern storms in two weeks the storm of the century, possibly Vice President Kamala Harris just called in To Cnns Dana Bash and echoed those stark terms. This is unlike anything we have seen before. We got a lot of tough, strong people in florida who have been through a lot of hurricanes, tornadoes. But this is not like anything theyve dealt with before. Milton may now arrive by 11 00 p. M. Eastern this evening, earlier than initially expected . It giving it less time to weaken. Thats because the track has shifted just slightly south, meaning it could hit land sooner than previously projected, possibly at or near sarasota, florida, regardless of where milton makes landfall or what category it is when it makes landfall, officials Say Milton could be one of the most destructive storms its on record in the united states. Officials have been warning for days now that if you are in an Evacuation Zone and you do not leave, you will die. Mass evacuations have snarled traffic and emptied many Gas Stations, but now the Weather Service says, the time to evacuate is over. It is time to shelter in place, stay indoors unless a Lifethreatening Situation arises, bridges across the down, including the sunshine skyway bridge, which connects Pinellas County to manat view that illustrates the dangers of this storm. This is a Security Camera outside a house in Fort Myers, florida. It picked up the violent winds of an apparent tornado lets go straight to our meteorologist, Elisa Raffa and seen in turkey headquarters. Lisa where Is Milton right now . Just how widespread is the impact including these Tornado Warnings . Yeah. I mean, jake, its still sitting 100 miles south and west of tampa, but the winds are just so wide. We now had a category three hurricane. Its got winds at 125 miles per hour at its center. So it is still a major hurricane and doing what the Category Number Fool you. We have these tropical stormforce winds that stretch 300 miles. This has more than doubled the size from what it was yesterday. Like we were talking about when the intensity fluctuated. Look at how much wider got a wider storm means more people will be impacted across the state because these winds are just farreaching. You could see Wind Gusts are ready nearing 50 miles per hour in st. Petersburg naples. Am i ami as well, these outer bands that have been coming onshore old day have been nasty, were talking about a Record Number of Tornado Warnings for the state which we get tornadoes with landfalling hurricanes. But this has just been excessive today. And what has been remarkable about these Tornado Warnings as a lot of them have had a considerable damage tag, meaning that the tornado was so large and so dangerous, they were worried about the breadth of damage that a tornado can, could cause. I mean, look, its just the cells that have just been popping from all of these tornadoes old day across south florida. The Tornado Watch continues until 9 00 this evening, winds will continue to spread across the State Hurricaneforce winds from Coast To coast. You have those major Hurricane Force winds in the purple there from tampa down to Fort Myers and even No Matter what the intensity is, it will drag the ocean with it. It has been sitting over the ocean for days now. So were really worried about that Storm Surge, even if the Wind Speed in the Senate Winter is coming down, that ocean is not nine to three feet of Storm Surge from sarasota down towards Fort Myers, eight to 12 feet going into the Tampa Bay area, again, even up to eight feet down towards naples, marco island. And this is the unsurvivable part that the that the officials have been warning about this its what we are worried about. Jake. All right. Elisa raffa standby. Were going to come back your way in a little bit as milton moves in towards florida, the Weather Service now says the time to evacuate, its over cnns Brian Todd is in tampa, florida for us highlighting the struggles of those who decided to leave and the struggles of those who opted to stay tonight, florida bracing for impact as Hurricane Milton begins to come ashore miltons outer band bringing multiple Tornadoes Today with more likely to come as the storm gets closer to Landfall Forecast to hit as at least a category three hurricane in just a few hours the national Weather Service is warning that milton could be one of the most destructive hurricanes to ever hit west central florida. Millions have been urged to evacuate long lines of cars and backed up traffic from the areas expected to be hit the hardest, showing that many have been listening when youre glad that that people chose to leave, see and where they lived and were evacuating to get to safety. But even for those who decide to leave, challenges on the way, more than 1,700 Gas Stations in florida were already out of fuel wednesday morning, i would prefer to be at the house and to be and in the middle of The Street somewhere where thats just as dangerous. And even those who feel confident in their decision to stay admit theres only so much you can prepare for a storm like milton, what else is kind of having you and your family a little bit worried right now. I definitely a north live in the track. If it keeps coming north we could be in trouble. And officials reminding those that stay that when the worst of the storm hits, they will be on their own. When you make that call for Help I Cant imagine what you would feel when you ask for help and its too dangerous and helps not coming dont be that person that subject of 911 Cause Fire and rescue officials are telling us that once the winds get to 45 miles an hour the higher they will not be able to send first responders out if anyone is in a crisis at that point, they wont be accessible by first responders. And we are not far from that point right now. Jake bridges like The One both behind me right here, are pretty much going to be impassable within a few hours all right. Brian todd, thank you. Please stay safe. Lets go to Cnns Bill weir, whos in st. Pete bill, what are conditions like there right now and st. Petersburg ahead of Landfall Nasty and getting nastier downtown st. Pete behind me, keeping an eye on those four big Tower Construction cranes, 34 stories are worried about those in 100 mileanhour winds so far were sort of gusting less than 50 miles an hour. Were going to go down to the waterfront here on the st. Pete pier to give you a sense of the difference depending on where youre standing of a violent physics of the storm. And this one feels different. Jake. I got to say then to a few of these, not the least of which is that this is a second of a onetwo punch for us from liam. I spent yesterday looking at these mountains of debris which are going to be turned into either floating are flying debris in this hundred mile an Hour Blender named milton. But were just beginning to see the waves really kick up on the jetty here at the st. Pete. Hear often the distance thats a nice restaurant called tik really perilous position. Right now at the Yacht Club here most of the boats have been taken out. It was always a few stragglers whether they didnt have the time or the resources to get their vote out of there. Theyre taking in their chances some of these sailors around here as well in Pinellas County one or three shelters have already filled up, but there are 11 more for available for folks. But at this point wherever you are right now, is where you will spend the rest of this hurricane all right. Cnns bill weir. Thank you so much. Were joined by Sarasota Police chief for Extra Shaye right now, achieve the track could still change, but it does look as though milton could come ashore near or just south of sarasota, you have a sense of how many people evacuated and for those people who did stay in their homes homes is it too late for them to go to a County Shelter right now yes. Its really hard at this point to tell how many evacuated if i was going to base that off the traffic that i see on The Street, i think a lot of people evacuated so thats a good thing. Were at the point now where we need to really start thinking about hunkering down, right, staying in place. Because as i sit here, im going to cat five building and the cat five window to my left is shaking cars out there going to be all over the road. Right now they really that window for leaving his really gotten tighter and smaller. They really need to think about sheltering in place down Jake You feel safe in your area of sarasota and that cat five building building, but theres times when these gusts of winds and were just at the beginning of it, jake. These winds are really shaken, these windows really bad here on the sixth floor. So ill get to a point were all have to rethink even my position because i am on the top floor with potentially the roof coming off this building. Thats the type of storm that hurricane really that were looking at. Sarasota is still of course, in the process of rebuilding from helene just a couple of weeks ago, are you worried that some of the structures already compromised are weakened . What might happen to them and what could that look like if sarasota takes a direct hit from milton yeah. You know, we talk about the perfect storm. I dont we didnt really talk much about debbie, what we had debbie than we had helene. And now milton, debbie, we had a ton of rainfall. Theres really nowhere for this water to go to than we had helene, the structures here paid the price for it, and now we have milton and were just going to have a ton of flooding along with this water surge. And these buildings are really in tough shape right now. So were doing the best that we can mitigate this collaborating with our Emergency Operation Center and are different departments within the city. Is there anything that you need from either the federal government or the State Government that you did not get . I would say fortunately, we have a great relationship with the State Government. Governor ron desantis. I know theyre talking with fema right now. Were getting to that point where once these winds get to 45 miles an hour, jake, were going to be bringing our officers off The Street. If people need help. Were not going to be able to come to them with these wins the way they are. After that happens, were going to wait until this hurricane passes, and then were going to go into Recovery Mode. And Recovery Mode is we start opening The Streets or tactical first in teams go out there, make sure that all the debris is removed, the electrical lines are down or removed from the main thoroughfares, and then were going in there and were going to start saving hamas. Im not sure ive ever seen this number of Tornado Warnings that weve seen today across the state have they impacted your area . Not that i we always focus on the hurricanes, but we really do forget about the amount of tornadoes that are attached with that. So im glad that youre bringing that up to the people because that were looking at our little apps that we have on our phones and were seeing, were all these tornadoes are popping up. And ive never seen all that read in the past ever. Weve heard a lot from officials about misinformation, rumors, conspiracy theories, a lot of that in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, im wondering if Thats Something that you have encountered that is made your job more difficult. You know, i havent seen you this that were doing our best to give out information so if people follow us, they know that theyre getting the real story, the real deal were obviously not going to give out misinformation. We know that that can lead to tragedy. So we have great Public Information officers were constantly putting out content for that very reason. So people know to come right to the source where should they go if they have working internet right now yeah. So they income two our Sarasota Police department. They can go to our facebook, they can go to our instagram. And what weve been trying to do is put as much information out because we both know so that allowed these people passing out this misinformation or simply doing it for profit and not doing it because they care about the people being impacted by this hurricane. Chief. I want to bring in your colleague, Sarasota County Commissioner Mark Smith right now commissioner smith, what else do you want people in your area to know or be aware of right now as we all await land and fall well, one thing to do is just be safe. You should be hunkered down right now shouldnt be on the Road Sarasota counties been working for several days now to get the shelters open . And so everybody should be where they need to be. We have 30, 5,300, over 300 people in shelters and 11 locations and Sarasota County youre a Lifelong Sarasota and mark, does this storm feel different than others really hit, sarasota was done in 1960 weve had hurricanes brush the coast. This is a direct hit and so we havent seen anything like this since ive been in sarasota and ive been here since 1963. All right. Mark smith and Sarasota Police chief for Extra Shaye. Thanks to both of you best wishes, please stay safe. Getting fuel to florida is 7,500 Gas Stations is a growing problem right now on top of this hurricane, there are people including the former president spreading misinformation about this storm and about Helene Last month, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is headed to the camera. Im going to ask him about all this is biden and the Biden Ministration tried to respond to these Emergency Stay with us 11 eastern On Cnn dr. Time. Com. 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