Transcripts For CNN Early Start With Christine Romans and La

Electricity. Most in lee county. Some customers might not have power for months. Governor ron desantis says 2,000 people have been rescued. State officials are trying to determine how many people are still unaccounted for. The window for finding survivors is starting to close. Cnns Carlos Suarez has more. Reporter unrecognizable in parts. Still underwater in others. Hurricane ians destruction and path so vast Search And Rescue efforts continue days after the storm tore through florida. We kent get over the bridge. Reporter residents in Desoto County are stopped. Air boats are key to getting supplies in and people out. These air boats are going out taking people into town and its been going for a while now. Reporter the death toll across the State Climbing rapidly. A lot of sick people running out of medications. A lot of people running out of water and until we can get everything up and going, were trying to get them out. Reporter hundreds of Sanibel Island residents cut off from the main land have been rescued so far. With no timetable to rebuild, the only road to the island. We are encouraging everyone to get off the island, but we also need to understand that this is everyones home and they need to get that protected. Reporter meanwhile, there are mounting questions in Lee County Over Whether first mandatory Evacuation Orders there came one day before landfall. County officials are saying behind the Decision Making saying they based it on the forecasted path. They made the call as soon as the forecast called for them to make the call. Monday afternoon we were telling people you do not have to wait for Evacuation Orders to leave. You can leave now. Reporter the countys own Plan Suggested Evacuation Plans should have happened earlier, specifically when there is a 10 perfection percent chance of 6 feet storm surge. It was sunday night when they first mentioned 4 to 7 feet of surge for that area. The first mandatory Evacuation Orders for lee county were not issued until Tuesday Morning, over 24 hours later. It turns out the day before the town of Fort Myers Beach, quote, encouraged people to leave with a Facebook Post which made a point of noting the countys decision wouldnt come until the next day. Im confident, confident in the decisions that were made. Like i said yesterday, stand by them and i wouldnt change anything. Officials say residents didnt want to leave whether they were ordered or not. They inform people and most people did not want to do it. Thats just the reality. Reporter mixed opinions from residents themselves on how the county handled the decision. When the Evacuation Order came, 24 hours . Thats not a lot. We have so many retirees and elderly that need more time to be able to get to places or people that dont have vehicles that need more assistance. That wouldnt deter whether i go or not. Its all for each individual. Its right for me doesnt mean its right for you. Reporter Late Monday The lee county manager said Fort Myers Beach could be without power for the next 30 days. Thats how dire the situation is out there. Over in pine island were told that the National Guard has started to drop food by air after hooen ian wiped out a bridge connecting pine island to cape coral. Carlos suarez, cnn, fort myers, florida. Thank you for that, carlos. Lets bring in cory kappis. Hes with serve pro. He joins us from fort myers. Thank you for getting up so early. Many people have lost loved ones, their homes, their businesses. The hurricane is gone and the conditions are rotten. This is a reminder to everyone as theyre creeping back to their properties to be careful, right . Yeah. Christine, thanks for having me on today. The conditions down here have been dangerous for anyone, even for First Responders and for teams like myself, Restoration Companies that come in and help. The roads are impassible in most places and the traffic to get around, no power. Youve got downed power lines, you dont have stop lights working so its really hard to even kind of function in this area because its so hard to get through anywhere. Yeah. Theres still rescue efforts underway here. Before you can really focus i guess on the cleanup, youve got to make sure you can get to people and get them safe. What should people know right now . Trust in your local officials. I know that theres a lot of communication out there. Theres a lot of social media posting things, but know that your local officials are doing whatever they can to help those people. One of the big things that were seeing is that Restoration Companies like servepro, we come in and were good at helping people restore and rebuild their lives. One of the key things is creating a space thats safe to even go into and a lot of these areas still arent even safe, christine. A lot of these areas local officials are asking people to stay away from because theyre having a hard time getting into, doing Search And Rescue. Were days past the landfall. Youre looking at central florida. The flood waters are still rising in central florida. Weve had the hardest time, getting personnel, Equipment Into South Florida because of the flood waters. I75 was closed down the other day. Couldnt get any of the needed personnel and supplies in. Its really been a struggle on us trying to respond to those affected as well. From your perspective as a Disaster Recovery expert, you go in after the fact, what are you seeing there . What are people going to expect to see in their homes . I mean, the storm surge, the flood waters and the wind damage. How do you put those pieces back together . Christine, its pretty much utter devastation around here. If you were within a mile of the coast from everywhere that ive been and seen, theres not a lot left of the homes through there. And people that havent been able to get back into their homes, you know, a lot of these areas theyre not going to be able to get back into for some time. Theyre going to expect to find that their home has been destroyed or leveled. Theyre going to find their home is going to be completely full of mold and microbial growth. Theyre going to find theyre probably going to be without power for many weeks or months and hard to even start the rebuild effort without power. Thank you so much for joining us and walking us through what youre seeing and what people can expect in the days ahead. Thanks so much, cory. Thanks, christine. I appreciate it. The remnants of ian dumped on virginia beach. Pedram javaheri joins us. A lot of people north of the carolinas dodged flooding. When you look at what played out, quite a bit of rainfall north of the carolinas and south impressive rainfall. Heres what happened. This is not ian in particular but it is remnant moisture caught up in a low level system parked off shore here. With it the winds that are going counter clockwise around the system are ushering in waves. Coastal inundation possible. Rounds of heavy rainfall has kept the temperatures at bay. Some of the coolest temperatures youll ever experience in the month of october happening this afternoon across portions of the northeast. Coastal flooding will be an issue. Generally inform half hour when you see the high tide you see water levels 2 to 4 feet. Notice the rainfall amounts south of the carolinas, portions of the northeast. Since friday, impressive amounts of rainfall. The last couple of days parts of the northeast. It was producing an impressive amount of rainfall. That was a daily record with 1 1 2 inches besting the previous record. The good news is, this is it. It begins to skirt off shore. Once it gets through this afternoon and evening could see gusty winds into the evening hours. Finally, well see the last bit of Rainfall Tapering off. Finally we get done with anything associated with ian. For a lot of people, that is great news. That was a wet commute. I have to tell you. President biden will be headed to florida tomorrow to see the damage and recovery efforts. It will be his second damage tour. He and the first lady were in puerto rico monday. Biden promising 60 million to storm proof the island. He acknowledged the government failed the island after maria in 2017. After Maria Congress approved billions of dollars for puerto rico, much of it not having gotten here initially. Were going to make sure you get every single dollar promised and im determined to help puerto rico build faster than in the past and stronger and better prepared for the future. Fiona left at least 13 people dead in puerto rico and knocked out power across the island. Just ahead, taking cover. Japan warns its citizens as a north Korean Missile gets too close for comfort. Plusus, on the runun. A journalist b being called a fugitive. What moscow doesnt know about the territory its trying to claim in ukraine. [background singers ho] adulting sucks you ha to eat healthy. All the time . But fortunately. Your ketchup can be, no sugar added heinz. Age before beauty . Why not both . Visibly diminish wrinkled skin in just two days. New Crepe Corrector Lotion only from gold bond. Champion your skin. Bipolar depression. It made me feel trapped in a fog. This is art inspired by real stories of Bipolar Depression. I just couldnt find my way out of it. The lows of Bipolar Depression can take you to a dark place. Latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms. Latuda was proven to significantly reduce Bipolar Depression symptoms. And in clinical studies, had no substantial impact on weight. This is where i want to be. 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Reporter it tells that you their policy is in complete disarray. They are already supposed to have, quote, consulted the public when they held the sham referenda if they were conducted on Military Occupation at the points of the gun being asked to ask somebody what direction they wanted to vote. So were in this Odd Situation where russias reality continues there. Parliamentary bodies rubber stamping what we knew was going to happen anyway. As soon as they announced they were going to be having the referenda that it would be ushered through. The problem the kremlin have is they dont control significant parts of the areas and they control less day by day. Dmitry peskov asked where the borders of kherson, zaporizhzhia, two regions where they have claimed their territory, where they began and ended, how much have they thought they had assimilated. They couldnt tell how much they had, they were consulting with the population. That was a fudge because they know day by day theyre losing more, particularly here in the south in the kherson region. Theres been significant ukrainian advances. Frankly, possibly tens of kilometers into russian lines which is an enormous reversal in a vast area that Russian Troops have tried to hold on to. It appears the ukrainians have been very successful in pushing down the west side of the dnipro river. It appears to have been thought among russian officials they may need to withdraw from because they couldnt supply it well enough. The ukrainians making a lot of h headway there and east of lyman. Not overnight progress but they continue to methodically choose a path and essentially surround it and cause it to give up like we saw in lyman. The idea we are dealing with two separate ukrainian fronts advancing, thats the ultimate nightmare for the kremlin. Theyve struggled to prevent one, now they have two. Theyre struggling to get the partially mobilized recruits up to the front line. While we have this odd continued rhetoric about how chunks of ukraine are essentially russia in the eyes of moscow, they lose and lose and lose to a definite cost of ukraine certainly in terms of troops they have to send into harms way here. But a remarkable tide here which seems to have been for weeks going in ukraines favor. Back to you. Nick peyton walsh. Thanks, nick. Lets bring in mary. Shes from latvia. The Russian Forces will be consulting, quote, unquote, with residents on how to establish borders after its already claimed this land. What does that tell you about the russian strategy here . And exactly who is it consulting with . I have to imagine this is a frightened population and many people have actually left the area. Good morning, christine. Youre absolutely right. I am not sure how they can consult with the local population, theyre Going Village by village, conducting another referendum like nick pointed out, they have consulted, in quotes, with the public with the referendums. In kherson and zaporizhzhia they control maybe a little bit over half of these regions but they dont have full control. Essentially it looks quite embarrassing because russia says they dont know where their International Borders are at the moment because they dont know where to draw the line and they are increasingly losing land in those areas. Whats important with lyman is that this opens up a way for Ukrainian Forces to advance into the Luhansk Region which is the most controlled russian region so far. They have the most land under their control. If they break through there, that means all of their standing in all of these four regions is very much under question. We have a map that shows the Luhansk Region, just how controlled it is by the russians at this moment but getting closer to that area from by the ukrainians must be concerning for the kremlin. Look, russian lawmakers just rubber stamped this annexation, right, of ukrainian territory, but as you point out, ukraine continues to liberate these towns that have been occupied by the russians. How is this possible that they say they its their territory but it is now occupied again by ukrainians . Its a split screen for me. Its as if Vladimir Putin is trying to project this is russian territory inside russia but in reality this is ukraine. Exactly. This shows the kremlin is more and more detached from the reality. Vladimir putin, one of the reasons why he rushed these referendums, they have been postponed continuously. They were hoping they would hold them in early summer, by then Russian Forces will completely control the territories, that didnt happen because ukraine, you know, theyve gathered steamed with the counter offensive. Theyre presenting to the russians, we are winning. We have these territories that liberated them. The reality on the ground is exactly opposite. It shows that their strategy is, again, in complete disarray. They dont know exactly where theyre going with this and how to proceed controlling these lands if theyre continuing to lose this. And there is a mobilization and part of the reason why mobilization was called is to bring more men to hold these tertiaries, hold these rounds. Were hearing they are so clearly trained, sometimes not trained at all and they dont have enough equipment to do that. Whether that will help them to hold these territories is questionable. Nick was reporting that people in lyman were unaware that they ha