Good evening Hurricane Helene extremely dangerous category for its more than 400 miles across pushing a storm surge that officials are calling Unsurvivable is now hitting Florida's Gulf Coast as much as 20 feet of water forecast along the shore south at all Haci Which itself is expected to take it direct blow some coastal areas already flooding take a look live pictures right now from Gulfport and Tampa on the right Interstate 275 prison by didn't this evening or to anyone in the storms path that take it extremely seriously a lot of water there Certainly there in Gulfport especially emergency managers in Florida's Taylor County We're telling people choosing to stay and there are people choosing to stay to write their name and date a birth on a leg to help identify their bodies Storm warnings are now in effect as far north as Charlotte, North Carolina We've got CNN correspondents all along the places now in harm's way and Chad Myers in the scene and whether it's center Let's start with a meteorologist, Darrick Van Damme who is an apoleticola. What do you see in the dirt? Anderson the conditions as one would expect have gone down exponentially quick here in apoleticola Near the Big Bend of Florida. We're going to remain on the west side of the eye of the storm We know that is of course the most powerful but because of the size of the storm There is no doubt that we will feel extreme impacts here where we're standing and points further east as well The storm the bottom is literally dropping out from itself It is it is strengthening and it is expanding in size as it does so we were looking at some of the wind Radiuses so how far out the tropical storm force winds extend over 400 miles in diameter the hurricane force winds extend over 100 miles So it's it's like having a tornado move through once the strongest part of the storm comes ashore move through a hundred mile Wide space that's that's the kind of ferocity that the storm is going to come in with and the catastrophic winds that we are anticipating with it Now the Big Bend this catcher's mid of Florida is so vulnerable to the storm surge So all of that water is going to be pushed up on shore and the wordage from the National Weather Service of unsurvivable Storm surge values.
Well, that's what 20 feet will do that is the size of two stories high in fact We're on the second floor of this building here and that would just not be a survivable storm surge fortunately for us on the west side The winds will be coming offshore. So maybe just maybe that will help limit the storm surge potential here I'm trying to put it into perspective for our viewers understand what it's like to ride out and approaching category for hurricane That's strengthening and we've get these all too familiar hurricane sounds almost the roar of a train approaching the area We get pelted with these strong wind gusts it feels like someone's taking a pressure washer to your face But then of course, there's the flickering lights I cannot believe we still have electricity but in our safe space that we have here and our our airbnb that we rented an Appalachia cola we're feeling the brunt of the storm and it's becoming difficult to even open the doors So that just gives you an idea of what people here are going to have to deal with tonight the flash flood potential is Considerable the chance of water sports water spouse and tornadoes is real the storm surge threat is palpable And of course it doesn't just stop at the coast We know how fast the storms moving and that means it's going to bring the hurricane force winds inland at pace overnight Unfortunately, the Sun is set so people have to endure these terrible conditions in the dark night Anderson Checking with you throughout this hour when I go further south in as Carlos Juarez who's been dodging high waters and joins us now by phone Carlos, where are you and what are you seeing? Anderson, so we are right now in St. Petersburg We began today a little bit about 1520 minutes to the south and the west of St.
Pete We were in a Gulf War that is a part of city in Penelope County that really is known to flood and we began today they are having covered two other hurricanes the last couple of years where we knew that that specific neighborhood because It's a low-lying area was going to flood Now the problem that we ran into is that around two three four o'clock this afternoon as that hurricane continues to make its way Just west of us but continue to make that track north It really brought with it some strong winds some intense rain but more than anything else It started really pushing all of the water from the bay right out onto Gulfport And so what we end up seeing was about four feet of storm surge in a matter of hours and where we were It just really became unsafe for us to stay there and so we decided to move a few blocks north where the water hadn't reached Yet, but then our team of meteorologists told us look at this point because the storm is still to the west of you And it still has to track north and because of the sheer size of it You're probably going to get another four feet of storm surge So you really need to get out of there So we left Gulfport and we were going to try to get back over into Tampa in Hillsborough County because that area is a little bit more in Lin although that there's also under a mandatory evacuation at least some parts along the bay However, all of the bridges that currently connect Pinellas County to the Tampa area have been closed because of the strong winds and some of the flooding There's one bridge that takes you south into braidington That also closed earlier this afternoon and so if you're in Pinellas County and you didn't evacuate Chances are you're pretty much stuck at home right now because you can not get inland And so we're in the process right now trying to find a safe location that we can go live from But as you've covered many hurricanes, you know, that's not as easy of a task considering how these storms can change and more importantly Just the direction of the flood carless warms. We'll check in with you again The national hurricane center just put out a new bulletin the language in it is sobering thought was going to chat Myers in the scene and weather center Chad first what is the latest on this 130 miles per hour it did ramp up a little bit over the past couple of hours But it did not go up between seven and eight p.m Now normally Anderson we get these updates every six hours in a new track and all that but when the storm gets very close the hurricane center does every single Hour so here's what we see here's what the hurricane hunter just found So we're now we're ramped up to 130 that is the bottom end of a category four But it is a major hurricane and it has arms all the way into central Florida Gonna go all the way with a hurricane wanting to make in Georgia It would take three hours from drought to drive there from apalachicola to making and that's how long this is going to have hurricane force winds Where's it the worst right now? Likely from Newport Richie and around Clearwater all the way up to Hudson in Florida Anytime you get one of these bands and Anderson, you know it well in between the bands the wind kind of dies off When you get one of these heavier bands the outer bands then the winds pick up So i'm thinking probably on land we're probably seeing 70 to 75 miles per hour as the max wind right now But the storm isn't close to shore yet and it won't get close to shore for another let's say three or four hours The closer it gets the more the winds will go up and likely we'll have winds around parry Parry floor down 115 miles per hour for a gust without a doubt. We are going to see a lot of rainfall It's already been raining flash flood warnings are already in effect.
Here is the hurricane warning There's Atlanta and making you can look at a map how far it is from way down here where it's going to be land falling That's how long it's going to take to cycle down. No, we always say hey It's going to hit land. It's going to die. This thing is moving so quickly when it hits land It isn't going to die.
It's just going to keep right on going and that's what's causing a lot of this surge as well And Derek will get surge in apolatucola. It's St. Mark's absolutely cedar key without a doubt and all the way along this little hook area through here That's 15 to 20 feet. That's the that's what that's talking about the un survivability That's why if you're six feet tall, you got a wave or water over you another 14 feet above you You're not gonna survive that.
So that's why you're talking like that What time is it expected to make actual landfall and and like where do you think it will make landfall? I think it will make landfall very close to St. Mark's The good news about this area is from about apolatucola and then just points a little bit farther to these all the way down to about Hudson There's just a lot of natural land there kind of mangrove areas not a lot of beach areas Can you go to the beach? Sorry, I just got to talk to you about these pictures from out of Tampa, Florida I mean, yeah, these are people driving on the highway the water I mean, it's just pouring over off that highway.
These are incredible images Is this live? I don't think so. This is video. This is from earlier Um, well, this is still horrible to be doing something like this Yeah, they got caught where they thought they were gonna get over this bridge or this causeway In time and they did not that is well, not one night good for your life and certainly not good for your car These are now live images also from Tampa.
I'm not sure which all road this on I'll try to find out but um It's obviously on the way to skyway. Yeah, so the water obviously coming over the top of that No, no cars of it on this now for quite a few hours. It was shut down as soon as the wind got to 60 miles per hour They said you're done. Nobody over the top of that bridge anymore.
Sorry. I'm sorry. I interrupt you I mean the whole thing is a great record in some areas, right? Oh without a doubt there will be more trees and power lines down in telehassie in Valdosta in lake city than they have ever seen before Without a doubt from thomas and all the way down even to about savannah probably more power outages from a Landing storm event and Atlantic landing storm because the winds in savannah typey all the way down to jekyll island Your winds off that ocean are gonna be 80-85.
It's a big storm This is this is tropical storm from south carolina to south of tampa That's what we're seeing in about two or three hours as this storm continues to move to the north a large area And you're gonna have to be very patient there will be so many millions of power lines down and customers without power This is gonna take a long time because you can't just put 5000 crew in one city You have to try to spread them out. There's so many people gonna be without power I said we're gonna check in again with you also throughout this hour We're gonna go to coastal what cola the county could get up to 20 feet of storm surge in what cola Ralph thomas is a county commissioner he joins us now mr. thomas thanks for taking the time your county said to take a Directed I think from the storm. What are you experiencing right now?
Well, we're we're about 60 miles north apalachicola So we're not seeing quite as much wind as the reporter earlier We are seeing an increase in the rivers and the coastal areas We do have some roads that that are underwater already and so that's that's being breached and that's rising We expect that to continue to rise Well cola county off the coast and the gulf is is very shallow compared to a lot of the other gulf And so you can see we're already in the bin so there's nowhere for that water to go And now we're pushing it into a shallow area and so, you know, definitely the surge is our biggest concern Yeah, I mean residents in your area were warned that the surge could be unsurvivable. That was the word that was used There was a county wide mandatory evacuation Obviously, nobody's forcing people out of their homes. Do you think most people heeded the out of that evacuation order? Most most did I've never ever seen a county wide evacuation We frequently will do the coastal areas But we we definitely put out a push to that and I think people heeded it better than normal A lot of folks become complacent and we've all ridden out storms and so we think we can do that But um, this is not the same storm.
This is not anything like we've ever seen Yeah, I mean that's always the problem is you know storms change directions There can be a slight turn that makes all the difference and so in the past people warn Oh, this is really bad and then they ride it out and then the next time they think well It's you know, I did it last time so I can do it this time Well, we tried to quantify exactly what 20 feet means, you know, if you tell someone is 20 feet high at the beach They think well, I'm just not going to go to the beach But in what color county the models show us that 20 feet storm surge will push water 20 20 miles from the coast and possibly into south leon county into into talahassear to the north And so um, that's a that's a big deal. That's probably 20 miles from the coast Absolutely, then that hopefully that does not happen and hopefully we we are spared that but um under the right circumstances It's not going to be good the the denoman mentioned st. marx my house is five miles to do north of st marx i've never had a drop of water anywhere in my house But um, i'm afraid that that may end tonight So as this approach is uh, what are you going to be looking for like what's top of your list I mean, you're looking at the storm surge that's number one in the big in the big bend region It is and mainly first of all the wind speed when the when the wind gets up to 35 miles per hour We're going to shut down all first responders and so, you know, you could have a heart attack You could have a simple medical need and we can't come get you we can't do anything So that's what we're going to monitor is when we can safely get our people off the roads and then Then get them back as quick as we can as that that that wind speed gets back below 35 We're going to have road crews out there. We're going to have you know change laws and equipment We're going to have our first responders.
We're going to go back and revisit these people that we know for sure did not evacuate We sent teams out three different times at least today Knock in door to door speaking with people face to face and encouraging them to leave and taking their information And so that will be an initial search and rescue as soon as this clears We're going to go back to those folks and and hopefully i'm not find a bad situation And we're showing some pictures of first responders in the county just getting ready So you have folks ready to go obviously they can't go out in some conditions But as soon as conditions allow they're going to go out and it seems like you've got a good amount of people there Absolutely, that's that's the true heroes in this story because they sent their families away Their family had to evacuate and they're behind to take care of the county and the folks that didn't evacuate And so um they're dedicated we even had to relocate two of our fire stations that are in the surge zone So two of those coastal stations have no one in them tonight because they were at risk And so um, you know, we're they're mainly in our main station. Yeah, well commissioner. Tell us what she's the best and uh, we'll talk to you later. Thank you Thank you sir.
God bless you. See as michael, you see in his scene hatchy. What do you see there michael? Hey there Anderson at this point you see the wind the rain really starting to pick up over the last hour right here along the steen hatchy river Putting perspective for you were in that big band area, florida You can see maybe those lights in the distance just past there is where the river leads in to the bay and then the gulf and that's why for This community in the entire county there was that mandatory evacuation because of the storm surge concern Uh the owner of this marina to put it in perspective for you tell me earlier today when those waters have risen previously during swarms Floating docks like the one you see right here have risen up above the top of those posts right there and then floated off That's why you see in their prep this time They tied them together to some of the other ones that are more anchored down but just another visual of how dangerous this storm potentially could be Obviously as we start to rise we're about to make our way to the higher ground areas But officials have been urging people to take their preparation seriously to evacuate if they could a sobering message earlier today from the sheriff's office The emergency managers saying that if you decided to hunker down to try and ride out this storm They wanted you to take that permanent mark or write your name your date of birth other Identifying information on you just in case obviously this dangerous storm took a deadly turn So a lot of concern here in steen hatchy as the storm moves closer Alright michael shita.
Thank you michael bobbert lives on cedar key with a small island surrounded by the gulf of mexico He has chosen not to leave michael thanks for joining us first of all what are what's it like? What do you think out of your window what's it there? What's it like right now? It's not good.
It's just in the last hour really things have started to come apart The gulf is rising up to swallow the island During hurricane idalia a year ago. We got about seven foot of storm surge and it completely devastated the island We're looking at between 12 and possibly 20 feet of storm surge Luckily, I'm in the house at the top of the tall hill. I think i'll be okay But uh, I don't know that cedar key as we know it will exist in the morning I mean you've you've ridden out storms before I assume that's why you're doing it now Even though this is worse as you said than the last one with the storm surge I know multiple neighbors of yours also have chosen to ride out the storm. But why did you decide to say?
Well, that's exactly why i'm here I know if at least a half dozen maybe 10 elderly people that just refuse to leave they're in low lying houses They don't believe the water is going to come up as high as it's going to come And at some point they're either going to drown in that house or someone's going to have to go and get them and emergency services After the wind gets about 35 miles an hour, they can't go out, but I can I have a rescue boat stationed outside outside my yard I've got tactical gear. I've got a little team here at the minute that it's safe enough to get out there We're going to go start trying to pull people off roofs and hopefully hopefully they're live people and not not bodies I stayed to help island as best I could And do you have any sense of when emergency services could be available once this thing passes? I think it's going to be a long time. I think it's going to be hours And I know that we have a really brave volunteer fire department here on the island Really remarkable professionals that give other time and energy and put themselves in harm's way But there's a limited amount of resources and uh, I have every reason to believe that bridges will be completely inundated And cedar key is a little island three miles out into the gulf of mexico We're completely isolated and exposed.
I think it'll be days and days before anyone from the outside Can get here so we're on our own and I was unwilling to leave my neighbors Without any help how many do you have a rough estimate? How many people actually live in cedar key? I mean, I know we know how many stay, but I'm wearing just in general Sure, there are about 750 of us that live here year round Those numbers get bigger on the weekends for folks who come for the weekend and leave but about 750 of us And in talking with the local authorities, I think about 50 people stay behind and although 50 I think about 10 are really unable to take care of themselves Michael, I appreciate you talking to us and that's awesome. You got a boat available and some folks that Kind of banded together michael bobbit.
We'll check in with you. Thank you. I want to go to the state capitol also right now Joining us now is telehousity city manager, uh, Reese uh, goad. Uh, so goad can you just walk us through what it's like there now?
What do you see? Even though Anderson, uh, it's relatively calm the winds are picking up. It's been a rainy breezy day and honestly We're anxiously waiting the storm. We've been prepared for days.
We can see it coming It's gonna be here soon, but we're waiting on it and conditions are starting to worsen The the national weather service described the storm surge as potentially unsurvivable in the region What do you have to say to residents telehousity in the surrounding areas who haven't decided to ride out the storm? You know, Anderson, we're about 25 miles north of st. Marps the coast the gulf coast and so storm surge is not a concern for us But we are very treed community. We've got 55 percent of our landmass is covered by treason So that's a threat and so we've been communicating with our community and i'll be honest with you people have taken He they've taken safe shelter.
The roads have been very calm today. Um, people are in our shelters that need to be in the shelters And so I think people have prepared they he did the warning and they were bracing for impact And what resources are available to those who who've stayed in the area We have shelters. We've got about 1400 people in our shelters as we speak their eight shelters Throughout our county or leon county which is where telehousity is And so they have a good opportunity for shelter. We've got a backup 911 center just in case people need those resources We do expect we'll probably have to do rescues overnight our fire department is more than prepared to do that And so we stand ready to you know tackle the challenge in terms of you know the the history of storms at telehousity is seen Do you know how do you ever sense how this compares?
You know, unfortunately we've seen too many This is I believe our sixth storm in about the last eight years including the tornadoes that impacted us in may This will if it stays as projected and and it seems it will this will be the worst we've seen the winds will be the highest for the longest duration The widest spread and so we understand that we don't have a comparable. We are very prepared. I will tell you But we're not sure exactly what this brings. We know it will be worse than we've seen before No, we wish you the best and we'll be in touch.
Thank you. Thank you We got to take a quick break more on holly now category 4 hurricane when we come back I'm cnn tech reporter clair defi this week on the podcast in terms of service The idea of riding in a car with no driver can feel daunting and this technology raises questions about safety and the future of transportation That's why i'm here with nicole gable head of business development and strategic partnerships at wemo Wemo we've always been about safety no distracted driving no drunk driving wemo follows the rules of the road Listen to cnn's terms of service wherever you get your podcasts I've got news for your ears the podcast. I am your host michael een black his latest thing You see this yesterday was he finds the peace talks boring Not my favorite guy, but I gotta be honest with you. I know exactly what he's talking.
He's not negotiating He's not in the room, but how do you think he receives the information? Sir because they all saw sir, which would you like to hear the latest? Oh? They should make like a comic strip out of it.
Have I got news for your ears check us out on apple and some music wherever you can watch the podcast on Spotify Looking at some video from michael bobbitt who we just spoke to a moment ago It's water rising onto cedar key one of the the island that he lives on and the one he very much fears for tonight Meantime emergency managers in taylor county florida Which is south east of talah house he opposed to dismiss the john facebook if you or someone you know chose not to evacuate Please write your name birthday and important information on your arm or leg in a permanent marker so that you can be identified and family notified That is how concerned some are tonight joining us now in the phone is taylor county's director of emergency management john lauk John we mentioned that facebook post from the taylor county sheriff's office has the county ever issued guidance like that during a previous hurricane Well, actually we did there in hurricane i'd tell you um of course at that time we were looking at the storm surge like we are now Um and whatever. It needs to remember this this is said to be an unprecedented event for this county for storm surge from 15 to 20 feet Which is catastrophic and definitely life threatening and having people that are not used to dealing with something like this We just need to ensure that in an unlikely event that you know fatales happen that we can do the job that we need to do when we begin our Usar operations what right now concerns you the most tonight? Um, well, I guess simply the fact that we we are constantly learning we we send out information on social media For folks to send us an email if they are not evacuating to let us know where they're at How many people are in the the home? That's what of information and we are constantly getting emails from people even even now Just so close to landfall and it's just very disconcerting that so many people have not heated the warnings Do you have a sense right now of how many you've heard from and how many people do you think are staying behind or writing it out?
Just for documentation purposes. We are looking at between three and four hundred people and that's um, well I'm sorry. I just got the word that it's way higher than that. Um, so it's and that's not even obviously the people that took the time to Report to us.
So yes, it's uh, it's disheartening So um based on what you've seen so far tonight and still obviously a lot can happen between now and that But what are you expecting? You know recovery cleanup operations to look like in the morning? Um, well, it appears like it's going to be a lot like I've held you. Um, obviously we're going to have uh, we're a large forested area So we're definitely looking at a large number of trees to being down Obviously a large power outage because of the trees falling on power lines Um, and just the cleanup alone is going to take quite some time And of course our first our first mission is to get out with our cut crews and tall teams get the roads clear So first responders can make their way to people, um and begin our search and rescue operations John, I appreciate you taking time to talk to us and keep folks updated.
John. Thank you. I wish you the best Thanks, sir I want to get the latest tracking on storm now from uh, jimmy roamed deputy director of the national hurricane center So jimmy, what can we expect from this once it makes landfall? Man, I was just listening to your previous, uh, yes, that's that was heartbreaking You're gonna have to hear the exasperation in his voice You know talking about these people that that wouldn't leave and um, you know, if I worst case an area of materializes and it looks like it will for Certain parts of the big bend here.
We're looking at over 15 feet of storm surge It's just not gonna be pretty when the sun comes up tomorrow. So the 15 feet of storm surge I mean just for folks who have not ridden out a storm like this have not seen what that actually looks like What does that look like? What does that mean? Well, I'm six feet tall.
So that's more than two of me. Um, to give it give you some perspective typical Ceiling in a home is about 12 feet. So unless people live in the two-story home They can't escape it vertically, you know physically run out of room And if they try to leave that home in those conditions, the water is not just coming up gently It's coming up with great force huge waves on them. You know, there's debris in the water It's just not a survivable situation So I hope that those people the three to four hundred people that the gentleman was talking about did leave last minute Like ched myers from the weather center.
I know it has some questions for you as well chat Jimmy, we had a predecessor rain event and for those who the millions of those who don't know what that means It has been raining for 24 hours or more in a place that is going to see a very significant wind event Describe what a p re is and what these people hear the millions more that are in the way of this wind can expect Yeah, so p re is just a technical term for pre-existing sort of setup, pre-existing features So it's almost like a cold front if you will up in here and then all of this tropical moisture sort of running up into that cold front And it's already wet ahead of the storm. So usually what happens with these storms is you get all the heavy rainfall and flash flooding With with the actual center of circulation. I'm gonna turn on the current Flood warnings. So these green little area is here to note the current flood warnings where flooding is already occurring Look how far ahead of the storm the storm hasn't even gotten there the storm way down here and it's already this huge flooding event taking Shaped hours before the storm.
This is probably going to be a historic inland flooding event too in historically speaking historically speaking 50% of the lives laws are in setups like this So once the storm makes life all expected to make its way north into Georgia for people in the storms anticipated path What should they be doing right now? You got to be ready to go for long periods of time without power You know this part of the country has a really dense beautiful tree canopy those trees sort of are like sails if you will They catch the wind and they come down really easily and then with all this rain Especially this pre-existing rain that makes the roots sort of softens the soil and the roots of the trees can't hold as well as they would normally So we're just gonna have widespread tree tree out trees down and power out Just so people have got to be ready to take care of themselves take care of themselves for several days without power Jad, do you know that? Jimmy, I think people maybe you know years ago kind of had this her it's cane fatigue We haven't had the number of hurricanes that we were anticipating at this point Doesn't mean we're not gonna catch up But this is going to be this could be the biggest storm of the year and people don't seem to be taking it seriously It's there's certainly hearing information that's coming in here that would suggest that people aren't and you know You see the footage of people just out and about walking in these conditions You know somehow we got to get people to realize that these aren't just an interesting phenomenon They're very very deadly especially with this setup that we talked about with this pre-existing rainfall We're probably gonna lose a lot of lives in this setup with this much flooding potential. Jimmy room.
I appreciate your time Thank you. Carlos for is in st. Petersburg on the water. Carlos.
We're talk about where you're at right now. What's your scene? Yeah, that's right Anderson So we are in st. Petersburg after trying unsuccessfully to get out back into Tampa because of some of the flooding concerns That are taking place right now here in the st.
Pete as well as clear water and down in Gulfport Where I don't marina where you can see behind me part of the the pier out here the seawall was damaged by The rising tide and all of the the storm surge associated with this You can see where this part of the pier here just broke off into and it's pushed up against this long seawall here up and Drive up and down this portion of st. Pete really shows that much of this neighborhood is in the dark There is a good amount of debris and we're still seeing all of this storm water the storm surge pushed into off of the Gulf as well as from Tampa Bay You know kind of going into today We knew that where we were in Gulfport was going to flood because we've covered two other hurricanes and that's where we had preposition But going into the afternoon today, we really knew it was going to be particularly more dire situation because all of that water just started to rush And when you looked at the radar the storm at that time was still to the southwest of us Of course now it's continued on that track north But even with the storm staying off about 100 miles to the west of Penelis County where we are right now You can still feel all of that the wind you can still feel all of that rain that fell over the past couple of hours And more importantly you're starting to see that storm surge and this right now really it's not the worst of it Because even though the storm has slowly continued its way north High tide is not going to be here until about 12 or 1 o'clock in the morning So you're still going to have all of that water being pushed in even though the storm is far north of where we are right now But Anderson that's kind of the situation here in st. P We were about 20 minutes to the south and the west of here where things just were too dangerous for us to be So we kind of drove around we found this one area and then we just came across this damage here here And it's pretty dark out here because the neighborhood has lost power but up and down this marina here It's just littered with debris and buoys and trash At this point you can understand the you can get a better grasp of the situation when folks wake up tomorrow and the cleanup I forget underway here in st. Petersburg Carlos Suarez, thanks very much.
I'm between one of things Carla said and just important to point out Storms are coming in if it's a 15 foot storm surge coming in at you know midnight or 1 a.m In the morning into your house the lights are already off That is a very scary situation for a lot of people who are staying behind Conditions appear to be worse than Appalachia cola will take you back their live also We'll talk to the superintendent of Tallahassee schools some which as you've heard are now being used as shelters from the now category forest storm We'll be right back So we've just gotten some early storm surge numbers from the scene on weather center Tampa Bay 5 and a half feet st Petersburg 5 feet the larger numbers that were yet to come farther up the coast with the national hurricane center Is forecast forecast as much as 20 feet of water some areas in instaric van dam is in apalachicola. How are things there? So apalachicola and has just passed low tide and we have had 3.6 feet of dirt reported at that low tide value And a buoy on the west side of the eye wall of major hurricane helene So still out in the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles away registered way heights at 25 So we anticipate as the tide levels high tide approaches and as the brunt of the storm approaches that Surgeons won't come in fast and it's going to come in furious as well Conditions have deteriorated so quickly as you would expect with an incoming major category for hurricane But when we talk about the immediate threats to this area aside from storm surge, it is the potential for catastrophic winds There is a extreme wind warning that the national weather service Really reserves for the most extreme moments during a hurricane events They haven't issued one just yet, but I do anticipate that to occur probably along the coastline of the big bend just to my east Taylor county perhaps in it Tallahassee as well This is reserved for those moments where winds are so extreme that it is time to shelter in place We will be on the western side of this storm But because of its size we know that the impacts will be felt well away from here And you know what can 100 mile per hour winds do well, it can peel back roofs of houses It can collapse buildings It can snap power poles in half and it can topple trees like a moments notice and speaking of trees That is one of the big concerns in this area because the big bend the natural coastline of florida All the way to Tallahassee, they pride themselves on their oak trees the pine trees that line this area They're going to be no stand against a hurricane of this force at this magnitude And they will come down and they will take power down with it It is a miracle that here in Appalachia cola The power hasn't even flicker yet, but I expect that to change as we get the brunt of the worst part of the storms impacts here in Appalachia cola as we approach the the evening Pass apm and into approaching the midnight hour, I should say Anderson So this storm we know it means business. It's tightening and it's core it's center And that's the indicator to the meteorologist that the storm uh it's continues to strengthen Balloon and size and the impacts will be felt well inland from here Turrican dam, thank you.
Be careful when i go to see nichon berman in Tallahassee john harrthings Yeah, here jereks a condition is deteriorating. I know what that feels like Anderson here in Tallahassee the winds are picking up they're measuring guts now somewhere around 30 plus miles an hour Maybe a little stronger now so getting closer and closer to tropical storm force winds Some of the hardest rain that we've had yet kind of the exfoliating rain that tears at your face as we've been talking about all night Tallahassee has not been hit in recorded history with sustained hurricane force winds That is what is expected tonight. Maybe a direct hit on Tallahassee In fact the storm will make landfall some 20 miles south of here Maybe around st. Mark's in the big bend area as a category four storm winds of 125 30 miles per hour But up here over Tallahassee it could still be 110 miles an hour and they've just never seen anything like that A city official told me a short time ago They expect thousands of trees thousands and thousands of trees to come down the beautiful live oaks here And that will just cause major problems hundreds of road closures expected hurricane like a few years ago Which wasn't a direct hit on Tallahassee at all caused power outage for 90 percent of the population here for a week So a direct hit on Tallahassee it could be much worse than that They've got power crews staged already again that wind is really starting to pick up in the rain Coming down here, but the power crews are staged ready to work on repairs tomorrow morning But worse to the storm still a few hours away from Tallahassee But really racing for a direct hit the likes of which Anderson they just have never seen before John Berman, thank you Check him with you again.
Join us is the superintendent of Leon County Schools, Rocky Hannah So superintendent, what's the situation now in the school shelters? Obviously the schools are closed Will be tomorrow. I assume they've been turning into shelters. How many people would you estimate are now seeking shelter in school?
Yeah, Anderson. We're just all collectively holding our breath from Cedar Key to Apple at Chacola I've lived here my entire life and to your earlier comments that were made in the mid 1980s We had a small category one hurricane Kate that came through Tallahassee and Leon County in it It devastated this community has been mentioned before we love our trees and our power lines are above ground It took weeks and really months for us to just recover from that storm On Wednesday our students went to school for a half day We quickly turned our schools our public schools into emergency shelters We are operating eight emergency shelters and the two shelters for our schools and employees It's the duty and responsibility we have as a public school system A lot of people don't realize that just to shelter people from harm that you know their homes many times cannot withstand these high-force winds By building codes our public schools can withstand hurricane force winds and we don't have a lot of trees around our schools And times like this it's when leaders step up and lead and I'm just so thankful to our school principals our administrators our teachers Our non instructional personnel that have stepped up and left their families to man these facilities As at Sea Manager go mention earlier, we're now over 2000 residents both from Leon County and surrounding counties like Taylor and Waukala, Jefferson, Madison And we're just hunkering down and just wait, you know the sun's gonna come up tomorrow morning and we'll Evaluate the damage and then see what steps we take next but you know property can be replaced Anderson people cannot And we've worked hard to be ready for this moment We are in unison with our city government our county government emergency management officials And I'm really proud and honored to serve as superintendent. I've been with our district my entire career on a private school It's a great place to live but let's face it. It's Florida time of time things like this happened This is like a day of it on steroids.
Yeah, superton or rocky, Hannah. Thank you so much I'd like to you coming up next to the mayor of one of the Florida city's expectancy record water levels when we come back Getting some more storm surge numbers from the weather center clear water beach is now seeing five feet of water I'm joined by the mayor of clear water boost rector. Uh mayor. What are conditions like right now?
Well, as you just said, we've got a storm surge of five feet here was recently measured and then that's exceeding the sea wall by three feet So and also going to report just recently that our famous pier 60 on clear water beach That the water is up to the pier. So it's it's very serious that'll clear water beach right now I know the storm is expected to bring record water levels to clear water. What is the record that exists right now? Do you know?
Well, you go way way back to you know the 1920s when we've been fortunate in Tampa Bay and I'd have a major hurricane for a long time So i'm sure nothing today would exceed that but this is definitely in you know larger than in recent history I got a call just a minute ago from somebody who's been here in clear water for well over 10 years And they they chose to stay out on the beach and waters threatening their home So uh, they stayed because they just never have seen this kind of water come onto the beach So what do you say to somebody at that state? I mean it's too late to leave now, right? Too late to leave now You stay inside you get up high as you can you protect yourself and and but for folks out there that are stranded Uh, if they let us know then as soon as our first responders can get out there to check on them They will do that we have to wait for the sustained winds to drop down to make sure our first responders are safe But uh, there are a lot there are a lot of people in clear water who are anxious right now. Uh, some of the lost powers It's dark They've had water threatening their homes like they've never seen it threatened before and it's it's a very scary time for a lot of folks here So right now you have about five feet recorded on the terms of storm surge.
What what are you expecting? What are you anticipating the highest to be? By the forecast was up to eight feet and now we've still got, you know, For two or three more hours to go high tide here is a little after 11 o'clock Tonight so we we could get up to the eight foot forecast number And what kind of an impact would that have? Let's go and treat a lot of homes, you know, our main priority is life human life We want to make sure that everyone is safe.
We don't want anyone to get hurt Um, so as long as people are smart they stay in their homes and they stay up They've they've secured their home and protected against intrusion into electrical devices and things then they should be able to get Through it, but they need to be smart and not get out of their homes and get to high place within their home Yeah, my director knows gonna be a long night for you. I appreciate your time. Thank you Thank you. I want to check back in with you.
I mean you're all just chat my or some new and concerning wind speed numbers, uh chat Yeah We know now that the hurricane center is putting out the new update every hour not every six hours not every three hours But every single hour and the numbers now 140 miles per hour category four 140 and how they figure that out is that there is A Lockheed Orion airplane through this and it found a wind gust at 7 000 feet, but it found a gust at 160 miles per hour Now that's not surface that's aloft so you have to reduce that by a little bit But because of actually the reduction itself they got to 140 for the maximum sustained winds for this storm right now still Intensifying and these are always the worst as they continue to intensify as they get closer and closer to land Anderson so just in terms of when landfall, you know We talked about this earlier in the hour, but let's just give an update in the last, you know I'm in half that we have when is expected to make landfall and we're The worst part of the eye wall is probably three hours away that we always call landfall the center of the eye But by the time the center of the eye comes by half the damage has already been done So the center of the eye still about 70 or so miles away But the eye wall itself is getting closer and closer probably within two hours for the eye at least the northern part The extension of the northern part of the eye wall is a couple hours out And you expect it still I mean it's tracking for For the northern part of of florida northwest it has not moved it has not budged at all It just has not budged this is because when it started to move quickly it's doing 20 25 miles per hour when it does that now all of a sudden It has momentum. It doesn't wobble anymore It's not doing two or three back and forth It has its eye on the arm right here bend of florida And as it comes right on by it's probably very very close to st. Marks and I hope there's no one left in st. Marks right now because I've been in that town in Ivan and there was a dozen feet of surge and it was really bad And if we're gonna get 20 feet of surge that's gonna be worse I think you've seen as coverage of hurricane holding continuous the source of the common source now see tomorrow From the descendants of history makers involved in the Louisiana purchase to the Lewis and Clark expedition Discover the untold stories of American expansion in the CNN original series this land premiering June 7th on CNN Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper on my podcast all there is we explore grief and loss in all its complexities As Ken Burns said on an earlier podcast the half-life of grief is endless Riska Hargate knows that very well Jane Mansfield was killed in a car crash in 1967 Riska was in the car with her after decades spent coming to terms with her past wanting to learn more about the mother She doesn't remember riska has made a remarkable documentary called my mom Jane Our vulnerability is our greatest strength and our greatest connector and so in telling the story I don't feel vulnerable.
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