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EARLY START

Hurricane Michael Now Extremely Dangerous Category 4 Storm Hours Before Landfall; The Hunt Is On For A New U.S. Ambassador To The United Nations. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired October 10, 2018 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[05:30:07] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Dave Briggs -- 5:30 eastern time and 5:30 in the Florida Panhandle where they await a deadly storm.

Welcome to our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world.

We start with our breaking news. Hurricane Michael now just hours away from landing a devastating blow on the Florida Panhandle.

You're looking at the latest radar loop. In just the last couple of hours, Michael has grown to a category four storm. The latest update from the weather service says it is packing 140-mile-an-hour winds. That makes Michael the most powerful hurricane to hit the Panhandle in more than a century.

At least 22 counties with nearly 2 1/2 million residents under evacuation orders at this hour; mandatory evacuation orders in 13 of those counties.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott calling Michael a monstrous, dangerous storm that could kill you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK SCOTT, FLORIDA: If you are under an evacuation order, listen to it. Leave now. Do not take a chance.

You don't know if roads are going to be closed. We're going to do everything we can to help you but do not wait.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: People across the Panhandle preparing as best they can. You can see store shelves cleared out as residents stock up. Thirty-four shelters opening, according to the governor's office, and several hospitals closing in areas forecast to take the hardest hit.

CNN bringing you live coverage from Apalachicola, Panama City Beach, and Destin on the Florida Panhandle, and from the CNN Weather Center where our Chad Myers has the very latest. And Chad, I know they're going to be giving hourly -- the National Hurricane Center -- hourly updates now as this thing is strengthening.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is strengthening and they will always do that hourly thing if we're 12 hours or less from landfall, so that's where your timing is right there. We're obviously less than 12 hours.

It's about 130 miles from Panama City right now and it's moving north at 13. You can do the easy math there. But that's the center of the eye. That is not where the eyewall is probably less than six or seven hours away and that's the most deadly part of the wind event here.

So here we go -- 140-miles-per-hour. A hurricane hunter just flew through the storm again. It's on my Twitter feed, but a 938-millibar storm for you weather geeks out there that like to see the pressures. It's below 2,790 or something like that for inches of mercury.

Truly an unbelievable storm now that has blown up overnight from cat two to three to four. And here's the eye of the storm right there. We're seeing a lot of lightning around the eye -- still a well-defined circular eye which means this thing is not falling apart.

In fact, it's still growing. That's why the pressure is still going down at the 938. An hour ago we were 942, so the pressure is still falling, the winds likely in the middle still picking up.

It is a wide storm. It will affect all the way from really, almost Tampa almost all the way back to about Mobile Bay with something -- maybe not all these winds. The eye core is where you'll get that 145. That is a wide event -- a wide-reaching event.

This is the wind field of the storm right now. Pay attention to the white. That's 100-mile-per-hour-plus winds. They come into Panama City, Apalachicola -- certainly, Mexico Beach. And then, still purple here at 60 or 70-miles-per-hour for Tallahassee and Macon.

And as you get farther over to the northeast into Charleston still and into places where the ground is so saturated from Florence now, knocking more power lines down, trees down, all the like.

Hurricane warnings are in effect. Hopefully, you heeded the advice of local officials or yourself to just get the heck out of there because this is a long-term event. Power will be out for weeks. Many places will not be inhabitable.

You have to replace many of these buildings, especially along that Florida coast from maybe Port St. Joe all the way toward Panama City. That's where the homes, the buildings are the most vulnerable.

And that's not even talking about the surge that's going to push 13 to maybe even 15 feet of water into this Florida Big Bend area.

A tremendous storm -- a terrible event unfolding here in the next eight or 10 hours.

BRIGGS: It is, indeed, deadly. All right, Chad Myers, thanks so much.

Florida's Panhandle bracing for Hurricane Michael's impact. Already, we are seeing some of the storm's effects.

CNN's Derek Van Dam live in Apalachicola with more. Derek, again, the language from the National Weather Service is life-threatening hurricane winds, life-threatening flash flooding.

Are people heeding the warnings to evacuate or are you seeing people stay?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Dave, the only people we see on the roadways are emergency personnel and, believe me, they are speeding down these roads -- places to go -- knocking on doors to make sure people have heeded the evacuation warnings.

What you're looking at behind me -- this is highway 98. This runs along the Big Bend of Florida's coastline and the Panhandle. This is towards Panama City, one of the only exits out of Apalachicola.

[05:35:00] Let me turn you around to the deserted downtown area of Apalachicola. You can see street lights blinking in the background. Virtually no cars, virtually no people here because most people have left.

Population, about 2,000 people. We hope that that number is down to zero.

Of course, storm surge. That is the threat we continually talk about.

Do yourself a favor. Look on a map of Florida. Check out how it forms that shape of a C. It's almost like a catcher's mitt and all the water being pushed up by major Hurricane Michael is going to be deposited in the form of storm surge as that water rushes in from the Gulf of Mexico.

The vegetation around here -- trees. We have palms, we have lots of coniferous trees, pine trees. Those will fall over. That means navigating some of the roadways around here after the storm will be almost impossible, not to mention the electricity outages that we're expecting across this area.

The mayor of Apalachicola setting an example. Him and his family have left this particular location to get to safety and he is hoping that everybody learns by example -- his example -- and they have heeded the warnings and have left.

BRIGGS: All right, Derek Van Dam live for us in Apalachicola. Thank you, sir.

ROMANS: All right, stay safe.

BRIGGS: We'll check back in the next hour in "NEW DAY."

ROMANS: All right. CNN's Dianne Gallagher is standing by live for us in Panama City Beach at the western end of the Panhandle. What's the scene there?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Christine, this is probably the best it's going to be all day. We have a light rain -- not too much wind right here.

But I do want to show you to kind of give you an idea. We are in low tide right now.

I'm going to step out of the way because it is dark out here. It's 4:30 in the morning but you can see we've got a very angry ocean at this point. Lots of seafoam -- big waves already preparing for this.

Now look, we are in an area that is ripe for tourism. There were a lot of tourists who were still here yesterday afternoon trying to work on the way they were going to get out.

The governor suspended tolls in the area. He put extra highway patrol troopers to try and facilitate those evacuations. And airlines suspended change fees.

But at this point, if they don't leave by daylight it could be dangerous for them to try and go inland.

We're looking at a serious storm surge here. A lot of the places right along Panama City Beach are just a matter of a couple of feet about sea level. Those winds coming to these locations with some of these hotels and smaller structure, as well.

Yesterday, when it was just a category two storm, in the words of many, they thought that they could ride it out by simply being a few stories aboveground and they'd be safe. It being a category four storm this morning while people were sleeping, you may have people reconsidering those evacuation plans when they were going to stay once it turns daylight, Christine.

Again, though, they need to get out of town as soon as possible if they are planning a last-minute evacuation.

I can't tell you how many people we spoke to yesterday who said that they figured they could just ride it out because they'd been able to do that with Opal --

BRIGGS: Right.

GALLAGHER: -- or they'd been able to do that with Eloise in the past. It looks like Michael is going to be a once-in-a-generation storm. It's not going to be the case this time.

ROMANS: Yes, it blew up to a category two, to a three, to a four, and is still strengthening.

GALLAGHER: Yes.

ROMANS: This is a very dangerous, dangerous moment.

All right, Dianne Gallagher, thanks. Stay safe, please. BRIGGS: And some people staying on those barrier islands just off the coast. Not a good decision.

Joining us on the phone, Kyle Bower, professional storm chaser with SVL Media. He's in Panama City, Florida.

Kyle, we understand it's pretty calm at this hour as we just saw from Dianne Gallagher. But from what you're seeing on the radar, from the images that are just terrifying, how does this storm differ from those you've seen hit Florida in the recent history?

KYLE BOWER, PROFESSIONAL STORM CHASER, SVL MEDIA (via telephone): Yes, to size things up, we've obviously seen a lot more intensification over the last 24 hours than what was initially expected from possibly a cat three range now up to cat four. This one is, for a better lack of words, is going to be a doozy for certain.

ROMANS: We know that water is what kills people after these storms -- the storm surge -- but these are life-threatening winds here -- 140- miles-per-hour. And the National Hurricane Center is saying life- threatening flash flooding all the way up north as this -- as this thing moves.

What are we facing?

BOWER: Yes. Your evacuation orders by your county -- your A, B, and C's -- most of them have all been evacuated at this point in time. And I would pretty much put a preliminary guideline on anything three miles inland from the coast is going to be devastated.

I know those are strong words but at this point in time 140-mile-an- hour sustained winds may mark up at that same amount upon landfall and things are going to be rough here this afternoon.

BRIGGS: So we talked about the winds, the nine to 13-foot storm surge. What type of rain event are we expecting?

[05:40:03] BOWER: Yes, so we're looking at just about six inches- plus of rain and some isolated spots could be a lot more than that. This, obviously, being a very low-lying area here on Panhandle, expecting floodwaters to as well be an obstacle for the next 24 to 48 hours.

ROMANS: All right. We'll be getting another update in about 20 minutes or so, Kyle. Where will you be hunkering down?

BOWER: So, right now, we do have a couple of spots that we have. Most likely, Panama City Beach is going to be a good spot for now.

ROMANS: All right. Kyle Bower, professional storm chaser there at Panama City Beach. Thank you so much.

BRIGGS: And just to reiterate, folks, those power outages expected to be not just for hours or days but potentially weeks, so get out.

Local officials in Florida trying to get people to heed those evacuation orders. You'll hear from one local mayor, next on EARLY START.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:45:10] BRIGGS: It's 5:45 on the Florida Panhandle. Breaking news, Hurricane Michael now an extremely dangerous category four storm packing 140-mile-an-hour winds and life-threatening storm surge.

Six Panhandle airports now closed, including two in Destin, Florida. That's where you'll find CNN's George Howell standing by live for us at Destin, just northwest of where we expect this eye to make landfall.

George, the 15,000 residents of Destin -- have you seen them mainly evacuate?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. People have made that choice, right -- a very personal choice. Some decided to leave, Dave. Some decided to ride this storm out.

Right now, we are in sort of a lull. The bands of this storm -- we started to feel the impact of those bands about three hours ago. Right now, the winds have died down. There's no rain coming down.

But don't be fooled. We're in the middle of this thing. Destin will feel the effects of it, of course.

East of us, Panama City, that's where the eye of the storm is on track right now headed toward that city. And east of Panama City, that's where they will feel the rougher side -- that northeastern quadrant of this Hurricane Michael as it pushes inland.

I spoke with the mayor of Apalachicola and you were talking about do people heed the warning -- do they stay or leave? Well, he said, look, by leading as the mayor by example he decided to get out. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR VAN JOHNSON, APALACHICOLA, FLORIDA: The word that we was putting out on the street is to evacuate, so I wanted to lead by example. So I'm here with family, hopefully in a safe situation.

We've had those near misses of people not taking it serious. But I'm telling you, all the predictions and projections of this storm indicates that we need to take it as serious as possible.

And those people that decided to stay, I wish them well. And those people that decided to leave, they did the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Now, let's talk about this, putting it into context, Dave.

So just a couple of hours ago -- I've been anchoring and covering this the last several hours -- it was 120-miles-an-hour. Now we're talking about 140 and up to 145-miles-per-hour. These are very strong winds that are coming in.

This storm has strengthened in a very short amount of time. It is pushing inland and Dave, it promises to be historic in nature, a fast mover, and leave a lot of damage here.

BRIGGS: It is a monster. George Howell live for us in Destin. Stay safe, my friend.

ROMANS: All right. The Panhandle has never seen a storm like this. Hurricane Michael now forecast to be the strongest since they started keeping records in 1851 to hit the Panhandle.

I want to bring in hurricane expert Ryan Truchelut.

Ryan, look, we're going to get another update from the National Hurricane Center in just a few minutes. But we can see that the pressure is dropping, the wind speeds are

picking up. When you look at the radar, the eye is perfect enclosed. This is exactly what you do not want to see if you are in the path of a hurricane, right?

RYAN TRUCHELUT, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF METEOROLOGIST, WEATHER TIGER (via Skype): That's correct, Christine.

We have a very circular eye overnight. The eyewall has closed off. We now have a full circular eyewall per recon reports and microwave satellite imagery. And every indication is that this is going to continue to intensify for the next six hours, right up to landfall.

BRIGGS: With Florence that devastated the Carolinas, it was really about the slow-moving pace and the rain event dumping feet of rain on the Carolinas.

With Michael, what's the most dangerous aspect of it as you see?

TRUCHELUT: There's two -- I mean, I really don't want to pick between wind and surge because I think they're both equally dangerous in this situation.

This is much more of a traditional -- when people think of a hurricane, this is what a hurricane looks like and these are the risks that they think of.

A completely different situation than Harvey or Florence, which stalled upon landfall. This storm is going to be rocketing inland at 20 miles per hour once it makes landfall.

So the most significant risks are bringing wind gusts in excess of 115-130-miles-per-hour to the Florida coastline. Bringing hurricane- force wind gusts well inland into southwest Georgia. Because of that fast-forward motion and because it's intensifying and maintaining its intensity to landfall we're going to see damaging winds well inland, including in the Tallahassee area.

ROMANS: The --

TRUCHELUT: And, of course, the surge --

ROMANS: Yes.

TRUCHELUT: -- is a huge risk as well.

That lens-shaped bay of Apalachee Bay is very shallow. It's only four to six feet going well out into the Gulf of Mexico, and the shape of the bay -- the bathymetry really focuses -- is going to focus that southerly fetch into nine to 13 feet of storm surge.

There's very few historical precedents for this storm. There hasn't been a major hurricane landfall in this section of the Florida coastline since 1894. I've been doing some digging around in old newspapers of what happened in those storms and it's quite frightening.

[05:50:04] Many of the towns and cities on Apalachee Bay, a near total loss of structures in those storms. And particularly, the hurricane of 1851 also ripped the tin roof off the Florida Capitol building.

So wind risks are also kind of going to extend well inland to Tallahassee and into southwest Georgia, as I said.

ROMANS: We know that they were walking the beaches last night -- emergency officials -- getting anything they could off the beaches. You're talking a lawn chair -- anything that could become a flying -- a flying missile.

At 115 miles per hour for the winds, once this thing hits, what -- remind us what happens in winds like that.

TRUCHELUT: Well, at winds -- when you get over 100-miles-per-hour with winds you get out of the realm of simply doing tree damage and into the kind of intensity where you can start to see structural damage to roofs. You can also see objects be lifted and thrown through the air and do additional damage as loose missiles in the air.

So you really do -- once you get over 100-miles-per-hour you kind of move into a different damage regime and that's -- you know, unfortunately, that's the circumstance we find ourselves in in the Florida Big Bend this morning.

BRIGGS: All right. Ryan Truchelut, the chief meteorologist from Weather Tiger, appreciate it.

Florida State University in Tallahassee, where Ryan is -- their 30,000 students-plus will be off until at least Friday.

The Tallahassee mayor, Mr. Gillum -- Andrew Gillum who is running for governor -- the Democratic candidate -- he will be on "NEW DAY" later this morning.

Speaking of politics, the search for Nikki Haley's replacement is on. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. stunned Washington with the announcement she plans to step down by the end of the year. Speculation rampant over the reason for her abrupt departure, which a source says caught Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton by surprise.

Haley, herself, said she simply believes in term limits. That's it's time to step aside. But one source she wants to make some more money to put those two children through college.

One thing Haley was clear about, she will not be running in 2020

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, OUTGOING U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: No, I'm not running for 2020. I can promise you what I will be doing is campaigning for this one. So I look forward to supporting the president in the next election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president heaped praise on Haley, calling her a fantastic person who's done an incredible job.

Among the names being floated to replace her is former Deputy National Security adviser Dina Powell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, Dina is certainly a person I would consider and she is under consideration. We have, actually, many names.

And, you know, Nikki has been great. Nikki is going to be working along with us and helping us with the choice, plus she's going to help us with 2020.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president says he plans to name Haley's successor in two to three weeks and we know it will not be his daughter Ivanka, who tweeted that despite her father floating her name, she does not want the job.

BRIGGS: Haley gets the rare Oval Office send-off.

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: Most do not leave the Trump White House in that fashion.

Ahead, the Florida Panhandle bracing for what could be a $13 billion storm, and a deadly one. More breaking news of Hurricane Michael and where it's headed, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:57:48] ROMANS: All right. Hurricane Michael putting 57,000 homes at risk -- 57,000 homes in the path of this category four storm. Right now, estimates place rebuilding costs at $13 billion. That includes wind and flood damage. All this is preliminary, of course.

But when it comes to flooding, Floridians are better prepared to handle this than any other state. Florida has a big private flood insurance market and homeowners there own one-third of the five million policies issued by the National Flood Insurance Program. That's run by FEMA.

Now, the government program, overall, is struggling. It has borrowed $40 billion to pay out claims since Hurricane Katrina. It currently has $20 billion in debt.

Premiums paid by policyholders should cover the cost of claims but the amount of major flood events is on the rise and the income the program generates can no longer keep up.

Congress also backed off attempts to raise premiums. The plan prompted a huge outcry from Americans who live in these flood zones.

But, 57,000 homes in the path of this storm.

BRIGGS: Geez.

ROMANS: A storm that we have not seen hit the Florida Panhandle in at least 100 years.

BRIGGS: No -- 57,000 homes and one John Berman. He is anchoring "NEW DAY" right there in Panama City Beach. Alisyn Camerota here in New York.

I'm Dave Briggs. Thanks for joining us, everybody.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. "NEW DAY" right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, October 10th.

I'm John Berman live in Panama City Beach, Florida. Alisyn Camerota is in New York.

This is our special live coverage of Hurricane Michael. And if you went to sleep eight hours ago thinking this storm was bad, you are waking up to find out it is catastrophic.

It has been upgraded to a category four storm, maximum sustained winds of 140-miles-an-hour. Right now, expected to be a 145-miles-per-hour when it makes landfall later today.

The storm surge, which is the deadliest factor in any hurricane, will also be horrible -- up to nine feet where I am right now. I will not be able to stand here several hours from now. It will be 13 feet or higher east of me. It could devastate some of these coastal communities.

A category four storm has never hit the Florida Panhandle. This is history -- very, very dangerous history.

We've been getting new updates all night from the Hurricane Center.