Hurricane Irma Aftermath; Florida Cities Just Starting to Assess the Hurricane Damage
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And uncertainty. Irma's fury leaving millions without electricity, and many may be powerless for weeks. The governor warning evacuees that returning to their homes now could put their lives at risk. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in</s>THE SITUATION ROOM. ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>BLITZER: The breaking news this hour, millions more Americans are now under assault by Irma, as the dangerous storm that hammered much of Florida plows north. Charleston, South Carolina, is in the midst of a life-threatening flash flood emergency. Cities as far inland as far as Atlanta at risk from this menacing tropical storm. Irma's final target in Florida, Jacksonville, now swamped by floodwaters rising to record high levels. The storm surge warning in effect this hour. The flooding danger intensifying in a city that didn't expect to suffer so badly from Irma's rampage. On the other end of the state, officials are now warning about a potential humanitarian crisis in the Florida Keys. A large section of the island chain has no power, not water, no cell service. The U.S. military says 10,000 people who refused to leave the Keys before the storm may need to be evacuated. The Keys battered by the full force of Irma when it made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday. The electricity is out across much of Florida tonight. More than six million people, about two-thirds of the customers, they are in the dark after Irma zigzagged between the state's east and west coasts. The storm unleashing winds well over 100 miles an hour and impacting major cities from Miami to Tampa to Jacksonville. Officials warn some places won't have power for weeks. We're covering the breaking story with our correspondents and guests. They're standing by in the areas hardest hit by Irma. First, let's go to Marco Island, where Irma made its second landfall in Florida. CNN's Brian Todd is on the scene for us. Brian, you have been covering this storm through the worst of it. What are the conditions like where you are right now?</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Irma hit this spot like a buzz saw. As you look around here, you can see the effect it had. Roofs like this one, partial roofs, entire roofs, ripped off homes. You have got debris all over the place. Wires down, hazardous material all over the streets. Now, this is in the southwestern corner of Florida. The damage lasts from this tip of Florida all the way to the northeastern part of Florida, Jacksonville, the largest city geographically in Florida, the largest city geographically in the United States. So you have got cities from here up to there just now starting to get their arms about what happened here.</s>TODD (voice-over): Florida now fighting to recover after getting pounded for hours by winds sometimes over 100 miles an hour. Every major city in Florida impacted by Irma's wrath and over six million customers left without power, two-thirds of the state. The Florida Keys, hit first in the U.S. with Category 4 winds, now with serious flooding and building damage, cut off from power and the mainland. The southwest coast of Florida hit with winds of 120 miles an hour, scoured into the night with driving rain and whipping winds with the skies lit by the occasional transformer explosion. Naples, among the hardest hit, now flooded one block after another and buildings flattened or damaged by the wind. This is nearby Marco Island before and after, and in Bonita Springs, neighborhoods inundated with waters.</s>DOREEN RAGLE, HURRICANE VICTIM: There's mobiles turned over. There's mobiles upside down and there's a lot of water.</s>TODD: While the storm tracked up the west side of Florida, the east coast was still hit by flooding and high winds. Miami had heavy flooding on the downtown waterfront, construction cranes knocked over and roofs ripped off by the whipping winds. One sailboat ended up on a football field. There were even scattered reports of looting. Up the east coast, coastal flooding from Broward County up beyond Daytona, leaving neighborhoods and businesses underwater and houses with their rooftops torn off. As far north as Jacksonville, record storm surges causing flooding on the Saint Johns River and at least one home sliding into the ocean. Even inland areas like Orlando were not spared, with downed trees, downed power lines and flooding.</s>OTTO DROZD III, ORANGE COUNTY FIRE RESCUE: We have had over 200 rescues of people that we brought out. And in some places, when you go back there, the water was chest-deep.</s>TODD: Rescues from flooded neighborhoods continued throughout the night with a total of 6.5 million people in Florida told to evacuate. The question now, when can they return home?</s>GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: You check with local officials before returning home to make sure can you safely do so.</s>TODD: Cleanup crews now working on downed trees and branches and clearing sand off roadways. But authorities say parts of Florida could be without power for weeks, while spots as far north as Charleston, South Carolina, are still experiencing flooding from the storm.</s>TODD: By the time Irma finished with this place, Marco Island, she left at least 15 homes that had their roofs either ripped off or had other severe damage. That's according to the fire department. But people here, Wolf, tonight are counting themselves as fortunate because hundreds of people live in this area of Marco Island year- round. Only about 40 of them decided to stay. And there are no serious injuries reported. This is the spot where Irma made its second landfall. Wolf, they're counting themselves as fortunate here tonight.</s>BLITZER: We're showing our viewers, Brian,some live pictures of trucks going in to restore power in these areas. Brian Todd on the scene for us, thanks very, very much. Now to the flooding emergency in Jacksonville, Florida, that's unfolding right now. Irma hitting the city very, very hard in the past few hours. CNN's Kaylee Hartung is on the scene for us. Kaylee, floodwaters, they are rising to historic levels there, right?</s>KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are, Wolf. The waters of the Saint Johns River continue to roll through downtown Jacksonville. We're about a block from the banks of the river there. You can see the waves crashing against the seawall. At the river's height today, levels were five-and-a-half feet above what you would normally see here at high tide. But at that high tide at 2:00, we first began to see these waters recede. If my cameraman, Dave Resk (ph), can swing over to my left here, this street has dried out. Water earlier today about two blocks up that street, but if we rotate to the other side of the street, floodwaters continue. Talking to the mayor earlier, he said don't be fooled when you see pockets like that dry out. This water is not going anywhere any time soon. And the challenge a lot of people in downtown Jacksonville are facing now, Wolf, they came here for shelter. They came here to be safe from these waters and the effects of the storm because their homes were in places they thought were in more danger, but now these floodwaters in Jacksonville a serious concern for so many here as this situation continues to evolve.</s>BLITZER: Yes. We will stay in close touch with you, Kaylee. Thank you very much. We're getting new video of damage in Miami right now, where construction cranes were whipped by the hurricane's winds. CNN's John Berman is in Miami for us. John, we spoke about the danger to all of these cranes on Friday before Irma hit. And now we know, what, at least two in Miami and one in Fort Lauderdale were, in fact, whipped and damaged.</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, three cranes down in Southeast Florida, Wolf, exactly what some people had feared, really showing the damage done to this part of the state was twofold. Number one, the storm surge, you can see the effects right around me right now, the boats pushed up onshore in this marina in Coconut Grove. A five-foot surge in downtown Miami. You can see the impact here. And then the winds. The winds were 100 miles an hour on the tops of the sky rises in the city, Wolf. We have been told these cranes -- and there are more than 20 of them in downtown Miami -- we were told these cranes could withstand gusts of 145 miles an hour. Now, clearly, we don't believe the wind reached that level, yet the cranes, at least two of them, did not stand. At least one appeared to have some kind of issue with a crack in the pulley with the counterbalance and that might have caused it to partially collapse or crack, depending on who you ask. They don't want to use the term collapse because they didn't fall completely off the building. Officials here made clear no one was hurt from these cranes. There was not much other damage to the surrounding buildings. Nevertheless, you can see the clear concern with having these types of cranes in an atmosphere like this. There just wasn't enough time, Wolf, to take them down. It takes six weeks -- six days to two weeks to move one of these cranes start to finish. And they didn't get that kind of warning -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Very dangerous situation. It could have been a whole, whole lot worse. All right, John Berman, thank you. Tonight, officials are also warning that new evacuations may be needed in the Florida Keys, one of the hardest-hit areas in the state, if not the hardest. CNN's Bill Weir is joining us right now from Key Largo. Bill, a large section of the Keys right now has no power, no running water, not much of anything.</s>BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not much of anything, Wolf. We're about 60 miles north of where the eye wall came ashore. But it all depends on the structure of your home in terms of what is left of your life. We're in this trailer park here about mile marker 85 or so. And it is one heartbreak after another. A child's picture book on the ground. The markings of the search-and-rescue teams who put the date and the time they searched that home. Fortunately, zero bodies found inside, also zero people found alive. But most of these folks we hope would evacuate living in structures like this. And good thing. You can see Irma's storm surge, what it does to a mobile home. This was someone's living room. And, of course, this is stuff that can be replaced. They will measure this storm in billions of dollars in terms of the total cost. But some things you cannot put a price on. The memories of the picture box we found before. And right now there's so much concern about those people who are completely out of touch. There are Facebook missing persons lists out there. People have been pinging me all day on Instagram and Twitter, asking if we could go check on their parents. I wish I could. I wish I could get further down this road, but it's impassable in many places. The Florida Department of Transportation has apparently by about 4:00 today inspected 22 of the 43 bridges that connect this necklace of islands going all the way down to Key West. A couple of them are problem areas as well. But the main problem is the cell phones we're so accustomed to, the towers, there's no power for them the further south you get. So we have to use a satellite phone even up here close to Key Largo, where the best cell service still remains. People don't know if their loved ones are just incommunicado or in more dire circumstances. Even if they are alive, as you can see at my sweaty bum here, we have no air conditioning. There's medications to worry about, those sorts of things. I just saw a convoy of about 15 big tractor-trailers, hopefully full of supplies, steaming south down toward Key West. In addition to that, the Navy is chipping in an entire aircraft carrier. It's all hands on deck to try to get in there and really assess the human toll of Irma -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Yes, the USS Lincoln on the way. All right, Bill Weir, thanks so much. Let's talk more about this devastation in the Florida Keys. And it is enormous. We're joined on the phone by Monroe County Commissioner David Rice. Commissioner, thanks for joining us. Based on what you have seen and heard, what's what's the level of devastation in your county?</s>DAVID RICE, MONROE COUNTY COMMISSIONER: Well, Wolf, one of the great problems that we have, as you just heard, is communication. So, while I'm 100 miles from Key West in a 120-mile-long county, the most extreme portion of the county, including Marathon and Key West, we have extremely limited ability to communicate. Certainly, we have taken a major hit. We have extensive property damage. We do not have statistics at the moment on any injuries, loss of life. We will be finding those things out later.</s>BLITZER: How many people are without power in your county?</s>RICE: At the moment, I would be hard-pressed to say because I don't believe anybody could really say how many are here at the moment. Many people left. Others did not. But if you're here, you're probably without power, unless you have a generator or you're extremely fortunate.</s>BLITZER: Those who stayed behind in the Keys, are they still in shelters?</s>RICE: Some are in shelters. Others are not. The Keys have no shelters that are approved. The last moment is a refuge of last resort at some Category 5-constructed schools. And I understand many people rode the storm out at that point. But as I say, we have very little firsthand information at this time.</s>BLITZER: If people who have houses there who live are up north, for example, northern part of Florida riding out this storm or they live in other parts of the country, what's your best guess right now? How long before those folks can return to their homes in the Keys?</s>RICE: Wolf, I would rather not make a guess, because that's an open issue. I think within the next day or two, we hope to be able to have safe transit down the Keys. DOT has inspected most if not all the bridges at this point. The power companies are securing any live lines. The hospitals are not yet reopened. We hope that they will be and expect they will be, at least two out of the three, perhaps tomorrow morning. At that point, it's certainly more safe for people to come back into the Keys, but we really have no water to speak of. Electricity is very sporadic to nonexistent. It's not a place someone wants to be right at this moment.</s>BLITZER: Give us some perspective. How much damage has been caused to your county, Monroe County, in the Keys right now? Have you ever seen anything like this before?</s>RICE: Well, yes, I have seen Hurricane Audrey in Louisiana as a child. I have seen Hurricane Camille that cleared out miles of homes and businesses. We do not appear to be that impacted that the time.</s>BLITZER: Is your county getting the state and federal help it needs?</s>RICE: They are absolutely -- our partners with both the state and federal government have been in communication with us. I believe we will see the first C-130 of supplies in within the next couple of hours at the Naval air station in Key West. The state and federal government are really stepping up to the plate. Now, it is complicated by the fact that many of the rescue efforts and supply efforts will be by air. And up until almost this very time, they would have to fly through a hurricane to get here, because the hurricane moved on up the state. So, yes, we're very happy with the response. The Navy, as you heard, is sending a carrier that has tremendous capability. It will probably be standing off Key West.</s>BLITZER: David Rice is the mayor of Monroe County, the commissioner, I should say. Commissioner, thanks so much for joining us.</s>RICE: Thank you. And thanks for your help.</s>BLITZER: We appreciate everything you're doing. Good luck to all the folks there. I know this is a crisis that has unfolded. Just ahead: the newest forecast for Irma as it endangers cities in the south. Also tonight, another hurricane that's threatening the U.S. in the days ahead. We will talk to a National Guardsman who has been involved in urgent rescues on an island in crisis after being hammered by Irma.