Florida Braces For Direct Hit From Hurricane Irma; Gov. Scott: 1000 Volunteer Nurses Needed
LEMON: Here's our breaking news. Florida, look at that, bracing for a direct hit from hurricane Irma as the storm's fierce winds rip on to the northern coast of Cuba tonight. CNN's Patrick Oppman is there for us. He's right there for us now. Describe what is happening where you are, Patrick.</s>PATRICK OPPMAN, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: You know, Don, just a few minutes ago, a dead calm that you get as you know from covering storms, purely between the squalls and just now we're kind of feeling the wind pick up again. Where we are, the power was knocked out some three or four hours ago. I don't think we'll get it back for days. Luckily we have a small generator. So that's how we are going to continue working from here. But we're on the northern coast, central coast of Cuba. An area that has been evacuated. Usually there are a lot of hotels in this area. There are the Keys off the coast, which are a very popular tourist destination. They have been emptied out and all day long, we were watching the weather get worse and worse and worse. And this afternoon, a couple of really strong bands came through out of nowhere and really almost knocked us off of our feet. It's quietly down but we do get some rain, some more wind, that's just going to keep on. I was talking to someone who lives down the coast from us where the storm is a bit more intense as it comes our direction. And they told me that they are getting absolutely hammered right now.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>OPPMAN: So I think in the next few hours, we're going to begin to see those kinds of weather conditions which are continuing tomorrow morning, probably from most of the day Saturday until those storm begins to leave Cuban territory and heads to -- heads towards Florida, Don.</s>LEMON: Hey, Patrick, you mentioned the conditions early. I just want to show some of the video of you when an outer band came through. Patrick, you can hear the rain and you can see the wind ripping there. What was that like?</s>OPPMAN: You know, it came out of nowhere. I think that was the most surprising thing. I've covered a number of hurricanes and usually they progress up to a point and the weather turns and eventually you get those kinds of conditions. This literally came, you know, we didn't even see it coming. I had my rain jacket on earlier in the day. It was hot. It was not raining. We didn't have a drop of rainfall and all of the sudden we just got blindsided by this -- however, many seconds long squall that was and it felt like you were getting hit by needles. I felt like some turn on a power washer was on you. Just -- you know, you can see from the video, it's not very pleasant but it's very dangerous as well because if you are out and about, if you're not conscious when we are in a structure that's going to keep us save during the storm. We've spend a lot of times in the last few days figuring out where we will for the storm tried to do our research. But all the same when the weather conditions change so suddenly, there is not a lot you can do. You just, you know, luckily I have my colleagues here who got me a jacket. I was almost unable to put on by myself. And it just goes to show the power of this storm. Because those are not even the most powerful bands or winds that are going to come. And certainly whether you're in Cuba where I am or Florida where it's going, you have to be prepared for these kinds of weather conditions and worse.</s>LEMON: Yes, I was going say, that's just a little bit. That's nothing there compared to what's going to happen. So be safe out there, Patrick Oppman. We appreciate it.</s>OPPMAN: Absolutely.</s>LEMON: Forecasters predicting hurricane Irma will be a monster category 5 when it slams into Florida. And joining me now a man who is flying directly into the storm, Jack Parrish, a flight director on board on one of NOAA's hurricane hunter aircraft and he joins me now on the phone. As I understand you just flew through the wall. What you did see?</s>JACK PARRISH, AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS SCIENTIST, NOAA: We saw a very, very strong eye wall in the north-northwest side of the storm. This is the roughest pass so far, 8,000 feet. So probably the winds around 158 knots, pretty close to 190 miles per hour and the surface winds about 140 knots, so roughly 165 miles an hour or so.</s>LEMON: Well, as you look at this compared to other storms, the size and the intensity, talk to me about that, Jack.</s>PARRISH: Well, from the time that the last airplane was in here and then we came in, we got about a 5 millibar drop in pressure. We've seen increased winds, we got a very beautifully formed eye on the radar. Of course it's dark out here now. It's a 30-mile round eye and hurricane force winds 50 miles out from the center every direction.</s>LEMON: Are you noticing major changes in your flight from last night?</s>PARRISH: We actually did not fly last night. Early morning flight, we were saying a little bit of increase in intensity. Probably the only thing keeping this storm mitigated a little, it's rubbing right along the northern coast of Cuba, so that's a little bit of a disruptive factor but it's still quite the storm.</s>LEMON: And if it wasn't rubbing on that coast and just out at sea it would be even stronger, right? And more intense?</s>PARRISH: There's every reason that it could be? So obviously getting a good source of warm water right now, very low sheer. Beautiful radar structure if you like that thing but it's not beautiful when it comes to what's ahead for Florida.</s>LEMON: Hey, Jack, what type of data are you collecting right now and how is data going to be used?</s>PARRISH: The primary thing we've been collecting tonight other than surface winds and flight level winds, we're using the tail Doppler radar, tail Doppler radar in NOAA aircrafts Doppler radars takes CAT scans generates storm. Or it's looking all the way from the ocean surface through the top of the troposphere, CAT scan that go into the computer modeling and just combined with data from our G4 graph. It will keep giving an accurate forecast. It may not be a good news forecast but it will be accurate.</s>LEMON: Jack, on a personal note, what is it like when you're flying through a storm that you know will be hitting your home state?</s>PARRISH: Well, Don, that is one of our biggest worries right now. Is that of course all of our families are up there in the Lakeland and Tampa area. So, of course, just thinking about them. While we're flying these missions we have to put full focus on the mission itself to get the best data and we're always looking for good news. But unfortunately, good news for us is bad news for someone else. So what we can do is try to make it as accurate as we can.</s>LEMON: Jack Parrish, hurricane hunter with a NOAA flight director, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate the work that you do and stay safe.</s>PARRISH: Well, Don, you're very welcome and we're heading back toward Lakeland now. We'll put two P3 flights into it and one more G4 mission. So by that time, it can be cast as far as where the storm is going strong.</s>LEMON: Jack Parrish. Now I want to turn to Brigadier General Ralph Ribas and he is leading Florida's military response to hurricane Irma. He joins us on the phone now. Brigadier General, thank you so much for joining us. How is the National Guard preparing tonight in Florida?</s>RALPH RIBAS, DIRECTOR, FLORIDA NATIONAL GUARD: Well, the National Guard as of right now has approximately 7,000 soldiers and airmen activated throughout the state. You know, we have been pretty fortunate that Governor Scott has been proactive in activating us now very early and with his support, we've been able to posture our soldiers and airmen in those positions that we're going to be able to support the citizens.</s>LEMON: What resources do you have ready to go?</s>RIBAS: Well, basically, anything that you might think with respect to military. So we've got over 1,000 high wheeled vehicles to move in areas that might have some high water involved. We've got rotary winged aircraft that can reach any area that might be blocked for whatever reason. We've got boats that can get out to our Barrier Islands if needed and certainly generators that can help power any structure that -- a civilian populous might need assistance with.</s>LEMON: What kind of conditions are you expecting when this thing hits?</s>RIBAS: Well, as the governor mentioned we are expecting catastrophic conditions in certain parts of the state. Florida has had its share of hurricanes dating back to 25 years ago. We just recently went through the anniversary of hurricane Andrew and we had devastation. So we're familiar with the kind of damage that a hurricane of this magnitude can leave beyond on the state and we're going to be there to support our citizens.</s>LEMON: When are you going to deploy, brigadier general?</s>RIBAS: Well, we currently -- we currently are. We've got soldiers and airmen positioned throughout the state. So if you're asking in terms when we would move in following the storm? Of course we want to be -- we'll move in when the storm reaches approximately tropical storm winds. At that point if it's safe for our soldiers to move, the commanders on the ground will make that determination. And as soon as that is safe, they will move forward to start initiating missions that we receive from our state</s>EOC. LEMON: And you guys are trained to do this. You do this, you've done for storms before. What do you usually see after a storm? And you know, one that's at least -- you probably -- I'm not sure if you have been deployed to one of this magnitude but what do you usually see, what are the needs?</s>RIBAS: Well, immediately it's the search and rescue. So we will move in to an area immediately look to see what we might do to help any citizen, anyone that needs something. Following that, it will move into a security type of mission. To help the law enforcement as they might need in terms of making -- reassuring the populous that everything's going to work out and everything is going to be fine. And it transitions into pod type locations where we provide food, water, ice for the citizens as they need it. So it's almost -- it falls on a type of fazing structure but it all happens at pretty much the same time.</s>LEMON: Well, listen, thank you for you for your service. We appreciate your time here. It's going to be a busy time for you coming up. Brigadier general Ralph Ribas, thank you so much.</s>RIBAS: Thank you, sir.</s>LEMON: When we come back, the Florida Keys right in the path of the storm. The National Weather Service saying nowhere in the Keys will be safe. Nowhere in the Keys will be safe. I'm going to speak to the mayor from the area, a mayor from the area and a resident of the Keys who says he is not evacuating. That's next.