Tropical Storm Dorian Strengthens to Hit Florida as Category 4 Hurricane
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a peaceful place.</s>CHATTERLEY: And if you want to see more of Mark's work, go to CNNHeroes.com.</s>BERMAN: Great to have you with us here this morning.</s>CHATTERLEY: Thank you.</s>BERMAN: Please come back. It's been a busy morning with Hurricane Dorian headed right towards the Florida coast. CNN's coverage continues right now.</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Friday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto in New York. Poppy Harlow is off today, and we're following breaking news this morning. Florida residents on high alert as Hurricane Dorian slowly churns towards Florida's east coast continuing to grow in strength. Now predicted to become a potentially catastrophic category four hurricane. Dorian could be the strongest in nearly three decades, possibly as powerful as the devastating Hurricane Andrew which caused dozens of deaths, billions of dollars in damage. The entire state of Florida now under a state of emergency, and at any moment Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will hold a press conference as the state prepares for a direct hit from Dorian. He's already warned residents to stock up on enough food, water and medicine to last at least a week but supplies in stores are already running low. Floridians dealing with empty store shelves, long lines at the gas pumps as you can see there. We have correspondents all over the state of Florida as we cover every angle of this storm. First, let's go, though, to Chad Myers. He's at the CNN Weather Center. All right, we've been talking every day about this. What's the latest on its strength and the track?</s>CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The pressure's going down, which means the strength is going up. The wind speeds are going up to 110, so now if we're already 110, 130 or 140, it's not that big of a stretch. This will have now almost 72 hours in the very warm water, so that's where we are right now, and making landfall at 140 miles per hour as a category four hurricane. As it makes its way onshore it'll lose a little bit of punch. That's just what happens. But that'll be Monday night into Tuesday morning somewhere in there. And then for Orlando it doesn't even go that much farther in the next 24 hours. Only about five miles per hour and that will cause flooding, significant flooding, and we will keep you up-to-date on that.</s>SCIUTTO: Thank you, Chad Myers. We know you're going to be on top of it. Of course, as we learn more about it, we're going to share it with you. This is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaking now live. Let's have a listen.</s>GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: -- are making determinations I think today about evacuations, whether to issue evacuations and then how you're going to do those vacations. We are just asking Floridians, please heed those directives from your local folks. They're considering a variety of factors and obviously monitoring the storm's path and so those decisions are not made lightly. But if you're in an evacuation zone and you're ordered to evacuate, please do so. Put your safety first. Better to evacuate and then not end up hitting you than to remain in there and end up being in jeopardy of loss of life. Know if you're in an evacuation zone, know which zone you're in and know your evacuation route. Now we, in terms of our highways here, the Florida Department of Transportation has already cleared the shoulders of all our major highways like I-95 and I-75. And so they've been swept cleared. We will open those shoulders for traffic once evacuation orders are handed down. As of right now the DOT has not identified any abnormal traffic patterns but obviously we know that, you know, once counties make determinations for evacuation orders you're going to see people start to get on the road. Nonessential lane closures, they reduce capacity throughout the state are being opened to deal with the storm. Fuel is an issue. There's gas stations that have run out of feel. We in the emergency declaration waived service and truck rates for fuel trucks so that we can increase capacity of fuel that's being brought in. We're also going to be starting today implementing Florida Highway Patrol escorts for fuel trucks so we can facilitate refueling in critical parts of the state. I mean, there's some parts of the state where you have major lines for gas, cars are lined up. It makes it more difficult for the trucks to get in and replenish the gas supply so we think those escorts will help with that. We have a lot of fuel in Florida, it's just we have limited capacity to bring it from the port to the gas stations because you can only have so many trucks at one time doing that. And so recognizing that, we've worked with FEMA to get fuel from out of state. So FEMA and Jared have worked with Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia to waive their service and truck rates so we can facilitate fuel coming in from out of state. And so that is happening as we speak. You know, in terms of these nursing homes, obviously that's been an issue in the past. The Agency for Health Care Administration is making site visits or calls to all facilities where the state does not have updated info about generators. As you know we now have a Web site through the Agency of Health Care Administration where you can go and each county and see who's got the generators, who doesn't, and so we think it's statewide about, what, 120 that we don't have the information for. So, there's going to be site checks. There are going to be phone calls to make sure that they have a plan to deal with folks that are in their care. And then once the storm passes, there'll be spot checks done in conjunction with the Department of Health to see where there may be needs after the storm and see who has lost power. The Web site for the AHCA generator is just FL-generator.com. And so we've been putting that out to the local folks in our countries, in the emergency offices there, so that they have a sense of where they may need to offer assistance, and we encourage everyone to take a look at that. Today at my direction Volunteer Florida activated the Florida Disaster Fund. The official private fund established to assist Florida's communities as they correspond to and recover during times of emergency or disaster. And to donate please visit www.volunteerFlorida.org or text Disaster to 20222 to make a $10 contribution and we appreciate that. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is preparing officers and resources for potential deployments in the coming days, using a variety of specialized equipment including shallow draft boats, ATVs, airboats and four-wheel drive vehicles. Jared has also requested vehicles from the federal government that are able to navigate some potentially flooded streets and obviously General Eifert is sensitive to that as well. I mean, you know, you're looking at potentially significant water event, you know, throughout major portions of the state and so we want resources to be able to navigate that. There have been a number of school closures. Daytona State College, Eastern Florida State College, Indian River State College, Valencia College, Seminole State College, the University of Central Florida, Florida Atlantic, Florida Polytechnic, Florida International and the University of Central Florida have issued closures starting today through Tuesday. The school districts in Martin County and Volusia County have also announced closures for Tuesday, September 3rd. As you know, Monday is Labor Day so the schools were scheduled to be closed anyways. Our Florida Department of Economic Opportunity is extending the deadline for local governments to submit applications for the $85 million Rebuild Florida Infrastructure Repair program. And Visit Florida has activated the Expedia Visit Florida hotel accommodation Web portal so that if there's evacuation orders you can get a sense of what would be available in terms of accommodations. We have close to a million gallons of water. Jared has requested I think another two million for FEMA. We have almost two million meals ready for distribution. Now, we have not necessarily received a request for that yet, but we stand ready to distribute the meals when we can. And the state -- and then we're also working with some of the retailers like Publix and Walmart, you know, to make sure that their stocks are in shelf. We do want them giving the state the water, we want that water going back on the shelves because a lot of people are preparing, which is good, but obviously the flip side of that is the water is going off the shelf and requires restocking in a quicker fashion. If you want up-to-date information on Hurricane Dorian please visit FloridaDisaster.org/info for local media updates and updates as we do. You can do my Twitter account. You can also do the state emergency response Twitter account, which is @FLSERT. And the state is also activating a toll free hotline for Floridians to receive information and that number is 1-800-342-3557. So this is major event. We still have some degree of uncertainty, but I think if you look at the different forecasts you see potentially places in south Florida, potentially going all the way up the coast of Florida. Some forecasts have it going through the center of the state similar to kind of what Irma did in terms of going up the middle. And you still have some forecasts that say it's going to go across the state and end up in the Gulf of Mexico. So we've just got to be prepared for all those circumstances. I think the probabilities of all those are not necessarily equal, but it's much better to be prepared and then not have to face it then to go into one of these things unprepared. And finally I did speak with the president on Wednesday night, and the administration has been great and they've assured us they're going to provide all the resources we need. The president was scheduled to leave the country and has canceled that trip because I think the administration recognizes this really, really serious event. With that I'll be happy to take some questions for myself or Jared or the general.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Governor, what's the status of the National Guard? General Eifert?</s>DESANTIS: They're mobilizing.</s>MAJ. GEN. JAMES EIFERT, FLORIDA NATIONAL GUARD: We are mobilizing as we speak. We expect about 2,000 soldiers and airmen from the Florida National Guard mobilize by end of day today. By the end of day tomorrow probably be doubled by about 4,000. We're trying to be responsive but not overzealous in implementing whatever requirements the Department of Emergency Management levies on us. So we're prepared to respond. We have 12,000 soldiers and airmen in the state and every one of them that is able and in the state not deployed will be ready to step up as needed. In addition, we have Emergency Management Assistance compacts with various states in the southern region especially to be able to fill in any voids that we have or gaps in our formations that might need specialties like aviation, engineering, high water vehicle transportations and those kinds of things.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Governor --</s>DESANTIS: And we also -- the general is talking with other states. We anticipate getting support from other states. I know I spoke with the governor of Alabama and she authorized some National Guard personnel from Alabama, so that is ongoing. And I'm sure we will provide those updates once we get them.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Governor --</s>DESANTIS: Yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This is just an observation. I notice there's a lot more FEMA personnel and ERC, and obviously the trucks are previously across the street at DFS are now right here in the parking lot. Is this a change on your part with the -- you know, with the new administration or is this just happenstance, or is it a new approach, I guess?</s>DESANTIS: I think this is just what we planned, right? Yes. No, I mean, I'm not exactly familiar in terms of how FEMA did, in terms of where they were before I was here but, you know, when we did the</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Governor, this is your first major hurricane as governor. I'm wonder if there's much of a learning curve for you going into this, and do you see like your political future tied to how the state performs during this?</s>DESANTIS: I don't view it politically at all. We're trying to protect the state, protect people and assist these local folks who are out there. You know, they're all activated now as best we could. I grew up in Florida so I'm not a stranger to hurricanes. And of course we've had a number of active hurricane seasons recently. As a U.S. congressman we had Hurricane Matthew where my district was the district that was most affected. Now granted, that could have been worse than the path it ultimately took. And then obviously Hurricane Irma, that affected almost everybody in the state. And so, you know, I have a lot of experience just understanding kind of how some of the wheels go in motion. And then we've done an awful lot with Hurricane Michael since I've taken office. And so this is something that we didn't want to see a hurricane this season. I know Jared and I both did what we thought we could in different respects to try to head that off, but we also prepared for one and, you know, did a major hurricane exercise. You know, I would ask Jared, hey, what's it look like in the Caribbean, what's this, because we knew that this is something that could potentially happen. So at the end of the day, you know, we're going to be working really, really hard to do our best to help the folks in the state of Florida.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What can you tell us about cellphone coverage and how long people should expect to go out? That was a big problem at least for some providers after Hurricane Michael, and that's what's everyone's on and going to want to know about. How they're --</s>SCIUTTO: We've been listening there to the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, as the state of Florida makes preparations for Hurricane Dorian. Some headlines there, one, he says that they will be making determinations about evacuations later today. That's how seriously the state of Florida is taking the storm. He says there have already been school closures. And another big issue is the shortage of fuel. We've been showing you pictures of those long lines at gas stations. A lot of them already running out of fuel. Of course, people need gas to be able to evacuate. So they're taking steps to address that issue. I want to go back to Chad Myers in the CNN Weather Center. As you were listening to the governor there, clearly they're taking this very seriously. But the government made the point there are a lot of options as to what could happen with this storm. It could sit off the coast, that would be bad in some ways. It could cross the state, that would be bad in some ways. It could go right up the coast. So it doesn't seem like any of those options is a good one for the state of Florida.</s>MYERS: Nothing is good out of 140 miles per hour, Jim. The only thing that's good is if we get into the cone and as we know it's going to start slowing down, it gets a shove to the north and it just ends up out here in the ocean. That is the only thing that could actually help this state at this point in time. If this makes landfall at 140 miles per hour, people will lose roofs. I don't know where or what town, people will get storm surge 12 feet, not just on the beach but in the back bays, up the rivers, into the canals where people have their boats. There'll be 8 to 12 feet of water there, and most of those homes will likely be wet as well. There will be -- we have all of this inland flooding possible because there's going to be 20 inches of rainfall. Not only are you pushing the salt water into those creeks, canals, streams, bayous, back waters and the beach. But you're also going to rain 20 inches on top of it, now water is going to try to run out, so we have all of these things. A lot of times we'll say, well, this is a wind event or this is a surge event or this is all three. This is surge, flood and wind. There will be all of those things depending on where it hits. Hundred and forty miles per hour, making landfall somewhere in the southern half of Florida. I won't say whether it's going to be north of Miami or south of Space Coast, but that's kind of a -- that's the middle ground at this point. And the storm is still getting stronger and we know that because the hurricane hunters are in there, they're finding lower pressure and they're finding higher winds, and this is not what we need. This is a big event for many -- it could be millions and millions of people.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, Chad, we know you're going to stay on top of it, and of course, as we learn more, we're going to share that with you at home. We're following --</s>MYERS: Yes --</s>SCIUTTO: The storm from across the state of Florida, stay with us, we'll be right back.