Hurricane Idalia intensifies, on track to hit Florida as Category 3 storm

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

News

4.1 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hurricane Idalia is a Category 2 storm but is strengthening and expected to intensify to a Category 3 before it makes landfall. Officials are urging Floridians to evacuate as Idalia's storm surge could reach once-in-a-lifetime levels. Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw tells AC360 what the biggest concern is for the city. Plus, Michael Bobbitt lives in Cedar Key, Florida and is riding out the storm there. He joins to explain why he decided to stay and what his plan is, if things go wrong.

To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Tonight a special 360 from the Gulf Coast. We are just getting a brand new forecast and
0:09.9	trapped for Hurricane Idleia. It has strengthened officials awarding that in some low-lying areas
0:16.8	this storm will be unsurvivable. Good evening. I'm John Berman and steen Hatchey in Florida.
0:23.2	This is right on the big band and this is right in the path of Hurricane Idleia, which
0:29.0	is a category 2 hurricane that has just strengthened. The wind speeds are now at 105 miles per hour
0:37.1	and they are gaining. But it is not the wind that has people the most worried about this
0:42.3	hurricane. It's the water. It is the storm surge predicted to be 10 to 15 feet right
0:49.0	where I'm standing in steen Hatchey. The steen Hatchey River right now is at low tide.
0:54.4	At high tide, it's another 5-6 feet higher than where it is. Add 10 to 15 feet on top of
1:00.2	that and the area where I am standing right now is feared to be just completely covered
1:06.5	in water about 8 hours from now. That is the concern along the Florida Gulf Coast.
1:12.8	About 45 minutes south of where I am in the town of Cedar Key, the mayor there issued
1:18.4	his town and his people a stern warning. We're here to beg our citizens to heed this
1:27.5	warning. This storm is worse than we've ever seen. It is worse than we have ever seen.
1:35.9	He said a storm like this has not passed in this direction in over 100 years. It is
1:42.8	why Florida's governor Ron DeSantis is telling people that if you were in these vulnerable
1:48.4	areas, the time to leave is now. Listen. You really got to go now. Now is the time. If
1:56.4	you don't, if you stay a hunker down tonight, it's going to be too nasty tomorrow morning
2:02.1	to be able to do it. Now, if you do choose to stay in one of the evacuation zones, first
2:08.3	responders will not be able to get you until after the storm has passed. That's right.
2:14.1	They're not going to be able to get there until after the storm has passed. If you're
2:17.3	going to go, you need to go now. That was Florida governor Ron DeSantis. As I said, we
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CNN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of CNN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.