Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Mitch McCann: US Correspondent on the damages from Hurricane Milton

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Mitch McCann: US Correspondent on the damages from Hurricane Milton · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's taken a lot of expertise to evacuate some of
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  Speaker 1: those trapped by the floodwaters. We're going to This is
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  Speaker 1: hurricane Milton. Forgive me. I was about to say, Helene,
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  Speaker 1: We're going to Saint Augustine now in Florida, where US
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  Speaker 1: correspondent Mitch McCann is standing by. Mitch, how is.
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  Speaker 2: It there, Good morning, Ryan.
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  Speaker 3: It is wet, it is windy, and it is pretty
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  Speaker 3: cold here at the moment, I'm just looking out at
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  Speaker 3: the water where I am, where the hurricane, the back
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  Speaker 3: end of the hurricane pass through last night, and there's
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  Speaker 3: still you know, sort of surges over the top of
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  Speaker 3: the barriers here surface flooding. A number of the businesses
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  Speaker 3: have got their sandbags across their buildings.
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  Speaker 2: But really here, in many parts of Florida.
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  Speaker 3: It wasn't as bad as perhaps it was forecast to
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  Speaker 3: be last night.
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  Speaker 1: How many I think the death toll was at four
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  Speaker 1: at the moment, Lots of people evacuated. Our authorities saying
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  Speaker 1: the worst is over now.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the latest information that we have in the last
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  Speaker 3: couple of moments is that death toll is now six
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  Speaker 3: and the scale of the damage is really only becoming clear.
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  Speaker 3: So four people died in a retirement community in Saint
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  Speaker 3: Lucy County that was reportedly as a result of tornadoes
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  Speaker 3: that were around before the actual storm hit last night.
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  Speaker 3: A number of people had to be rescued there as well,
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  Speaker 3: and two people now we know have also died in
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  Speaker 3: the city of Saint Petersburg. In terms of rescues, which
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  Speaker 3: you've talked about in Tampa, one hundred and thirty five
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  Speaker 3: people had to be rescued from an assisted living facility
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  Speaker 3: where first responders arrived and they found people up to
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  Speaker 3: their waste and water. In terms of the infrastructure damage, Ryan,
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  Speaker 3: there's some extraordinary pitchures we've seen this morning coming out
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  Speaker 3: of Saint Petersburg, a Major League Baseball stadium called Tropakana Field.
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  Speaker 3: The roof there was pretty much ripped off because of
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  Speaker 3: the hurricane. And just down the road in the same city,
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  Speaker 3: Saint Petersburg, a large crane was blown over, toppled into
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  Speaker 3: a nearby building and caused that building is pretty much
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  Speaker 3: destroyed now.
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  Speaker 2: So there are some big situations like that that have happened.
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  Speaker 3: But as I say, you know, as the afternoon goes on,
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  Speaker 3: people are going to go out and find more damage.
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  Speaker 2: So the entire scale isn't clear just yet.
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  Speaker 1: Metchart's obviously early days, but this stuff always eventually becomes political.
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  Speaker 1: The response to it, that is, how are they being judged?
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  Speaker 1: That is both Trump and Harris at the moment, well.
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  Speaker 3: This has become really political. Even after a Hurricane Helen
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  Speaker 3: last week. Donald Trump was one of the first candidates
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  Speaker 3: of first politicians I guess to arrive and talk to
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  Speaker 3: people on the scene. Then Kamala Harris has been there,
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  Speaker 3: Joe Biden's been there.
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  Speaker 2: There's been a bit of.
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  Speaker 3: A dispute between the governor of Florida, Ronda Santis, and
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  Speaker 3: Kamala Harris because he reportedly refused to pick up her
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  Speaker 3: phone calls. But he said, why is she even calling me?
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  Speaker 3: She's never called before when there's been a hurricane. Donald Trump,
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  Speaker 3: on the other hand, has been accused of blakeant misinformation,
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  Speaker 3: saying things like the money that was supposed to go
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  Speaker 3: to survivors or people in need is actually going to
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  Speaker 3: illegal immigrants, and people are believing these sort of things.
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  Speaker 3: Marjorie Taylor Green, who I know we've probably talked about before,
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  Speaker 3: is a Republican congresswoman who suggested on social media that
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  Speaker 3: these hurricanes might be engineered.
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  Speaker 2: They might be human.
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  Speaker 3: Caused hurricanes, which is obviously completely wrong. But you know,
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  Speaker 3: some people in some of these states do believe what
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  Speaker 3: their politicians tell them, so the White House has had
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  Speaker 3: to go on a sort of big campaign to combat misinformation.
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  Speaker 1: Goodness may that she's talking cloud seeding, isn't she, Mitch,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for that. Mitch mckaann our US correspondent with
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  Speaker 1: US Live from Saint Augustine and Florida. The good news
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  Speaker 1: as well, the sad news is four people six people
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  Speaker 1: now have lost their lives, but not as bad as feared.
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• 3:42
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• 3:44
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