1
00:00:09,133 --> 00:00:12,693
Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk Z'B. Follow

2
00:00:12,773 --> 00:00:16,213
Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcast now on iHeartRadio.

3
00:00:16,773 --> 00:00:19,973
Speaker 2: Crossing live to our US correspondent, Mitch McCann. As we

4
00:00:20,053 --> 00:00:22,573
Speaker 2: know more than a million Florida homes with our power.

5
00:00:22,573 --> 00:00:28,173
Speaker 2: As Hurricane Milton brings catastrophically pounds the region, the category

6
00:00:28,173 --> 00:00:30,693
Speaker 2: three storm has thrown out winds are nearly hitting two

7
00:00:30,732 --> 00:00:34,212
Speaker 2: hundred k's an hour. Mitch, how you doing this afternoon?

8
00:00:35,053 --> 00:00:37,173
Speaker 3: I'm good. How are you guys going? Yeah, we're good.

9
00:00:37,493 --> 00:00:40,013
Speaker 4: Very calm here, mature, very carm indeed.

10
00:00:40,893 --> 00:00:41,773
Speaker 3: I bet it is. Look.

11
00:00:41,853 --> 00:00:45,653
Speaker 5: This storm arrived at cest Key on Florida's west coast

12
00:00:46,253 --> 00:00:48,612
Speaker 5: just after midday New Zealand time. The winds have been

13
00:00:48,653 --> 00:00:51,732
Speaker 5: registered at about one hundred and ninety kilometers an hour

14
00:00:52,173 --> 00:00:54,733
Speaker 5: and less than an hour after it made landfall. The

15
00:00:54,813 --> 00:00:58,173
Speaker 5: number of customers that don't have power in Florida is

16
00:00:58,253 --> 00:01:01,973
Speaker 5: now at one point one million so far. Also, one

17
00:01:02,093 --> 00:01:04,893
Speaker 5: hundred and twenty five homes have already been destroyed by

18
00:01:04,933 --> 00:01:05,533
Speaker 5: the hurricane.

19
00:01:05,813 --> 00:01:08,173
Speaker 3: That's according to the Emergency Management.

20
00:01:08,173 --> 00:01:11,372
Speaker 5: To Hear and Forecast has warned that the storm surge

21
00:01:11,373 --> 00:01:15,173
Speaker 5: could reach up to thirteen feet in some parts.

22
00:01:14,813 --> 00:01:17,893
Speaker 3: Of Florida, so this is quite the disaster already.

23
00:01:17,932 --> 00:01:19,932
Speaker 5: Of course, it's very dark here, it's late at night,

24
00:01:20,253 --> 00:01:22,253
Speaker 5: so we probably won't know the full extent of the

25
00:01:22,333 --> 00:01:25,013
Speaker 5: damage until the sunrise early in the morning.

26
00:01:25,133 --> 00:01:27,293
Speaker 4: Is there any idea if it's looking better or worse

27
00:01:27,333 --> 00:01:28,533
Speaker 4: than expected.

28
00:01:28,932 --> 00:01:32,493
Speaker 5: At the moment, I think it is exactly what they anticipated.

29
00:01:32,733 --> 00:01:35,133
Speaker 5: I've been watching on the plane I've just arrived in Florida.

30
00:01:35,613 --> 00:01:38,932
Speaker 5: A number of news reporters standing now on the standing

31
00:01:38,973 --> 00:01:39,853
Speaker 5: on the boardwalks of.

32
00:01:39,813 --> 00:01:41,932
Speaker 3: Various towns trying not to get blown away.

33
00:01:42,572 --> 00:01:44,892
Speaker 5: It seems like most people have actually heeded the calls

34
00:01:44,932 --> 00:01:49,892
Speaker 5: to evacuate. Millions of people have evacuated Florida, and although

35
00:01:49,933 --> 00:01:52,573
Speaker 5: I did see one man in Tampa, he's decided to

36
00:01:52,573 --> 00:01:53,693
Speaker 5: stay on his boat.

37
00:01:53,973 --> 00:01:55,493
Speaker 3: They've called him Lieutenant Dan.

38
00:01:56,413 --> 00:01:58,733
Speaker 5: I'm not sure if he's still alive or where he is,

39
00:01:58,733 --> 00:01:59,853
Speaker 5: but he was refusing to leave.

40
00:01:59,893 --> 00:02:01,453
Speaker 3: And there are a couple of people like that.

41
00:02:01,493 --> 00:02:04,973
Speaker 5: But the biggest issue in Florida since Hurrican Helene last

42
00:02:04,973 --> 00:02:08,813
Speaker 5: week and now Hurrican Milton now is misinformation and has

43
00:02:08,853 --> 00:02:10,613
Speaker 5: been a real problem for the White House.

44
00:02:10,933 --> 00:02:13,412
Speaker 3: And it seems like Donald Trump hasn't been helping.

45
00:02:13,493 --> 00:02:17,252
Speaker 4: How prepared are they because obviously they've just been hit recently.

46
00:02:19,252 --> 00:02:21,493
Speaker 5: Well, I think the thing to understand, of course, is

47
00:02:21,532 --> 00:02:23,532
Speaker 5: that Florida the are very used to this sort of thing,

48
00:02:23,933 --> 00:02:26,813
Speaker 5: So some people try and stay and ride it out

49
00:02:26,853 --> 00:02:29,213
Speaker 5: because they know how to sort of deal with this

50
00:02:29,293 --> 00:02:32,373
Speaker 5: and protect their homes. But I think people have had

51
00:02:32,413 --> 00:02:34,933
Speaker 5: a huge amount of warning because there was a hurricane

52
00:02:34,933 --> 00:02:37,852
Speaker 5: a couple of weeks ago that wiped through here, really

53
00:02:37,853 --> 00:02:40,852
Speaker 5: affected North Carolina. More than two hundred and thirty people died,

54
00:02:41,293 --> 00:02:44,613
Speaker 5: So many people have already been away, They've already prepared

55
00:02:44,613 --> 00:02:46,933
Speaker 5: for the first hurricane. So I guess in some ways

56
00:02:46,933 --> 00:02:49,412
Speaker 5: it might make it easier because preparations have already been

57
00:02:49,413 --> 00:02:52,333
Speaker 5: in place. But it's going to be interesting tomorrow to

58
00:02:52,373 --> 00:02:55,653
Speaker 5: see how this thing washes up because Joe Biden, the President,

59
00:02:55,773 --> 00:02:59,573
Speaker 5: earlier this week told Floridians that it could be the

60
00:02:59,573 --> 00:03:02,413
Speaker 5: worst hurricane to hit this region in one hundred years.

61
00:03:02,453 --> 00:03:04,453
Speaker 3: But we'll see how things fall tomorrow.

62
00:03:04,733 --> 00:03:07,933
Speaker 2: You mentioned their match, but of misinformation at the moment,

63
00:03:08,333 --> 00:03:11,373
Speaker 2: polytical is this thing getting this close to the US election.

64
00:03:12,013 --> 00:03:15,732
Speaker 5: This has become hugely political. Hurricane Helene, which came in

65
00:03:15,813 --> 00:03:17,813
Speaker 5: just over a week ago, Donald Trump was one of

66
00:03:17,813 --> 00:03:21,213
Speaker 5: the first people to arrive and the disasters owned to

67
00:03:21,252 --> 00:03:23,613
Speaker 5: meet people and to talk about the emergency.

68
00:03:23,653 --> 00:03:25,973
Speaker 3: Then Joe Biden came, Then Kamala Harris came, and.

69
00:03:25,972 --> 00:03:28,813
Speaker 5: There's been a bit of a frack har between Kamala

70
00:03:28,813 --> 00:03:32,933
Speaker 5: Harris and the Governor of Florida, Ron De Santis, because

71
00:03:33,053 --> 00:03:36,133
Speaker 5: he hasn't been picking up her phone calls, so that's

72
00:03:36,173 --> 00:03:38,053
Speaker 5: become a bit of a story as well. But he

73
00:03:38,093 --> 00:03:40,693
Speaker 5: sees the only reason she's calling is because of the election.

74
00:03:41,333 --> 00:03:43,853
Speaker 5: She's never called before when there's been a disaster. But

75
00:03:43,933 --> 00:03:46,373
Speaker 5: as I said, the biggest issue here is misinformation. So

76
00:03:46,413 --> 00:03:48,973
Speaker 5: the White Houses had to go on this social media

77
00:03:49,053 --> 00:03:52,533
Speaker 5: campaign to try and tell people what are falsehoods and

78
00:03:52,773 --> 00:03:54,973
Speaker 5: what aren't. They've even signed up and made their own

79
00:03:55,013 --> 00:03:57,253
Speaker 5: readit account to try and get this sort of thing

80
00:03:57,253 --> 00:04:01,173
Speaker 5: across these One Florida congress woman, or she might be

81
00:04:01,173 --> 00:04:02,973
Speaker 5: from Georgia, actually, Marjorie Taylor Green.

82
00:04:03,053 --> 00:04:03,893
Speaker 3: You might have heard of her.

83
00:04:05,013 --> 00:04:09,293
Speaker 5: She suggested that someone might be controlling the weather, and

84
00:04:09,373 --> 00:04:11,693
Speaker 5: another Florida congressman has said that she needs to get

85
00:04:11,693 --> 00:04:13,893
Speaker 5: her head examined. So these are the sort of things

86
00:04:14,253 --> 00:04:16,453
Speaker 5: that people are being told and in fact, you know,

87
00:04:16,493 --> 00:04:18,333
Speaker 5: we all might think it's a little bit crazy, but

88
00:04:18,413 --> 00:04:20,693
Speaker 5: people actually do believe these sort of things when that's

89
00:04:20,693 --> 00:04:24,093
Speaker 5: what they're hearing from their local representatives in a lot

90
00:04:24,093 --> 00:04:25,133
Speaker 5: of Republican states.

91
00:04:25,413 --> 00:04:28,493
Speaker 4: Yeah, huge amount of politics from both sides. How are

92
00:04:28,493 --> 00:04:31,893
Speaker 4: people actually evacuating? Are they evacuating by car? Are they

93
00:04:32,253 --> 00:04:34,133
Speaker 4: flying out of there? Because it's a huge amount of

94
00:04:34,133 --> 00:04:35,933
Speaker 4: people to move in such a short amount of time.

95
00:04:36,413 --> 00:04:37,773
Speaker 3: It is they've had a couple of days.

96
00:04:37,773 --> 00:04:41,173
Speaker 5: I mean, we've seen pictures of the highways absolutely clogged

97
00:04:41,173 --> 00:04:42,493
Speaker 5: over the last couple of days.

98
00:04:42,533 --> 00:04:43,773
Speaker 3: Are heading out of Florida.

99
00:04:43,813 --> 00:04:47,373
Speaker 5: We're in Jacksonville, which is north of where the storm

100
00:04:47,413 --> 00:04:49,853
Speaker 5: has just hit now, and it is almost impossible to

101
00:04:49,893 --> 00:04:52,133
Speaker 5: find accommodation. So I think what people have done is

102
00:04:52,133 --> 00:04:54,893
Speaker 5: they've driven south, or they've driven north but stayed in

103
00:04:54,973 --> 00:04:55,493
Speaker 5: the state.

104
00:04:56,573 --> 00:04:58,893
Speaker 3: But the difficulty is for people flying.

105
00:04:58,613 --> 00:05:00,813
Speaker 5: Anywhere in Florida at the moment, a lot of the

106
00:05:00,853 --> 00:05:03,413
Speaker 5: flights have been canceled. Another thing to note in terms

107
00:05:03,413 --> 00:05:05,733
Speaker 5: of evacuations is that a couple of hours ago, the

108
00:05:05,773 --> 00:05:07,693
Speaker 5: governor here has said, well, there's no point you're not.

109
00:05:07,693 --> 00:05:10,093
Speaker 3: Going to get out. It's time to shelter in place.

110
00:05:10,293 --> 00:05:13,493
Speaker 5: The time has finished for evacuating, so anyone that wants

111
00:05:13,533 --> 00:05:16,093
Speaker 5: to leave, it's too late and they'll have to hunk

112
00:05:16,093 --> 00:05:17,093
Speaker 5: it down wherever they can.

113
00:05:17,533 --> 00:05:20,413
Speaker 2: Mitch, thank you very much. Look after yourself, stay safe,

114
00:05:20,453 --> 00:05:21,613
Speaker 2: You've got a big couple of days.

115
00:05:21,493 --> 00:05:23,653
Speaker 3: Ahead of you. Thank you, fellows, appreciate it.

116
00:05:23,693 --> 00:05:25,693
Speaker 2: That is US correspondent Mitch McCann.

117
00:05:26,253 --> 00:05:28,933
Speaker 1: For more from News Talks at b Listen live on

118
00:05:28,973 --> 00:05:31,933
Speaker 1: air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever

119
00:05:32,013 --> 00:05:34,573
Speaker 1: you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.