00:00Let me go out to CNN's Isabel Rosales.
00:02She is in Tampa for us where we're seeing more rescues.
00:06Isabel, what can you tell us?
00:09Gemma, yes, you're looking at a very, very active
00:13search and rescue operation.
00:15That is, sure, that vehicle you're looking at right there,
00:17able to go into the deep flood waters
00:19that they're experiencing right now
00:21at the University Mall area.
00:23This is a strange scene for this area.
00:27This sort of flooding just does not happen here.
00:30Behind that vehicle is actually a sign
00:33of the Great American Assistive Living Facility,
00:36and that is where deputies have just rescued 135 members.
00:40Let's move this camera to the right right here,
00:43and you're gonna see them right here.
00:45Many of them elderly, many of them need to use wheelchairs
00:49or walkers, and what they're doing right now
00:52is they've been rescued out of those flood waters
00:54by Hillsborough County deputies
00:55and Hillsborough County Fire Rescue,
00:58and what's going to happen is they're going to be loaded
01:00into a school bus like we saw just moments ago,
01:04the bus full to the brim with these people
01:08for the Assistive Living Facility,
01:10and they're going to take them away to a shelter
01:12or somewhere that they can get the appropriate attention,
01:14food, water, shelter, medical attention, most importantly.
01:18I spoke with somebody here named Gary
01:21who was inside of that Assistive Living Facility,
01:23and he told me the water came suddenly and up to his knees,
01:27that it was scary.
01:29The sheriff here, Chad Chronister,
01:31this was actually his district when he was a rookie,
01:35and he tells us that he has never seen anything like this
01:38in terms of flooding for the University Mall area,
01:41and this is not the end of it.
01:42They have set up a command post, Jim,
01:45because, yes, they got all of these people out,
01:47but there's other people stuck in homes
01:50and in an apartment complex, I'm told by HCSO,
01:53so they're going to be busy going door to door here
01:56and getting people who are trapped by these floodwaters out.
02:00Yeah, I mean, you can see it all on their faces,
02:03just looks of exhaustion and desperation.
02:07I can't imagine what they're going through.
02:08I don't want to put you on the spot as well,
02:10but if any of them want to talk to you,
02:11I mean, feel free to see how they're doing.
02:14I actually do, Jim. I do.
02:16I have Gary over here, and I just wasn't sure
02:18how that would work out with the camera
02:20since we're having some audio issues.
02:21Yeah, we'll give it a shot.
02:23Gary, can you speak right now? Is that okay?
02:27This is Gary. Gary, can you tell me again what happened?
02:31How did the water come suddenly?
02:34What happened was the water just came in.
02:35It just, they had the doors blocked,
02:38but it came in.
02:41There was nothing they could do about it.
02:44We have regular people, but we had other facilities.
02:48Some brains didn't come over here,
02:50and that's why there's so many people in here.
02:52Yeah, and the water came suddenly and unexpectedly?
02:55Slowly, real slowly.
02:57Kept going up, up, up, higher and higher and higher.
03:00At what point did you know that 911 had to be called?
03:04Oh, about midnight or so, something like that, yeah.
03:08From midnight that call was made,
03:11and then you guys have been waiting for conditions to be okay.
03:15We know that... I don't know who made the call.
03:17Who made the call, right.
03:18We know that 911 operations were suspended shortly after 11
03:23because of the high wind speeds,
03:25how unsafe conditions were for deputies to be out and about.
03:28So right before daylight is when they started these operations.
03:31How are people?
03:32How are people after this situation, Gary?
03:35Most of them are cold because they've been in water all night.
03:39Oh, my gosh. Waiting through the water?
03:41They're just sitting late.
03:42We had extra beds brought in for the other facility,
03:46and there's nothing we could do.
03:47The water kept going up.
03:49So people are just sitting in the water for overnight?
03:52Most of it, yeah.
03:54I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
03:55I heard just someone say all night.
03:57And I did see when somebody was loaded up into the school bus,
04:01somebody said, thank God for first responders.
04:03Thank you for this.
04:05What is the feeling, the sentiment that you guys had
04:08once you saw HCSO roll on in?
04:10Oh, personally, I wasn't surprised,
04:15but how many people we had here to help everybody,
04:20I'm totally shocked.
04:21I'm very appreciative.
04:24And, you know, I just, you know, because I'm able to walk.
04:31Yeah, and so many cannot. I see them in the water.
04:34Exactly. Yeah.
04:36And, Gary, thank you so much.
04:37And I see your hat, a Marine, a veteran.
04:39Thank you so much for your service, sir.
04:41And I hope that you get some food, you know, you get some warmth,
04:44and you guys get the medical attention you need.
04:47Thank you so much, sir.
04:48Can I take his jacket?
04:49Yeah, we'll get you a jacket, sir.
04:52Thank you. Tim, I'll talk this back to you.
04:54Yeah, Isabel, thank you so much.
04:56And I'm sure they're cold if they've been sitting in the water.
04:58Did I hear that correctly, Isabel,
05:00that these residents were in this facility
05:02and some of them were sitting in the water
05:04or standing in the water in the middle of the night?
05:07Correct. Correct.
05:08Oh, my God.
05:09Ma'am, would you be willing to talk to us?
05:11Would you be willing?
05:12He said that you guys were in the water for hours cold.
05:15Was that the case?
05:16Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.
05:19I remember when it started to come through
05:22and it was only about that deep
05:24and it was coming from under the air conditioning unit.
05:28The water was coming from under the air conditioning unit?
05:31Yeah, I guess the outside was getting full
05:35and I think there's a retention pond or something behind us.
05:38Yeah, I know.
05:39Yeah, and it just filled up
05:41and started coming right in the building.
05:44The back door was all the way down the end of Hallway 1
05:49and we were the absolute last room.
05:55Scary, I'm sure.
05:56It was because you could literally hear that thing
06:01coming around the corner
06:02and it just sounded like it was going to take the building with it,
06:05you know, and when the winds came.
06:10Well, I'm so sorry for what you're going through.
06:11What's your name, ma'am?
06:12Patricia.
06:13Patricia, I'm so sorry, Patricia.
06:15I can see.
06:16Thank you guys.
06:17You guys came out.
06:19You really cared enough about us.
06:20Of course, and to the first responders
06:22getting you guys the help that you need.
06:24Thank you so much, Patricia.
06:25Please be safe.
06:26Jim, back to you.
06:28Isabel, give those folks a hug for us.
06:30And I hate to ask something that maybe you can't answer, Isabel,
06:33and forgive me for asking you,
06:35but were these folks supposed to evacuate?
06:37I mean, that's the thing that I just have a question about
06:40is whether they should have even been left in, you know,
06:42in this facility overnight with the water coming up.
06:45You know, forgive me for asking something you can't answer.
06:48That's OK. We can find out.
06:49No, no problem. No problem.
06:51So my understanding, Jim,
06:53this is not an area that would normally flood to this level.
06:56We know that there's been mandatory evacuation of like zones A and B
07:01throughout Hillsborough County and Tampa proper.
07:05This is not it.
07:06And, of course, once I get in touch with the sheriff here,
07:08Chad Chronister, I'll ask him more about it.
07:11But this seems to be a situation where everyone was listening
07:13to the advice of, you know, forecasters and authority figures.
07:17And then this just came unexpectedly,
07:19this incredible stunning amount of floodwaters.
07:23I want to introduce to you two ladies here who told me
07:26they'd be willing to talk us through what happened, what they experienced.
07:29This is Teresa.
07:31She's a resident.
07:32And this is Kayla, who actually works at that assisted living facility.
07:35Teresa, can you bring me back to what happened
07:39when the floodwaters rushed in?
07:40Well, I was in bed, obviously,
07:41and I didn't realize it was flooded at first.
07:44Then I heard a crash.
07:45And I had a, I mean, a refrigerator in there
07:49and a microwave on top of it.
07:51It just blew out.
07:52It's on the floor floating.
07:53I mean, it was coming up in my bed to the edge of my bed.
07:56I mean, it got on, it was terrible.
07:59That sounds terrifying.
08:00The water was so cold, you know.
08:03Man, it's just, and I'm missing a shoe, my brace shoe,
08:06and I don't know where it is in my room, floating around somewhere.
08:10Yeah, but...
08:12Yeah, I can see you're, you know, tearing up a bit,
08:14thinking about those moments.
08:15I'm so sorry you went through...
08:17Scary, scary.
08:19You know, and more people moved around in the tiki room,
08:22plus shit out the other side.
08:24And how long did you guys wait in those floodwaters?
08:28It was a pretty good while.
08:30We just got out maybe, like, what, a couple of hours ago?
08:35We were in, like, three, four feet of water.
08:39I got woken up about 2am to the building is starting to flood.
08:44So we had to, I had to get up, I had to react,
08:47I had to get dressed and basically make sure
08:51that all the residents were OK,
08:53including residents that were from Bradenton,
08:56because they got transported yesterday to our facility.
08:59Is there a reason why?
09:01Because they thought that, they were told to evacuate.
09:05So what, you actually had more residents evacuate to your facility
09:09because they thought that they'd be safe there?
09:11Yes, Manatee County told them to evacuate.
09:15And then that's when... To you.
09:17To us, yes.
09:18So Bradenton was mainly in the kind of, like, the middle
09:22and, like, some rooms, as much as we could really do.
09:26And I did confirm with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office,
09:28this is not an evacuation zone.
09:30So this is something that came sudden and unexpected.
09:33This is not the sort of flooding you would anticipate seeing here
09:36in the University Mall area.
09:39Can you talk real quickly, Kayla, about the medical complications
09:43of these residents?
09:44We had to... There was a guy from Bradenton.
09:47He was running low on oxygen.
09:48So we had to get him an oxygen tank
09:52because he had a portable oxygen.
09:55We got that taken care of.
09:56And we also had another oxygen tank on hand as well
10:01because that's also important for them to breathe and stay alive.
10:06And then we still had to pass out medications
10:09while we were in the building
10:10because their medication is important.
10:12Right. So a situation...
10:14You're not dealing with regular, you know, people
10:16just in any apartment complex, which, by the way,
10:18they're doing rescues right now at an apartment complex
10:20and nearby homes.
10:22These are people dealing with mobility issues,
10:23medication, oxygen.
10:25She's in a wheelchair, so she can't mobilize herself.
10:28She can stand up, but she can't...
10:31She can transfer and everything,
10:32but she can't physically get out of here and walk.
10:35So it's very difficult for her and some other residents as well.
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