CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Flash Flooding in Florida

Interview

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The Florida governor, Rick Scott, has declared a state of emergency. And he's warning residents to be on guard for even more rain and maybe more flooding. He's been touring some the hardest-hit areas by these flash floods.

The governor is joining us now live from Pensacola.

Governor, thanks very much.

Has everyone been rescued? Are people missing? What's the latest on that front?

GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: Sure, Wolf. I got here as soon as I could this morning. We had over 300 individuals asking to be rescued. All those have been rescued today. We don't have anybody that we know of that's still asking for rescue.

You can see the street behind me. All these homes are evacuating. They don't have power. They don't have water. We have so many roads washed away. We have part of our scenic highway washed away. And this was a complete surprise to these people. They woke up at 12:30, 1:00 in the morning with an inch or two or three or four inches of water in their house and just shocked what was going on.

They came out. There's cars overturned. There's cars that fell off the highway. But we have rescued everybody that we know of that's asked to be evacuated, some people from their attics. And this community is already coming together.

As I see and I talk to people, I have been here all day. Individuals are helping each other. They're going in. They're helping store owners get started again. This will be -- this is a vibrant community that's going to come back strong.

BLITZER: We know that the Florida Highway Patrol has reported one death associated with the flooding. Do you know the circumstances surrounding that, Governor?

SCOTT: Wolf, I don't know. I have not been -- that death has not been confirmed to me, but we brought highway patrols here. We brought 24 high-water vehicles from the National Guard here. We brought every resource the state has here.

We're talking to FEMA. They're going to be on the ground on Friday. We're going to make sure all our citizens get taken care of.

BLITZER: This was totally unexpected, we're told. Our meteorologist Chad Myers said there had been really no serious forecasts. There was some fear of tornadoes, but 15 hours of nonstop rain and eventual flooding, that took everyone by surprise.

What happened here? I'm sure you're going to do a little review to make sure the next time around the folks are better prepared.

SCOTT: You know, Wolf, we get ready for hurricanes. We know what to do for hurricanes. We even know what to do for tornadoes.

We just didn't expect this flash flooding up to -- they say over 22 inches overnight, five inches in one hour. We just never expected it. Areas of our city -- of the city of Pensacola never anticipated they would have water like this through their streets.

Like, the street behind me, no one -- there's individuals who lived on this street for 50 years. I talked to one lady. She had never seen water like this on her street. She's just shocked that it would happen, 80 years old, by herself, and was scared to death in the middle of the night when this started happening.

BLITZER: And we're told that more rain is now forecast over the next day or two. What do you anticipate? Potentially -- let's hope not -- could there be even more flooding, Governor?

SCOTT: Oh, we still anticipate as the water goes into the rivers, we're going to have some river flooding. We hope we won't have very much rain, so we won't get more flooding in the city like what we're seeing right now.

But there's still water flowing through our streets. I was at one house where they basically -- it was almost off the slab. The whole back of the house had been washed away underneath.

So, you know, you couldn't get close to it. The highways -- some of the highways I was on, all underneath had been washed away. But we're hoping for no more rain. But, unfortunately, the forecast is for more rain.

BLITZER: Governor, good luck to you. Good luck to everyone over there in the Panhandle, in Pensacola, especially. We will stay in touch, Governor Rick Scott of Florida. Thank you.

SCOTT: Thank you. Thank you, Wolf.

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