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Nancy Grace
The Aftermath of Hurricane Irene
Aired August 29, 2011 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just heard it come down!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was really definitely history in the making. Look at that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holding on there, getting blown around by that (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s pretty dangerous out there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rainfall amounts that we see here are tremendous, for sure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can see the water that needs to come down before anyone gets anywhere near these roadways.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Record flooding.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see the maroon house over there. That`s collapsed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These pictures are dramatic. Raging water.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Raging waters ripping through the streets of Brattleboro.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The power of these waters basically exploded this brook into more than triple its width.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You get that much water in that period of time -- we literally were taking on an inch-and-a-half of rain an hour.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Moments ago, the lighthouse...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There goes the lifeguard shack!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lifeguard shack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIANE DIMOND, GUEST HOST: Good evening, everyone. I`m Diane Dimond, in tonight for Nancy Grace. Hurricane Irene has roared up the eastern coastline, and now we are left to deal with the destructive aftermath. At least 27 deaths so far -- the death toll will rise -- massive flooding in several states, five million Americans remain without power, and countless numbers are still in shelters or somewhere other than their own homes tonight.
CNN`s Mary Snow has been in the thick of it all weekend long and joins us tonight from Pompton Lakes, New Jersey. Mary, first of all, you must be exhausted. But you know, I noticed that is not an area that`s right on the coastline, yet I hear there`s so much damage there. Tell us about that.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Yes. And Diane, so much focus was on the coastline in southern New Jersey, but what`s happened in northern New Jersey has turned out to be some of the hardest hit areas because of swelling rivers, there was so much rain.
This is a town that has three rivers running through it and a lake, hence Pompton Lakes.
DIMOND: Right.
SNOW: And what happened -- now, these rivers have already crested, so this is not the worst of it. This is much improved since earlier even today. But there are still rivers that have yet to crest, and the governor said this afternoon that nine rivers in northern New Jersey have approached or reached record levels, and there are some that are expected to crest within the next 24 hours or so.
And these towns -- this one in particular is prone to flooding. However, residents here who have seen a lot of flooding say they haven`t seen it this bad. They said there was a very bad storm in 1984. But some are saying this is the worst they have ever seen it.
We took an aerial view -- we went up with the New Jersey National Guard, and took a look at Passaic County and got a sense of the widespread flooding. The governor had activated National Guards troops to help out and about 1,300 National Guards troops are here. Most of them are in northern New Jersey.
DIMOND: You know, Mary, there has been so much criticism, sort of Monday morning quarterbacking, as it were, about the governor in New Jersey, the governor of New York, the mayor of New York City, warning people too urgently, you know, evacuating too big a space of land. Is that what you`re hearing there? Those people, where you have been, must be very grateful for that advanced warning.
SNOW: Yes. These people are used to dealing with floods. Not everyone left their homes. What happened here earlier today in Pompton Lakes -- this morning, there was a house fire. It`s believed to have been caused by a gas line eruption. It was a house that was under water. Fortunately, no one was inside.
But what the mayor said is that some people at that point who had stayed in their homes, knowing that the water would recede, then started getting very nervous. So there were a number of rescues throughout the day. Everybody is fine, but people got nervous after that fire and said, you know, We`re not going to wait until that water recedes. We`re calling for help and we want to get out.
There had been multiple warnings to people to get out of their homes. One resident I talked to, you know, said that they were here until last night, and when they saw what this flooding started to look like, they realized, you know, This is something that we haven`t dealt with.
DIMOND: Right.
SNOW: And this is not -- you know, there are pockets around me that are not flooded, so it`s not like the entire town is under water. There are -- you know, there are pockets that have deep water. But you know, people took it pretty seriously.
DIMOND: Yes. You know, you hear Hurricane Irene -- well, she was a tropical storm when she actually hit the New York City area -- and you think of wind damage. But as Mary is reporting, look at the water damage.
Let`s bring in Brian Todd, another CNN correspondent. He`s down in North Carolina, and it was in North Carolina that the highest amount of rainfall was reported. Let me see -- 15.66 inches. Brian, even after all that, there were a lot of people there where you are that did not evacuate.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Diane, about 2,500 people from Hatteras Island did not evacuate. That`s about 16 miles behind me, across Pamlico Sound. The only way to get to Hatteras Island right now is by that ferry. These ferries are going out every couple of hours to ferry supplies, highway construction equipment, medical supplies, food. Also electrical trucks are going out there to try to restore power.
Yes, 2,500 people ignored the orders, the mandatory orders to evacuate, which is their right to do.
DIMOND: Right.
TODD: And they stayed there. Now they are cut off from the rest of the world. The only way to get there is by ferry because a major artery, highway 12, which runs north/south from Hatteras Island to the northern Outer Banks, was just basically washed over by the storm surge.
DIMOND: So Brian...
TODD: It caved in. It got chopped up in places. Right.
DIMOND: So Brian, I don`t mean to interrupt you, but so there`s a lot of state funds now going to have to be used to minister to these 2,500 people, dare I say stubborn people, who decided to stick there. There must be some sort of public outrage about that with the other residents.
TODD: Well, some of that is just kind of sinking in. The governor was asked this morning whether she was angry at these people for staying, when there were clear warnings from her and from others to get out. And she at least outwardly said no, she`s not angry. She kind of described these people as the dyed-in-the wool North Carolinians, the lifeblood of Hatteras Island.
But look, the fact of the matter remains that what you said is true. It`s costing thousands of taxpayer dollars, probably per voyage, for this ferry to go out. If any of those people need emergency medical treatment...
DIMOND: Oh, yes!
TODD: ... pretty much the only way to get that to them or airlift them out is by helicopter, and that costs at least a couple thousand dollars a pop. That`s going to be taxpayer money.
DIMOND: Unbelievable. Unbelievable pictures from North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, D.C., area, up to New York and all the way to Vermont. We will get to Vermont in just a moment.
But right now, I want to bring in Chad Myers, CNN meteorologist. Chad, did this storm behave the way you thought it would? Were all the projections right, or did they somehow get skewed a bit?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, this storm, wind-wise, was an underachiever, Diane. It truly was.
DIMOND: Oh, really?
MYERS: It had so much potential. This storm had a pressure -- and you can go back and look at records -- of 1,950 millibars -- and to any layperson, that doesn`t mean anything, but to a meteorologist, that means that at any time, this storm could have been 110 to 115 miles per hour. Even after it left North Carolina, it still had that pressure. And that`s why people could never let their guard down.
This storm -- this storm at any point in time, within a couple of hours, could have gone from that 80-mile-per-hour storm back to 110, where it was before it hit North Carolina, and that would have caused so much more significant wind damage. What it ended up being is a flood maker, and that`s what -- you know, we`re going to see that for months, probably. The clean-up`s going to take forever.
DIMOND: Right, and that`s devastating enough. So are you saying that we overhyped this hurricane, or is it better to be safe than sorry?
MYERS: You know, I had two 16-hour shifts...
DIMOND: I know you did!
MYERS: ... on Saturday and Sunday, so I can`t tell you what the other networks did. I can`t even tell you what the Weather Channel did, and they`re in Atlanta, as well.
But I can tell you that I don`t believe we did it at all. We had the forecast down. The forecast was right over New York City for days. And that`s the case. Now, the fact that windows didn`t get blown out of New York City highrises, you know, that`s great. I`m really happy about that.
But let me tell you, windows got blown out of Montreal buildings, Montreal, Quebec.
DIMOND: Yes.
MYERS: That`s 300 miles away from landfall. So the potential was always there. The fact that it just was a glancing blow, the fact that it was -- it ran over North Carolina and destroyed the eastern sections of North Carolina took the stuffing out of the storm. Then it ran over parts of New Jersey, and very few New Yorkers will ever thank a New Jerseyian for anything, but you can thank...
(LAUGHTER)
MYERS: You can thank New Jersey for taking some of the more stuffing out of the storm...
DIMOND: Well, it...
(CROSSTALK)
DIMOND: It got Long Island, too, though, the north fork of Long Island.
MYERS: It did. But the storm -- as it hit land, it lost energy. A hurricane will always want to be over water. Water is where the storm gathers strength. It gets its energy from the warmth of the water. The storm was a Category 2, almost a Category 3 right there over the Bahamas. And then it turned to the right and hit North Carolina, and never recovered from that hit.
DIMOND: You know, Chad, I sort of think of you as the guru of all meteorologists, so you`re the one to ask here. I understand there`s another storm brewing out there somewhere. Tell me about that.
MYERS: Yes. Yes, there is. There`s another storm, and it`s going to be named Katia. And it is...
DIMOND: Katia.
MYERS: It`s not that far -- it replaced the name Katrina because Katrina was retired.
DIMOND: Oh.
MYERS: People said, Wasn`t there an Irene six years ago? Yes, there was. Actually, the names are recycled every six years, but names that are memorable -- Andrew, Katrina, Opal, you know, Gloria -- will never be used again. They get retired. And so...
DIMOND: How about Floyd?
MYERS: Exactly. No, never used again. So Katrina was retired and Katia was replaced. And it could be a Category 2 hurricane a little bit farther north than where this one was, so probably what we call a "gutterball," just hitting the Atlantic Ocean. We call those "fish storms" as they turn and only hit fish.
DIMOND: And when are we expecting that?
MYERS: Looks like it could be a Category 2 in five days, turning hard to the right -- or maybe over Bermuda. That would be an inopportune time for them, but as a Category 2 or 3, and that would be almost 10 days from now.
DIMOND: Yes. And speaking of Katrina, it`s an anniversary today, right, the sixth-year anniversary of Katrina?
MYERS: You know, it`s a long story. And I believe in my heart that the memory of Katrina may have had something to do with how the mayors reacted. And if you remember what -- all the criticism that Mayor Nagin went through after Katrina went through New Orleans, I don`t believe any official wanted to go through that scrutiny again. And overreaction was probably the better part of valor on their case because, you know, we still lost 25 people, 25 people still died from this storm.
DIMOND: I think it`s -- yes, it`s up now to 27, Chad.
MYERS: Well, there you go. So when you call it overhype, if we said, No, no one was injured, then that would be overhyped. But this certainly wasn`t.
DIMOND: Right. Well, when we come back, more on Vermont, and crime. Crime did not take a holiday for this weather system. We`ll be right back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They came pounding on our door about 10:30 and said we needed to get out, that the river was cresting, going over the banks. As soon as we looked out, it was just -- it was utter mayhem down the street. There were trees coming down and it just -- it took out a mobile home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is horrible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A stunning view of the power of Hurricane Irene.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of destruction, a lot of devastation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Water rising, the death toll rising, millions without power.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of the worst flooding in decades.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It came quick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The flood waters are receding, but the problems are not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four million people left in the dark all the way up the East Coast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flooded house in New Jersey bursting into flames.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Much more damage inland than along the coast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It gives you an indication of just how massive -- man!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The aftermath of Hurricane Irene.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIMOND: Good evening, everybody. I`m Diane Dimond, in tonight for Nancy Grace. And the topic is the massive recovery after Hurricane Irene. We`re also taking your calls tonight.
You know, before the break, we talked about crime not taking a holiday, even during a hurricane. I`m looking at some of the research here that the NANCY GRACE producers have put together for me. In Staten Island, a couple went door to door claiming that they were corrections officers and asking who was going to evacuate. They figure they were going to come back and rob the places. In Virginia Beach, Virginia, an evacuation area, looting and robberies. And in Long Island, New York, a volunteer at a Red Cross shelter was arrested after he allegedly sexually abused a woman who had come in seeking shelter.
It is not a time where the police and firefighters and other law enforcement officials need to be worrying about crime, but they did in those areas and many more.
Let`s bring in Steve Kardian. He`s a former police detective. Steve, what`s up with that? I mean, even while people are fearing for their lives, the bandits are still out there?
STEVE KARDIAN, FMR. POLICE DETECTIVE: Yes. And they`re not the brightest bulbs in the box, if you will, Diane. They identify themselves to the victims already, and you know, putting themselves off as corrections officers.
What they`re doing is, they know that the law enforcement is going to be tied up. They know that that area`s going to be evacuated. And they were waiting to take the opportunity to steal their property. You know, anywhere you go in this world, if you drop your guard low enough, there`s somebody like them willing to take advantage of you.
DIMOND: You know, Anne Bremner is joining us here. She is a defense attorney extraordinaire. Anne, you get one of these yokels that comes in and says, yes, well, I was going to -- you know, I was casing the houses to steal during a hurricane, what do you tell them to plead, stupid?
ANNE BREMNER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Guilty. Guilty as charged, Diane. I mean, it`s just awful that opportunity knocks. I mean, the only good thing is that the crimes were way down from this time last year, according to the mayor. But yes, guilty. Guilty, because the judge is going to throw the book at them, Diane. I mean, these are vulnerable victims. It`s a terrible time. And the police aren`t going to be able to enforce the law or do anything. So I`d say guilty and cut a deal and run.
DIMOND: Yes. Yes. I am with you. One thing, Mayor Bloomberg here in New York did say that on Saturday night, when everybody was hunkered down waiting for it to hit, they made about 35 or 40 arrests, and usually, they make about 350 or 400. So at least some of the criminals stayed home.
Let`s go to Eunice. She`s on the telephone from Pennsylvania. Hi, Eunice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Diane.
DIMOND: What`s your situation there? Did you get flooded out?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we didn`t get flooded out. Actually, in my area, it was just a lot of rain and strong winds. And my house is, like, very secluded in the woods. So a lot of trees fell down around my house, but luckily, I didn`t get any power outage.
DIMOND: Did you have a question for one of our panelists tonight, Eunice?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had a question for Celena`s sister.
DIMOND: Oh, yes. We haven`t talked to Celena`s sister yet, though, dear. What`s your question? And when we come back, we`ll be talking with Katrina Silvestri. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just wanted to know if she knew why her sister was in the car during the flood because that`s actually really strange to me. I was wondering that when I heard that story.
DIMOND: All right. Thank you. Hold that thought, Eunice. This is a story that we will tell you when we come back after the quick break here. Katrina Silvestri will be joining us. Her sister -- in fact, if Katrina is with us -- Katrina, are you there?
KATRINA SILVESTRI, SISTER OF FLOOD VICTIM (via telephone): Yes, I am.
DIMOND: Hi, Katrina. Your sister, sadly, lost her life in this -- in this hurricane, unknowingly going into a water-filled area, right?
SILVESTRI: Yes.
DIMOND: Why -- why was she out?
SILVESTRI: She was on her way to her boyfriend`s house. You know, you can`t tell a young heart in love anything else.
DIMOND: Right. And what happened to her? Did she get a 911 call in?
SILVESTRI: Yes. She was traveling to her boyfriend`s house because she had no power at her house.
DIMOND: Oh.
SILVESTRI: She was going to see him. She does not like to be alone. She was very afraid. And while she was traveling the short 15-minute ride over to his house, she got caught in the flash flood, and it engulfed her car...
DIMOND: Oh!
SILVESTRI: ... and the current swept her away.
DIMOND: Katrina -- Katrina, you stay with us, my dear. We`ll be right back and pick this up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Plum (ph) Point, Maryland, you had nearly 13 inches of rain.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) get out of this (INAUDIBLE) (INAUDIBLE) stay.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In Tuxedo Park, New York, about 11-and-a-half.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To rebuild.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Check out Delaware. You had about 10 inches there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some hospitals lost some of their Con Ed power.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look what this particular rapids has done to this building.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trees came down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You get up into the mountains and you get that extra lift.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Completely uprooted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIMOND: An unbelievable sight over so much of the Atlantic states tonight. I`m Diane Dimond, sitting in for Nancy Grace. So far, the death toll stands at 27 from Hurricane Irene.
Before the break, we were talking to Katrina Silvestri. Her 20-year- old sister, Celena, sadly, drowned in her automobile on her way to her boyfriend`s house because her house had no power.
Katrina, thanks so much. I`m sorry we had to cut you off there. Your sister lived in Pines Grove, New Jersey, is that right?
SILVESTRI: Right.
DIMOND: And she did get a 911 call off, and EMS did respond, right?
SILVESTRI: Yes. Yes.
DIMOND: What happened when they got there?
SILVESTRI: As far as I know, it was just too late. They tried everything they could. They did the best they could.
DIMOND: And your sister`s car apparently had electric windows, and she -- they shorted out and she couldn`t escape through them, is that correct?
SILVESTRI: Yes.
DIMOND: You know, Katrina, I hear in your voice this is such a difficult conversation to have, but there`s something that just gave me goosebumps when I heard about your sister`s plight and another man who happened to drive into the Salem River. Tell everyone what happened.
SILVESTRI: Well, apparently, after she had made her 911 call, the -- all the troopers that came out, and then there was another man who was going on the road the opposite way. And they tried to flag him down and they couldn`t. And he ended up also getting swept into the river. But because they were there because she called, they saved his life.
DIMOND: Your sister saved another person`s life, yet, sadly, she had to lose hers.
SILVESTRI: Yes.
DIMOND: Oh, Katrina, I`m so, so sorry! Can you tell us quickly about your sister? Twenty years old...
SILVESTRI: Yes. She was 20 years old. She was touched by everybody that she met. She was a bright light in everybody`s life. She was a wonderful sister. She was my best friend. She was a dedicated daughter. She would go out of her way to help anybody. And she had the most beautiful smile that was contagious to everybody around her.
DIMOND: Oh!
SILVESTRI: She was not only beautiful, but she was extremely talented. She had the voice of an angel. She could play any instrument that she touched. She was self-taught. She was attending Salem College and she was going for her music education license. She wanted to teach music.
DIMOND: Oh, Katrina, thank you so much for sharing your sister`s story.
We`ll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was amazing. Within...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Irene gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... a matter of maybe...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Obviously not forgotten.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... 45 minutes...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are still dangerous flood waters out there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... the water went from knee-high...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No way to come in or come out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... to hip-high.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) stuck here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Irene is being blamed for at least 24 deaths now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Floods from Hurricane Irene tossing around a car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have a lot of, a lot of children here, and we have a lot of (INAUDIBLE) there`s two pregnant womans there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s unbelievable to watch a vehicle being...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, how much does that car probably weigh?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIMOND: There is not a state on the Atlantic Seaboard that has not been touched by Hurricane Irene. Tonight, we wrap up the devastation and the clean-up from Hurricane Irene. So far, 27 are known dead. The body count will surely rise. And 15.6 inches of rain in Bunion (ph), North Carolina, five million people still without power. Thousands are still away from their homes, wanting desperately to get back to see what the hurricane did to their property.
But there may, in the end, be no state harder hit than Vermont. Amber Lyon, a CNN correspondent, is there for us now. Amber, come in and tell us the latest. This is almost the last state in the union to be affected. And so affected, we hear. Tell us all about it.
AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, to put things into perspective, Diane, the governor today said that every single waterway here in Vermont has flooded and is flooding right now.
And what`s kind of deceiving is you`re out here, it`s a beautiful evening, there`s no rain, yet flooding continues in this state as water moves from higher elevations to areas of lower elevations.
And just behind me, what used to be a brook became a raging river yesterday and just ripped through this area and tore the back half of this building out. It`s just kind of hanging over there in limbo.
DIMOND: Oh, my!
LYON: And the governor also said that search and rescue -- yes, you see, this used to be an old mill. It`s about 150 years old, a historic building here, was being used by a bunch of artists. Luckily, no one inside at the time, but the building has been condemned as -- and kind of become a sight of awe for residents to come out here and take a look at that.
A big thing, too, the governor warning people to stay out of the flood waters and not drive unless they absolutely have to because 260 roads across this area are flooded. And some communities, some small communities have become completely isolated because the bridges and roads leading in and out are now gone, Diane.
DIMOND: Right. Amber, you know, I wanted to talk to you about that. And we can hear that water just rushing by you. Maybe you can move your microphone up a little bit. It`s kind of hard to hear you.
Let me ask you, though, about those isolated area, Amber, because apparently, the state of Vermont does not have a unified cell phone system. So there are some areas that are just cut off.
LYON: Yes, some areas completely cut off, and there`s no way right now for rescuers or teams out to survey the damage to get to these people because the roads and bridges have been blown out.
DIMOND: Right. And as we see there, the last three reported deaths have been there in the state.
Everybody who was touched by this has got to be talking about insurance. What do we do now with insurance? I want to bring in Howard Altschule. He is a forensic meteorologist. Oh, Howard, that sounds so mysterious! What is that, exactly?
HOWARD ALTSCHULE, FORENSIC METEOROLOGIST: Well, basically, Diane, I work as a weather expert throughout the United States and internationally. And what I do is, I go get past weather information from a variety of sources -- Doppler radar, surface observations, the buoys in the ocean -- and we determine whether the weather conditions had some effect on some incident or accident in the past, usually involving lawsuits or insurance claims, or even just the home owner or the owner of a company who needs to know what the weather was...
DIMOND: Right.
ALTSCHULE: ... we`ll provide that information for them.
DIMOND: Well, you -- there are going to be record-breaking -- I think the estimate so far is, like, $7 billion in insurance claims. You actually come in and testify at some of these trials. And you know, we hear, Howard, so many complaints with people saying, Well, you know, my insurance company -- there`s a loophole, they said it was really flooding and not the hurricane. I didn`t have hurricane coverage. What should people be doing right now?
ALTSCHULE: Well, what I think people should be doing is they should be calling their insurance companies and filing a claim. They`ll get routed through the catastrophe unit of that insurance company.
DIMOND: Right.
ALTSCHULE: They should also take some photographs of the situation of the house and evidence of what the weather conditions were. An adjuster will come out, they`ll do an inspection, an investigation. Many times, the insurance companies will hire me to figure out was this a pre-existing condition, was it an act of God? What played a role in this incident? And sometimes...
DIMOND: Oh, so you -- you...
ALTSCHULE: ... the home owners might dispute that, too.
DIMOND: You testify for the company! So you`re the one who comes and says, Oh, well, that tree didn`t come down on the car because of the wind, it came down because of water, and you don`t have flood insurance. Is that what you do, Howard? Come on!
ALTSCHULE: I don`t -- I -- I -- no. no. I testify -- I provide accurate and honest information for pretty much anybody who wants. I worked for the district attorney`s office on a double murder trial last month. And I work for the plaintiffs, the insurance companies...
DIMOND: OK.
ALTSCHULE: ... the defense. I`m working for the Department of Justice. Whoever needs to know what the weather is, I give them an honest opinion...
DIMOND: Howard, I did not...
ALTSCHULE: ... so an unbiased opinion, 100 percent.
DIMOND: I did not mean to impugn your expertise because I know how popular a witness you are.
Let`s go out to Glenn Schuck. He is with 1010 WINS in New York. He is out in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, an area of New Jersey that`s so hard hit, and I`m sure, Howard, there are going to be a lot of insurance claims from this area.
Glenn, part of the problem has been emergency crews can`t get in to help people, right?
GLENN SCHUCK, 1010 WINS (via telephone): Yes, that is true. I mean, there`s just -- they`re incapable of getting through -- you know, you`re talking six, seven feet of water. Mary earlier talked about the situation this morning. There was a house that had a gas leak and an explosion in the middle of the water. They literally -- the first responders had to stand there and watch it.
DIMOND: Oh, my!
SCHUCK: There really was nothing to do about it. They were fairly certain that the house was vacant and it was not occupied, and fortunately, it was not occupied. So they just had to sit there and watch this huge plume of smoke and flames go up into the air. And they let this burn for hours and hours and hours. They`re not even able to get in there and cap off the gas. So this is what they`re up against here. They have to keep the first responders safe, as well. Of course, their lives could be put at risk if they send them out there and they can`t get them back in.
DIMOND: Right.
SCHUCK: So it`s an extremely difficult situation.
DIMOND: It is one of the hardest hit of all of the states by Hurricane Irene. So Glenn, what can you tell us about numbers, the number of people still without power there, the number of people who can`t get back into their homes?
SCHUCK: Well, (INAUDIBLE) they`re talking about hundreds of homes here that have been probably destroyed. And there -- you know, people had a pretty good heads-up here about getting out of here. This is an area that floods all the time. The families here knew this was coming. They didn`t know this extent. So we`re talking again about hundreds of homes here that are probably destroyed. We`re not talking days or weeks here, this could be a month by the time this all gets cleaned up.
Still areas where there`s five, six feet of water. Again, they were expecting this (INAUDIBLE) basement level, maybe filling up their basement, possibly touching the first floor. You have people this morning being rescued off their rooftops...
DIMOND: Oh, my gosh!
SCHUCK: ... you know, 20 feet into the air and completely -- their home is gone.
DIMOND: Oh!
SCHUCK: And there`s a lot of those people. There`s tens of thousands still without power. A lot of them haven`t eaten, don`t have any water to get to. And this is, you know, a half an hour out of New York City...
DIMOND: Yes.
SCHUCK: ... the bustling capital of the world. So it`s a frustrating situation to try and help these people.
DIMOND: And it`s got to be frustrating for you to report it.
Steve Kardian, jump in here now. This is ripe for looting, isn`t it.
KARDIAN: Yes, it is, Diane. It`s extremely ripe for looting. Like I mentioned earlier, the criminals know that law enforcement is going to be tied up. They can`t be everywhere. They`re tending to other things. They`re rescuing people. They`re pulling people out of cars that are being blown away. So the criminal takes advantage of it. He`s the worst type of criminal that breeds (SIC) upon these people in a time of need.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The water came up pretty fast. You know, it`s up to our knees in the house. It`s up (INAUDIBLE) My mattress is starting to float. My mother`s mattress is floating.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never like -- this is my first time. Never. I`ve never seen nothing like this before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Irene is the storm that just won`t quit!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not just flooded, but flowing with the speed of a rushing river.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Bogue Sound that has come inland here -- and there goes the camera!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a house that is on fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my gosh. This is horrible.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whoa! Let`s get out of here! Let`s get out of here!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A number of families had to be rescued from high waters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These trees just toppled over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Catastrophic flooding.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at these Army trucks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The water is up above my knees.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thirty hours of rain in parts of North Carolina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The second worst power outage in Virginia history.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of the worst flooding in the state since 1927.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIMOND: Well, you know, the winds may not have been as high as expected, but you can see the devastation left by Hurricane and then Tropical Storm Irene. And you know, the worst may not be over yet. There are rivers and streams and lakes that have not yet crested.
Let`s bring in our trio of CNN correspondents. Mary Snow is in New Jersey. Amber Lyon is live for us in Brattleboro, Vermont. And Brian Todd is down in North Carolina.
Mary, let me start with you because I know New Jersey is criss-crossed with different rivers. And they haven`t crested yet, right?
SNOW: Yes, and that`s the big concern, Diane, because there are some rivers that are expected to crest within the next 24 hours. We`re in Pompton Lakes. This is a town that has three rivers running through it...
DIMOND: Oh, my!
SNOW: ... and a lake. But the water has crested and it is receding. But it is -- you know, about 400 homes, it`s anticipated, had flood damage from this storm. So that gives you a small snapshot of what other towns in northern New Jersey are experiencing.
And the National Guard was activated by the governor to come and assist local authorities, and that is their main mission right now. About 1,300 members of the New Jersey National Guard are helping local communities as these waters rise in some locations.
DIMOND: Oh, that aerial view, Mary, is just breathtaking! I`m just without words for it. You know, I used to cover New Jersey for a local television station here. And there are more than 400 municipalities, folks, in the state of New Jersey.
Amber Lyon, let`s go back to you in Vermont. We see the rushing water right there next to you and we hear it, as well. What`s the situation with the rivers and lakes there?
LYON: Well, it`s kind of deceiving because it`s not raining out here. It`s a beautiful evening. But the governor of Vermont says that these rivers are continuing to crest in areas of lower elevation because Vermont is very mountainous. The rivers that were at higher elevations are now starting to recede, as this one behind me is. And ones at lower elevations are starting to grow.
So what the governor and emergency crews are warning people, if you live in areas where you are in an area where your river near you or any type of stream or brook could crest, not to go outside and to seek higher ground, as well, Diane.
DIMOND: All right. And the force of the water that I`m hearing next to you and seeing in the pictures -- that could erode and breach rivers -- rather, bridges and roads all over Vermont.
LYON: It already has -- 260 roads across the state are currently flooded. And there`s even some communities that are isolated because the bridge and the river -- or the bridge, excuse me, and the road leading into town and out of town have been cut off by the flood waters. And...
DIMOND: Thanks a lot, Amber. Let`s go down to Brian Todd. He`s in North Carolina. And it, of course, was one of the first states hit in this long string of states that got wiped out by Irene. Brian, what`s the situation there in terms of emergency response, and more importantly, FEMA response? Do people think the federal government is doing enough?
TODD: I believe, overall, Diane, they are pretty pleased with the response so far. But you know, this was, as you mentioned, maybe the -- well, one of the hardest hit states in this entire equation.
DIMOND: Right.
TODD: It was certainly pretty much the first hit. An inordinate amount of rain was dumped on this state, a lot of flash flooding, a lot of damage that we`ve seen. I think they`re just now trying to kind of get a scope of what they need to do as far as response. There are still thousands of people in shelters in this state.
So I think a lot of that is kind of being determined right now as far as the public reaction to whether the government is responding fast enough. I think they are fairly pleased with how the local authorities have responded.
They`ve gotten these ferries to the people stranded on Hatteras Island out to them fairly quickly after the storm. They were told to have about three days` worth of supplies. That three-day window has pretty much run out or is running out. But they have gotten this ferry going. They got it started actually late yesterday. So that was fairly quick to get to the people stranded on Hatteras.
DIMOND: Yes, 2,500 people, stubbornly refusing to evacuate. Thanks a lot, Brian.
There`s no organization that responds better and faster than the American Red Cross, and with us now is Scott Snyder with the American Red Cross. Scott, can you give us an overview of this whole area that was hit by Hurricane and then Tropical Storm Irene? What are your figures on this in terms of people still needing help, people without power, still in shelters?
SCOTT SNYDER, AMERICAN RED CROSS SPOKESMAN: Well, since last Friday, we had 48,000 overnight stays in shelters. That number as of last evening was between 8,000 and 9,000. And so as we continue to see the effects of the hurricane have come and gone, but we`re still seeing a lot of the flooding damage throughout Vermont, parts of New Jersey, Philadelphia area, and really just shifting from a hurricane response to really a major active flood response.
DIMOND: How is the clean-up been going, as far as you can tell there in Vermont? Of course, Irene just has barely gotten out of that state. Had they even gotten to start cleaning up yet?
SNYDER: In some areas of town that we were in today here in Brattleboro, you could tell they had a lot of heavy equipment in, getting some of the mud and muck out. But down here where we are, there`s some debris removal going on. And as we`ve mentioned, I think because of the road conditions, the bridges conditions, it`s really difficult to get anything into some of these areas let alone, you know, large heavy equipment.
DIMOND: Right. You know, the American people are very charitable people, Scott. What do they need to do? What can they do? What`s needed out there on the front lines?
SNYDER: You know, there are millions of people not impacted by this and other disasters that are happening across the country right now. Call, click or text the American Red Cross today, 1-800-RED-CROSS. You can text 90999 to make a $10 donation.
And also, realize that over the last couple of weeks, you know, we have been spending money, getting our people, getting our resources into areas that we knew were going to be impacted today. So those millions of dollars have been flowing out into these areas through the Red Cross to get our volunteers into place, and now that we`re preparing for this critical response to the flooding.
DIMOND: Yes, a lot of people may not have evacuated, but I know the American Red Cross, and they get in there fast because it`s better to be safe than sorry.
All right, we`re going to take a quick break here. And when we come back, so many people running away from this -- from this storm, but there are some who run toward the storm. When we come back, Jeremy Michael is going to join us. He is a student. He is an atmospheric science student from North Carolina. He`s also a CNN iReporter, and he`s going to tell you all about being in the eye of Irene when we come back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The lights went off. I went downstairs (INAUDIBLE) crossword puzzle, you know, and being (INAUDIBLE) basement. And I was going to go upstairs in a little bit once I was getting tired. And all of a sudden, I hear a wham, wham, and all of a sudden, coming through the floor are the branches. And scared me to death. Otherwise, I would have been in my bed and I would have been crushed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard a big crash and this big tree came down, took down the telephone pole, the street light, all the electric knocked out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maryland, Massachusetts and Virginia, their states still grappling with Irene`s deadly force and aftermath. Millions still without power.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some dramatic moments here, as you saw.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rain which just has not let up at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At least 24 killed, and rivers cresting today from Virginia to Vermont.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIMOND: Devastation so deadly, you just want to avert your eyes from it. But not Jeremy Michael. He is a CNN iReporter and a storm chaser student. Jeremy, thanks for joining us. We`re almost out of time, but tell us, please, why is it that you do this? And where were you when Irene hit?
JEREMY MICHAEL, STORM CHASER: Yes. Hi, Diane. We were actually in Beaufort, North Carolina, where the eye made landfall. And it was really - - it was amazing. The winds -- it`s something I`ll never forget. The winds were crashing -- I mean, it was powerful winds for, like, 30 hours straight and...
DIMOND: And why do you do this, Jeremy? Is this part of your studies?
MICHAEL: No, it`s nothing to do with anything with UNC Asheville at the atmospheric science department. It`s really more -- it`s my passion. And I really -- I love and I find beauty in the storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, winter storms, anything like that. And I just really enjoy doing this, as well as helping people by giving out reports.
DIMOND: Do you want to be a TV meteorologist? Is that your goal?
MICHAEL: My goal is actually to work with the National Weather Service and help produce the forecasts, issue watches, warnings, things like that.
DIMOND: Well, I don`t know. If that doesn`t work out for you, Jeremy, you might want to call up Chad Myers. Thanks a lot for being with us via Skype.
Tonight now, let`s stop to remember Army Sergeant Marquees Quick, 28 years old from Hoover, Alabama, killed in Iraq. He was awarded the Purple Heart, the National Defense Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon. He attended Virginia College, where he started the Quick Computer Company, educating adults. Marquees loved cross-country and road trips. He cherished his dog, Molly, that he rescued in Germany. He leaves behind his mother, Linda (ph), and his brothers, Matthew (ph), Brandon (ph) and Keith (ph). Marquees Quick, a true American hero, not to be forgotten.
Thanks to all of you and all of our guests for being with us tonight. Before we go, we want to wish a special birthday to Annie in Georgia. A mother of three and grandmother of five, she loves to cook and can figs that she grows in her back yard. She`s also famous for her homemade poundcakes and is a dedicated church volunteer. Happy birthday, Annie.
Everyone, I`ll see you right back here tomorrow night, 8:00 o`clock Eastern time sharp. Have a great night, everyone. And stay safe.
END
