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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Tropical Storm Flossie Heads Straight for Hawaii; Unrest in Egypt; Weiner Campaign Manager Quits; Boating Accident Kills Bride-to- Be; Over 3 Mil. Show Up for Pope's Copacabana Mass
Aired July 29, 2013 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A tropical storm. Torrential downpours, and deadly flooding -- extreme weather gripping the nation. What you need to know.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Deadly clashes. Egypt erupting in chaos as the Muslim Brotherhood marches on military intelligence, ignoring army warnings.
BERMAN: And campaign chaos. Anthony Weiner vows to stay in the race as his top staffer says, count me out.
PEREIRA: Good morning. And welcome to EARLY START. I'm Michaela Pereira.
Look who came back to work finally.
BERMAN: Yes, am still.
PEREIRA: Glad your leisure over?
BERMAN: Glad leisure I wish. I'm still John Berman. It is Monday, July 29th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East. It is still very, very early.
PEREIRA: It is very early. Glad you're here.
BERMAN: Thank you. It's good to be back.
Up first, paradise interrupted. Hawaii bracing for impact from tropical storm Flossie. Watches and warnings are all (INAUDIBLE) down across the island. Meantime, parts of the Eastern Seaboard getting deluged by rain. There was record rainfall, nearly eight inches in the Philadelphia area on Sunday.
Look at that. That's a lot of water. And heavy rains in the Carolinas as well being blamed for two deaths. Our Indra Petersons has been very, very busy tracking all the severe weather.
Good morning, Indra.
INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it's pretty unbelievable how much weather really was happening over the weekend. First, we're going to take you outside and, of course, give you the latest update on Flossie, still the tropical storm making its way to the Hawaiian Island. The most important thing to notice here, though, it is weakening rapidly. You can actually see the structure almost dissipate as it continue to make its track to the west, currently moving to the West at 17 miles per hour. So, it has actually sped up a little bit, steady winds 50 miles per hour leading it at that tropical storm strength.
Let's talk about the track. Where is Flossie going? Heading for the big island, their time, 8:00 in the morning, 10:00 in the morning, Hawaiian time, about 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. So, we're expecting it to make landfall. Heavy rain, we're talking six to 10 inches of rain possible, even 15 inches of rain in areas where we see some of those stronger winds.
And, of course, thereafter, we're going to see the track make its way through Maui and even through Oahu. So, for that, we, of course, have the tropical storms, still in the line of the path there. That's just under tropical storm watch and we'll see that upgraded. Westerly motion. The good news, it will remain a tropical storm.
And kind of some fun facts here. It's actually very rare for a hurricane to be found in Hawaii. The last tropical storm alone was Omeka. That was 2010.
And in the last hurricane, 1992, definitely good news this part of the country here. Hurricane Flossie, there was one actually before. That was in 1997 in Hawaii.
The other thing everybody was talking about is Dorian. Here's the good news: we expected this guy to break apart and he did. There was so much dry air out there. A lot of winds shear or wind changing with height and that really ripped apart what was left of Dorian.
No longer is it being called Dorian. But there is about a 50 percent chance it could be developed again. Even if it does develop, there's so much going on out there, likely to rip apart. That will not be lasting. So, that is the good news at least in the Atlantic.
Then we showed you the rain. Unbelievable amounts of rain in Philly last night, 8.02 inches of rain. That is breaking the record all time for one 12-hour period. That is exactly what they saw yesterday.
For July, 13 inches of rain for the month, also a record. It was impressive. The storm has pushed on through, plenty of flooding in the area. Here is the low. Something should be drying out. Not only the Northeast but also in the southeast. Yes, scattered showers are possible, 4 to 6 inches of rain in North Carolina on Saturday.
So, unbelievable storms kicked through the area also in Arizona. They saw heavy flooding out there. Where is the flood rushing? It's got to be somewhere.
We're talking about really anywhere from Kansas spreading into Missouri. Heavy rain possible. About two to four inches of rain there. That matches up with our severe weather threat, also lining up in the panhandle of Texas, and also, of course, going in through, basically about Kansas.
There we go -- flooding threat with that as well. So, that's our flood threat for today. I think I'm even out of breath.
BERMAN: One busy day?
PETERSONS: Yes, unbelievable.
BERMAN: All right. You'll keep on it. We'll get back to you in a bit. Thanks, Erin.
PEREIRA: To Egypt now. Violence that's turned that country into a political tinderbox, at least 72 people were killed this weekend in clashes between government troops and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. That as the interim president is calling for calm and taking steps that could point to a state of emergency.
Reza Sayah is in Cairo for us this morning -- Reza.
REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, there is growing fear in Egypt that we're getting closer and closer to a very dangerous and explosive stage. What you have here is a political conflict where both sides are in a deadlock. On one side, you have the military backed interim government. On the other side, you have the supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsy, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
But at the same time, you are seeing the threats and the rhetoric ratcheting up. You're also seeing the violence increased. You're seeming more people killed, more than 70 people killed over the weekend. Hundreds injured in what was the deadliest day dating back to the January 2011 revolution. A lot of people killed were shot by security forces.
You get the sense that something has to give. There has to be a turning point coming soon. Many fear the turning point could be an aggressive crackdown by authorities against the major sit in, a major demonstration by Morsy supporters.
Over the weekend the interim president called on protesters to come home. The interior minister used sharper words. He said a cleanup is coming. If that happened, if that cleanup operation happens, that means security forces will have to move a demonstration that has evolved into a small town.
We were there yesterday. There are tens of thousands of people, families, women and children, who say we're not leaving until Mr. Morsy is reinstated, Michaela. So, you have to imagine, if this cleanup operation happens, it's going to come with some bloodshed. So, a lot of concern in Egypt about what's coming.
PEREIRA: Certainly a pivotal time there, for sure. The U.S. is watching, as is the rest of the world. Reza, thanks for the report. We appreciate it.
BERMAN: A lot of news from that region. And it's back to the negotiating table in Washington for Israel and the Palestinians. Initial meeting are sett to take place tonight with negotiators from both sides talking over a possible path to peace.
This comes just a day after the Israeli government agreed to release more than 100 Palestinian prisoners. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called this a tough decision that had to be made for the good of the country.
PEREIRA: Seventy-nine counts of reckless homicide for the driver of the Spanish train involved in last week's deadly crash. Authorities still trying to determine if the train was traveling too fast when it flew off the tracks and into a concrete wall in Santiago de Compostela. But the Spanish interior minister says there are indications now that the accident was the driver's fault. He's been granted conditional release but have to surrender his passport.
BERMAN: To Italy now in a horrific bus crash. At least 38 people have died, including some children after their bus went off a bridge not from Naples. They were returning from a pilgrimage to a Catholic shrine. The witness on the scene said the bus fell almost 100 feet into a heavily wooded area. It is not clear what caused this accident, but police say the bus did hit nearly a dozen cars before it flew off that bridge.
PEREIRA: Back here State side, Anthony Weiner staying in the race to be New York's mayor despite the defection of his campaign manager. Danny Kedem quit just days after new poll showed Weiner's favorability numbers plummeting amid submissions he continued having online sex chats after resigning from Congress. But Weiner says the campaign will continue and says more volunteers are joining up to help.
BERMAN: A bi-coastal scandal watch. A big name in California politics is joining the chorus, calling for San Diego's mayor to resign, amid allegations that he sexually harassed at least seven women. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein tells the "STATE OF THE UNION", Bob should step aside, Bob Filner should step aside for the good of the city.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: It's a very tough job and I don't think that somebody who is lacking a moral compass really sets a role model or really will provide the kind of leadership that San Diegans want. I suspect there will be recalls and the people will --
CANDY CROWLEY, "STATE OF THE UNION" HOST: But you think he should make it easier and just resign?
FEINSTEIN: I think he should make it easier and resign. That's right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: A group calling for his recall has set a 5:00 p.m. deadline for Filner to step down. On Friday, Filner apologized for his behavior, promising next week to begin what he called intensive therapy.
PEREIRA: Quite a murder mystery here. A medical researcher now facing murder charges won't fight his extradition back to Pennsylvania. Dr. Robert Ferrante is accused of poisoning his neurologist's wife with cyanide. Both worked at the University of Pittsburgh. Ferrante was picked up in West Virginia Thursday. His lawyer says he was on his way to turn himself in when police stopped him and that he is anxious to defend himself.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
BERMAN: Wow, near riot in Huntington Beach, California, after a surfing competition came to an end. The crowd rampaging through the streets breaking windows until police could get things under control. Apparently, this was the result of a fist fight that escalated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLI)
ALLI HOWARD, WITNESS: They were tipping port-a-potties. And the cops started to move in in there, throwing tear gas to everyone. Everyone was like clogging their nose and coughing and like dodging into stores and everyone was running down main street.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: There are no reports of injuries but at least eight people have been arrested along with those damaged stores. I have to say, this was a surfing competition, this is not RAD at all.
PEREIRA: No, not at all. Not at all. This is not what you expect.
Moving on to our next story.
The parents of 6-year-old Nathan Woessner, they say he is living proof that miracles do happen. The family attended church Sunday at home in Rock Falls, Illinois, for the first time since Nathan's near death experience two weeks ago. As you recall, he was buried in 11 feet of sand for nearly four hours at the Indiana dunes national lake shore. The boy's mother said they feared the worst as rescuers frantically searched for their son.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAITH WOESSNER, NATHAN'S MOTHER: I remember that paramedic coming in and, he said, he's alive. And I don't remember anything he said after that. But those were the sweetest words I ever heard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PEREIRA: Doctors expect Nathan Woessner to make a complete recovery. Apparently, he was just like any other reckless boy in a church service, kind of fidgeting. He's looking healthy and 100 percent.
BERMAN: That is great to see. What a lucky family.
PEREIRA: Look at that smile. BERMAN: So happy for them.
PEREIRA: Yes.
BERMAN: Coming up this morning, we have some new developments in just a tragic story. A boat crash leaves a bride-to-be dead and her fiance injured. Now, another victim has been found.
PEREIRA: And, arrivederci, or should I say, ciao, Rio.
BERMAN: Wow.
PEREIRA: Pope Francis wows Brazil before heading back to the Vatican. You know, ciao both Italian and Portuguese, see what I did, Berman.
BERMAN: You were like throwing the language out left and right. This is exciting.
PEREIRA: We will be friends.
BERMAN: I barely speak English. You're speaking like 12 languages.
PEREIRA: That was great.
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PEREIRA: Scary moments on a flight from Cedar Rapids to St. Petersburg, Florida. Passengers had to give off of the Allegiant airplane in a hurry in Albany, Georgia, after an indicator light went on, saying there might be a fire in the cargo hold. Well, it turns out there was no fire. Fortunately no one was hurt. The passengers will be taken by bus on to St. Petersburg.
BERMAN: Authorities in New York believe they have found the body to be a man of a best man at a wedding. He's the second victim of a tragic boating accident that killed the bride-to-be and left (INAUDIBLE) injured.
Here's Alina Cho.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDNT (voice-over): The investigation into Friday's horrific boat accident that killed the bride-to-be and best man will now focus on a time line. What happened and when.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're going to do is we're going to bring in an accident reconstruction team.
CHO: Authorities say the driver of the boat, also a friend of the couple, was intoxicated charged with vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault. Investigators are also looking into claims the barge that the boat hit did not have proper lighting.
CHIEF WILLIAM BARBERA, ROCKLAND COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: You put an immovable object that's dark in the path of recreational boaters, you have a recipe for disaster.
CHO: Lindsey Stewart and Brian Bond were planning to marry on August 10th. They decided to take a boat ride Friday night up the Hudson River. The small power boat carrying six people hit a construction barge near a bridge, 30-year-old Stewart and best man Mark Lennon were killed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the big brother but his heart was a lot bigger than mine. He's -- he's -- he was my rock.
CHO: Bond, the groom, and four others including the boat's driver, suffered serious injuries.
BARBERA: They seemed very smitten with one another and very much in love.
CHO: At the home they shared, a make shift memorial. Lindsey Stewart's family told CNN, pray for our loss.
CAROL STEWART, LINDSEY STEWART'S MOTHER: She is supposed to be married two weeks from today. It just can't end like this.
CHO: A tragic ending to what was supposed to be a great night on the eve of a wedding.
BARBERA: Rather than have a joyful wedding, there will be wakes.
CHO: Alina Cho, CNN, Piermont, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PEREIRA: Some incredible pictures now are here from Mojave County, Arizona, not far Las Vegas. That is a bus on its side in about six feet of water. The driver apparently tried to make it across 100 feet wide creek bed that had turned raging. The power of the water swept the bus 300 feet downstream.
There were tourists on board returning to Las Vegas after a visit to the Grand Canyon. They were able to scramble out the windows. No injuries were reported.
The local sheriff calls trying to drive across that wash the most foolish thing he's ever seen someone --
BERMAN: Yes, I'm no expert on buses and rivers, but that seems like a particularly bad idea.
PEREIRA: I agree.
BERMAN: All right. The congregation of the Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indianapolis mourning the death of its pastor, his pregnant wife and another member who were killed in a weekend bus crash. More than two dozen people were injured and eight are hospitalized. Most of those onboard the church bus were the teenager s returning to the church after a trip to a camp in Michigan. Authorities said the brakes apparently failed as the bus driver tried to make a turn. PEREIRA: And a helicopter crash in Pennsylvania has left five people dead, including a child. Authorities say the chopper was en route from Binghamton to an airport near Allentown when it went down in bad weather. They found it in a wooded area not far from Scranton. The NTSB is now ending.
BERMAN: A spectacular end for the Pope's first pilgrimage overseas holding mass on a Copacabana Beach in Brazil for some 3 million people.
Shasta Darlington is there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The biggest crowds to date for the grand finale for Pope Francis' trip to Brazil for World Youth Day. Pope Francis led mass right behind me on a stage on Copacabana Beach. More than 3 million people turned out. But many of them spent the night here lined up in sleeping bags along the beach, along the road, along the route that they expected him to take here.
And when he passed by in his Pope mobile the crowds went crazy, trying to hand him babies. One pilgrim managed to hand him the cup of tea. He took a dried board that they use in south America. He, of course, sip from the silver straw.
When he reached the stage, he also sent a message to young people, repeating a theme that we've heard throughout, and that is get out and take the message to the people. Don't wait until you have time. You are the messengers of the church. Go out and be missionaries.
Now, after the big event here, Pope Francis didn't stop. He went on to meet with Latin American bishops, more of a stern message for them, telling them to really reflect on what they're doing, whether it benefits the institution of the church or whether it benefits the people of God.
Finally, a meeting with volunteers and then back to Rome.
Shasta Darlington, CNN, Rio de Janeiro.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PEREIRA: All right. Coming up, bankruptcy usually means cutting back. Spending only on the essentials, right, Mr. Berman?
BERMAN: Exactly. So, why does Detroit still plan to build a new hockey arena with millions in taxpayers' dollars? We're going to tell you coming up next.
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PEREIRA: Good morning, New York. Wow, it actually is a really great little picture there.
BERMAN: The George Washington Bridge.
PEREIRA: It is. It seems bright out. I feel like everybody should be up in the city. Do you think they are?
BERMAN: I hope everyone is up. We are.
PEREIRA: We are.
BERMAN: Why isn't everybody else?
PEREIRA: Welcome to EARLY START. It is "Money Time".
Christine Romans is here with everything we need to know.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I mean, everyone watching us is through the second mile on the treadmill and they're ready to move onto the next thing.
Good morning, everyone. Nice to see you guys. Welcome back, Berman.
BERMAN: Thank you.
ROMANS: Stocks futures this morning pointing lower. Stocks closed just below record highs on Friday. But, you know, Wall Street is waiting on big economic data this week. We're going to get news on pending home sales for June. That's this morning at 10:00 a.m.
Nothing is more important than the data on jobs. How many and how well they pay. The big jobs report comes on Friday. Economists expect 175,000 net new jobs added in July.
Of course, the Federal Reserve is promising to pull back if the economy improves. So, investors will be watching all of this data incredibly closely.
President Obama says income inequality is dragging us down. In an interview with "The New York Times", the president said, quote, "If we don't do anything, then growth will be slower than it should be. Unemployment will not go down as fast as it should. Inequality will continue to rise. That's not the future we should accept.
The president is stressing that Washington has to encourage growth instead of belt tightening. He also revealed he has narrowed his choice for the next Fed chairman to replace Ben Bernanke. You guys, that job will be the most important job in Washington. There's fierce, fierce debate about who might be the front-runner for that. So, watch this space.
Meantime, Detroit -- some news about Detroit. It's going bankrupt but it's not going to derail plans for a new hockey arena for the Red Wings. It's going to cost taxpayers $450 million. The city's emergency manager Kevyn Orr says the stadium will bring jobs and it will bring people to Detroit. But critics say this is a bad use of funds at a bad time. Detroit already stretched extremely thin.
Did you know in average, police take about an hour to respond to calls to Detroit? Forty percent of the street lights are shut off to save money. Huge debate about whether to go ahead with a big hockey stadium when you're in such dire straits financially for the city.
So -- also, huge advertising merger. You'll hear a lot more about that. We'll hear about that last night. Two ad giants merging to create the world's largest ad. Agencies Omnicom Group and Publicis announcing that plan on Sunday. This combined agency is going to have a stock market value of $35 billion, 130,000 employees around the world. It's a big one.
Together, they represent some of the world's largest brands, like AT&T, McDonald's, Coke. It's going to depend on shareholder approval, of course. They hope to complete the merger later this year, a very big deal.
BERMAN: You know, I know a lot about advertising mergers because I watch "Mad Men." And I know, these can actually be quite perilous. So, they better be careful.
ROMANS: It's funny because when I heard this news, I was like, wow, the "Mad Men" days really are over. All the little firms are combining, combining now this huge, huge, huge global firm.
BERMAN: Cooper Sterling --
ROMANS: I don't know, I don't know. Tweet us what you think the name should be.
BERMAN: Coming up, the hotel where they shot "To Catch a Thief" is now the scene of a real life heist. Wait until you hear what these thieves walk away with.
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