Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Deadly Flooding Causes Searches to Intensify, Death Toll Climbs; 30 Iraqi Soldiers Killed During Suicide Attacks by ISIS; White House Responds to Criticism by Iran; Top Soccer Officials Arrested for Corruption. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 27, 2015 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:00:03] COL. GREG PEPIN, HELPED FAMILY ESCAPE IRAQ IN 1996: The day I got Lava's e-mail was one of those signature days that kind of makes your life worthwhile.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: My gosh.

PEREIRA: Beautiful.

CAMEROTA: That's so beautiful.

PEREIRA: Look at that hug.

CAMEROTA: That's great.

PEREIRA: What a moment.

CAMEROTA: What a great story.

PEREIRA: Twenty years later. Congratulations to all of them.

All right. With that, we end our show and hand it over to "NEWSROOM" and Carol Costello.

Good morning, dear.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thanks so much. Have a great day.

NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin this morning in flood-ravaged Houston, and the threat of more flash floods hanging over the nation's fourth largest city. The National Weather Service saying the area could see more disastrous rainfall, another three inches possible just this morning.

This is a live picture from the south of Dallas. Emergency crews say this dam will likely give way at any time. That likely means flash flooding downstream, 25 homes have already been evacuated. Across Texas and Oklahoma, the search for the missing grows more urgent. National Guard troops scour piles of debris along a riverbank searching for victims swept away by floodwaters.

It's a painful contrast to the hundreds of rescues across the region. Soldiers, emergency crews and neighbors using city utility vehicles and heavy equipment to pull people from the floodwaters that swallowed cars and homes in minutes.

The relentless search taking a grim toll. Eighteen people now confirmed dead, at least 13 missing, and with each hour hope fades for those who vanished in the chaos.

Rosa Flores has more from Houston.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The catastrophic aftermath of record-breaking deadly floodwaters in Houston, Texas, revealed this morning. More than 11 inches of rain fell in a matter of hours Monday night into Tuesday. A wall of water rising with frightening speed, leaving thousands traveling in their vehicles racing to escape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn around, don't drown.

FLORES: Rows of vehicle left abandoned on a Houston highway, some cars almost completely submerged under water. Emergency crews scrambling to pull people from the floodwaters. But for some it was too late. One woman says she witnessed the discovery of a body in a flooded truck.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a woman, and it was dead by the time we got there.

FLORES: Thousands of people are now without power. The flashfloods rushing through thousands of homes. Houston's mayor says at least 4,000 residents may have suffered significant damage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We first were on the couches, then on the table, then on the counters.

FLORES: One Houston resident, her family narrowly escaping the flood, shows me the devastation the rapidly rising tide left behind.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The water got right up to the slip on the counter.

FLORES: Over a dozen people, including children are still missing, and the death toll in both Texas and Oklahoma continues to rise.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Now there is more -- there's more bad news. This area of Houston is under a flashflood warning, one to three inches of rain are expected in the next few hours, and take a look at this. It's already raining. I want to show you around because this is Brays Bayou. One of the most impassive areas. You could see the water rushing at a pretty good clip, and the big worry, how quickly the water can rise. I want to show you over here, because you'll really be able to see how

in a matter of hours the situation changes. I stand just under 6'0", take a look at the water level over here. That's debris from about 24 hours ago. That's where the water was. Now beyond the banks of this bayou are homes. About 200 feet from the banks are homes.

I talked to those people. They tell me that about three feet of water rushed into their homes, Carol. They had to jump on their kitchen counters in order for them to stay dry. They had to do the same thing with their dogs because they were trying to keep their dogs safe as well -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Rosa Flores reporting live from Houston this morning. Thank you.

A new potentially disastrous storm is slamming already-flooded areas right now. This is major flooding already spans across four states. The scale of devastation simply staggering.

Jennifer Gray is in Wimberley, Texas, tracking the new threat. Good morning.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol. Yes, 11 people missing, three dead. All three bodies that were found dead were found along the Blanco River. One adult female, two adult males. They have not been identified yet. But it was such a frightening scene over the weekend. You can see the Blanco River behind me still raging and if you can see the water coming over that hump, that's actually a bridge and so it just gives you perspective as to how high the water still is.

[09:05:13] And it's remarkable how high the water rose. The water rose so quickly, the folks that were staying here at Seven Acres Resort where we are, 450 people were staying here. They were full to capacity. They all evacuated ahead of the floodwaters. When they saw the waters rising, they got everybody out of here, everybody is safe. That is such a nugget of good news here in all of this tragedy.

The water rose so fast, all of these empty slabs right here in front of me were once cabins. Of course a lot of them pushed out of the way on the other side of the street, and some of them completely gone. But you can see all the trees littering around.

Now just follow me over here because I want to put this into perspective. We showed you the river. If all of this was water, my head would have been completely submerged during the weekend, at the highest point, look, here is the watermark on this cabin. This river rose more than 44 feet, Carol.

And so we talked to the owners a couple of minutes ago, of the resort. They said they built this place back in the '40s, and they have never seen the water get this high. Not even close. They've never had to evacuate here before and so just gives you an idea of the tragedy here, how high the water rose and how thankful they are that they took the measures to get people out when they heard those warnings. So everyone was safe here -- Carol. COSTELLO: All right. Jennifer Gray, reporting live from Wimberley,

Texas, this morning. Thank you.

Just as search and rescue efforts are resuming for the missing, more bad weather, as Jennifer said, could be on the way. So let's bring in Hays County Emergency Management coordinator, Kharley Smith.

Kharley, good morning.

KHARLEY SMITH, HAYS COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks so much for talking with me. Tell me your biggest challenge right now.

SMITH: Well, you know, right now is the impeding weather. We're actually conducting a briefing with our emergency response crews now on altering our response activity for the next coming day or two. It's starting to pour down rain right now, and obviously we have to suspend our air evac operations and our boat evac operations, so we are changing our operational plan as we speak, but continuing our planning efforts for the recovery side of those flood victims.

COSTELLO: And we understand there are still people missing, including members of the McComb family. Can you bring us up to date?

SMITH: Yes. We still haven't confirmed 11 missing individuals. We are very thankful to our local law enforcement for their investigative work and being able to identify and make contact with all the unaccounted that were on our list yesterday. We still have 11 confirmed missing and will stay confirmed missing because there are eyewitness accounts of individuals going into the water and being swept away by the water.

COSTELLO: And the McComb family. They were inside their home and it simply started to flow down the river, right? It came off its foundation, flowed down the river. The father was found. Can you describe how he was found?

SMITH: I -- the information that I received was that the entire family, all the occupants of the residence went up on to the roof of the residence itself, and when it started to shift, Mr. McComb actually fell off of the roof and grabbed a hold of a tree while the rest of the family members remained on the roof as it started to flip down the water.

COSTELLO: And of course there is still an active search for the rest of this man's family?

SMITH: Yes, ma'am.

COSTELLO: And how challenging is it for emergency workers to search for the missing?

SMITH: It is very challenging, especially with the frequent additional rain forms that we've had. We had a substantial amount of rain the day before yesterday and then I expected today and tomorrow, and as that rain -- as the rain comes in the river rises again and shifts the debris piles that they previously searched, so they are starting their search area back over again every time that it rains just to make sure that they haven't missed anything with the shifting in the piles.

COSTELLO: Kharley Smith, thank you for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, on the frontlines with Iraqi troops, CNN on the ground as forces battle ISIS in an attempt to drive out militants from two key provinces.

[09:09:33]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Snipers, suicide bombs and secret underground tunnels. Those are just some of the brutal battlefield tactics Iraqi forces are up against as they try to drive ISIS out of two key provinces. A source telling CNN 30 Iraqi soldiers were killed after three suicide bombers targeted a combat outpost near Fallujah. This, as Iranian- backed Shia militias who are leading the fight try to reclaim the city of Ramadi.

CNN's senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon, was on the frontlines and got a firsthand look at how troops are trying to maintain their positions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Throughout the battlefield is a patchwork of ISIS stronghold and logistical lines. We see, but are not allowed to film or speak to Iranian advisers. Iraq's powerful neighbor, a much more reliable ally in the war against ISIS.

"Anyone who depends on American support is depending on a shadow," Hadi al-Amiri says. "The dependence by the central government on the United States is one of the reasons we lost Ramadi."

That won't happen here, all of the men vow. More forces and reinforcements arrive. Through a scope, one fighter can point two suspected ISIS vehicles in the distance. Along the berm, others watch and wait, preparing for ISIS to strike back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Arwa Damon now joins me with more from Baghdad.

So tell us more about the fight and being on the frontlines.

DAMON: Well, Carol, at this stage it does seem as if this patchwork force that is fighting -- and I say patchwork because it's a combination of conventional forces, the Iraqi army and police but also those Iranian-backed Shia paramilitary forces, as well as the Sunni tribes -- have managed to make some progress in the battle for Ramadi, clearing a substantial amount of territory we hear from government officials around that critical city, also managing to capture Anbar University just to its south.

[09:15:07] And throughout both Anbar and Salahuddin Provinces where the bulk of this operation is really concentrated at this stage, there's this attempt to try and win back territory that ISIS has controlled but key and perhaps more important than that is making sure they block off the ISIS logistical supply routes to make sure the terrorists organization does not continue to maintain that ability that it has in the past to regroup and strike back where it finds vulnerabilities in their defenses.

But it's still a very fluid situation. There are still battle lines that are constantly shifting and despite what it is that the government hopes, the time it is going to take them to recapture Ramadi, it does promise to be a fairly lengthy battle.

COSTELLO: You know, another challenge is the weather. Tell us about that incredible sand storm.

DAMON: Yes, that blew over yesterday over a huge swath of Anbar province, including Ramadi, and into the area that we were in, also at the Baiji oil refinery. And it basically allowed ISIS to inch closer to those positions that were being held by this Iraqi force.

The sand is so thick you can barely see in front of you as the storm blows through, lasting for a couple hours, and ISIS has not managed to capitalize on it too much, but yesterday, it most certainly was of utmost concern. ISIS is a foe like no one here has faced here before. That is what all of those fighters out there will tell you.

They come at their frontlines relentlessly, and they are not afraid of death, and they must certainly are not afraid to die in battle. They believe that that is their main aim, which is why trying to defeat them using conventional military tactics has proved to be so challenging, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Arwa Damon reporting live from Baghdad this morning.

In the meantime, the White House is responding to scathing criticism by a top Iranian general that the U.S. has not done enough on the ground to help Iraqi forces.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: The fact is the proof is in the pudding. We have done thousands of air strikes, along with our coalition forces. We've trained, we've equipped the Iraqi security forces and we have taken steps to support them and their needs on the ground and we're going to stay at that. But the actions speak louder than words there.

So, we're not going to worry about the Iranian accusations. We're going to focus on what more we need to do to help support the Iraqi security forces on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, let's talk more about this with CNN military analyst, retired Major General James "Spider" Marks.

Welcome, sir.

MAJ. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Carol, good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

So, you heard that Iraqi militia member told Arwa Damon. He says anyone who depends on American support is depending on a shadow. The dependence by the central government on the United States is one of the reasons we lost Ramadi.

On the other hand, the U.S. has American advisers on the ground, America is conducting air strikes.

Is it crass to blame the United States for the fall of Ramadi?

MARKS: Well, at the same time -- yes, it is crass to do that. But at the same time, this is a nation we are trying to strike a nuclear deal with. So, I find it strange they would be poking us in the eye at the same time we're trying to work out some arrangement that allows us to have some position moving forward relative to their nuclear capabilities.

But more importantly, to the fight in Ramadi, the challenge is that most significantly the government in Baghdad is Shia-run, Ramadi is in Sunni Anbar province. So, you have a fundamental disconnect in terms of what the Baghdad government considers a priority and what's important to them.

Clearly, the United States has demonstrated that they're going to help the ISF, the Iraqi security forces as best they can, but they're doing that through airstrikes, and we've limited ourselves in terms of what we'll put on the ground. So, if Iraqi forces don't have the capability to step up and lost Ramadi, clearly, we've got to be able to give them some time to re-create a capability to allow them to go back in and I think that's what we're seeing. We're clearing seeing that right now.

COSTELLO: Well, you can't miss the point the Iranians are closer to the action as in boots on the ground, and the Americans are not willing to do at this time, right?

MARKS: Right.

COSTELLO: I want you to listen to something Representative Ed Royce said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. ED ROYCE (R-CA), CHAIRMAN, FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: Arming the Kurds and arming the allied Sunni tribes in Anbar, as we've done in the past, that are fighting ISIS, is the way to go, rather than bringing Shia militia sometimes led by Iranian officers, all the way to western Iraq. This is giving Iran too much reach into the region, and it's complicating the effort to defeat ISIS, frankly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, is Iran slowly taking over America's role in Iraq?

MARKS: Oh, it is, Carol. Absolutely.

You know, any part of the storm, the ISF is turning around. They can't handle the combat they are confronted with, and Shia militia are there to help.

[09:20:05] So, they are getting tapped out, if you will, and Tehran's support is coming through. The United States is providing strategic support, and tactical support in terms of air strikes, and trainers on the ground to get the ISF up and running.

But, clearly, that's the risk we run, which is the strategic for Tehran, which is enhanced reliance between Baghdad and Tehran. It's a new alliance that may be formal in some sense going forward but clearly that's what Baghdad -- when Baghdad is turning around, Tehran is there to help.

COSTELLO: So, bigger picture here, when all is said and done, what will that mean if Iran does in the end have major influence of what happens in Baghdad?

MARKS: Yes, Carol, that's a discussion point. What we are seeing is the balkanization of Iraq. Iraq is falling into pieces. You're probably going to end up with a Kurdish piece, a Shia piece with very large influence from Tehran, Baghdad will have some type of an arrangement that exists, and then there's a Sunni piece is now defined sadly by the ISIS mini-caliphate, if you will, the emerging caliphate, which is what they are trying to create and that becomes the intergenerational fight. You really set up this very large new normal, which is a very vicious, barbaric conflict between Sunni and Shia Islam and we're watching it unfold.

COSTELLO: General Spider Marks, thanks for your insight. I appreciate it.

MARKS: Thanks.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM: a pay to play scandal rocking the world cup soccer. The U.S. is accusing top officials of corruption. Alex Thomas is live in Zurich.

ALEX THOMAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soccer bosses from across the globe have flown here to Switzerland to pick a new president. Instead, they're facing arguably the biggest crisis in the sport's history. I'm Alex Thomas in Zurich. I'll have more for you in just a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:27] COSTELLO: A major scandal rocking the world of international soccer. Overnight, coordinated raids took place on two continents targeting soccer's governing body. Swiss authorities arrested six top FIFA officials at a swanky Zurich hotel, while at the same time, the FBI raided the group's U.S. headquarters in Miami, gathering evidence that a massive pay-to-play scheme going back nearly a quarter of a century.

The charges read like a mafia transcript, money laundering and racketeering, bribes and kickbacks totaling $150 million. For now, at least, FIFA says it welcomes the investigation. The group's spokesman addressed the raid at a news conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALTER DE GREGORIO, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, FIFA: For us, it's a hard time. It's not nice to be here in front of you and try to explain something that is not nice, but in the same time, and I can confirm for us, for FIFA -- this is good. This is good what happens. It's confirms that we are on the right track. It hurts, it's not easy, but it's the only way to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN international sports anchor Alex Thomas joins us live. He's in Zurich.

Tell us more.

THOMAS: Carol, although the list of charges from the U.S. Department of Justice does indeed read like some sort of Hollywood mob movie, this was not a case of Swiss police officers smashing down doors and dragging top soccer officials out of their beds when they were probably dreaming of a swanky breakfast at their luxury hotel.

Instead, we are told from eyewitnesses it was civilized as the half of dozen officials were led out of where they were staying, ahead of a very important week for soccer, the most popular sport on the planet. Just two weeks time, in the building behind me here in Zurich, more than 200 global soccer officials will vote for the next president. It's expected to be Joseph Sepp Blatter for a fifth term, the age of 79, his only challenge is Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, is expected to be a distant second in that election. We will have to find out, Carol, if all this scandal and controversy today will have any bearing on the election on Friday.

COSTELLO: So, why is the U.S. heading up this investigation?

THOMAS: This all dates back to the new initiative, really, the first time it has ever been done, the choosing of the soccer World Cup host. This was done at the end of 2010, just after the first ever African World Cup in South Africa, and they chose the host for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments at the same time, and Russia, and the small Middle Eastern nation of Qatar were picked. And there were real eyebrows were raised of both of those picks,

particularly Qatar which is smaller than the state of Connecticut by example and has no soccer pedigree or history. There were lots of rumors and mutterings about what might have gone on behind the scenes. Just 22 of the most powerful men in world soccer were the ones that had picked these two host nations. And the United States along with Australia, England and others were among those nations to miss out on hosting this hugely lucrative sporting event.

And that's when a year later the FBI started an investigation into the process, and there have been two investigations today, Carol, the U.S. Department of Justice one that reads like the mafia mob script, if you like, and the separate one by Swiss authorities here looking directly at that vetting process. But, of course, there is no doubt there is some connection because Blatter's reign as the head of world soccer has been plagued by scandal and corruption and many feel it's ruining the game.

COSTELLO: All right. Alex Thomas, reporting live from Zurich this morning, thank you so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the searches intensify and the death toll climbs. We will have the latest from flood-ravage Texas, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)