Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Deadly Flooding in Texas; Interview with Mayor Steve Thurber; Military Ships Live Anthrax to Several States; Pentagon & CDC Investigating Anthrax Shipments; Source: Tax Data Theft Traced to Russia. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired May 28, 2015 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:01] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A tidal wave of water crashing into homes. And more rain is on the way in Texas as the storm's victims are laid to rest including a homecoming queen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it was raining so hard, God was opening his hand for her.
COSTELLO: We're live from the storm zone as rivers rise.
Also the Army accidentally sends out live anthrax. How could this have happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's great question. That's exactly why we brought in the Center for Disease Control.
COSTELLO: Plus, the FBI needs help tracking ISIS. The bureau says it can't keep track of all the would-be jihadist in America. So it's asking police to help.
Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Get out while you can. That is the urgent message from city officials in Wharton, Texas. Right now they're about to hold a news conference on the evacuation of the town's west side. It sits along the Colorado River southwest of Houston. It's likely to surge past flood stage within hours and keep climbing. Tomorrow its crest could set a new record.
Floodwaters have already washed across many of Wharton's western neighborhood. Some homeowners are facing devastating damage with water as much as three feet deep. The death toll also climbing, 21 now confirmed dead, nine missing and several more days of rain are on the way.
Those grim numbers understandable when you watch this. This is what happens to homes when a river overflows its banks. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Can you imagine water bursting through the door, filling the room in seconds, the family frantically trying to figure out what to do. This video is from Wimberley, as the Blanco River surged, rising some 40 feet above flood stage. Now many are just grateful to be alive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GAYLE MCNEIL, HAYS COUNTY RESIDENT: My husband's truck was already starting to go down -- float down the river, and my car was up a little higher, so we got in that. I couldn't get out. I was driving, and my husband was able to get out on that side and this man just appeared and pulled me out, and -- because I couldn't get out otherwise.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Right. Who was this man?
MCNEIL: His name is Chance. That's all I know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: I want to head to Wimberley now for an update from the city's mayor. Mayor Steve Thurber joins me now.
Good morning, sir.
MAYOR STEVE THURBER, WIMBERLEY, TEXAS: Well, good morning. Thank you for having me.
COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. I know how busy you are. More rain is expected today. It just won't stop. That's got to be frustrating?
THURBER: It is. We are getting prepared for it. We wish it would go away, we prayed for it for so long and the drought, I think we prayed a little too hard. But we're preparing, notifying citizens of the potential for more rain today and even more rain tomorrow, so we are ready.
COSTELLO: I know that nine people are still missing including some members from the McComb family and their friend. Many people remember the McComb's vacation home was swept off its foundation. The father survived.
Mayor, did rescuer workers find anyone else?
THURBER: They found -- one additional body yesterday afternoon. We haven't identified it yet so I think the total number confirmed dead in our area is four and like you said there are still nine missing.
COSTELLO: How are you preparing this morning to face the day?
THURBER: Well, I am going out in the neighborhoods, talk to the neighbors, the whole entire community has come together and is out on the streets, and the neighbors are helping each other and I am going to go and do the same this morning.
COSTELLO: All right. Mayor Steve Thurber, thanks so much for joining me. I appreciate it.
The shear intensity of the water is mind blowing. I want to bring in Chad Myers now.
And, Chad, I want to play that video once again of the Blanco River, you know, went over its banks and then it just rushed into this home because I don't think people realize how fast these things happen.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, 11:00 at night, Carol, the river stage was about nine feet. Now that's not bankful but all of a sudden by 1:00 the gauge broke at 40.2 feet, so you go from nine to 40, and then it still kept going and the gauge didn't even know it because the gauge broke. This is just an amazing flash flood, Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Chad, we're going to go to Wharton, Texas, now because that news conference has started. We're expecting the mayor to speak. Domingo Montalbo. Let's listen.
MAYOR DOMINGO MONTALBO, WHARTON, TEXAS: At last count the river level had been set at 45.5, which will still bring us flooding. It was, according to projection, was 45.8, so we're glad that it's come down a little bit but we certainly don't want the citizens to feel like it's lessened the blow from the flood, so the other thing I wanted to let the citizens know is don't be preoccupied with any of the water bills, sewer bill, garbage.
We're suspending that until after the event so that was a timeline that came up and we want to make sure that they don't have to worry about that at this time. We'll be getting with them on that.
I think things are well in hand, but having lived -- been born and raised here all my life, the river is very unpredictable. And so we have to make sure that we stay fluid and as things change that we react to them. So, anyhow, I want to thank the press for getting out the word. I think that was one of the things -- and social media -- that has really helped us get the word out, giving our citizens direction and where to go and what to do, so we really thank you all for that.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What is the percentage of residents in the last 12 to 24 hours, since you announced to go ahead and go?
MONTALBO: I'll let our emergency manager answer that.
STEVE JOHNSON, WHARTON EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR: The families that we have contacted, we've had several of the families who have elected to go, they have not left yet, and one of the amazing things that I found is some of the people who are planning on leaving today --
COSTELLO: All right. We're going to step away from this news conference, but you heard the mayor, very concerned, he's calling for voluntary evacuations. Wharton, Texas, it's a very small town, only about 8700 people live there.
But, Chad, you saw the Colorado River. It snakes through the town.
MYERS: Yes. Sure does.
COSTELLO: And the mayor said, it's very unpredictable.
MYERS: Yes. This is called the flood. This is a flood warning coming for them. Not a flash flood warning. Flood means the river is going up slowly because the river was upstream. Remember how the last map I showed you went straight up. This one is not, this one is a slow rise. And the forecast was it to go way up here to 45.5. It has been under the forecast the entire morning and will likely not even get to that 45.5, but they can't take that chance.
Just because this angle is wrong now. That looks like it should be kind of curving off, you don't know how much water is still up river. There's bubble. We call about these bubbles of water that have to come down the river because it rained up the hill. It rained in the hill country.
Look at all of these rivers now here that still have flood warnings going on and flash flood watches across all of the states here from Kansas down to Oklahoma and Texas, because it's still raining. It will continue to rain today. It will redevelop back out to the west into Amarillo, into Wichita Falls, west of Dallas, west of the hill country, and run right back into the same areas, Carol, today that we had rain showers yesterday, the day before and the day before and so on, and so on, and so on.
State climatologist for Texas has just said that this now is the wettest year in Texas record on average, taking all of these little cities, adding them all up and comparing the 2004, the old wettest year, and this now, this month of May is the wettest month of May ever on record for Texas as a whole.
COSTELLO: It's just unbelievable. Unbelievable.
Chad Myers, thanks so much.
I want to take our viewers now to Houston because they're still suffering many problems there. Dan Simon is covering that part of the story for us.
Hi, Dan.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This is pretty much what you see when you drive around some of the Houston streets. Just a big pile of trash and debris, people trying to get everything cleaned up. And it's just sort of a mess. We are on Brays Heather Drive, and pretty much every house has something like this right in front of it. And you can see why.
When you look at the homes, you can see where the water came up, you can see the different color in brick there, so the water came up about three feet in front of this house, but I have to tell you, Carol, Houston is sort of a tale of two cities. We just saw the school bus drive by. The schools are back in session, the businesses are back online. So the government did a pretty good job of getting things back to normal quickly.
But of course still so much has to be done and of course across the state you still have the search for some of the victims. At least nine people still missing in the storm. And also of course people are now beginning to be laid to rest. You had the funeral yesterday of Alyssa Ramirez. She is the 18-year-old homecoming queen who got swept up in the flood waters and died when she was coming back from her prom.
This is how people are remembering her. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a parent, I can't imagine the pain that you feel. I mean, you want to see your kids grow up, especially one so accomplished.
LINDA MCANELLY, SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT: If there is any comfort for her parents even when we ask the big questions of why, we don't understand, and none of us understand, but, you know, they believe that she is with the lord, and so I think they find comfort in that. I think anybody that was in there would find comfort in that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[09:10:04] SIMON: Such a heartbreaking loss. And her -- everybody is just remembering her throughout the entire state.
And, Carol, again this is what we're dealing with here. Wet mattresses, wet rugs. This is kind of the first thing that's going to have to go. And now, of course, people worrying about the weather. They're looking up at the skies to see what's going to happen. More rain of course in the forecast just as they're dealing with this fallout -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Dan Simon reporting live from Houston this morning.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, live anthrax sent in the mail by mistake to several states, even to South Korea. What's up with that? We'll talk about that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: In Washington, a sign of the times. This is the view of the White House where a section of fencing is being outfitted with a row of spikes. It's a trial run of sorts but eventually these spikes will encircle the executive mansion.
The goal is of course to beef up security after several embarrassing incidents in recent months. In one case a fence jumper who managed to get deep inside the White House. In other news this morning, live anthrax accidentally shipped to nine
states and a U.S. air base in South Korea. The samples originated at this military lab in Utah. The Pentagon and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are scrambling to find out what exactly happened.
Now four Defense Department staffers in the United States and 22 people in South Korea are being treated for possible exposure to anthrax.
[09:15:06] CNN's Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon. She has more for us.
Good morning.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Right now, the Pentagon says there are no signs anyone is ill, but they are moving to take the actions you just described. What we do know is the military contracted with FedEx sometime ago to undertake these shipments, but that may be about all we know. This morning the Pentagon really scrambling to come up with a set of facts about what happened here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR (voice-over): This morning, fear up to 22 personnel may have been exposed to anthrax in an air base in South Korea, and an investigation now underway as officials at Osan Air Base say an Army lab in Utah inadvertently shipped live samples to them and facilities in nine states over the past few days. Twenty-two people now being monitored in South Korea join four workers in the U.S. who have received preventative post exposure treatment, a lab in Maryland was the first to report receiving the live bacteria last Friday after handling the samples.
The question now, how could this have happened?
COL. RONALD FIZER, U.S. ARMY: It's a great question. That's exactly why we brought in the Center for Disease Control and their investigators.
STARR: The Centers for Disease Control now investigating as officials reveal the samples were shipped under less rigorous conditions since it was believed the bacteria was dead.
FIZER: No known risk to the general public, and there is no suspected or confirmed cases of anthrax infection.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: Now, consider this, Carol -- the Pentagon has actually known about this situation for several days. No explanation either why it took them so long to go public -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, shouldn't the samples of anthrax, shouldn't they have been dead? What happened there?
STARR: You know, this is really the crux of the matter. It's not the first time this has happened. The Centers for the Disease Control had a similar situation less than a year ago. When the samples are shipped, you know, they are shipped either as live or dead, and they were supposed to be dead, they are supposed to be eradiated to a sufficient point that these are dead spores.
But when they got received on the other end, they found out they were live and no one can explain at this point how it happened or how widespread this may be.
COSTELLO: Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon, thanks so much.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM: criminals targeting the American tax paper, and the IRS says Russia is to blame.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:21:28] COSTELLO: Look at some stories at 21 minutes past the hour.
Baltimore police commissioner, Anthony Batts, is apologizing to his police force. He says they didn't have the proper training to deal with the riots that erupted after the death of Freddie Gray.
Officials say more than 100 officers were hurt in the unrest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY BATTS, BALTIMORE POLICE COMMISSIONER: I thought that appropriate thing was to tell the officers that I didn't make the decision soon enough as I possibly should, but I had to prioritize. So, the -- you can only do so much training in a two-year period and I picked those things where I thought was most prominent. I am apologizing that we didn't have a chance to do enough training and to be prepared to respond to on that training.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Batts also said he failed to follow his intuition that problems might occur, and officers got hurt as a result.
The pilot behind this crash at a Florida airport under arrest. Police say he was drunk when he ran his plane off a runway and into a building. Investigators say a 57-year-old Christopher Hall was trying to take off from a restricted area with his young son onboard the plane. In audio recordings from air traffic control, you can hear Hall repeatedly ignoring orders.
(BEGIN ADUIO CLIP)
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: OK, 32 Mike, where are you going, sir?
Skymaster 32 Mike, is everything all right, sir? 32 Mike, turn your engines off.
Twin Cessna 32 Mike, turn your engines off, sir. Kill your -- kill your engines.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Luckily, nobody was hurt. Hall is charged with reckless operation of a vessel and child abuse without great harm. The EPA is now investigating.
A booby trap text can crash your iPhone. Even worse, you don't even have to read the text. All you have to do is receive a text. It's a nonsense message that has a couple of English words, a string of Arabic characters and a Japanese character. It's apparently due to a nasty computer bug on Apple's operating system. Of course, Apple says it's working on fixing the problem.
Sources say the IRS believes Russians are behind the theft of data from more than 100,000 taxpayers and the filing of $50 million in fraudulent returns.
CNN investigative correspondent Chris Frates broke the story. He's here with more.
Good morning.
CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Hey. Good morning, Carol.
So, the IRS believes the data breach originated in Russia and that's according to sources I talked to who are briefed on the breach. The thieves took the tax returns of more than 100,000 people. They used personal information they had gotten elsewhere, things like Social Security numbers and addresses, and they used that information to pull down tax records from the IRS Web site. Once they had access to the tax returns, they used that information to file $50 million in fraudulent tax refunds.
Now, the IRS's criminal unit is investigating, as is an independent inspector general. The IRS also notified the Department of Homeland Security about the breach. But the security of taxpayer data has been a problem at the agency, Carol, since at least 1997. This past October, the inspector general called it the agency's number one challenge. And this latest breach has lawmakers on Capitol Hill, they're demanding answers.
Senator Orrin Hatch put it this way. He said, quote, "That the IRS, home to highly sensitive information on every single American and every single company doing business here was vulnerable to this attack is simply unacceptable." He plans to haul the IRS commissioner before his commission next week to explain what happened and who's to blame -- Carol.
COSTELLO: OK. So, what about these poor taxpayers, what is the IRS doing for them? FRATES: Well, so, there were 200,000 taxpayers who were targeted by
these thieves.
[09:25:01] About 100,000 of them had their data stolen. So, the IRS is going to send a note to all 200,000 and say, you know, your tax records were attempted to be accessed, somebody might have your information, like Social Security and addresses, so be aware of that.
And for the 100,000 people impacted, whose tax records were actually accessed, they are going to give free credit monitoring to those folks so they can keep an eye on the credit and make sure nobody is doing anything with the information that is unauthorized.
COSTELLO: All right. Chris Frates, reporting live. Thanks so much.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM.
CNN is on the front line with Iraqi special forces, as troops trying to push ISIS militants back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
The FBI is tapped out when it comes to tracking suspected terrorists. That's why the agency director James Comey says the FBI is asking local police departments for help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: It is an incredibly difficult task that we are enlisting all the federal, state and local partners in, that we're working about in every single day but I can't stand with any high confidence when I confront the world that's increasingly dark to me and tell you that I've got it all covered.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: New York is one of several agencies increasing surveillance, and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton wants to add more than 400 new officers to the counterterrorism unit. The call for help comes after that foiled terror attack in Garland, Texas, when two ISIS supporters opened fire at a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest. One of the gunmen was being tracked by the FBI, but it ultimately lost track of him.
