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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Historic Texas Flooding: It's Not Over; U.S. Military Mistakenly Ships Live Anthrax; The War on ISIS: Iraq Suffers Setbacks; World Soccer Officials Busted. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired May 28, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:17] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now: evacuations in Texas this morning. Residents bracing for more rain. That following the historic deadly flooding. The death toll is rising as bodies are pulled from the waters. We will tell you the danger still on the way, ahead.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Live anthrax shipped across the United States and around the world. The U.S. military mistakenly sending the wrong samples through the mail. Dozens of people exposed and now tested. We are live with how this could happen.

BERMAN: The Iraqis suffering setbacks in the quest to take back territory seized by ISIS. We are live in Baghdad with the very latest.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: Nice to see you this morning, folks. I'm Christine Romans. It is Thursday, May 28th. It is 4:00 a.m. exactly in the East.

Let's begin here in Texas. Happening now: authorities in Texas are ordering voluntary evacuations along part of two rivers. They are worried the predicted heavy rain will cause more flash flooding this morning.

This as crews are cleaning up from major flooding earlier this week. More than a foot of rain pushed rivers over the banks here in Hays County, and elsewhere in Texas, houses torn from their foundations and cars pushed downstream like toys.

The search for bodies is underway with at least 21 known dead in Texas and Oklahoma. One family outside Houston spent Wednesday searching for the body of 73-year-old Alice Tovar reportedly missing when she didn't show up for work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE YHANES, SON OF FLOOD VICTIM ALICE TOVAR: She is cold. She's wet. She belongs at home. That's where we're trying to get her. You just got to do what you got to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Tovar's body was found late in the afternoon, less than 100 yards from the crossing where she went missing.

BERMAN: The latest now on the deadly flooding and aftermath. I want to bring in CNN's Ana Cabrera from Wimberley, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, residents here are in clean up mode. This flood was catastrophic. In fact, nine cabins on just this vacation property were mutilated, leaving behind these huge piles of splintered wood, of twisted metal, of tossed furniture. The owners of this property say they had this place in the family for 70 years and they have never seen flooding like this.

Normally, the Blanco River stays down there. But the water rose with such fury and so quickly that some people couldn't escape, several are still missing. In fact, the Texas task force one has been called in now to lead the search effort. We have seen people searching by helicopter, by boat, and on the ground along the river banks.

That is the main priority right now, finding those missing. But we continue to hear stories of survival, incredible stories like that of Galya McNeil, who says she barely made it out of her home as the water broke through windows, busted walls, tossed furniture in every direction. She and her husband got to her car, but then as the water rose around it, the air bags went off.

And listen to what happened next.

GALYA MCNEIL, HAYS COUNTY RESIDENT: 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 could not get out otherwise.

CABRERA: Right. Who was this man?

MCNEIL: His name is Chance. That's all I know.

CABRERA: As residents like McNeil try to get their feet back under them, the flood threat remains throughout the weekend, with isolated thunderstorms still in the forecast that could bring a huge amount of rain in such a short amount of time, soaking an already saturated ground. The water just has nowhere to go -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: We're watching those forecasts so closely.

We also continue to get harrowing images of the moments that water tore through houses along the Blanco River. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, no!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Amazing.

Caught up in the flooding you are seeing now, three families sharing a vacation cabin in Wimberley, including Jonathan McComb, his wife and two small children. The water really just picked up the cabin and carried it down river, tearing it apart along the way. Jonathan McComb's father Joe says his son was separated from his family as they fought for survival.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE MCCOMB: I just kept praying and saying, I've got to get out of here. He said, I was swimming -- trying to swim, grabbing for air. He said I didn't not whether I was going up or down. He said I got to get -- of here and he kept -- just adrenaline was driving him. He was able to get up and he got up enough to see the light at somebody's house.

[04:05:00] Crawled over there, knocked on the door and told them, our house just got washed away, I need help and pretty much just, I guess his energy just collapsed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Amazing he was able to crawl up to that house because Jonathan McComb is in the hospital right now with a collapsed lung and broken sternum. Everyone else in that cabin is still missing.

ROMANS: Those little kids, 4 years old and 6 years old.

More severe weather in Texas Wednesday afternoon. This tornado touched all the way up in the panhandle. It damaged a gas drilling rig in Hemphill County and injured three people. Two of them critically.

All right. With the ground saturated, I mean saturated across much of Texas and Oklahoma, it won't take much rain to cause more flash flooding. And, unfortunately, there is more rain in the forecast.

Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is tracking the weather for us.

This is not what people there want to hear.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, not good news at all, Christine. And just to show you how saturated the ground is, we currently have 183 reporting locations along the rivers and streams from Texas to Oklahoma and Arkansas that are at or above flood stage at the moment. And with 20-plus inches of rain that has fallen since the beginning of the month, you can see just why we have the flooding potential ongoing through the rest of today and into this weekend as well.

We have forecasts of about 2 to perhaps 4 inches of rain right around Texas and Oklahoma, near the border. That's the area that has seen the most amount of rain. But just because we don't have the heavy rainfall forecast along the Gulf Coast doesn't mean this rainfall will eventually move down the streams and rivers potentially leading to more river flooding across the Houston and Austin region.

At the moment, we have 4.3 million Americans under a flood watch. We have roughly 7 million Americans with a flood warning this morning. That includes the greater Houston region.

Here is the rainfall forecast for the next 24 hours. You can see just how much more rain is expected. Oklahoma City, Wichita Falls, Dallas, you are in the line for more precipitation, and we have the possibility of severe weather again.

Isolated tornadoes in the Texas panhandle and Oklahoma panhandle, western Kansas and western Nebraska as well. There is however some silver lining. We like to look forward into the next 6 to 10 days. We are expecting a drying trend by the middle to the end of next week for these hard-hit locations. So, there's a bit of good news on the back.

John and Christine, back to you.

ROMANS: Derek, thanks for that.

BERMAN: Can't wait for that drying.

All right. Thanks so much, Derek.

Breaking overnight: federal officials have launched an investigation after the Defense Department accidentally shipped live anthrax samples to labs in nine states and the U.S. military base in South Korea. Officials say, as of yet, no one has become ill and there is no threat to the public, but four defense workers in the U.S. and as many as 22 in South Korea have been put on post-exposure treatment as a precaution.

CNN's Kathy Novak joins us now live from the Osan Air Base in South Korea.

Kathy, what's the latest?

KATHY NOVAK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, as you say, we are being told that the 22 people are not showing any signs of exposure.

But if this was a mistake, it was a big one. This anthrax was supposed to be inactive. It made its way from a lab in Utah, all the way here to South Korea and people were already working with it in a training exercise before it was discovered it was indeed a live sample.

On Wednesday, here, emergency personnel moved in to destroy the sample, to isolate this facility, to decontaminate it and put in precautionary medical measures for these 22 people who may have been exposed. That includes testing. They were given antibiotics and vaccinations.

And as we say, there is no threat to the public, but a serious investigation, John, into what went wrong and how we prevent that from happening again.

BERMAN: I would say, to say the least there, is there concern or how -- when will they know that the concern has passed?

NOVAK: Well, we are waiting for more updates. We haven't heard anymore from the Department of Defense here. Today, we're hoping to hear another update. Tomorrow, what we heard so far as we say is that these people so far have not shown any symptoms.

But the bigger question will be what went wrong here? This anthrax left a lab in Utah and went to nine states, all the way here to South Korea. All of those labs will have to check inventory to find out what is going on here, John.

BERMAN: Yes, no doubt. Kathy Novak for us in South Korea -- thanks so much, Kathy.

ROMANS: To the Middle East now and the battle for Ramadi. The Iraqis insisting they have launched a major offensive to retake Ramadi from ISIS. From Pentagon officials say they see no signs of Iraqi forces inside Ramadi. And ISIS appears to be fortifying its hold on the city, laying roadside bombs and bobby traps while bringing in new supplies.

CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh monitoring developments live from Baghdad for us.

Good morning.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, it was certainly not the most auspicious start to their operations yesterday for Iraqi security forces, losing 30 men through a series of suicide blasts to south of Fallujah.

[04:10:07] That's the bad news. The good news is we will point out they managed they say to get to the southern outskirts and University of Anbar on the edge of Ramadi.

Now, all of this, of course, you have to pass and carefully analyze because we are in a war here and every side is going t o make grand statements about success. But yes, it's pretty clear at this stage. We are seeing no massive sweep into Ramadi or substantial amounts of territory changing hands.

Not really expected perhaps that would realistically happen, we ourselves saw a stalemate an oil refinery of Baiji. You are seeing pictures of it there, have been in place for months frankly. Troops there firing, part of the golden division that was set to have left Ramadi in a hurry, criticized by the U.S. for leaving. The key issue there is they wanted to show us they are willing to fight.

But they can't barge into refinery or ISIS might blow it out of play. So, an extraordinarily messy situation there. That's just one part of the fight. These are dense urban areas. A lot of pressure on the Iraqi security forces to be cohesive with the Shia militia and Sunnis and take the land back fast, and all the time, Washington giving an hour by hour commentary really on how they think that's going -- Christine.

ROMANS: Hour by hour commentary, and there's a big concern, Nick, about sectarian divides here. You've got the Iranian-backed Shia militia. You've got Sunni tribes who'd like to be armed but have not been armed by the Baghdad central government, and Iraqi army criticized for not being able to unite the populace.

WALSH: Well, yes. If you look at the scale of tasks ahead of the operation here before they get going. It's monumental, frankly. As you say, Sunni tribes who at the start of the operation were numbered in the thousands who set to be on board, but they long had issues of weapons to join the fight. We have seen the name of the operation initially answering the call of Hussein. That's how (INAUDIBLE) Shia to anybody who heard it. That seems to be tweets of Iraqi state TV to answer the call of Iraq, but it is still called the Shia militia who are doing the fighting.

That gave a sense of branding that was far away from the nationalistic Iraqi feeling many in Washington would have liked to have seen at the beginning of the fight here. And then bear in mind, we will see a Shia army at the end of the day, a very Shia militia heading into a Sunni heartland, to kick out ISIS, a Sunni group. That sectarian fault line an issue in Iraq for the last decade flaring up potentially in this key fight for Ramadi -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Nick Paton Walsh for us in Baghdad this morning -- thanks for that, Nick.

BERAMN: The IRS believes a cyber data breach exposing date from more than 100,000 taxpayers, they believe it originated in Russia. The agency says organized crime syndicates were able to access tax records and file $50 million in fraudulent returns. Cyber security has been a problem at the IRS for years. Lawmakers plan to question the IRS commissioner next week.

ROMANS: The IRS will reach out to people who have been breached and you're going to get free credit monitoring and you're going to have to new PIN number when you're doing your own taxes because they're going to have to have extra special monitoring of 100 million people -- 100,000 people, I think.

Anyway, time for an early start on your money. Stocks are mostly lower around the world. European and Asian shares are lower, so are U.S. stock futures. But remember, stocks near record territory here. Yesterday, look at the NASDAQ topped its record close back in April, never been higher.

The Dow climbed a solid 120 points. The FBI investigating a surgical device found to spread uterine cancer, that's according to "The Wall Street Journal". Johnson & Johnson was the largest maker of this device. The FBI looking into what the company knew about the dangers before it was pulled off of the market last year. That surgical tool was previously used in thousands of procedures a year, mostly hysterectomies. Now, experts say it has a potential to spread undetected cancer. Several people have come forward, saying they warned Johnson & Johnson about the risk years ago. That will be one stock and one story to watch today.

BERMAN: All right. Thirteen minutes after the hour right now.

Hillary Clinton in South Carolina for the first time as a candidate since the bruising 2008 primary campaign which she lost there. She was not the only presidential candidate campaigning in the Palmetto State. We will have details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:17:31] BERMAN: Rick Santorum is in. The former Pennsylvania senator made it official on Wednesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am running for president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Santorum is the seventh Republican candidate to officially enter the 2016 race. There will be more who are actually running, but for legal reasons can't say it out loud. The former Pennsylvania senator won 11 states in 2012, including the Iowa caucuses. At the time, the campaign made a strong pitch to Christian conservatives. The kickoff announcement, Santorum, he focused on his middle class appeal which is part of his platform.

ROMANS: Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has some unwanted company at a campaign event in South Carolina Wednesday. Republican presidential contender Carly Fiorina holding a news conference just outside and blasting Clinton on the trust issue.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in South Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Hillary Clinton's first visit to South Carolina is seven year, she had a bit of company on the campaign trail. Carly Fiorina, the Republican presidential candidate who's trying to break out of the pack of Republicans, showed up just outside of Secretary Clinton's event. She's been trying to make a point that she would be the strongest nominee to take on Secretary Clinton. She was hammering her for not answering questions, for not being transparent.

Secretary Clinton, of course, ignored Carly Fiorina, and went on about her day, saying that Republicans are not for equal pay laws. The most interesting part of Secretary Clinton's first trip to South Carolina was the olive branch she extended to Democrats here.

Of course, you'll both remember that in 2008, she lost the state of South Carolina by some 28 points to then-Senator Barack Obama. That was the beginning of the end of Hillary Clinton's campaign.

But she now needs the Democrats to support her. That is the bloc of African-American voters. That is the key piece of the old Obama coalition, if you will, that Secretary Clinton is trying to build and piece together for her 2016 presidential run.

She will be back in South Carolina next month. She goes on to fundraise in Florida on Thursday and Friday -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Our thanks to Jeff Zeleny.

Some big news from Jeff's home state Nebraska. Nebraska has abolished the death penalty there. State lawmakers voted to override the veto from the Republican Governor Pete Ricketts and they repealed capital punishment there. The governor has issued a statement saying he is appalled that they have lost what he calls a critical tool to protect law enforcement in Nebraska family.

People are looking at this as the first conservative state to abolish the death penalty and the beginning of a national trend.

[05:20:04] ROMANS: Interesting. I think the public actually voted to raise the minimum wage there last year, too. It's one of those solidly red states where often you see things happening you would not expect.

BERMAN: Sometimes -- the conservative argument there, they have not executed anyone since 1997. The conservative argument there is we can't get these executions to happen. It's costing more money, perhaps it makes more sense to get rid of it.

ROMANS: Yes, I see.

All right. Chilling evidence presented at the trial of accused Colorado movie theater gunman James Holmes. A notebook containing among other things instructions on how to kill innocent people. Holmes mailed the notebook to his psychiatrist just hours before he's accused of shooting 12 people dead and injuring dozens more inside an Aurora movie theater. His mental state is the main question facing jurors. Prosecutors want the death penalty. The defense claims Holmes was insane.

I'll tell you, when you read the content of that notebook, there is ammunition for both cases there. Sometimes he sounds so calculating and very clear. At others, it is almost as if you see this morass inside of his brain.

BERMAN: Deeply troubling to be sure.

All right. It is called the world cup of fraud, sporting's biggest corruption bust ever. This morning, there are new developments in the FIFA scandal. Don't call it soccer. It's a scandal, though, and it's live right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: The Justice Department is vowing to wipe out corruption in international soccer after unsealing a 47-count indictment charging FIFA members with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering.

[04:25:07] The IRS accusing FIFA officials of taking $150 million in bribes in exchange for lucrative media and marketing deals spanning the last 24 years.

Let's bring in CNN's Alex Thomas live from Zurich this morning.

Good morning.

ALEX THOMAS, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine.

This is arguably the biggest scandal to affect world soccer. It's an incredibly fast moving tale as well, impossible to predict. And very wide ranging, not just because soccer is the most popular sport on the planet, but also, for example, it's affecting relations between the U.S. and Russia.

You mentioned the U.S. Department of Justice news conference on Wednesday. It was incredible. It read like a Hollywood movie script about a mob or mafia or something like that. We have seen the response from the Russia foreign ministry and telling American to butt out and leave FIFA alone. That's not an opinion I have to say that's shared by the rest of the world.

VISA, one of FIFA, world soccer's government body's, key sponsors has released a very stark statement, essentially threatening to pull its money and also the game unless FIFA changes now.

What about the man at the head of the organization? FIFA president Sepp Blatter, he's been in charge since 1998. And despite all this corruption and scandal, we have not seen him in public since all this broke on Wednesday morning, and he is widely expected to be reelected for a fifth term as president at the age of 79 -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that. What a story.

What a story, John. That's just not -- the twist and turns of that -- I love the Russian government response to the whole thing saying it's a conspiracy among Americans to make Russia look bad after winning a World Cup date.

BERMAN: Sepp Blatter, with friends like these, I got to say, you know, why not change the elections. No problem here.

Twenty-six minutes after the hour.

Happening now: evacuations in some parts of Texas, and more rains on the way today, and more bodies recovered from the flood waters. We'll have the latest this morning, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)