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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; Golden State Warriors Advance to NBA Finals. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 28, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I think they are looking for a populist call heading into 2016. They're looking for something that really resonate on the campaign trail that they can all get behind. Debt free college would be very difficult.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: EARLY START continues right now.

(MUSIC)

ROMANS: Happening now: evacuations in parts of Texas this morning. Residents bracing for more rain following historic deadly flooding. The death toll rising as bodies are pulled from the waters this morning. The damage done and danger still on the way. We've got that ahead.

BERMAN: Live anthrax shipped across the United States and around the world. The U.S. military sends samples through the mail by mistake. Dozens exposed now being tested. How could this happen? We are live.

ROMANS: Iraqi suffering setbacks in their quest to take back territories seized by ISIS. We go to Baghdad for the very latest this morning.

Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: Great to see you today. I'm John Berman. It is Thursday, May 28th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.

And happening now, authorities in Texas ordering voluntary evacuations along parts of two rivers. They are worried that the predicted heavy rain that will come as soon as today could cause more flash flooding.

This as crews push ahead with clean up after major flooding this week. More than a foot of rain pushed rivers over their banks in Hays County and elsewhere in Texas. Houses were torn from their foundations and pushed downstream.

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JESSE YANES, 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)

BERMAN: Tovar's body was found less than 100 yards from the crossing where she went missing.

ROMANS: All right. For the latest on the aftermath of the deadly flooding, I want to bring in CNN's Ana Cabrera. She is Wimberley, Texas, for us.

(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)

ROMANS: Thank you for that, Ana.

We are getting harrowing images of the time the water tore through the homes along the Blanco River. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, no!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Just terrifying. They say it was like a washing machine in the living room there. Caught up in the same flood were three families sharing a vacation home cabin in Wimberley, including Jonathan McComb and his wife and two children age 4 and 6.

The raging water picked up the cabin and carried it down river, tearing it apart along the way. At one point, it hit a bridge and the roof just carved off.

Jonathan McComb's father Joe says his son was separated from his family and that cabin as he fought for survival.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE MCCOMB, FATHER OF FLOOD SURVIVOR: 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.

[05:05:01] Crawled over there, knocked on the door and told them --

(VIDEO GAP)

PEDRAM JAVEHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: -- Kansas City and Interstate 40 and near Oklahoma City, both locations wake up to a messy commute. More rain in store for you. We had upwards of 20 inches since the start of the month.

Unprecedented rainfall throughout the area and, yes, there is more to come. Our computer models indicating anywhere between one to three and pockets of four inches of rain right near the Texas and Oklahoma border. We also have the possibility of severe weather over the western parts of Texas and Oklahoma panhandle. Western Texas and into Arkansas and into Kansas -- large hail and damaging winds and possibility of isolated tornadoes again.

There is however some silver lining to this forecast as we look forward, there is a general drying trend. We do expect below average rainfall over the areas that have been hardest hit lately, John, Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Derek, thanks for that.

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

CNN's Kathy Novak joins us from South Korea this morning.

Kathy, what's the latest?

KATHY NOVAK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, we are told the 22 people you referred to have been given antibiotics and some of them have given vaccinations as a precaution. And they're so far not showing any signs of having been exposed.

But the big question is, how could this possibly had happened? We know how dangerous anthrax is in the wake of 9/11. We say five people die when it was sent in the U.S. mail and that's precisely why this kind of training is being conducted by the U.S. military. It was supposed to be using inactive anthrax and it came from a base in Utah and shipped to nine states and here to South Korea through mail services that were supposed to be for inactive anthrax. So, the same security protocols that would have been used for live anthrax were not in place.

So, big concerns and big questions, Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Big questions how this could happen and how they could be sure that no one was really exposed. Thanks for that, Kathy.

BERMAN: All right. Happening now, the battle for Ramadi. The Iraqi government insists it has launched a major offensive to retake the city from ISIS. The Pentagon officials say they see no sign of Iraqi forces inside Ramadi. It appears ISIS is fortifying its hold on the city laying roadside bombings and booby traps, also sending in new supplies.

So, what is the reality? Let's check in with CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh live for us in Baghdad this morning.

Good morning, Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, the reality on the ground is hard to paint an accurate picture of. We simply don't get access to ISIS' side and what we do to the Iraqi security forces strictly manage by them.

This is what they say, though, is happening -- yesterday, a very inauspicious start, 30 Iraqi security forces killed by series of car bombs. Not around Ramadi, but around the town to the east of Baghdad near Fallujah on the outskirts of that.

Some comparative success by the Iraqi security forces, they say they managed to get to the southern outskirts to the University of Anbar. We can't verify that. That contradicts what the U.S. officials say they've been able to observe.

This is the early stage in what will be a very lengthy campaign here, and simply, we don't know who factors. How cohesive the security forces is going to be, will those Sunni tribes and Shia fathers and Iraqi security forces, police and military, be able to effectively coherently work together to get themselves moving at the right time, to the right place.

[05:10:09] And how well dug in, how reinforced are ISIS inside Ramadi. That's just Ramadi. There's all of Anbar to worry about. We saw ourselves far to the northeast of Anbar, near a key oil town called Baiji, where there is a complex fight going on for a refinery, just how difficulty it can be.

I mean, there are Iraqi special forces eager to show us how much they want to take the fight to ISIS, but they admit even there, simply they cannot go in to what they say is the (INAUDIBLE) of complex refinery building that is over 70 square kilometers, about 40 square miles to take the fight to ISIS. They are worried ISIS will blow up the refinery, causing an ecological disaster.

So, it is a very complex and slow fight at the refinery and add that on top to the fact that Ramadi used to house 1 million people. That would itself be an urban sprawl. There would be a lot of energy, complexity to fight ISIS -- John.

BERMAN: A humanitarian crisis where the people of Ramadi left with nowhere to go.

Nick Paton Walsh in Baghdad for us this morning, thanks so much.

ROMANS: The White House is making a big push for Congress to take action on the Patriot Act. The law expires at midnight on Sunday. And if lawmakers do nothing, senior officials say Congress will be playing Russian roulette with the national security.

We get more from CNN White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John and Christine.

Right, the White House is making the big push urging the Senate to act which it failed to do over the weekend to keep these parts of the Patriot Act up and running, including a reformed version of the bulk collection of American phone reports. They say failing to do so is an unnecessary risk, national security Russian roulette, legal limbo and that the FBI investigation would be severely impacted.

They also gave us a lot more detail on certain provisions that are set to expire on June 1st, in addition to the bulk collection of phone data. One of them is collecting certain records on individuals, like business, bank, and hotel records which is used 180 times a year, it turns out.

And the White House says there are other ways to get information, but those are limited and secret. There's also roving wire taps for people who keep switching cell phones. That's used less than 100 times a year. But the White House says there is no other authority that would allow investigators to track those people.

And lastly, the lone wolf provision, this has been talked about a lot. It let's them wire tap and track people who have not been linked to one terror group. This has never been used and it only applies to non American individuals.

The White House is saying that if the Senate does approve the bill, a bipartisan bill that the House already passed by 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, there would be no interruption to these provisions.

But, right now, John and Christine, that is a big if.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Michelle Kosinski, thanks so much.

Twelve minutes after the hour.

The IRIS believes a major cyber breach exposing data for 100,000 taxpayers they believe originated in Russia. The agency says organized crime syndicates were able to access tax records and file $50 million of fraudulent returns. Cyber security has been a big problem with the IRS for years. Lawmakers planning to question the IRS commissioner next week.

ROMANS: You know, you're going to get -- if you are breached, you're going to get free credit monitoring, but you're also going to get a special six-digit PIN when you do your taxes or interface with the IRS because now you're going of -- they've got to watch.

BERMAN: I think you are in a world of hurt. That's where you're going to --

ROMANS: I think it is really -- it wasn't a hack. They used stolen information to get into the servers there and get that information.

Let's take an early look at your money this morning. Stocks mostly down around the world. European and Asian shares are lower, so are U.S. stock futures. Yesterday, NASDAQ topped the record close set back in April. The Dow climbed 120 points.

Higher interest rates are coming later this year and will keep moving higher in the next few years. There is a beneficial. The San Francisco Fed president saying that moments ago. You can see the wild swings until that rate hike actually happens.

The FBI is investigating a surgical device found to spread uterine cancer. That's according to the Wall Street Journal. Johnson & Johnson was the largest maker of that device.

The FBI looking into what the company knew about the tool's danger before that device was pulled off the market last year. The surgical tool was previously used in tens of thousands of procedures a year, mostly hysterectomies. It has the potential to spread undetected cancer. Several people have come forward, saying they warned Johnson & Johnson about that risk years ago. BERMAN: It's really interesting story.

ROMANS: It really is.

All right. Hillary Clinton in South Carolina for the first time since the bruising 2008 defeat. But she wasn't the only presidential candidate campaigning in that state. She has some company. We'll tell you who, next.

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[05:18:00] ROMANS: Rick Santorum is ready to run again. 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)

ROMANS: He is the seventh Republican candidate to enter the race. The former senator won 11 states in 2012, including Iowa with a campaign appealing to conservatives. In his kickoff announcement, Santorum looked to broaden his appeal as the champion of the middle class.

BERMAN: Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton, she was in South Carolina at a campaign event on Wednesday. Nearby, Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, held a news conference.

ROMANS: What a coincidence.

BERMAN: Just coincidentally. You know, she said she had a plan for months and months. But she just happened to be right outside the Hillary Clinton event talking about the trust issue.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports from 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)

[05:20:01] ROMANS: All right. Jeff Zeleny is on the road following.

All right. Nebraska has abolished its death penalty. State lawmakers voting to override a veto by Republican Governor Pete Ricketts. The governor issued a statement saying he is appalled that they have lost what he called a critical tool to protect law enforcement and Nebraska families.

BERMAN: All right. Somewhere, Rick Barry is smiling. I love that reference. The Golden State Warriors, they're in the NBA Finals for the first time since Rick Barry's team won it all 40 years ago.

Coy Wire remembers that series so well. He has the details in the bleacher report next.

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BERMAN: The Golden State Warriors, they are warriors and now they are kings of the NBA Western Conference. They will go to the finals for the first time since 1975.

ROMANS: Coy Wire has more on this morning's bleacher report.

Hi there.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and John.

Yes, it has been a long time for Warrior fans. 40 years since Rick Barry was the MVP of those final series, John Berman. Now they have to worry about LeBron James and the Cavaliers.

MVP runner up James Harden could not get it done when the Rockets need him the most. Maybe it was the crowd at the Oracle Center. Maybe it was just an off night but he finished with a record 13 turnovers.

For the Warriors, Harrison Barnes was filthy inside and out. And Curry was clutch, as he always is, especially late in the game.

[05:25:03] He dropped 26 in that game.

But the real MVP of the series, guys, you have to go with Steph Curry's daughter, Riley. She stole the show once again in the post- game press conference. Check this out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STEPHEN CURRY, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS: Produced, made plays, guys here before me.

RILEY CURRY: Yes, I say it best (ph).

S. CURRY: You don't want to say that.

She is taking advantage of the moment for sure. Everybody has got to be locked in. Everybody has got to be -- you know, determined to whatever comes our way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Steph Curry, Ms. Riley, if you're watching, yes, we want an encore. Yes, we want more. So, please give it to us during the finals.

Game one is next Thursday in Oakland. Tip off, 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Can we get her a commercial already? I mean, seriously. She's adorable.

All right. From the hard court to hard times in the world of soccer. Justice Department is saying the investigation into FIFA has just begun. This is after 14 people indicted for decades of manipulating soccer decisions worldwide bringing in millions of dollars in return.

Now, all eyes on Sepp Blatter. He is not facing charges just yet. He is up for re-election tomorrow. He's going for his fifth term. Many of FIFA sponsors are spoken up and saying they're monitoring the situation. But there had been strong statements especially from Visa. Those companies have not yet dropped their support.

All right. I know Christine's house is split with the New Jersey Devils and the Blackhawks. But the Blackhawks side is pumped right now, because Chicago forced a game seven against the Anaheim Ducks with a big win in the conference finals last night. That means both the eastern and western conferences will have game seven this weekend.

Guys, this is only the second time in almost 50 years that we'll have two game sevens to decide who will play for the Stanley Cup. Rangers and Lighting on Friday. Christine's Blackhawks and the Ducks are on Saturday.

ROMANS: I know.

BERMAN: You know what's interesting, Coy? They are playing hockey right now. You know what they are not playing for the next week? Basketball. They take a week off. It's so crazy.

Not only do they play the games after 9:00 so kids can't see them, but now, they just sit around for a week waiting to play. Way to suck the excitement right out the playoffs.

All right. Coy Wire, thanks so much.

WIRE: You're welcome. ROMANS: We are happy about the Blackhawks in my house.

BERMAN: Congratulations.

ROMANS: Thank you.

Happening now: 27 minutes past the hour. Evacuations in some parts of Texas. More rain on the way as bodies are recovered from receding flood waters. The very latest this morning, next.

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