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President Obama Declares State of Emergency In South Carolina; Coast Guard And Navy Confirms Finding Multiple Items Today That Belonged On Missing "El Faro"; S.C. Governor Holds Press Conference. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired October 04, 2015 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:00] SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: It is heartbreaking. The dangerous weather are forcing the South Carolina Department of Transportation to shut down a 75 mile stretch of I-95 between I-20 near Florence and I-26 north of Charleston.
Now, you're looking at live pictures. This is where I-95 meets I-26. This is right before the road is closed. You see it there. I-95 one of the busiest highways in the country stretching from Maine to Florida.
President Obama already declaring a state of emergency in the state. People being encouraged to stay indoors if they're in a safe and dry place. But some people are risking everything to help others.
I want you to take a look at this. This is amazing. This is a human chain that is formed to help this man clinging to a stop sign. We have live team coverage of the flooding.
Boris Sanchez is in Georgetown, South Carolina. Nick Valencia, he is in Columbia, South Carolina. And meteorologist Tom Sater, he is here at the CNN weather center.
So Nick, we want to start off with you here. First, you have been driving across the state for the past few hours. Describe to us what you've seen. I mean, we see that car submerged behind you, but clearly this has stop everything.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The most traumatic image that we've seen in our travels across the state in the last couple of days. You can just see behind me images speaking a thousand words. Those cars submerged completely underwater, that building behind me used to be a title max, it has becoming part of the road way here.
This is a result of that relentless rain, that heavy rain that just persists, that has not stopped over the last course of the 48 hours. A desperate situation for the state of South Carolina. A lot of residents here behind the camera coming out to see exactly what the situation is about.
Let's bring in some local residents here. Bob and Megan, your daughter, you guys, live close by. Are you doing all right?
BOB, RESIDENT: Yes, we're doing fine. We live up the hill here. We just came out to check out the scene. It's a tough one.
VALENCIA: Have you guys ever seen anything like this? I mean, this is a pretty serious situation that we're looking at.
MEGAN, RESIDENT: No. Not around here. A bunch of our neighbors just got rescued by a boat. It's pretty bad. We came down here to check it all out. Everything around here is new, just rebuilt. And so it will do a lot more damage.
VALENCIA: Yes, absolutely. What kind of precautions are you guys taking because we have heard about that? Our meteorologist has been talking about it. Local weather reporters have been talking about it as well. What kind of precaution are you guys taking?
BOB: Well, again, we live on top of the hill, so we've been obviously very careful. Our alarms went off all during the night last night. So obviously we're staying out of the water and we are not driving or anything like that. We walk down here. And we actually own a restaurant in town here. We haven't gone mere near it.
VALENCIA: And you know, just looking at this, I mean, this is your hometown. This is what's happening in your home. What goes through your mind when you look at this behind just right behind us here?
MEGAN: It's sad. I mean, there is going to be a lot of money put into this and it's sad. So I hope that no one is hurt too much by this, but we'll be able to make it through.
BOB: You know, the crazy thing about it is we see the damage (INAUDIBLE) this is all new construction. Jersey Mike's just remodeled and opened up a couple months ago. But what is crazy, there are a lot of houses that way that are under water.
VALENCIA: Yes, and that's what we're hearing that from a lot of residents.
Thank you Megan and Bob. We are hearing from that from a lot of residents. There is an apartment complex over here that were just taking to a local Latino resident here who was telling me that some of his friends are stranded in that apartment complex trying to get out. You heard Bob and Megan talking about their neighbors being taken out by boat. A very serious situation here for the city of Columbia. Many neighborhoods across the state of South Carolina, they look the same. Federal disaster declaration declared by President Obama.
The Governor, Nikki Haley, we are expecting to hear from the governor any moment now. She doesn't signed a disaster declaration and she is encouraging residents to shelter in place. She doesn't want people to come out of their house. She doesn't want people anyone to get swept out for any unnecessary rescues to take place.
Thousands of first responders are on hand. We understand they're also bringing in first response team, emergency response teams from neighboring states including Tennessee.
Just let me step away here. I mean, these images are just striking, Suzanne. You can see half the cars with me at least, one, two, three, four cars there, yes.
MALVEAUX: Yes. Take us through that. What are we seeing here? Because I know that they said that they live on hire ground, but they can't get to the restaurant that they owned. Describe for us what does it? Looks like the downtown area and it looks like a ton of the shops there right now just flooded.
VALENCIA: Sure. This is, from what we understand, we just got here in the last several minute, but this is one of the lower lying areas, perhaps one of the lowest lying areas in Columbia. We started to notice the flooding about six miles outside of the capital when we saw rivers swell. We saw tractor trailers digging out big vehicles from the swelled rivers. We noticed down power lines, lots of power outages.
You guys are also local residents here too. Are you guys affected at all by this? How are you guys doing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I woke up this morning and we don't have no water. The power is doing a flicker deal. And we are probably four miles back. But our apartment complex, Kaufman road is closed. We can't go through Kaufman road. They said it looks just like this. It looks just like this. (INAUDIBLE).
[15:05:18] VALENCIA: What are you guys doing? You guys don't have any water, no power? I mean, did you guys stuck? You knew this was coming.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we have power. We just don't have, I mean, water right now. So right now --
VALENCIA: No running water?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We don't have any running water. But, you know, thank God we have a lot of bottled water and things and food and stuff in shelf for weeks.
VALENCIA: So, you know, this is your, guys, hometown, is that right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
VALENCIA: And you look at this, I mean just turn around with me, stare at this with me guys. What goes through your mind when you think about it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What goes through my mind is in time. In time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is probably the worst water disaster we've had.
VALENCIA: You're talking about hurricane Hugo in 1989.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I was four years old. I mean, from listening to my elders talking about it, my mom told me this morning this is probably one of the worst ones we've seen. VALENCIA: Well, you take good care of yourself. We hope that water
gets running back. Thank you guys very much for taking the time with CNN.
You see lots of residents, several more behind me taking coming out and taking photos. They just can't believe their eyes this damage. When we pulled up, you know, our jaws dropped, Suzanne. This is really a very striking image behind me, you know. And we hope everyone got out in time. And that there is no one injured or worse inside those buildings.
MALVEAUX: Yes. Nick, thankfully, the people you've talked to, it seemed at least that they were prepared. So they like they have food, they have bottled water that they will probably listening to folks who were giving warnings for this would likely going to happen. But it is still looked like they were rather surprised, rather stunned when they saw the kind of water and those businesses that are under water now.
Nick, appreciate your work there.
I want to bring in own meteorologist Tom Sater in the CNN weather center.
And Tom, you and I talked about this earlier today. You described it at catastrophic and that's not a word that we toss around likely here because South Carolina now seeing 24 inches of rain in some places and it's still raining.
TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Suzanne, the residents of South Carolina are living through an experience the likes of this never seen. We're talking about what we believe is a one in 500 year event. Over three months of rain in three days. I mean, from over 16 of the Charleston airport to over two feet at Mount Pleasant and it's still coming down in some areas.
This is the rainfall estimates as far as what one has fallen in the last three days, and notice the color of purple here. I mean, that is 10, 20 inches of rain. And it is improving in some areas. We're starting to see the waters recede in Charleston. But this is a 36 hour radar. This plume of moisture was forecast to move in on Wednesday. Thank goodness on Wednesday the forecast changed for hurricane Joaquin not to move into the Carolinas. This would have been a super bowl sandy. But we're starting now to see the eastern edge lift.
Now, that's not all good news in areas of red, flash flooding especially Myrtle Beach. Just south of Myrtle Beach is the city Georgetown last night completely submerged. They have been pumping the water back out into the ocean, but an hour ago was high tide. Water rescues, well over 140. They say there is too many now to even count when you talk about all the rescues from homes and apartment complexes, automobiles. Five fatalities mainly due to traffic accidents.
They're now calling in crews from Tennessee because they're overwhelmed by the number of people who still need help. It is coming down. This stream now just south from Florence over to Columbia. Remember now, all the rivers have to flow back toward the ocean. So all the water that is making its way inland has to come back through.
River levels right now are at historic readings. In fact, surpassing historic readings. And we still have another six possibly localized 10 inches of rain in between Charleston and Myrtle Beach to contend with. River gauges are being washed away. It is almost unheard of. That's how high the water levels are.
Finally, are area of low pressure was over Alabama is going to slide off the coast. But we still have our hurricane passing just west of Bermuda. They can handle that. But plum of moisture is now going to continue and get closer now up the beaches of Delmarva. So for about 10 days, we have been looking at this fetch of coastal erosion. More flooding is going to take place towards the outer bank as well as the hurricane does slowly find its way, away from the U.S. coast. Things will improve in the next 24 hours, but still more rain will fall.
MALVEAUX: All right, Tom. We are going to be paying attention minute by minute. And of course, the governor to come out and speak shortly. Thank you very much, Tom. Appreciate it.
And ahead, a life ring from a missing container ship, it has now been found. So the search now is expanding for this ship and the 33 people who are on board. That is the latest from the coast guard. That is up next in a live report.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:12:46] MALVEAUX: We are awaiting now the press conference to take place. Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina, she is going to be going up to those microphones very shortly to talk about the state of emergency in her state. We're talking about catastrophic flooding that is occurring there that continues and that this is an event that involves thousands of people, emergency rescues and a lot of work ahead as people try to get information and seek shelter and safety.
The governor to address the many questions and many concerns that people have at this hour just moments away. We are going to keep our eye trained on those microphones and bring it to you live as soon as it occurs.
We are also following this. The U.S. coast guard and Navy now confirming that they have found multiple items today that could possibly belong to the missing U.S. cargo ship El Faro including this life ring bearing the name of the ship. You see it there.
Rachelle Holmes (ph) has been franked. He is a crew member and she wants to know how did they end up in the path of dangerous storm in the first place? Other family members of the crew, they met with the shipping company and they say that they are simply holding on to hope now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) going to stop looking. And you know, just keep it up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Are you hopeful?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes. You got to be. It's very stressful, you know. So just hoping everything will be better tomorrow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know they will come home safe. They will be safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Coast guard lieutenant commander Gabe Somma is joining us on the phone.
Commander, thank you so much for taking the time here. We just heard these family members say that they are hope and praying certainly hope and prayer, that's a good thing, but we also want to find that ship and the evidence that we have so far is simply this ring. What do we know more about what potentially is out there on that ship and what does it tell us about the survivors of that ship?
LT. CMDR. GABE SOMMA, COAST GUARD (on the phone): Well, good afternoon. We have six aircraft out there searching. They have been searching throughout the day. Unlike the previous day, today's on- scene weather conditions very favorable for searching. Our aircraft has been able to spot debris, some items.
[15:15:05] MALVEAUX: What did you found?
SOMMA: In the vicinity of where the ship was last reported. We've also found other items to the northeast of the last known position of the ship. And this correlates with what our drift pattern in our calculations would indicate where the ship may be. At the same time, this is very much an open and active search and rescue operation. We continue to have good on-scene weather conditions. We are searching for the ship. At the same time, we are searching for life rafts or lifeboats.
As you mentioned, last night we found the life ring. We were able to confirm that it does indeed belong to the missing container ship, El Faro. We have confirmed that and we readjusted our drift calculations and continue really saturate that area to see if we can locate that missing vessel.
MALVEAUX: Do you have any idea how long it would take before you get to that ship before you get to the critical pieces of evidence in terms of whether or not there are survivors?
SOMMA: Well, this is, I have to stress, this is the first good day of searching. Right now the on-scene weather conditions are ideal. We have good visibility. In some places one to three foot seas. Just 40 hours ago, we were looking at 30 to 40-foot sea swells. So the search conditions are very good and we're finding things in the water. We can cannot confirm whether or not those are items from the missing container ship, El Faro. However, our searchers from their aircraft are finding things and we are looking to confirm and correlate whether or not that is part of this hunt for the El Faro.
MALVEAUX: And lieutenant, you say you are finding things. Are you finding things that give you hope that people have survived, that there are people out there who can still be rescued?
SOMMA: So we are locating things like containers. There has been a reported oil sheen. We're working to confirm that. We've had several reports, additionally, we have some reports of life jackets. We do have a coast guard cutter that is in the vicinity that is working to confirm exactly what these items are. But these are items that are being located by aircraft flying several hundred feet overhead and they are consistent with where we believe the vessel was more than 72 hours ago when we lost contact. So it is a very concerning situation, however we remain very hopeful that we will continue to search throughout the day and hopefully we can find that ship.
MALVEAUX: All right. Lieutenant commander, thank you so much. We will try to be optimistic here. Clearly these families are frustrated and trying to be patient for those answers in terms of their loved ones out there. Thank you very much. We appreciate your time.
Coming up, a chilling interview with a survivor of the Oregon campus massacre. She is now speaking to CNN Sara Sidner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He had a bulletproof vest on. And he didn't seem like he was like anxious or anything. He just seemed like he wanted to do that. And he seemed happy about it. He didn't seems stressed. He didn't seem nervous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:22:00] MALVEAUX: For the first time, we are hearing directly from a survivor of the Oregon campus massacre that left nine people dead. Our own Sara Sidner, she spoke with a student who was shot in the hand. She didn't want CNN to share her name or show her face.
And Sara is live there in Roseburg, Oregon.
And Sara, it is extraordinary. I mean, imagine she really experienced a lot of trauma in what she went through and the courage that it took her to even talk to you in the first place.
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. She showed a lot of bravery, a lot of heart. She's a mother of three. She thought that she would never see her children again as the shooter came into her classroom, turns out he was also a student in that very class.
She talks about something that we have heard there one other family member of a victim, a family member who said that he seemed to be singling out or at least questioning people about their religion, about whether they were Christian or not. And she says not only did he ask if they were Christian, but he asked if they were Catholics. And it didn't matter their answer, he shot them anyway.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: What do you think he was trying to do? Was he targeting Christians and Catholics?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think he was really targeting them. I think he just - I honestly don't think he was targeting anybody. He just wanted to do it for fun. Because he still shot every single one that he asked. So I don't think he was actually targeting a specific religion.
SIDNER: Because he had started people before even asking.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before he asked anybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: So you heard her there saying he seemed happy about it. She told us that he was giddy. He seemed excited. He seemed like he would be deterred. He would show no remorse, no mercy whatsoever. She also talked about what happened as she was sitting there in the front of the classroom when he came in, when he immediately burst in the door, he shot a single warning shot that hit a wall to get everybody's attention. And then he turned his sights on a woman in a wheelchair with a service dog.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: There was a woman in a wheel chair during all this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. And she had a dog with her. But the dog was just on the ground. She got off the chair. She went on the ground. And then he told her to get back on the chair. And then she tried to climb back on the chair and he shot her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: He shot her, a woman in a wheelchair. First forcing her to get out of the wheelchair, to get down on the ground. When she obeyed, he told her to get back in the chair. And no matter what she did, even though she obeyed his command, he shot her any way. And this victim says that his remorselessness and he was just so brutal and intent on doing this, she said she doesn't think anything could have stopped him. But she was there when police ended up shooting him, her face on the ground covered in someone else's blood. She was listening to all this, Suzanne. She's heartbroken for all of the victims and she said she and two other people were the only ones she could see who were able to actually walk out of that classroom. Everyone else was either too injured or dead -- Suzanne.
[15:25:17] MALVEAUX: This is just so painful. Did the woman in the wheelchair, did she survive? Was she one of the survivors?
SIDNER: You know what? We don't know. We asked her, was she able to see anyone else? Was she breathing that she knows? And she said, you know what? I had to play dead in order to survive this.
So her head was on the ground after a point and she tried not to look up because she didn't want the shooter to know that she was still alive. Remember, she was covered in blood so he may have thought that she was dead. She was fully expecting to die. She couldn't see what happened to everyone else. When she got up to leave, she ran out of that classroom into a bathroom where she discovered another gun, started screaming and eventually the police and the paramedics came to help her.
MALVEAUX: Just an extraordinary.
Sara Sidner, thank you so much. Our thoughts and prayers obviously to those families and victims.
And you can watch more of this very powerful interview on "New Day" tomorrow. That is starting at 6:00 a.m. eastern. We are going to take a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:29:26] MALVEAUX: Hello. Thanks for joining me. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Fredricka Whitfield is off today.
Any minute we're expecting South Carolina governor Nikki Haley to speak about the catastrophic flooding in her state. Two feet of rain has now fallen in parts to South Carolina. Their major roads throughout are closed. More rain is on the way. The mayor of Georgetown (INAUDIBLE), telling folks please stay inside.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR JACK SCOVILLE, GEORGETOWN, SOUTH CAROLINA: Just don't be stupid. That's the thing. Keep saying, you know, don't try to drive through flooded areas. You don't know how deep they will be. We're supposed to get a lot more rain later today. High tide will be about 4:00. So it could actually be worse in two or three hours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[15:30:08] MALVEAUX: Our CNN Boris Sanchez is in Georgetown, South Carolina.
Now, you spoke with a man who is trying to rescue animals from a flooded veterinary clinic. How did that turn out?
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We do have good news, Suzanne. First of all, that man actually owns a business here in Georgetown on the street which as you can see is totally flooded. It's actually gone up in the past hour, about 30 feet from me. That man owns a business here. He also co-incidentally run as water extraction service and he got a call from a veterinarian that runs a veterinarian hospital just down the street behind us here. And that hospital is in a basement and so she was concerned because she knew she had left at least one animal there. And she called him to try to get the water out. We got a chance to speak with him as he was doing that. He was kind of heartfelt because he couldn't get in quick enough to try to help the animals. Listen to what he says.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: How much water have you pumped out?
SONNY BURGOON, OWNS LOCAL BUSINESS: Right now we're at 1,000 gallons and we are not even touching the top of it.
SANCHEZ: And you can still hear the animals in there?
BURGOON: Yes, we can hear the cats at the back. I don't want to walk in the water because we don't know if the power is still on or anything, so we're just pumping.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Well fortunately, just about five minutes ago, we checked in with them again. They were able to get inside and rescue a cat. Fortunately the cat is OK. There were no other animals in there. And they took out about 11,000 gallons from inside that basement. And as you can see around me as I mentioned before, the water continues to rise. That's because there is an inlet just to my left and its high tide right now. We are getting closer and closer to 4:00. So the water is going to keep rising throughout the rest of the day. A lot of these businesses have already had water pumped out of their shops. And they are going to have to do it again simply because the water hasn't stopped going up. The rain keeps coming down. The cleanup here, Suzanne, likely to extend into the coming weeks.
MALVEAUX: And Boris, it is so good news about the animals there. Tell us about the roads. How have the roads been where you've been?
SANCHEZ: Extremely difficult to get through. This road for example, just a short while ago, you could actually drive through. It was relatively clear. Now, it's totally under water. When we got into town, there was actually a police barricade not letting anyone through and making people turn around.
A lot of the roads are damaged and it's not just that, it's also cars that are submerged, object, rocks that are just floating around behind me, manhole covers that are floating around behind me as well. So it's really not a good idea to be out driving right now. You heard the mayor earlier asking people to stay inside if they don't have to be outside. It's just -- there are too many questions about what might be in the water and what might be on the road. So again, just a good idea to stay home and hunker down.
MALVEAUX: All right, Boris, please be safe out there. We'll get back to you shortly. OK?
We got tens of thousands who have lost power now since that flooding began and others have had to scramble to safety as those floodwaters rose.
I want to bring in Stacey Bailey. She lives in Charleston in a neighborhood. It has been hit hard by this flooding. Stacey, thanks for joining us by phone here. And tell us, you have
been sending some pretty dramatic pictures, but tell us what has it been like for you the last couple of days? I understand you, your husband, your dog, you've all been trying to get through all of this water, get to safety. What have you experienced?
STACEY BAILEY, CHARLESTON RESIDENT (on the phone): Well, it's been pretty intense. Yesterday morning we woke up pretty quickly at 6:30 a.m. to waist deep water outside. Our cars were not parked quite far away enough, so we were struggling where what to do with the cars to get them out of the floodwaters. Our shed in our backyard had everything floating in it, so we were putting everything in the shed into kayaks to get them on the back deck and try to get them out of the water. Later on in the morning a bunch of our neighbors came out and we all started pushing each other's cars out.
Actually ended up being quite a meeting moment, getting to meet neighbors we hadn't met before. But it took about six or seven of us to push, I don't know, six or seven cars out of the water and over to safety. Otherwise we've just been trying to hunker to down and hope the tide doesn't bring the waters too high.
MALVEAUX: And Stacey, are you still in your home? Are you able to stay on your home or you had to leave?
BAILEY: We've been staying in the home mostly so that we could be here in case the water got too high. We're very fortunate it didn't come into the house because our house is lifted a little ways. It came up to probably about waist deep in our front and backyard. So we've been staying here and only leaving when necessary to trudge through the waters to go to the corner store or to get some supplies.
MALVEAUX: And I think we're seeing a picture of your husband with the dog carrying the dog in the water.
BAILEY: Yes. The dog didn't quite know what to do to go to the bathroom either yesterday or today. So we ended up having to carry them both about a block away to get them to go to the bathroom which was interesting.
[15:35:12] MALVEAUX: Do you guys have enough food? Do you have enough water? Are you good with all set with where you are?
BAILEY: Yes, we're all set. The water is starting to subside now. We got - we are actually able to get in and out. We tested our vehicles which both seem to be working, thankfully. We were a little bit concerned that they may not start back up. We're hoping that the storms that come in this afternoon and evening don't bring the tide and the floodwaters too high again. I think, you know, high tide later tonight. So for now, we're good. We might make a run before the rain comes. But at this point, the schools and everything around us are closed to tomorrow. So it may be a work from home Monday.
BAILEY: I imagine so, Stacey. So you might make a run. Do you mean like there might be grocery stores that are open that you might be able to walk to or wade to? BAILEY: Yes. I think the grocery store around the corner is actually
closed, but we have several convenience stores within a few blocks that have been posting on social media that they're open. We walked to one this morning to get some milk. And he said that yesterday he was the only store open in the area and he never stopped. He was full all day with people coming to get all kinds of things.
MALVEAUX: All right. Well, Stacey, please keep us posted. I'm glad you're safe, your husband and your dog. I know it's quite an adjustment for all of you and that it was an opportunity for your neighbors as well to get to know them and to help each other out in this time of need. And we really appreciate your talking to us.
We're waiting for the governor of South Carolina who is going to be holding a press conference very shortly to give us the very latest. So again, thank you very much.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:40:26] MALVEAUX: And now to the race for 2016. GOP front-runner Donald Trump says he thinks that the Middle East might be better off had Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi stayed in power and that the U.S. should stay out of Syria all together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And you know what, I'm not saying Assad is a good guy because he's probably a bad guy. But I've watched him interviewed many times and you could make the case if you look at Libya, look at what we did there. It's a mess. If you look at Saddam Hussein with Iraq, look what we did there. It's a mess. It is going to be the same thing.
CHUCK TODD, NBC HOST, MEET THE PRESS: Do you think the Middle East would be better today Gadhafi, Saddam and Assad were sort of - if Saddam and Gadhafi were still there and Assad were stronger? Do you think the Middle East will be safer?
TRUMP: It's not even a contest, Chuck. It is not even a contest. Iraq is a disaster.
TODD: It would be better off if Saddam --?
TRUMP: Don't forget, ISIS came out of Iraq.
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: If Saddam and Gadhafi, you think things would be more stable?
TRUMP: Of course it would be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So let's talk about that. With us from Los Angeles CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein, good to see you and he is editorial director of the "National Journal." And in Washington, CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier.
So both of you experts in this field. I want to start off with you, Ron, here. We have heard this before. We have heard this from people who look at our policies and say that, you know, Iraq, Saddam Hussein, Moammar Gadhafi, that it would have been more stable in the Middle East have we not gotten involved. Does Trump have a point?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think it is interesting coming Trump because he is coming from a very particular angle that I think is - of a piece with what we hear on his thoughts about other world affairs, including immigration and trade. I mean, Trump really has put together what could be called a defensive nationalism in which, you know, the world is seen as a dangerous, corrupt, confusing place where they are always trying to take advantage of us and our interactions with the world on really any front, a wall on immigration, tariffs on trade, real suspicion of intervention in foreign conflicts, all of that is dangerous and kind of bristling against that kind of engagement.
MALVEAUX: Kimberly, weigh in, if you will.
We'll have to bring you the governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley who has just begun her press conference. She is going to be updating us on the catastrophic flooding that is occurring in her state. She has taken to the podium now. Let's listen in.
GOV. NIKKI HALEY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Thank you very much. Thank you for being here. We have a full team here ready to give you a lot of information right now. This has been, you know, the one thing I want people to understand is when you think about what we're sitting in right now, we are at a 1,000 year level of rain in parts of the low country. What does that mean? We haven't seen this level of rain in the low country in 1,000 years. That's how big this is. That's how South Carolina is -- what South Carolina is dealing with right now.
The Conger River is at its highest level since 1936. That's why we keep telling people stay of the roads. Stay out of the roadways and stay clear. We are going to talk a little bit more about that. But I want to just give you as much information as we have. This is all hands on deck, so there is a lot of information. The main thing about what we're dealing with is it is literally changing by the minute. And so we're dealing with those issues as we can. The first thing I want to do is turn it over to our climatologist Mark Malsick and just let him give you an update and then I'll take it back from there.
MARK MALSICK, CLIMATOLOGIST: Good afternoon. Mark Malsick from State climate office. Right now we're watching a very persistent plume of moisture coming in off the ocean. This is what has delivered all the rain throughout the evening. We'll continue to see right rain, rain showers throughout the midlands all the way to Myrtle Beach. There are heavier showers in Myrtle Beach, but we're expecting them to slowly diminish by midnight tonight. We will maintain the rain showers through Monday. However, those will be coming less and less productive as we go from three. We're anticipating another two to six inches of rain from Columbia to Myrtle Beach. And not anticipating any significant clearing or sunny skies until Tuesday.
HALEY: And thank you. And so that's the importance. It is regardless of where you are in the state, continue to stay home, continue to stay off the roadways. What we have right now is just a lot of resources at play. We have 255 active troopers on the road right now, certainly with more available. We have a thousand DOT maintenance workers that are working every single shift as we go forward. We've got half of our DNR officers activated right now, 320 of our sled officers on standby. We had and really plan to have in terms of sand bags and making sure we had enough of that, we were look at about 200,000 that we had, we've used 30,000 plus up until this time. We had activated 600 of our National Guardsmen. We have 500 additional that are immediately available and on call and then we got 8,000 on standby.
So the National Guard has been on call since Thursday when we set off this state of emergency. The calls for assistance that we've seen so far have been 754 and that's just in the last 12 hour period. Am I right, Dr. Smith? That we are looking at 323 collisions just in that time frame.
We unfortunately have had three fatalities through this weather event so far. And we are looking at swift water rescue teams are really very much at play here. We have eight deployed. We are receiving four from Tennessee, I think five more on the way. That's something that we're continuing to do and make sure that we have be standby as we need going forward. We have 11 aircrafts available for aerial rescues as we need to deploy currently right now and 106 high water vehicles.
So there is a lot of equipment and people and first responders on the roads. That's the reason we need everybody to stay off the roads.
Other states have been incredibly helpful. I just communicated with Governor Pat McCory who has basically said he will help in any way that he can from North Carolina. We've already received four National Guard helicopters from North Carolina, four additional swift water rescue teams from Tennessee. The incident management team is on its way from Florida. That's been helpful. But the federal resources have been here since Thursday and that's been up believably helpful in terms of we have a federal coordinating officer here on the ground, the FEMA incident management team, swift water rescue teams are coming in from Ft. Bragg. And then we have helicopters on the scene.
So our goal is all hands on deck. What we will continue to say is if you are in your house, stay in your house. This is not something to be out taking pictures of. This is not something that you want your kids playing in. The water is not safe. And a lot of areas across the state where you see this deep water, it's got bacteria in it. So stay inside and don't get in there.
We've seen areas of the interstate that are right now clear, but they will be a patch where it goes and it gets real deep. You're going to have to turn around. It's not worth doing. We're in the process of closing all the interstates around the Columbia area that is changing literally as we go. It is not good to get outside. You will see. We are going to have another meeting and conference call again at 5:00. I'm going to be in heavily encouraging county offices to close tomorrow which automatically we are going to suggest that schools close. And the main reason for that is this is not going to clear up until at least Tuesday or Wednesday.
So what we need from a state perspective is give us the space that we need. I need all my first responders on there. I need all of my utility crewmen being able to get through there and get power back on. We need to make sure that we have everybody from DOT able to open those roads or close those roads as needed. I think we have right now we're look at about 25,000 outages. But our utilities have been fantastic at trying to really turn that back up. Some areas are easier than others, but so much of what we need, this is heavy equipment that is on the roads. So when you look at that high water, those high water vehicles and all those things, they need to be able to get through in and out.
We've worked very closely with Lexington County today. We know they are going through a lot of issues. Absolutely, need everybody to stay home. Myrtle Beach has gone through a terrible time in terms of that. But this is an incident we've never had before, you know. When we dealt with the two winter storms before, we said this was the first time we have really dealt with that. This is different than a hurricane because its water and its slow moving and it's sitting. And we can't just take the water out.
So as long as it sits, we just need on to do the best we can at controlling the environment around it and the situation around it. We very much are focused on the maps and the maps that we're looking at right are what the status of the police stations, the status of our fire departments are, what the status of schools and hospitals and shelters and where they are and what's low line, nursing homes. Very much focused on that.
We know we had roper down a little bit. We got roper hospital back up. But we had one emergency room that is down for contamination. So these things are changing very fluidly. There is an emergency management division office in every county. And so the state officials in those counties going through a hard time, there's constant communication with his building which has every agency there. We're going to continue to do that.
But I can't stress enough that we'll do our part. This is really all about the citizens of South Carolina. Stay home. Don't get out in it. Don't take pictures of it. Watch TV. TV has done a great job of telling what this is. And then not only that, we have amazing websites that will give you everything. I know DOT has a fantastic Facebook page that shows road closures. Public safety has a great Facebook page that just talks more about the incident. And then all of it feeds into the emergency management division Web site which will tell you really in real time what we're seeing, maps, flooding, what we're expecting to do and all of those things.
The one thing I ask Secretary Hall to do is take precautions through this entire time. Since Thursday, it's all about not waiting until something happens, getting in front of it. And so, we are closing roads. If we think there's going be flooding, we're not going to wait for it to flood. We're closing them. And we have been doing that proactively just to, you know, discourage anybody from going that way.
And then, you know, I'll reiterate again, and I know that Director Smith will do that, is if for any reason you're in your car and you're driving and you see water, turn around, don't drown. That's the one thing they always say because it doesn't matter how much you hit the gas, you're going to get stuck. And to already have three fatalities, that's three too many. And it is three people that we needed to stay home that didn't. So now, I have a few people that are going to add to what I had to say. And we're first going to start off with General Livingston.
[15:56:45] MAJ. GEN. ROBERT LIVINGSTON, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: Thank you, Governor. Based on the governor's priorities, the National Guard and really all state agencies are supporting county and city efforts throughout the state, focusing on safety issues, rescue operations, evacuations, and detouring the public away from areas of danger. Then we're concentrating on preservation of infrastructure and finally we'll turn around and start worrying about restoring infrastructure.
If you see a lot of water going by and there's nobody there, that doesn't mean nobody's working. We're over where people are in need. We just completed two aerial rescues in Richland and Sumter counties. We have high-water vehicles down in Summerton working in Georgetown and working down in Charleston. And now working in the Lessington County area.
So if you see an incident, call your county. Call 911. And it will go through that county lightning fast and get to those proper resources. The one of the instances in Richland County, we had a mother and her child stranded, a rescue worker tried to get to them. He got stranded and so we used an aerial rescue to go get all of them and this started picking some people off rooftops.
So this system is very immediate. It's very quick. So make sure you keep your counties involved. Call that 911. And let us know what's going on out there. And the governor's talking about the websites out there. Look at the websites. Look at the National Guard Web site. You can see what's going on rather than getting out there and possibly getting yourself in trouble. So we don't want to have to rescue you, too -- Governor?
HALEY: Thank you, general. And now we're going to turn it over to the director of the emergency management division.
KIM STENSON, DIRECTOR, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIVISION: Thank you, Governor. Our role he at the SEA (ph) office is to coordinate the state response to emergency situations like that like we're having right now and essentially what that means is we're providing support to local authorities where may need additional resources and can't respond within their own confines. So that's our primary role here right now.
We've actually had about 80 requests. We have fulfilled about ten of them so far. Some of them are pending. We have a number of state agencies that are working on a number of issues right now to include the swift water rescue teams, high mobility vehicles, feeding, sheltering, pretty much everything we do when we have a disaster situation.
We've got personnel from the state emergency management division that are embedded in the counties that are most strut right now and basically that helps facilitate the requests and make sure we've got an on-the-ground presence to take care of whatever happens down there.
We also before the event did a great deal in terms of staging events. Staging personnel, rather, and making sure that we could respond quickly because basically that's what we want to do is once we do get the request, we want to be able to reduce the response time. So, thank you very much.
[15:55:02] LIVINGSTON: I wanted to add something to Director Stenson's remarks. A lot of this was preplanned as we got the weather reports early on and we started bringing resources in on Thursday. We have excess resources waiting for assignments right now, so the resources are there. Do not be concerned that we're going to run out of resources. The governor has done a great job of getting all of us to get ahead of that curve so that we are going to be prepared for future missions. So resources are in good shape. Thank you.
HALEY: Thank you, general. And now we'll turn it over to Secretary Hall of DOT.
CRISTY HALL, S.C. ACTING TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Thank you, governor. With regards with the transportation network in the state, we have obviously closed numerous roads and bridges in the state due to flooding issues and concerns about the structural health of our bridges. Several of our bridges are under water currently. We have not had the opportunity to review those bridges to determine when and if we can re-open those structures.
The Charleston area, the Georgetown area of the state continue to be hard hit. The midlands area is a focus of ours currently in the state, the Columbia area in particular. And basically the P.D. area of the state as well with regards to road and bridge closures.
We have several engineers in addition to our maintenance employees that are out on the roads and bridges checking, assessing situations. If there's any doubt whatsoever, we're going to go ahead and close the facility to make sure that safety and public health and life is paramount in this situation and we're not going to risk any loss of live with regards to infrastructure.
Along those lines, our major interstate facilities in the state, I-26 at the very end, the Charleston area, remains closed at this time heading into Charleston. I-95, the section between Florence, all the way down to I-26, is in the process of being closed and rerouted. I- 126 heading into downtown Columbia, the large bridge there over the broad river, we're closing that as well. And then a section of I-20 around Monticello road here in the Columbia area has already been closed and we are expecting to need to close portions of I-77, some additional portions of I-26, and additional portions of I-20 in and around the Columbia area due to rising water levels and just being able to have people not drive through water and risk any kind of damage.
We're continuing to assess Blossom and Gervais Street here in the Columbia River which is down stream of the Lake Murray dam. Safety is our top priority. We request unless you absolutely have to for emergency situations, we request there's no travel on the roads at this time -- Governor?
HALEY: Thank you, Secretary Hall. And now we'll turn it over to Director Smith with department of public safety.
LEROY SMITH, DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: Thank you, governor. Good afternoon. As our governor mentioned earlier, please stay off the roads. As I said before, that's the best advice that we can give you to stay home and stay off the roads. The governor also mentioned the phrase "turn around, don't drown." We seriously mean that. There are dangers underneath that standing water. Again, downed power lines, tree branches, and dangerous chemicals. We ask that you not use water for recreational purposes. You never know what's in that water.
We will continue to work with SCDOT regarding road closures and diversion routes. This has been a very tedious process for us because the situations are changing. Sometimes right away, immediately. So we're partnering with SCDOT to make sure the proper precautionary measures are taken to secure those roadways. We will maintain adequate staffing for this event. The governor mentioned earlier we have 255 DPS officers out on the roads now. That number could be increased in event that we need to. Working with our state partners, whether it's SLED, DNR, PPP. We can also tap into that resource to augment our staffing as well.
During the operational period from 6:00 p.m. yesterday to 6:00 a.m. this morning, we responded to 754 calls for service, 323 of those calls were collisions. We've had five fatalities since the emergency declaration has been established. Three of the five fatalities were weather-related. Down in the Summerton area, apartment complex was under water. SLED coordinated that event in some agents and some of our partners to have respond to that.
