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Coast Guard Still Hopeful Some Crew Members Survived Ship Sinking At Sea; Nine Weather-Related Deaths Out Of Flood-Ridden Carolinas. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 05, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Let me just follow up with you. I really want to ask you about, you have been covering her campaign for months and months. And it seems to me watching Hillary Clinton, it's like that the strategy has totally shifted. You know what I mean? You were the one who, you know, did the first TV sit- down with her. She, Brianna, is everywhere. She's talking to press, she's at events. She was on "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend. She did "Ellen." Is this a totally different campaign, in your opinion?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is sort of two parts that we have seen recently which is her doing a lot of interviews, straight news interviews, where she is talking about the email controversy that has dogged her really from the get go of her campaign really trying to put that to bed. And then this other part it that you are talking about is being in these venues and these forums where she's able to be seen in a more, you know, in sort of lighter way and try to humanize herself and try to really connect with voters. So that's something that she's trying to do as she is really seeing a competitive primary that perhaps, you know, even though her campaign says they were expecting it, I think there's a lot of democrat supporting her who didn't expect it to be this close, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Brianna Keilar, thank you, my friend.

Still ahead, they may have abandoned a ship in this category four hurricane. The coast guard is hopeful that some crew members survived after their ship sink at sea. The latest on search and rescue efforts happening right now.

Also the man making a surprise bid to be the speaker of the house speaks to CNN. Why Congressman Jason Chaffetz says he should take John Boehner's place.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:56] BALDWIN: Just past bottom of the hour. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

The U.S. coast guard now believes that a cargo ship that went missing off the Florida coast last week has sank. But the guard continue to search for potential survivors. The last contact with the Alfaro came Thursday as hurricane Joaquin was burying down the ship. That 28 Americans and five Polish nationals all onboard. Searchers have found a 225 square miles debris fill along with survival suits and rust and this lifeboat, but no survivors.

The mother of one of the crew members says she received an email not too long before the ship headed into the storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not sure if you have been following the weather at all, but there's a hurricane out here and we are headed straight into it. Category three. Last we checked, winds are super bad and season aren't great. Love to everyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Alexandra Field is following this one for us.

It is just awful. Our hearts go out to any family members. Nothing so far, what's the latest on the investigation?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolute agony for them. The only comfort that they have is the fact that the coast guard said they are by no means giving up on this search and rescue mission. They are going to continue through the night. We know that there are number of coast guard vessels that are on site right now. There are also some commercial vessels that are out there. They have located two different debris fields. So that's where they concentrate the search at this point. And what they are doing instead of looking for the ship, which they believe sank, is actually try and spot survivors in the water looking for anyone who could be in a survival suit.

We know that they did find one body in a survival suit. That person was deceased. They weren't even able to recover the body because they say time is so much of the essence that they need to continue on and look for any other survivors who could be in the water. They are also looking for the lone remaining lifeboat that could still be out there hoping, of course, that people are in it.

We did hear from the coast guard captain earlier today, though, talking about the difficulty of the conditions that the people who were on board that ship would have been facing as Joaquin blew through the Bahamas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CPT. MARK FODOR, U.S. COAST GUARD: So there were two lifeboats that were on the Alfaro. They could each hold about 43 people. The one we found had no signs of anyone being in it. What we have to assume as search planners is if the vessel did sink on Thursday and that crew was able to abandon ship, they would have been abandoning ship into category four hurricane. So you're talking up to 140 mile an hour winds, seas upwards of 50 feet, visibility basically at zero. Those are challenging conditions to survive in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: Certainly challenging conditions to survive in. But also challenging conditions in terms of the search itself and really the searchers couldn't get a clear picture of what was going on in the water until the Caribbean Sea until the weather had cleared some time yesterday. That's why they are working so ferociously now trying to find any of these survivors. That, of course, is the focus right now. But we do know that there will, of course, be a full investigation. Not only from the coast guard but also the NTSB.

BALDWIN: Alex Field, thank you so much.

Speaking of tough conditions here, we have been covering for you the last 48 hours this thousand-year storm in South Carolina. We just got word that a dam has just broken. Evacuations are underway. We will take you there, next. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:43:37] BALDWIN: There have been nine weather-related deaths in the southern region of the United States, specifically in South Carolina. Historic flooding there in the wake of all of this rainfall. And as a result of that, we're just now getting breaking news that a dam has breached. A dam has breached. These are pictures of the Columbia, one of the areas hardest hit. I have my colleague Nick Valencia, who is on the phone, who is en route to the scene.

Nick, what do we know about the dam and the area around it?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on the phone): Awful news, exactly the type of situation that local officials and state officials were concerned about that just as people thought there was relief. We have been talking about in this last hour that the rain had sort of eased up. The intensity of that rain had been lowered. And now, we're seeing these reports of over creek dam, a breach at least within the last hour. This is right about an area, a neighborhood called (INAUDIBLE). That's a neighborhood over the weekend that was among the hardest hit. We saw these striking images over the weekend, Brooke, when we got here perhaps the worst damage that we have seen throughout the state. And now this news, it's just awful that more hard hit areas. It's going to go through it all over again, Brooke.

BALDWIN: For folks watching, if you are in or very familiar with South Carolina, the dam is in the community of forest acres. As Nick pointed out, it's the over creek dam.

Tom Sater is with me from our weather center.

And Tom, again, just to also reiterate to people that they need water, lack of electricity, issues with water, you know, no drinking water. So that's an issue, but then you have this fact there's a mandatory evacuation order downstream from this dam, what would evacuations, what would they look like?

TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That remains to be seen right now, Brooke, because right now we're just getting these media reports that there is this breach. Let's talk about where we are here and what is a breach. It could be overspill of a dam. It could be a small crack, possibly a small fracture. Now, when you look at the area, here's forest acres. Notice the high

concentration of neighborhoods in the community here. When you take a look at the lakes, this is Rocky Fort Lake. You have Spring Lake and then it makes its way toward forest Lake. These actually kind of flow a little bit toward the south.

The dam, we believe, of course, what is called the over creek dam, the breach, if it does occur and makes its way here. The evacuations would take place throughout the entire area. But again, it remains to be seen, Brooke, what does breach actually means. We're still trying to get information.

I can tell you in the last 24 hours, there have been over 30 breaches of dams and levees, which means, try to, you know, manage any type of river flow in the near future. It's spilling into some communities, which means if evacuations take place and other breaches fail, other levees fail, there will be more swift water rescues, there will be more in the way of force evacuations.

Now, let me show you something else, which is critical because it's not only this dam situation, Brooke, that we're talking about. When you look at the massive amounts of rainfall that has fallen in the area, we know it's historic in purple. Take a look now. When I give you an idea of all of the rivers, the small tributaries, such as gill creek, which is near this dam we're talking about, rose over seven feet in just a couple hours. It washed away the river gauges. That's happened in many little -- of the smaller streams and tributaries. That's almost unheard of, meaning the levels have reached historic levels.

All of these smaller tributaries are going to get into the larger rivers. Everything flows from west to east back across the state. Heavy amounts of rain even in Greenville were occurring in the last 24 hours. So that means communities that, sure, may, Brooke, have seen a receding of the water, but a lot of that is because the breaches have failed and in some cases, the levees that is, and we're getting that spill. So the water level drops.

But now over the next 24, 48 hours, 36, as the water accumulates in the larger rivers, the pressure along the river banks are going to be so great that in some cases Columbia, again, where the rivers converge and meet in the communities such as there, such as Charleston, several days later, there could be several more problems.

There are several communities along these major rivers that run from Greenville to Columbia from the north past the east of Columbian east over to the northeast from Florence toward Myrtle Beach and Georgetown. Remember Georgetown was completely submerged. They were pumping water back into the ocean during high tide, it was getting quick back in.

But a bigger problem, you come down east from east over to the city of cross, which goes into Charleston. We are looking at what could be a significant problem in the days ahead.

One more map for you, Brooke. This is quite interesting. All of the colors of red are road closures. In blue, all these little dots are bridge closures. In the days ahead, maybe weeks later, once all the water finally recedes, can you imagine the damage we're going to find? This no doubt will be the next billion dollar natural weather disaster in the U.S.

Residents, not only for weeks, but possibly for months are going to have their entire routine thrown out of whack by construction on all of these bridges that have been washed out, filling up sink holes that have, of course, appeared, bridges and roads that have been devastated. This is going to go on for weeks. So again, we're keeping an eye on a possible breach of a dam. One of over 30 now that we have had in the last 24 hours and most likely more to come. Unbelievable.

BALDWIN: Just want to give our viewers perspective what really the last 48 hours in east parts of South Carolina have looked like. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN (voice-over): In desperate need of rescue, the flood weary in South Carolina are finding help. From swift water rescue teams, National Guardsmen, Good Samaritans and their neighbors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our concentration right now obviously is emergency and rescue.

BALDWIN: Even in the dark of night an extraordinary effort. A human chain was created to help those stranded unable to walk because of the waist high waters, proving once again there is strength in numbers.

The coast guard came to the aid of this mother and her 15-month-old baby rescuing them from their flooded out home, air lifting them to safety.

And this unbelievable scene, a truck driver who somehow thought he could still find the roadway despite very high, choppy waters.

[15:50:13] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's crawling out of the truck right now.

BALDWIN: It took a while but crews were able to pull this man out and get him to higher and safer ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't be stupid. I mean, that's the thing. Keep saying don't try to drive through flooded areas, you don't know how deep they'll be.

BALDWIN: Over the weekend hundreds of rescues by helicopter and by boat. This family trapped inside their flooded home was evacuated by boat as nearby neighbors looked on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pretty much everybody down that hill there has lost everything this morning. Our vehicles, our clothes, everything. We still have our lives. We still have our lives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Stay with CNN for much more of course for what's happening in South Carolina.

But coming up next, Anderson Cooper is here. He will join me live for a preview of tonight's CNN special, it's about being 13 years old. Here we go. Let's show everyone. That's me when I was 13 with my family on a family vacation. Listen, a lot of us are lucky enough we didn't have to deal with Facebook and social media and Twitter et cetera back in the day, but the dangers of cyber bullying are all too real. Anderson digs into these issues in his new special "Being 13." He joins me live next to talk about what he has learned. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:38] BALDWIN: All right, parents, listen up. A new CNN special is being called a must-watch as it tackles some of the biggest questions no generation has really had to face until right now. Our teens addicted to their phones and how is plugging in changing growing up? CNN's "AC 360" led a two-year investigation into what is going on with some of today's teenagers and here is a preview of what they found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I checked about 100 times at school before. Like I'll just whip it out in the middle of class. And I'm like wonder what everybody else is up to.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, AC 360: Why check over a hundred times a day, even in school? They're really worried about fitting in. Twenty one percent say --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to make sure no one is saying mean things about me.

COOPER: Thirty six percent say --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to see if my friends are doing things without me.

COOPER: And 61 percent say --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to see if my posts are getting likes and comments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Anderson's with me now. Like we said two years you guys have been looking into this.

COOPER: Yes. We had professionals looking at more than 150,000 exchanges, social media exchanges, tweets, Instagrams, all sorts of text messages with obviously the permission of the kids and the permission of their parents. And it's just fascinating this kind of hidden world of teens that a lot of parents don't even know about. Even parents who think they're monitoring their kids' social media usages often don't pick up on the subtle, cues and subtle kind of bullying and subtle disses that are going on.

BALDWIN: Can you imagine having phones back in the day?

COOPER: No, I really can't. I mean, you know, you think back -- I'm 48. When I was in school, the only way to kind of gauge your popularity was if you ran for school election or got, you know, on a team.

BALDWIN: Homecoming.

COOPER: Exactly. Now a 13-year-old can get a real-time 24/7 data on how popular they are. Who's liking their photos? How many likes they're getting? People are posting sometimes taking as many as 100, 150 selfies in order to get one that they post on Instagram. And if it doesn't get enough likes in the first couple minutes they take it down.

BALDWIN: You couldn't pay me to go back to seventh grade, especially seventh grade in 2015. But beyond social media what else did you find?

COOPER: Well, that - I mean, it's all the right ways people are using social media, the way - and even it involves like when you break up at 13 kids are sending explicit videos or explicit pictures of the person that they were with in order to get back at that person for breaking up with them. Take a look.

BALDWIN: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Just like in the adult world sometimes middle schoolers use these sexualized photos for revenge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, what they like to call it is exposing -- it's either like an ex-girlfriend or an ex-boyfriend. And what they do is post naked pictures and nudes of the person and sharing this stuff that was supposed to be kept private between the two and really shouldn't have happened in the first place, but it did and now they're spreading it.

COOPER: And remember, these kids are only 13.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When they're hurt, when they're furious, when they go through a breakup, which is very intense and difficult at this young age, unfortunately I think they're likely to use social media to get back at the person by sharing inappropriate pictures. Unfortunately that's just perfect ammunition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And part of what we really wanted to do was give parents information to help monitor their kids' social media. And what turns out according to our studies that kids though they sort of say they don't like parental involvement actually do like parents to be involved. It actually helps relieve some of the stresses and the pressures that they feel that they get from social media.

BALDWIN: Should we go ahead and --

COOPER: Do you want to -- sure. Let's look at ourselves at 13.

BALDWIN: We are showing our pictures from being 13.

COOPER: Wow. Someone said I looked like I've been ravaged by time. Look at that.

BALDWIN: And I believe we have mine. Oh, yes.

COOPER: I like it.

BALDWIN: That was family vacation. We were in I think somewhere in Italy.

COOPER: Yes.

BALDWIN: I think I have like --

COOPER: I sort the Ted Coppell hair.

BALDWIN: Baby blues back in the day.

COOPER: Yes, well.

BALDWIN: There you go.

COOPER: Had that going for me.

BALDWIN: Thirteen. I can't wait to see for parents --

COOPER: Yes. It is really eye-opening. I hope people watch.

BALDWIN: Awesome. Anderson, thank you so much. Again, just a reminder the CNN Special Report it's "Being 13" inside the secret world of teens. It airs tonight at 9:00 eastern only here on CNN.

And with that I'm Brooke Baldwin here in New York. Thank you so much for being with me here on this Monday. Let's send it to Washington and "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.