Return to Transcripts main page

Wolf

Head: First Band of Hurricane Hits Galveston; Evacuations Underway; Trump Facing First Natural Disaster. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 25, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: Well, I'm Jim Acosta in for Wolf Blitzer. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks for joining us.

People in Texas are bracing for the worst as a potentially deadly storm moves closer to the coast. It's Hurricane Harvey.

And when I say they are bracing for the worse, that would be winds well in excess of 100 miles per hour, storm surges of more than 12 feet coming onshore from the Gulf, and more than three feet of rain causing massive flooding along the coast and as many as 100 miles inland.

Right now, we are expecting to hear from the mayor of Corpus Christi, Texas. His city is expected to bear the brunt of the hurricane as it comes ashore in just a matter of hours.

And later on this hour, we expect a news conference with the governor of Texas who has declared a state of emergency for 30 counties and has spoken with the president about possible emergency measures from the federal government.

And at 1:45 Eastern, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will brief the press. We are expecting her to talk about how the federal government is preparing for the hurricane in Texas. We'll bring that to you live.

Now, the leading edge of the hurricane is already bringing rain and strong winds to parts of the coast, including Corpus Christi. That's where our Nick Valencia is stationed right now. Meteorologist Tom Sater is watching the path and the speed from our Severe Weather Center in Atlanta.

Nick, let me start with you. It doesn't look too bad right now. But, obviously, as the hours drag on here, it's going to get worse. What's it like right now? And have people there been heeding this --

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that --

ACOSTA: -- call to evacuate?

VALENCIA: About an hour ago, Jim, we did see some of those heavy rain bands come through here at Corpus Christi, seeing the most significant rain its seen all morning long last hour. But this hour, as you mentioned, yes, (INAUDIBLE) lightened up a bit. We've been keeping an eye on this water here and watching the storm surge. The National Hurricane Center says they expects a three to six-foot storm surge here just on this by of Corpus Christi. City officials have been stressing all morning long to get out if you still can.

As a matter of fact, at about 8:00 a.m. local, they started assisting residents. Those who have still decided to stick around, assisting them to evacuate more towards northern Texas. That service that's been run by the city buses is expected to stop any minute now.

It was -- just a couple of hours ago, we spoke to the local representative here who said, last hour, if you do not get out within this hour, then you're probably going to have to stick it out with the rest of us here.

The good news is, though, these residents have been through storms before. Some of them say that they don't think that they believe the hype, that weather experts may be wrong this time. The last time they said the storm was supposed to hit Corpus Christi. It ended up hitting Houston.

So, residents I've spoken to, Jim, say they're going to stick it out. They've taken the precautions. Gone to the grocery stores, waited hours in line to get essential goods, and saying that they're ready for whatever comes next -- Jim.

ACOSTA: And, Tom, let me turn to you, because we need to get the latest on the hurricane, how it's developing. Obviously, Tom, when you see a map that shows a category three hurricane that's about to collide with the Gulf Coast, we're talking about the potential for some major damage and a very rough night for people down there.

How strong are the winds and when do we expect the landfall to happen?

TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We at a very strong category two, Jim. We're just a one mile per hour from category three. But the last advisory, the pressure dropped. It takes a while for the wind speed to catch up to that pressure drop.

So, it means it's not only healthy, it's strengthening. There's no doubt in my mind it's going to about strong category three.

And I know everyone pretty much focuses on where that eye is. Of course, you know, you have wind gusts of 130 miles per hour. At the time of landfall, those gusts are going to be 140, 150.

But when you look at the broad scale here. There's a couple things to watch. In the last hour, we're getting now some tropical storm force winds on the coast. We're seeing the feeder band start to move in.

So, even though we focus on the eye a lot, we're getting tornadoes now that are starting to pop up on the first feeder bands moving to the north. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a tornado watch issued soon that could include the Houston area well to the north. But it's the curvature of the coastline of Texas that while it curves and the system spins counterclockwise, everything is fitting perfectly which means we're already starting to see not just the tornadoes but a slight storm surge at one to two feet or over two feet. That's going to get six to 12 in some areas. But that curvature is like a catcher's mitt. And as the system moves in, we're going to see the winds increase.

Already, Jim, quickly for you, 36, 46 mile per hour wind gusts. That's going to snap some branches right now. Back to you.

ACOSTA: OK, Tom and Nick, thanks so much for that.

We want to shift now over to Corpus Christi, Texas. That's where the mayor, Jim McComb is holding a news conference right now, updating residents there on the latest on Hurricane Harvey. Let's listen in.

MAYOR JOE MCCOMB, CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS: -- comments and then we'll ask the city manager to give you some additional comments. The chief of police, the fire chief and emergency management operations manager is here for some questions and answers.

[13:05:01] And so, at this time, I'd like to call on Judge Neal to give you an update from the county's perspective and from his perspective. He's very well experienced in this, and we're just fortunate to have him in the position that he's in, particularly in times like these -- Judge Neal.

LOYD NEAL, COUNTY JUDGE, TEXAS: Thank you, Mayor. This morning -- I just left the fairgrounds. I met with the mayor of Robstown and the police chief and the fire chief over there.

We have shut down all evacuation operations in the fairgrounds so we turned the buses loose. They've done a great job both here in the city and in the western part of the county. We reacted very quickly, and very well across the board.

Our EOC is still open. We have, we're thinking 3:00. We'll get the 4:00 weather report and then we'll see where we go from there.

I want to, again, compliment all the mayors in Oasis County. We've had a great cooperative effort this time. Every mayor has done exactly what they're supposed to do. We've kept the lines of communication open.

My staff and our EOC has done a great job. Your EOC here at the city is doing a great job. The people in the Corpus Christi in Oasis County are very well served right now.

I had a call this morning from Senator Cruz. I had a call yesterday afternoon from Senator Cornyn. Both of them pledge the assets of the federal government to whatever we need. They have FEMA on the road.

So, Joe, as things -- as we figure out exactly where we are, both United States senators have expressed to me personally -- ACOSTA: And there, you hear a press conference going on right now in

Corpus Christi, Texas, as local officials are updating residents what's happening there as Hurricane Harvey approaches.

We want to turn now to another weather expert on all of this. And we can't stress this enough. Hurricane Harvey is massive. Just look at the view from space. It is enormous.

And as we have said, it is expected to be the strongest storm to hit the U.S. in more than a decade. Let that sink in. More than a decade.

Let's bring in the chief hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, Michael Brennan. Michael, this is forecasted as a life-threatening storm. I remember covering Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. A lot of people measure hurricanes against Katrina.

I remember how large it was. You could view it from space. It was perhaps more massive than what we're looking at now. But this is something that people really have to take seriously.

MICHAEL BRENNAN, CHIEF HURRICANE SPECIALIST, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Yes. You know, every hurricane has its own unique hazards with it and Harvey has three life-threatening hazards associated with it.

Right now, Harvey is centered about 100 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas with maximum winds right now of 110 mile-per-hour and it's moving off toward the Northwest. So, as that core of the hurricane moves onshore within the warning area, late tonight and early tomorrow, that's going to bring very strong, perhaps major, hurricane force winds to portions of the middle Texas coast.

In addition to that, we have the storm surge hazard. The storm surge warning, in this dark pink area, from just north of Brownsville all the way over to Galveston Island in the Boulevard Peninsula. And this is life-threatening storm surge inundation.

So, water moving in from the ocean as the hurricane makes landfall, we could see six to 12 feet of flooding. I'm six feet tall. Double my height in certain areas along the coast here, from near Corpus Christi, up to Victoria, up to near Sargent, Texas.

And then, finally, Harvey's going to slow down substantially, as it meanders here after landfall over the central, middle and upper Texas coast. And this track goes all the way out through the middle of next week.

And because of that slow motion, we're looking at potentially catastrophic flooding from rainfall. We can see widespread areas, including the Houston-Galveston area, Victoria, Corpus Christi, all the way into southwest Louisiana, you could see 15 to 25 inches of rain. Some areas could see 35 inches of rain.

So, the combination of the rainfall and the flooding from storm surge are the two most dangerous hazards with this storm. ACOSTA: And so, Michael, when you talk about that very big storm

surge at the beginning of the storm, what people don't realize when you have something that large, that those portions of the Gulf along the beach, they almost turn into a washing machine. So, if you are caught in that kind of storm surge, that is a very dangerous, deadly situation.

And you're saying, on top of that, we're going to have some almost record-setting or perhaps record-setting rainfall after that? It sounds like we're going to just have days and days of misery along that part of the Gulf Coast.

ACOSTA: That's right. Unfortunately, we're going to have a lot of water for a long period of time, because the storm's going to move so slowly. The storm surge and high water levels along the coast are going to stay up for quite a while. And then, the rainfall threat is going to go all the way through the weekend and into early next week.

So, that combination is going to make things very dangerous. So, anybody who's in an area -- a low-lying area where they've been asked to evacuate, please try and do so. Unfortunately, we are having tropical storm conditions now moving on shore in these rain bands here that are moving into the middle Texas coast.

[13:10:00] So, the time is very, very short for people to try to take action. But if you can, and you've been asked to leave by local authorities, you still hopefully have time to do so.

ACOSTA: OK, Michael, I'm hoping everybody out there is listening to these warnings and heeding those warnings. Appreciate the information very much. Michael Brennan, thank you.

Coming up, Texas Governor Greg Abbott will be speaking soon in Austin, Texas. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Press Secretary, she'll be briefing the reporters there in the briefing room at any moment. We'll bring both of these events to you live. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Welcome back.

Looking at pictures, live pictures, from Austin, Texas. At any moment, we will hear from the governor there, Greg Abbott, about the preparations underway for Hurricane Harvey. It's a life-threatening storm.

Can't emphasize this enough. Life threatening storm, forecast to bring a combination of heavy rain, strong storm surge and winds, not to mention these catastrophic floods which will follow the storm. Some areas have started to feel the effects.

[13:15:00] CNN Correspondent Ed Lavandera is in Galveston watching some pretty heavy rain come in. Ed, what are you seeing now?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, we just experienced the strongest first band of Hurricane Harvey make landfall here in Galveston. It lasted several minutes. So the winds picked up dramatically and some intense rainfall here. And that's really kind of a signal of what is to come here.

If you look out into the Gulf of Mexico, you can see just how choppy the surf is, and one of those first bands. If you look back out this way, this is looking down the coast towards Corpus Christi, and that's where between here and there is where the brunt of this storm is expected to make landfall and it's where emergency first responders are really bracing and preparing to react to whatever kind of rescues will be needed.

So a lot of first responders. One of the things they're doing here today, we're told, is prepositioning crews and equipment that might be needed in swift water rescues and high water rescues as this rain will intensify in the coming hours and then just essentially sit over this portion of southeast Texas, which is what forecasters expect, and that's what emergency teams are really the most concerned about down here along parts of southeast Texas.

Many of the communities here that we'll see dramatic increase in water. Some 25 inches of rain expected in some places. Many, in some places, in isolated areas, at much as three feet. So this water will rise quickly and it is what people are urging residents to be very mindful and be very wary of here not just today, but throughout the weekend as well as these floodwaters could cause some catastrophic and put people in very dangerous and deadly situations.

So, Jim, that is what people here are preparing for. Here on Galveston, you can still see, despite that first band, this is the seafront road here. Traffic still very heavy throughout the day. I don't really get a sense that many people are evacuating Galveston Island.

We're going to be on the eastern edge of this hurricane. So I don't get the sense that people are really expecting that much wind damage, or seem terribly concerned about the wind damage here where we're at, but they will be monitoring the rain situation. And people here just still out and about as we're several hours away from this hurricane making landfall a little bit south of where we are.

ACOSTA: And, Ed, we can show our viewers some live pictures right now of sort of a bird's-eye view of what these waves look like coming in. It's pretty incredible stuff, the way this is building. It is an earth cam picture. And you can see these waves starting to come in.

And you can see, Ed, some of these cars, as you were just mentioning a few moments ago, moving back and forth. We just hope, as we get closer to this storm making landfall and the more serious effects coming in, and, Ed, you've seen this so many times that we don't have a lot of people doing sort of disaster tourism and being out there and gawking at this sort of thing.

What is your sense of it when you seeing people moving around? Are they taking this seriously? Because we haven't seen a big storm like this crash into the Gulf Coast in some time. LAVANDERA: Right. You know, I think what a lot of people are maybe

perhaps taking last-minute precautions, making runs to the grocery store and that sort of thing. I am surprised to see a little bit -- you know, this much traffic here on the roadways this close to this storm making landfall.

I also drove out towards the western edge of the island. You know, Galveston is a very large island, so it stretches on for miles and miles. And you can see people in the more residential areas had, you know, secured belongings that were down on the ground. Many of those homes built up on stilts so that floodwater can just kind of flow underneath. So you've seen some of those people kind of clean up everything around there. But, still, you know, a decent amount of traffic.

I also spoke with some emergency management officials in (INAUDIBLE) County, which is just south of where we are. They did tell me that there is -- there are a lot of areas around there, smaller communities, not as much -- you know, like this has a sea wall here that protect as good number of people from about ten foot of storm surge. And some of those communities don't necessarily have that kind of protection. And they say for the most part people are heeding these warnings of mandatory evacuations.

But as I say, and we've seen repeatedly over and over in these situations, there's always a number of people who refuse to heed those warnings and stay behind, either at their home or just because they want to see. There's always kind of a mixture of reasons for why people do that. But they do say that, you know, for the most part they believe people are taking these warnings seriously, but that they do see a number of people kind of ignoring those warnings and are making the decision to stay behind. So we'll see how this plays out here in the hours ahead.

ACOSTA: Some very important warnings there, Ed. Thank you very much. Ed Lavandera there in Galveston, Texas. We appreciate it.

Now, we are waiting to hear from the White House as President Trump faces what will be his first national disaster in office. Just a short time ago, the president tweeted about Hurricane Harvey for the first time. We should point out, this followed several tweets that had nothing to do with the storm earlier today. But the president tweeting in the last couple of hours, he says he's received a briefing from Homeland Security officials, FEMA and his chief of staff. He also says he's spoken to the governors of Texas and Louisiana.

[13:20:14] I want to turn now to CNN White House reporter Kaitlan Collins, who is live outside the White House.

Kaitlan, this is going to be a major test for this young administration. For a president who has not had to deal with natural disasters like this. Do we know what specific actions the White House is taking at this point to prepare?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, we know the president is being kept updated, but this absolutely is going to be a big test for them. This is the first time since they took office in January that the Trump administration has ever had to deal with something like this.

And, Jim, as you know, these things can be presidency defining, as we saw with George W. Bush and the way he botched his response to Hurricane Katrina just 12 summers ago.

And the president's already being warned about this by one Republican senator. Chuck Grassley wrote to him on Twitter today and said, keep an eye on top of Hurricane Harvey and don't make the same mistakes that President Bush made with Katrina.

Now, Jim, we also heard from First Lady Melania Trump, who is looking out for those who are in the path of Hurricane Harvey saying, stay safe. That the thoughts and prayers of an entire country are with you.

We know that the president is being kept updated by his Homeland Security adviser Tom Bosser. We're going to hear from Sarah Huckabee Sanders. More on that likely here soon at the White House.

But make no mistake, this is going to be a big test for President Trump. Just last August he was criticizing Barack Obama for being on vacation in Martha's Vineyard while floods pounded Louisiana. So everyone will be watching to see how he responds to this natural disaster.

And we know that he's headed to Camp David later today, Jim.

ACOSTA: OK, Kaitlan Collins, thank you very much. And hopefully the president won't be tweeting about fake news as much as many Americans will be relying on the news in order to stay safe during this storm. We appreciate it.

Governor -- more hurricane coverage is coming up next. Governor Greg Abbott of Texas will be giving a briefing soon. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:26:15] ACOSTA: OK. At any moment -- you can see it right there -- the White House Press Briefing Room is all lit up. We're expecting Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to come in within the next 15 minutes or so to brief reporters on the administration's preparations for this hurricane. We're going to bring that to you soon as it begins.

We're also monitoring other live events that may be taking place this hour down in the state of Texas as Hurricane Harvey approaches the Gulf Coast. And we'll bring all of that to you as it happens.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)