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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Hurricane Florence Heads for the East Coast. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired September 13, 2018 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Disaster is at the doorstep and it's coming in.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: Hurricane Florence on final approach to the Carolinas, the storm moving at a very slow pace. Some areas will see hurricane conditions when this hits for a full 24 hours. That is a not a pretty picture there on your satellite folks. So, good morning, welcome to Early Start. I'm Christine Romans.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: And I'm Alex Marquardt. It is September 13. It is 3:00 a.m. in the east. It's great to be back with you on what...

ROMANS: It's good to see you.

MARQUARDT: ...is shaping up to be a very - very busy day. All right, well, Hurricane Florence is closing in on the Carolinas. The storm has weakened just slightly. Now a category two, but that does not change the expected effects.

A huge storm surge and rainfall measured in feet, not in inches, in feet. Forecast to create life threatening conditions. The warning officials are giving residences is crystal clear, leave immediately before the window to escape closes. More than 10 million people are living in areas under warnings. More watches for hurricane or tropical storm force winds.

ROMANS: A state of emergency was declared in the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia, and Maryland. The National Hurricane Center says waves out at sea, in the strongest part of the storm are now as high as 83 feet - 83 foot waves here, and that's not even right at the eye.

Six nuclear power plants are right in the path of this storm. You can see them there. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri tracking Florence for us in the CNN Weather Center, bring us up to speed here.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you know, the latest updates have come in. The storm system has come down just to a category two, but I want to really emphasize this. First of all, it's a negligible amount. One mile per hour wind would make this a category three, but this has

never been about the category. It's been about the shear size, the last several days, the amount of energy back behind it. And, of course, storm surge, the number one weather killer, remains in place as the biggest threat wit the system.

Nothing about that has changed as far as the amount of storm surge expected. The rainfall amounts, number two weather killer (ph) when it comes to tropical systems in the U.S. Nothing about that has changed either. Still expecting winds and rainfall, I should say, on the order of feet across this region.

And as you mentioned there, Christine, we're talking about 83 foot waves that were measured on a buoy just on the eastern periphery of this storm system in the past 12 hours. Watch what happens as it approaches land, even as early as Thursday afternoon.

That's a wave height - a max wave height in the orange contours of 30 feet around the cape. So, again, wave height, not storm surge. We'll explain that here in detail a little bit better, momentarily.

But as the storm system comes ashore, we think landfall sometime around 8 in the morning on Friday across Wilmington. And then, it really slows down. And we're talking about - notice the icons.

Between a 12 hour period, eight in the morning, eight at night, the icons are almost on top of one another versus, say, the previous 12 hours and 300 miles of water were covered by the storm system.

So, when you do the math, covering some 50 miles in a matter of 12 hours, we're talking about a storm that will go about four miles per hour over a 12 hour period. What does that mean? Well, climatologically speaking, you can look at every single storm, you bring it down to four or five miles per hour, you bring down 30 inches of rainfall. You move the storm system along 20 or 30 miles per hour, you bring down five, six inches of rainfall in some cases.

Certainly, the story becomes an, entirely, different story and the rainfall amounts stay very - very serious for the system. Widespread coverage of 20 plus inches along the coastline, even as far inland as Columbia, 10 to 15 inches of rainfall, even into Charlotte, as much as 10 inches of rainfall possible.

And notice, that moisture eventually goes up the spine of the Appalachians into portions of New England where, as you know very well, it's been very wet across this region, and the rainfall stays in place there for life threatening flooding, even for them.

And, of course, the storm surge is a big storm with this as well. On the eastern and northeastern side of it, come early Friday morning, we'll have water that will begin to be piled up. Of course, for multiple days we've had a category four.

So, regardless of it weakening to a category two, that energy has been in motion, and millions of gallons of water have been in motion, and elevated as a result. So, when you look at a storm surge, there is normal sea level. Once you bring it up to just a couple of feet, one feet, two feet, you're generally talking about, essentially, it beginning to move up towards property.

Once you get up to four feet, you push this up into the first level of the home, and up to 12 feet gets into the second story of homes across this region. And we have a storm surge forecast across the area as much as 12 feet, of course. So, that's, certainly, a big - big part of this. That has not changed one bit with the storm coming down to a category two.

And the one piece of good news if anything, is because of the winds speeds lessening there, you notice, this is the power outage coverage, the immediate impact area across eastern North Carolina. Now we have widespread outage there, but really not much for parts of South Carolina.

It becomes minor outages. So, the wind speed being lessened just improves the trees not coming down as much which would be less power outage concern. But everything else stays the same with the system.

MARQUARDT: All right, Pedram. Some terrifying figures right there.

[03:05:00]

That hurricane, expected to come ashore just over 24 hours from now. Thanks very much. We'll check in with you a little bit later this morning.

JAVAHERI: Thank you.

MARQUARDT: Now, more than a million people in the Carolinas have been told to leave. And Carolina Beach, the only bridge connecting the island to the mainland is now closed.

Officials fear that as many as a thousand of the 6300 residents are planning to ride out this storm in town which is less than five feet above sea level. You just heard that that storm surge could reach over 12 feet. We've got Meteorologist Derek Van Dam live in Carolina Beach this morning. Derek, what are you seeing, what are you hearing?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, a storm surge, if it does come in at 13 feet, well, that would be above my head where I'm standing right now in Carolina Beach. We are in a protected area here, but this - this region, no stranger to hurricanes.

They have been through Fray (ph). They've been through Matthew. They've been through Diana, and, of course, the benchmark being Hugo back in '89. And, of course, people here know the threats, they know the hazards. But that doesn't mean that everybody listens to the warnings.

We know that this is going to be a triple threat, and we don't want to have this false sense of assurance that just because it's been downgraded from a category three to a category two, that this is a formidable storm. The wind field has expanded. In fact, tropical storm force winds cover about 400 miles in diameter with Hurricane Florence.

We also have hurricane force winds extending about 150 miles in diameter. So, the potential for this to cause massive storm surge flooding is one of the main concerns, of course. The wind threat is an issue, and then, also, the potential for record setting rainfall for this area.

So, it is really a triple threat here when we talk about it. This area does flood quite frequently into Carolina Beach. The area, not much above sea level, so, it doesn't take much for storm surge and flooding to really cause some serious concerns here, Alex, Christine.

MARQUARDT: All right. Derek Van Dam, down there at Carolina Beach, thanks very much. Stay safe. President Trump is echoing the dire warnings about Florence. That was after touting what he called, incredible success, responding to Hurricane Maria last year in Puerto Rico where the death toll is now, nearly, 3,000. The President says he is already hearing good things about preparations for this storm.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The greatest (ph) people working on the hurricane; first responders, law enforcement, and FEMA. And they're all ready. And we're getting tremendous accolades from politicians and the people. We are ready, but this is going to be one of the biggest ones to ever hit our country.

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MARQUARDT: Tremendous accolades. Well, as part of the federal government response to Florence, the Centers for Disease Control opened its emergency operations in Atlanta over night.

ROMANS: All right. Joining us by phone, right now, is Reid Hawkins. He is a Science and Operations Officer with the National Weather Service. He is in Wilmington, North Carolina. Thank you for joining us. Preparing for a direct hit within 24 hours, what do you - what is your message to anyone listening, right now, who's still in the area?

REID HAWKINS, SCIENCE AND OPERATIONS OFFICER, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: Our message is that you need to be - find a place of safety, be in areas that you know there's not going to be storm surge, and you need hunker down and stay - stay careful. I'm sorry they're staying there. I wish they would've evacuated, but they made that decision and now it's their - their survival.

MARQUARDT: Reid, we hear from people all the time that, you know, we've - we've been through hurricanes in the past. We can ride this out, strength in numbers. Is there any sense to that? Why would - why would people be doing this? Is there any reason for them to stick around?

HAWKINS: Not - not really. I did notice that the city - driving through it today, a majority of the people have left. It's - it's, pretty much, very little traffic that I saw this afternoon. But a lot of it is, I guess, they want to protect their property, or - or they don't have anywhere to go.

ROMANS: A 12 foot storm surge. I don't know what you can do to protect your property if you hang around for a 12 foot storm surge. I mean, that's what the real concern, here, is going to be, loss of life because of storm surge, correct?

HAWKINS: That is - that is correct because there's no way to run from that. And the problem with that, the battering of the waves, severe damage to many of the structures on the barrier islands. We're probably even going to see some formation of a new inlet along the - along the coast in the barrier islands.

ROMANS: So, Reid, we're actually redrawing the map. This is how big this storm is?

HAWKINS: That - that could be, yes.

MARQUARDT: Reid, can you put this in a bit of context for us, when - when we saw, you know, we had a couple historic hurricanes last summer. How does this compare to hurricanes like Irma, and - and Harvey?

[03:10:00]

REID HAWKINS, SCIENCE OFFICER, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: It's very large and its - for this area if we do come to fruition of the 30 inches of rain ,that will be the most significant rainfall this area has had and we've had about 140 years of records.

The records are about 25 to 26 inches so it would be a historic rainfall event.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: We know that local officials are preparing for a period of days, if not weeks as worse case scenario, without any power.

When we look at the map and the way the trajectory seems, North Carolina is the biggest concern here. Do you agree?

HAWKINS: Yes, and it also - if the track holds and it goes into South Carolina, there's some areas in South Carolina that were impacted last with Hurricane Matthew just a couple years ago, on the Lumber River and the PD River. So, they're going to get a double dose of that.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: Reid, when you look at the preparations that have been made, we heard the President touting (ph) them there, do you think that the Federal Government - the federal agencies have done everything they can ahead of this storm?

HAWKINS: I believe so. I know the National Weather Service, we brought in extra people. We're going to be around the clock and we're going to be doing the best we can to provide information and warnings to the public and provide help and provide safety to those people.

ROMANS: All right, 24 hours until landfall, Reid Hawkins there for us in Wilmington, North Carolina. Thank you so much, sir, we'll talk to you again very soon as we will watch these updates this morning.

All right, Hurricane Florence has the potential to be one of the most expensive hurricanes to ever strike the United States. Nearly 759,000 houses in the Carolina's and Virginia are in the path of this dangerous storm.

This is according to early analysis from Core Logic, worst case scenario more than $170 billion to rebuild, that's 62 million more than Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. The National Hurricane Center says that storm cost 108 billion in property damage, and that has the dubious honor of the costliest hurricane in U.S. History.

However, those cost projections were made before the storm was downgraded to a "2", so the impact of Florence remains a mystery here.

Honestly, these forecasts will change a lot as we do through the next few days.

Insurance companies are bracing for a hit, if a major loss does happen investors will likely hesitate before rushing back to alternative capital and prices could skyrocket for consumers.

MARQUARDT: And speaking of insurance companies - the insurance - that is one of the major problems for the victims of these hurricanes is that it takes so long for these insurance companies to process their claims and get the money they need to rebuild. All right, we're going to switch gears quickly.

A breaking overnight, six people are dead, including the suspect in a shooting rampage that started at a Bakersfield, California trucking business. Authorities say it started with a confrontation between a husband and a wife and another man.

The husband shot and killed the man, then put the gun on his wife, then police say he killed another person near by and two others at a neighboring home. Officials say the gunman then carjacked a vehicle. The women and child inside were able to escape safely.

When police finally confronted the shooter, he then turned the gun on himself. His motive, they say, and his relationship to the victims is still unclear.

ROMANS: All right. The former head of the National Security Agency says the Helsinki Summit was a missed opportunity.

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MIKE RODGERS, FORMER NSA CHIEF: He opted to go a different direction. That's certainly his right as the President, but I wish we had taken advantage of that opportunity.

ROMANS: Mike Rodgers says the President told him about Russian hacking.

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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: President Trump has signed an executive order intended to punish foreigners for interfering in U.S. Elections.

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The President has been widely criticized for down playing and even denying Russia's attack on the 2016 Election.

His new executive order allows the director of National Intelligence to identify foreign governments, companies, or individuals who are responsible for election meddling, and it authorizes the Treasury Department to apply new sanctions.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: The Democrats and Republicans say it the order doesn't go far enough.

Former NSA Chief, Mike Rodgers thinks the President had his chance to make a real statement at that Helsinki Summit and let it slip away.

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MIKE RODGERS, FORMER NSA CHIEF: I thought there was an opportunity here that we could have taken advantage of. He opted to go a different direction, that's certainly his right as the President, but I wish we had taken advantage of that opportunity.

That could have sent a very powerful message.

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ROMANS: Admiral Rodgers told the crowd at the Hayden Center in Virginia that he gave the President detailed briefings on Russian hacking efforts, but Mr. Trump responded by saying, "Mike, you know I'm in a different place."

MARQUARDT: I don't know what that means, "I'm in a different place."

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MARQUARDT: All right well voters in New York are heading to polls today.

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MARQUARDT: The Marque (ph) primary is pitting the incumbent Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo against Progressive challenger Cynthia Nixon, who's the former star, of course of Sex in the City.

The race has turned ugly in its final hours. The Cuomo campaign is under fire for sending a mailer to 7,000 addresses in specifically Jewish communities suggested that Nixon is anti-Israel and has been quote, "silence on the rise of anti-Semitism."

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ROMANS: Millions of bottles of fresh water intended for victims of Hurricane Maria ...

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ROMANS: ... there they are. Why did they spend the summer spoiling in the sun?

Our report from San Juan next.

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MARQUARDT: President Trump claims his administration's response to Hurricane Maria and in Puerto Rico last year was what he called an unsung success, but nearly a year after the storm take a look at this. It turns out much needed help and rotting on a runway. Millions of desperately needed bottles of the water sitting there untouched. CNN's Bill Weir has more from San Juan.

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just for a moment imagine you spent months getting water from a pipe into a creek or collecting rain water to keep your family alive, and now imagine you discover all the time there's been millions of bottles of water -- fresh water sitting on an airport runway unused. That's the story that's out raging so many Puerto Ricans this week after a local law enforcement official posted pictures of what looked like thousands of pallets parked on an abandoned runway in an airport in Saba, about 45 minutes south of San Juan.

We went looking and it wasn't hard to find and you can see why.

[03:25:00]

It is literally a runway full of bottled water and it seems to be also an exercise in blame. FEMA put out a statement saying it's our job to get the resources to the island. This is a distribution issue; this is a distribution issue, pushing responsibility off on the local Puerto Rican government. Meanwhile the Puerto Rican government put out a statement that says FEMA delivered 20,000 palettes of water, that's anywhere between 30 and 40 million bottles of the wear it they didn't need; it came too late.

It wasn't until they started to distribute the water in May that people complained of a foul odor and taste which then set off a series of water tests and all the while that precious resource is just sitting there in the Puerto Rican sun. I'm Bill Weir in San Juan. Back to you.

ROMANS: Oh my, that is so frustrating and instead of saying that the response was unsung success. One hopes the federal government is trying to figure out what mistakes were made to make sure they aren't made again and to figure out to better coordinate between national and local distribution issues.

MARQUARDT: Right and you could quibble all day long about who's responsibility it is to actually distribute, but then at the end of the day when we know that stuff is right there, just figure out how to get it to the people in need. There are so many people down there who just need that fresh water who are getting their water from rivers and streams and rain water.

ROMANS: All right, this Hurricane Florence bearing down on the Carolinas. This powerful storm is moving so slowly you can walk faster than this storm and that is a real problem in terms of what will happen in the impact zone in 24 hours.

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