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Tsunami Warnings for Alaska; Trump Meets with Saudi Crown Prince; Earthquake Hits Alaska. Aired 1-1:30p ET
Aired November 30, 2018 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's no photo.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Really happy there's no photo, you're right.
Thanks for joining us today on INSIDE POLITICS. Appreciate your patience through the breaking news. Hope to see you back here Sunday morning as well, up early, 8:00 a.m. Eastern. Have a great day.
Brianna Keilar starts right now.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Brianna Keilar, live from CNN's Washington headquarters.
We start with breaking news.
An earthquake near Anchorage, Alaska, has triggered a tsunami warning there. I want to bring in CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar for us.
Tell us about the magnitude of this. Tell us about the danger and here the tsunami warning is.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So the magnitude has now been increased back to 7.0. Keep in mind, this often happens when you get earthquakes. You're getting data from a lot of different places. So those numbers will go up and down within the first 20 minutes generally after the quake has happened. So if you read anywhere you had a 6.6, or a 6.7 or a 7 or a 7.2, they are all referring to the same quake. It has now been adjusted to a 7.0 at 40.9 kilometers deep.
That may sound like that's very deep, but in terms of earthquakes, anything under 70 kilometers is considered shallow. The main concern when you have shallow earthquakes is a tsunami threat.
Now, this is where the area of the earthquake occurred. We have already had at least one aftershock since the initial quake. This is Anchorage. This is what you're looking at. That aftershock was a 5.8. Again, just a little bit south of actual Anchorage, Alaska.
The concern again are these inlets and peninsulas that take place here. Now, what we do know is there is a localized tsunami warning that has been issued for the Cook Inlet and then the southern Kenai Peninsula around this region. We do not have a widespread tsunami warning. Typically when you get large earthquakes, they will issue them up and down the Pacific Ocean. We do not have that in this case. This is a very localized tsunami threat for this particular area.
Now, let's take a look at what we're talking about in that region. Again, so here's your map of Alaska. This is Anchorage. You can see these areas right here in orange, that's where we are talking about the area for the tsunami warning. But notice it does not extend throughout much of the rest of Alaska. It's just going to be that localized region.
As of now, we don't have any actual tsunami observations that have come in, but those take time. So they will continue to monitor those over the next several hours. Oftentimes those tsunami waves can come anywhere from five to 40 minute intervals as those waves come in and then recede. So it does take time with those.
Again, this was a 7.0 earthquake near Anchorage, Alaska. We have already had one aftershock so far. And there is a tsunami warning, Brianna, at least for localized areas of the Cook Inlet and the Kenai Peninsula. We will let you know if we get any more up to date information.
KEILAR: All right, Allison. And if you would, just stand by with me here because I want to listen in to some live coverage from Alaska. This is our CNN affiliate there, KTVA.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're hearing no power in Wasilla. Somebody on FaceBook said that. And our friend Will Sandage (ph), his family lives out in Wasilla.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, here we go. (INAUDIBLE) from the National Weather Service is 7.2 earthquake, so that's preliminary still. This comes in from the National Weather Service, 7.2 Earthquake reported 10 miles northeast of Anchorage, Alaska.
So the reason it did feel so strong was because it was so close to us here in Anchorage.
Tsunami warning in effect for the Cook Inlet. So if you're anywhere near the Cook Inlet, you're going to want to get inland. But it's not expected to spread too far away from there. But, still, it's right here. You want to get inland. That's -- that's the take away here, 7.2 earthquake, a lot of videos coming in and we're working out the details. We'll keep getting more as we go. But as John showed you, yes, and we're not sure when we're going to be able to get back in and get on air. We hear there's only one radio station in town on air right now. So please be safe out there. Hug your loved ones. And we'll give you updates as they become available here a the now (ph) media building where KTVA broadcasts from. Those are windows from the corporate offices. And the sales offices. Just windows blown out. The structure, the roof, just collapsed. We can't even get into our studio right now. There were computers flying, cameras toppling over. Oh, yes, there's some of the glass coming out of the window there.
So it is absolute destruction. And we said over a 7.0 earthquake here in the Anchorage area. And, again, tsunami warnings. Hopefully you're safe wherever you are. If you're on Kodiak Island, they're saying get inland. Get inland. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, get inland.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get inland. So I'm sure you're going to see a lot of people FaceBook Live-ing from around the Anchorage area today. We're just waiting for the OK to go back in the building. But there was a little bit of an aftershock, which part of the structure, the roof, with that aftershock, I don't want to -- like the siding, the paneling, just came tumbling down. So it's probably not good to be standing too close to the building here. But no aftershocks at the moment.
But, man, have not felt an earthquake like that ever. And I -- you know, (INAUDIBLE) Alaska.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No power in Wasilla someone saying. We're hearing no power in Wasilla. Somebody on FaceBook said that. And our friend Will Sandage (ph), his family lives out in Wasilla.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we go. (INAUDIBLE) from the National Weather Service is 7.2 earthquake. So that's preliminary still. But this comes in from the National Weather Service, 7.2 earthquake reported 10 miles northeast of Anchorage, Alaska. So the reason it did feel so strong was because it was so close to us here in Anchorage. Tsunami warning in effect for the Cook Inlet. So if you're anywhere near the Cook Inlet, you're going to want to get inland. But it's not expected to spread too far away from there. But, still, it's right here, you want to get inland. That's -- that's the takeaway here, 7.2 earthquake. A lot of videos coming in and we're working out the details. We'll keep getting more as we go, but as John showed you, it's a --
[13:05:57] KEILAR: All right, so we're looking there at our local affiliate KTVA.
I want to bring back Allison Chinchar, who's monitoring this from our CNN Weather Center.
They said it there. And also, we should make clear, as you said, it's normal for these numbers to be adjusted. They said 7.2. This was adjusted then down south of 7. Now it's back at a 7.0 quake. But, either way, Allison, as you look at some of the damage there, windows blown out, this is a major earthquake.
CHINCHAR: Yes, the main focus from now on should not be the number, because it is still likely going to continue to fluctuate. The main concern now is as they mentioned in their shot, get to higher ground.
Again, this is where the earthquake was, just outside of downtown Anchorage. That's why he said a lot of folks there could feel it because it was literally near the city. We've already had at least one aftershock take place.
The yellow that you see here on this screen, these are people that live in that area that have reported in that they felt very strong shaking. We've already seen some of the damage that's taken place, not just from the main quake, but also from the aftershock. This orange that you are seeing right here, this is the tsunami warning we are talking about. It is a localized tsunami warning. It mainly affects the Cook Inlet and the Kenai Peninsula, right through this region. So it's not a very widespread tsunami warning. But, again, in these areas, if you are in there, get to higher ground. These things can come in fast and they can sometimes come in, in the waves after them can come in fast. Sometimes those -- the intervals can be anywhere from five to 40 minutes. If it's only five, you don't have long before the next wave will come in.
So, again, the main focus for this region is to get to higher ground. If you are a building that has become structurally compromised, if your windows have blown out, if portions of your roof are there, get out of that building as well. Even if it just looks like minor areas of damage, you don't know what's underneath the structure. Not to mention, with every subsequent aftershock, that building will become even more structurally compromised. So it's better to err on the side of caution, get out of that building, get to higher ground and, Brianna, get to a safe place.
KEILAR: Yes. And check on your neighbors, if you can. We saw windows blown out. We know there's some connectivity issues there in Alaska.
Allison, stand by for us. We're going to continue to monitor this 7.0 earthquake happening near Anchorage, Alaska, with a tsunami warning there for part of the Anchorage area. We'll bring back details to you as we do get them.
Also breaking right now, with the Russia investigation drama playing out in Washington and New York, President Trump is far away in Argentina attending the G-20 Summit. But the action back home still impacting his moves on the world stage. The president cancelled his planned formal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia's foreign ministry saying it's because of the Michael Cohen case.
CNN's senior diplomatic correspondent Michelle Kosinski live in Buenos Aires for us right now.
We've seen the president a few times today. These have been very managed situations. But we've just learned that he met briefly with the Saudi crown prince.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT: Right. And that was one of the questions, what kind of interaction would not just he but other world leaders have with the crown prince, whose so recently been directly implicated by the U.S. intelligence community in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
So here's the video we have of President Trump meeting briefly with MBS. This on the sideline of a leader's meeting. So you can see Treasury Secretary Mnuchin there.
The way the White House is describing this is they exchanged pleasantries as they did with all the world leaders there. Just a brief meeting. And President Trump later said that they didn't have any discussion in this brief hello, but they still might moving forward. So let's compare and contrast this interaction with some of what else
we've seen. First of all, Russian President Vladimir Putin's greeting of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman. That video is of them just slapping hands and laughing and smiling. I think we also have that piece of video for you. This effusive greeting that has captured the eyes of so many people around the world and so many are reacting to that now.
[13:10:05] Also, there was an intersection between the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and MBS, as the crown prince is referred to. There's Putin and the crown prince now. Big handshake. Big smiles. Big, hey, how you doing? And earlier the French president, as I was saying, he was delivering some kind of stern warning to the crown prince. It was later reported that you could hear the crown prince saying, well, I'm not worried, and then Macron replied, well, I am worried. It looked like a very serious conversation there.
So Trump's interaction lies somewhere in between those. And he hinted that they may have a discussion at some point. How that will go, that's one of those question marks that we'll just have to what to see what the answer is, Brianna.
KEILAR: All right, Michelle Kosinski in Argentina with the president. Thank you so much.
I want to bring in CNN legal analyst Carrie Cordero, and our chief political analyst Gloria Borger with us.
This is some fascinating just optics and body language that we're seeing coming out of the G-20 here, as we look at this, especially the president. I wonder, did he mean to meet with the crown prince? He said maybe he is going to meet. But as I look at that picture, as we -- if we can replay that, they're exchanging pleasantries, according to a White House official. The only person that looks very pleasant there is Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: And what is Ivanka doing there? That's sort of my question, but she is there.
KEILAR: And you also wonder in a way if there's some -- she seems stern as well as does the president's facial expression. They're aware of what it means to be seen here with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, aren't they?
BORGER: Oh, I -- yes, I think they are. And I think, you know, you can, as you point out, Mnuchin seems to be the only one who is enjoying himself with a smile on his face. And Trump seems to be talking to Ivanka and kind of avoiding direct contact, direct face-to- face contact with MBS. But, you know, we haven't seen the whole -- we're not seeing the whole thing play out. I'm sure it was pretty uncomfortable.
CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I would just say, Brianna, it's pretty outrageous to see Mnuchin there smiling and laughing and sort of yucking it up. And Ivanka Trump, I agree with you, Gloria, I don't know -- KEILAR: I will say, one of his reflexes is to smile. He seem -- he may be a nervous smiler as well. It's not OK. You need to be very cognizant of what you're projecting in a situation like this.
BORGER: Yes.
CORDERO: Look, this is an international -- I get your point, but this this an international conference. They know that there's cameras right there.
KEILAR: Sure.
CORDERO: There is an intelligence assessment that the president and the administration have kept from Congress. They are not allowing the intelligence community to brief members of Congress as to what the CIA's assessment is as to Mohammad bin Salman's role in -- his potential role in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. And so this should have -- meeting either should have been prevented or Mnuchin should have been -- and the others should have been aware of how they would handle his presence there.
BORGER: Should have been avoided completely.
KEILAR: Sure.
And talk about this handshake we see between the crown prince and between Vladimir Putin. You know, we saw this -- it reminded me actually of the handshake we saw after this -- after NASA had the Mars expedition that we saw earlier this week, which was, of course, celebratory and there were a couple of folks from NASA who had this crazy handshake. This is almost -- it's somewhat --
BORGER: It's like a bro (ph). It's like they're --
KEILAR: And it's so emphatic. It's so enthusiastic.
BORGER: Yes.
KEILAR: What -- and it's clear view of the cameras. What message is that sending?
BORGER: I think the message Putin is sending is, hey, you're my guy. You're my guy. Look at this. There -- this wasn't just a handshake, this was one step short of a bear hug basically. And I think it was completely for show on Putin's -- on Putin's part.
KEILAR: And one of the complaints --
BORGER: And MBS' part.
KEILAR: Of the way President Trump and the administration have handled the Khashoggi incident and how they are responding to Saudi Arabia is that you go to the G-20 like this, right on the heels of this, you see this handshake, and it normalizes, especially in the wake of what we've seen in Ukraine, just the thuggery of these nations. CORDERO: Really it speaks to all of the countries who are participants in this. I mean why is Mohammad bin Salman even welcome there given that Jamal Khashoggi was executed --
BORGER: Yes.
CORDERO: In the consulate of Saudi Arabia in another country? I mean, really, all of the world leaders there should be embarrassed that he's welcome there until a further explanation of what actually happened and where his body is, is revealed publicly.
KEILAR: All right. If you guys can stand by for me, next we're going to talk about what has consumed the president during this trip. It's actually the Mueller investigation. And the spotlight is now turning to his children.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:19:12] KEILAR: All right, we're following some breaking news.
A major earthquake in the Anchorage, Alaska, area. There is a 7.0 earthquake. There is a tsunami warning for part of the Anchorage area. Let's listen in to our local affiliate, KTVA.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The pictures you see from the Good Friday earthquake. Look at that. Just, man, hugs from Texas, prayers from North Carolina. We appreciate you guys tuning in.
And, yes, pretty quiet here at the station. We do have --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're just hearing that UA is closing campus today and that non-essential personnel should go home. Do not go to campus if you're already there. Again, we're hearing about damage on that overpass on Minnesota. That is out near International Airport. The northbound off-ramp. I'll show you this picture again.
[13:20:03] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So that was International and --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, this is --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so, thanks, Kara.
Wow, so that's International -- Minnesota and International. Hopefully nobody's hurt. That is just -- that is incredible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It looks like there was a car on there. Hopefully they made it out OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
(INAUDIBLE) that picture, yes, (INAUDIBLE) Minnesota.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Again right now this is a preliminary magnitude 7.0. They're still working to refine that. But just five miles outside of Anchorage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow.
KEILAR: All right, I want to bring in Brian Stelter because we're watching what is pretty extraordinary local coverage coming out of here, which is just a camera outside of KTVA as they are talking to the reporters. And it's because the media stations are all down. That's how significant of an earthquake this is.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. Just some context for our viewers. All the local stations in Anchorage have been knocked off the airwaves by this earthquake, which happened about 50, 55 minutes ago. So, as a result, the only things we're seeing from the local stations are these FaceBook Live streams.
We know that power is out in parts of Anchorage, but, thankfully, via some cell phone towers and other ways to communicate, some of these pictures are starting to come out via FaceBook and other social media tools. But it does give you a sense of the impact of this earthquake. All the local TV stations are down. That's always a problem in these emergencies, of course, because viewers tune in to find out what happened and whether they need to evacuate. We are seeing those pictures thanks to FaceBook.
And just to keep in mind, you know, we're thinking about this year, in the afternoon, on the East Coast, but in Anchorage, in Alaska, the sun was not up yet during the -- when this earthquake occurred. The sun is just now coming up. So we were seeing some pictures in the dark initially and now we know power is out across parts of the city. So that increases some of the problems in responding to this.
KEILAR: All right, and let's listen in, Brian, because this is a video -- oh, we're actually -- we're working on getting some of the audio up so that we can hear this. So let's keep chatting while we do that.
This is -- and let's listen back in now to our local affiliate KTVA.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Between 8:30 and 9:00 is when this happened. And, yes, people are coming into work. I don't know necessarily why they're coming into work right now because --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is -- it is destroyed. Our studio, our newsroom, it's flooded. The ceiling's caved in. There is debris everywhere. It is very difficult to breathe inside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's -- it's -- if you are in a building, you should just get out. It's one of those points where if it's a higher building, it gets more compromised as it goes up. There's a lot of structural engineering that goes into it. There's a lot of chemicals that are in the building and, like John said, my voice is still a little scratchy from breathing just evacuating.
So we grabbed a couple of things and ran out and in that short period of time got soaking wet, got stuff in our lungs. It's one of those situations where you just want to be safe. Even the road right behind us, it -- it's backed up with traffic. People look like they're trying to get home, trying to get to family. Cell service is spotty at best. And that's one of the things that we're still monitoring. It's -- it's one of those situations where it's hard to get information.
But right now, once again, what we do know, five miles north of Anchorage, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. There are multiple roads and overpasses shut down around town and multiple reports of fire. So just do everything you can to be safe and just take it slow right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we've got Sydney from Palmer (ph) is saying that -- what it was, the aftershocks? Oh, yes, here we go, I'm just kind of checking out the -- what folks are saying right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, so lots of reports of aftershocks, especially up in the valley. That's Palmer and Wasilla area.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But Sydney was saying Palmer -- but, real quick, someone was asking if they should turn their gas off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn your gas off and turn your water off. Turn those two off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn the water off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's one of those things right away. So, if you can, turn the gas off if you know how to do it. Absolutely turn that off.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is one of those things where --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quite a bit in this situation and a lot of those pipes are just, you know, right in line. They're hard put in place. So then you have a nice little copper pipe and then your house starts shaking. Two little boards go the opposite direction in one of those shakes and that pipe can crack, can break. You can have a gas leak. So if you can shut off the gas to your house, or building or wherever you are, do so. It's one of those situations where --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you saw our building. Those windows caved in, the ceiling's down, we have --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). There were, you know, artwork off the wall.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean siding, paneling, just, you know, thankfully no glass from the dome structure. It's like the (INAUDIBLE) solarium.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, yes, it's -- it's one of those ones where --
KEILAR: All right, a 7.0 quake there in Anchorage that has knocked the local stations off air. I do want to say, in case we have folks there who can listen to CNN on satellite radio, there is a tsunami warning for the Cook Inlet and Kenai Peninsula. If you are in those areas, you're going to want to get to higher ground.
We have a lot more of breaking news on this.
[13:25:00] And also President Trump in Argentina and the Cohen case. We'll be back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
[13:29:48] KEILAR: We have breaking news and it's coming to us out of Anchorage, Alaska, where it is just about 9:30 a.m. local there. There has been an earthquake of a magnitude 7.0. This is a major earthquake. We're getting some of our first pictures of some of the damage that we've seen here. You can see just food strewn about in this eating establishment.
