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New Day Sunday

11 Million Under Threat of Flash Flooding as Rain Pounds Louisiana; Power Restored After a Huge Part of Manhattan Goes Dark; ICE Raids Targeting 2,000 Immigrant Families Start Today; Report: U.K. Ambassador Says Trump Quit Iran Deal to Spite Obama; The President Doubles Down on his "Stable Genius" Routine. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired July 14, 2019 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning to you. Thank you so much for being here. I'm Christie Paul.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Martin Savage in for Victor Blackwell.

PAUL: Top story this morning, of course Tropical Storm Barry is hitting Louisiana. Slamming parts of the region. Take a look at these pictures were getting in.

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PAUL: This heavy rain overtopping levees along the coastline. Governor John Bel Edwards says, "Listen, this is not the worst. That is still to come.

SAVIDGE: Meanwhile, the lights finally back on in New York after a blackout left 72,000 people without power on Saturday.

PAUL: And ICE agents door-to-door today to arrest and deport as many as 2,000 undocumented migrant families.

PAUL: Of course, a lot of eyes on Tropical Storm Barry right now. Heavy rain is slamming Louisiana at the moment. Life threatening flooding is a big, big concern here because this storm is very slowly pushing North.

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SAVIDGE: Maximum sustained wind gusts are close to 45 miles per hour and the National Hurricane Center says that tornadoes could pop up across Louisiana, Mississippi and Eastern Arkansas.

Governor John Bel Edwards has declared a state of emergency and he says the worst is yet to come.

PAUL: Hundreds of people have spent the night at shelters in the area that we know and there's 122,000 people this morning who do not have power. Erica Hill is in Baton Rouge. Erica, what are you feeling this morning? ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning guys. So we have a break right now in the rain. But we actually checked in with our Weather Center at CNN just before we came on the air this morning, they said trust us there is more rain to come.

So more heavy rain expected to move through, because as we've been talking so much about over the last 24-48 hours, this is a very large storm and it is slow and it is kind of sitting. So there will be more rain coming and moving inland and that is one of the reasons that the governor said the worst is yet to come, because there is a major concern about flooding.

So we're right here on the banks of the Mississippi River it is expected to crest at about 43 feet later today. But keep in mind, this river has actually been at active flood stage for months, that's 30 feet.

So people watching this very closely, also you may remember, there was flooding in 2016 here in Baton Rouge that was pretty severe, pretty intense, so a lot of folks harkening back to 2016 remembering what that was like.

I also want to update you on something that we spoke about yesterday morning. So we have learned while we were live on the air with you that there was a rescue happening in Terrebonne Parish in Louisiana. Ultimately, 12 people and a cat were rescued. Well that we then got video of that rescue and I believe we can show that to you now, just to give you a sense of what was happening not quite 24 hours ago here in Louisiana.

People are ready for when these floods kick in there may need to be more rescues. You mentioned the hundreds of people in shelters. Whether that number will need to increase, all of those folks are ready to go because preparation, as we know, is key here.

For a closer look though at what is actually heading people's way, not just along the Gulf, but pushing further of course inland and even into the Midwest, I want to bring in now CNN Meteorologist, Allison Chinchar who has a look at that for us. Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. Yes, again, here the key thing to note is that over 70 percent of Tropical Storm Barry's moisture still sitting offshore, so you still have a lot more moisture that's still going to make its way inland over the next 24 to 36 hours and that's going to be key.

Forward movement is still about eight miles per hour. Granted that's up a little bit from yesterday - yesterday we were averaging about five miles per hour speed, now up to eight. But for some perspective. You can ride a bike in an average of about nine and a half miles per hour, so you could still ride a bike faster than this storm is actually moving.

So, again, yes it's getting a little bit faster, but in all reality it's still moving incredibly slow. Sustained wind still about 45 miles per hour, so there's still the potential for some power outages as well with this storm, but flooding is going to be the main concern.

You can see some really heavy rain bands setting up just to the west of Morgan City, just to the west of Baton Rouge. We've also got very heavy rain pushing into places like Hattiesburg as well as Jackson, Mississippi and that's going to be the trend.

You're going to get these bands that have incredibly high rates of rain, but they're funneled into very small, slivered areas. Again, flooding is going to be a threat, but so are tornadoes. As the majority of that convection or thunderstorms continues to push inland, it's going to bring the threat for water spouts, tornadoes, and again yes very heavy rain. That's going to be the biggest concern.

We're still expecting widespread amounts of about 5 to 10 inches of rain, some spots picking up in excess of a foot of rain before this finally pushes back out of the region. The track will then take all of that heavy rain further North, so other states are also going to get a lot of the heavy rain.

Winds are still a factor, so we've talked about power outages still looking at over about a 150,000 people just in the state of Louisiana alone that are without power.

[05:05:00] But again, as Erica mentioned, this has been an ongoing flooding problem. This main flood event on the Mississippi River began in February of this year - February. This has been a very long time.

In fact, this is one of the longest ongoing flooding events for the Mississippi River in United States recorded history. Keep in mind, though, records go back to the 1540s, yes you heard that correct - the 1540s. So it's been a very long time since we've seen such a long flooding event for the Mississippi River.

Again, that's why you have these flood watches. Again, over 11 million people under that flood threat, and it's not just for today. Flooding events take time, especially when you're talking about rivers, creeks, streams, that's a long-term event.

So this is going to linger for at least a couple of weeks, especially for some of those rivers that are already flooded before we start factoring in a lot of the additional moisture. And that moisture is what's going to spread up, initially yes, places like Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi. But notice how it wraps back around.

So let's say you're sitting at home, you live in Chicago, you live in Cincinnati, you live in Philadelphia, you also still want to pay attention to this, because that moisture source is going to first surge into the Midwest and then gradually make its way over into the Northeast as well.

So, again, Erica this isn't just a problem along the Gulf Coast. It is for today. But the long-term, as we start to stretch into the upcoming week, it's going to become a problem for even more people than you're seeing today. HILL: We'll certainly be keeping an eye on at. Allison, thank you. I also want to bring in now CNN Security Analyst, former Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security Juliette Kayyem. Julia, when we look at this - I know you and I have talked about this a number of times, preparation is key.

But as Allison just pointed out, this is far from over. Even when the storm moves through, it's not just the flooding, but it's the after effects and that preparation has also been a part of this process.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: That's absolutely right. And one of my biggest concerns now is just sort of sustained interest in the storm and what's going to happen as the governor said the worst is yet to come.

People brace for impact, right, that's normal. And then they start to think well the rain seems to be subsiding - or as you're experiencing right now, it's coming back and forth. It will get heavy and then it will get light. So what are the challenges to sustain sort of preparation and response capabilities by the population who are really on the front lines and ones you need to respond.

The other is something we talked about yesterday which is, the rain is cumulative, right. It doesn't go away. There's not enough Sun for it to dry out. It is just pounding on that soil. And what that means is that even if the winds are not that strong, which is what you're experiencing right now, it does mean that things like poles and trees and other infrastructure are probably loosening in the soil. So that even the lightest of winds, something you would expect to bring down a tree, could.

That - those are the two things that we're going to be looking for over the next 24 to 48 hours. And then of course, like, the flooding - the overall flooding that might impact evacuations or sheltering in place.

HILL: And you make such a great point about the saturated ground, because this is ground that is already saturated, as we know.

KAYYEM: Yes.

HILL: Yes, we talked about the flood levels. The fact that the Mississippi has been there since February, as Allison just pointed out, but there is still saturation in a number of other areas and I know that's a concern.

The governor is expected to do an aerial tour later today as he's able to get a better sense of what's happening here on the ground. What are the next steps? Because as all of this preparation is going through, when it comes to a department like Homeland Security, what's happening today? What are they preparing for?

KAYYEM: OK. So this would be - this was the first time that the President Trump has allowed a pre declaration, which essentially means that a couple days ago - I think, it was about five days ago now. FEMA would have already sort of surged assets to help the local and state first responders.

Remember, FEMA is just there to assist and to bring federal resources when they're needed. So there's even a standby capacity that working with state and local emergency officers and emergency operation centers to determine where the greatest need would be and where do they want to surge assets.

The problem now - or I guess the next step would be, once the hurricane passes or the tropical storm passes, the flooding subsides, and you're sort of out of response - out of the immediate response. You've saved lives, you know where people are, people are evacuated they're returning home. Then there's going to be sort of a damage assessment.

And I suspect, just given what I'm seeing here, that's going to be extensive and take a long period of time. I will say - I mean, like, it's sort of a half glass full aspect of it because of the challenges that Louisiana has had in terms of hurricanes and tropical storms.

This is a terrific governor - Governor Edwards to deal with this. The state of the state apparatus know what they're doing. It appears that New Orleans may be save the worse of it and that what we need to make sure that was just because--

[05:10:00] Even if New Orleans is not hit worse there are all these parishes that you've been going to and that you've been talking to people there. They really don't have - people don't know their names. They're not famous places. That we really do have to continue to look at, because they're going to get hit mark much harder than New Orleans may have.

HILL: Right. And in terms of that flooding - you bring up a great point, in terms of lessons learned, as you point out, these smaller areas they need to take into account. I know that is one of the things that's being discussed today.

Juliette, always appreciate you joining us. Always appreciate your expertise.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

HILL: Thank you. We talked about preparation here in Baton Rouge, I mentioned the floods in 2016, that has definitely been at the top of people's minds here locally.

In fact, you noticed, if you listen to on the radio or watch a lot of the local broadcast - news broadcasts hear. That was coming up repeatedly yesterday about lessons learned from 2016 and even different reinforcements that have been made by particular businesses as they are concerned about this flooding.

Which, again, they've been a little bit worried about since February, just because of the state of the Mississippi. We should mention two flash flood watches are in effect for not just the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, but all the way on up into Memphis. And as we heard from Allison, the size of this too, it's not only moving North, but it's sitting over a large portion of the Gulf Coast, so all of that will be a focus as we continue our arching coverage for you today. But for now Martin, I'll send it back to you.

SAVIDGE: All right. Real quick, I wanted to ask you Erica. Lots of people still taking this seriously or as you talked about yesterday, fatigue setting in?

HILL: Well, that's always - as you know, you've covered so many of these. That's always a concern. From what we saw yesterday, people were taking it seriously. Although, I have to say it was interesting on our drive from Lafayette to Baton Rouge, it was a little treacherous at times driving along I-10 because of the wind.

But we did see more businesses open than I would have expected. Gas stations, some supermarkets with at least a dozen or more cars in the parking. Lot so whether people were doing final preparations or deciding that it didn't look as bad, because it hadn't hit yet, that's always the big question.

I believe Gary Tuchman is actually available for us now in New Orleans. Gary, what's happening there? Because it does seem in many ways the city is very well prepared. A lot of lessons learned. Billions of dollars, as we know spent, in the wake of Katrina for an event such as this that could involve major flooding, heavy rains.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right Erica. As of now we're getting some of the heaviest rain we've gotten during this whole Tropical Storm Hurricane Barry event.

But people here in the New Orleans metropolitan area are breathing a sigh of relief, because as of now it appears they've escaped a meteorological bullet. Behind me, the Mississippi River, we're one the west bank of the river here, on the outskirts of the French Quarter.

The great fear was that this would flood to over a 20-foot stage, which would make it very dangerous for the city because the flood walls can only contain 20 feet of water or less. It started off - and Allison was talking about this a little while ago.

It started off and before the storm came in a 16 foot vicinity, which is very high because of months of heavy rain here. Right now it's closing in on 17 feet. When it gets over 17.1 then you have a problem, it can start going over the banks.

But there are flood walls all over the New Orleans metropolitan area. I'm going to give you a look at one of them. It separates us from the French Quarter here - the major tourist area in New Orleans.

And this is the flood wall right here. It can contain up to 20 feet of water. No danger at all, because where I'm standing there's absolutely no water whatsoever, and that's the good news. Floodgates all over this area. There are more than 200 floodgates. They actually call them storm gates, that's the technical word they use. We're going floodgates also for the same thing. They were closed yesterday, but this storm gate right here is open. Behind the storm gate you see a truck, it's kind of a quasi-storm gate. Right now that's our truck. So we're helping to protect New Orleans right now if the water starts flowing - sort of.

But it gives you an idea. The reason I mean glib about it is, because people here are very happy they were very concerned. French Quarter, itself, which is always busy. Last night and Saturday night, the busiest night of the week, 10 to 20 percent of the people who would normally see out there, most businesses were closed. We expect tonight to be a much better night business-wise for the French Quarter. New Orleanians are pretty happy right now.

Erica back to you.

HILL: All right. Good to hear. Gary, thank you. And with that Martin, we'll send it back over to you for some of the other stories you're following this morning.

SAVIDGE: All right, Erica. We'll continue to check back with you.

Well the power is back on in New York City after a partial blackout caused major problems for subway riders, tourists, even Jennifer Lopez. What happened when the lights went up and what caused it, next.

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[05:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Well the lights are back on in New York City after a partial blackout left sections of Manhattan in the dark.

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PAUL: OK. So you heard the cheers there. That was a sound you heard across the city when the lights started coming back on. This outage knocked out power for hours in some of Manhattan's most popular tourist districts, including Times Square and Broadway. Broadway shows went off.

SAVIDGE: No a show did not go on. According to the city's utility company Con Edison, around 73,000 people were without power at least at one point.

PAUL: CNN's Athena Jones is with us now. Is there any word yet, Athena - and good morning to you. Getting in the early call I know. Any word as to what caused the outage yet?

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christi and Martin.

Well, Mayor Bill de Blasio talked about what they think could be an initial a cause of this big power outage, which by the way as you mentioned, affected 73,000 customers at one point. But of course that could be many more people, because we're talking about customers that could be entire apartment buildings, entire multiple storey buildings of all sorts.

But here's what Bill de Blasio had to say about the cause.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's something within the normal electrical grid, something obviously it didn't work. But no other kind of external influence here. This appears to be something that just went wrong in the way that they transmit power from one part of the city to another to address demand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:20:00] JONES: So there you heard Bill de Blasio talking about what he - what they believe could be the issue. But Con Ed, the power company, says they're working to understand the cause. There's going to be a full engineering analysis. We know that Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York has called for a full investigation as has Mayor de Blasio.

But I can tell you that this was really a sight to see last night. I'm standing here at the dividing line, just - 51st Street - just above 51st Street. Just to past this block it was dark. The traffic signals weren't working there were no street lights working. There were people stranded in Subway's and elevators.

People on subways had to be rescued - some of some of them by the fire department. I myself exited a dark subway on 66th Street a couple of stops to the north of us and came onto a street with no street lights, on traffic lights. People were jumping in to help direct traffic.

At one point, Andrew Cuomo - the Governor, dispatched a couple of hundred troopers to help direct traffic. I can tell you that some of these Broadway shows, you mentioned, weren't able to go on. And some of those performers actually came out onto the street and did a few numbers for the tourists who were happy to see that.

We know that at Carnegie Hall there was there was a concert of child singers - a children singing concert. That was shut down. Some of those children came out and sang. So it was a very disruptive several hours with businesses and commerce and transit very much disrupted for a long period of time.

But as Governor Cuomo said this could have been much worse. It could have been much more chaotic. And I should mention that this all happened on the 42nd Anniversary of a massive citywide blackout back in 1977. So this one over after a few hours. But - a few difficult hours without power and air-conditioning, a lot of concern on the part of a lot of New Yorkers in this section of New York.

PAUL: Well, and I love how the governor said, "We saw New Yorkers at their best", because when the lights go out - I mean that makes for a situation where a lot of things could go wrong and people could - you think about robberies, you think about crime and how that could escalate when there's chaos like that. JONES: Absolutely. And you know back in 1977 there was looting, after a period of time there was chaos. But I can tell you, just a simple kind of anecdote from the Upper West Side near where I live. I saw this one on TV and on video.

There was a there was a grocery store that was operating in the dark. People were inside the grocery store shopping with flashlights. They were lining up you know to - paying cash to do their business. But the grocery store was staying open, because people needed to get in. They said it was happening in an orderly fashion.

And you could see the video of a grocery store functioning, but without - without electricity in the pitch-black, with flashlights. And as I mentioned people were jumping in to direct traffic.

One dancer from Brooklyn was directing traffic for nearly an hour. I saw civilians on the street until those troopers and more police showed up to step in. But it was really quite a few hours here in New York.

PAUL: Good people in New York.

SAVIDGE: Yes, good to see, pitching in. Athena Jones, thanks very much.

PAUL: Thanks Athena. And Athena mentioned the irony here that this happened on the 42nd Anniversary of the 1977 New York City Blackout.

SAVIDGE: Yes, there was also the famous 1965 Blackout, in fact in the whole northeast there. Here is more reaction from when the lights went up in Manhattan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DE BLASIO: We are getting the preliminary reports. What it appears to be is a transmission problem. Con Ed in New York City is working to address it now. We hope to have news soon on when power will be restored.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was on the sixth floor. We lost power very quickly and my understanding is that there's a wire underneath our building, 101 West End that caused the transformer to explode. Timing was right around 7 o'clock give or take. That explosion caused the blackout up and down the West End.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no power at 66th Street.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go back, turn right.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're here in Midtown Manhattan. About three or four blocks South you're going to end up in Times Square. But check this out. Now the two or three blocks North, you would essentially run up into Central Park.

When you're looking down 7th Avenue and West 51st Street, it's really incredible when you see how dark it is. We're standing basically on the perimeter line of the affected area and the places that aren't affected. A gift shop just a few feet away from me is all lit up. But yet you see the hotel - the gift shop across the street is completely in the dark.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: You can see some of the police officers directing traffic on Central Park South. This is Central Park South where there is no power. Think about famed hotels like the Plaza Hotel, the Essex House, those buildings still without power.

[05:25:00] JOHN MCAVOY, CEO, CONEDISON: We divide the electric system into networks. They're roughly equivalent to neighborhoods and we lost six of the networks on our electric system. I'm happy to report that as of a few minutes ago all 6 networks and all 73,000 customers have been restored.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: We have to make sure the system is designed in a way that this does not happen. When you are talking about a blackout or potential blackout or significant the area of this city having a blackout, you are you are really dealing with potential chaos and public safety threats and the system has to be better than that. Period.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Just glad that lights are back on.

SAVIDGE: Yes, many people are - especially those who--

PAUL: Yes, and good morning to you with that.

SAVIDGE: If you were in an elevator you're very glad.

Returning now to our top story, Tropical Storm Barry, CNN's Erica Hill is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for us this morning. Erica?

HILL: Yes. Hi guys. You know, we talk a lot about rescues, being prepared for rescues. We see aerial rescues of people in boats and we talk about pets. But what about horses? Some remarkable video of folks banding together to help rescue horses stuck in very high waters, we'll have much more of that on the other side of this break.

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PAUL: Well, right now Louisiana is feeling the downpours from Barry, slamming the state right now. Getting some of the heaviest rain we understand in New Orleans that they've seen yet from this.

SAVIDGE: Forecasters show that Barry is weakening. The strength of the winds right now or at least the gusts are put at 45 miles an hour. But more than 11 million people still under flash flood watches.

[05:30:00] PAUL: Life threatening flooding is this major concern here.

(VIDEO PLAYING) PAUL: Take a look at the pictures that we're getting in. This storm is moving so slowly. It's literally crawling. You can - as Allison Chinchar said earlier, you could ride a bike faster than this - than this storm is moving.

SAVIDGE: The National Hurricane Center says tornadoes could also be a concern that could pop up in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Eastern Arkansas. And as we point out, the tropical storm force wind gusts are still a possibility as well.

Let's get out to CNN's Erica Hill. She's in Baton Rouge right now. We talked about power outages as well. Erica, we know that they're in excess of 150,000 customers who don't have power. Fortunately, I see that you do where you are. But what else are you finding?

HILL: We do. We do. The big concern here is really flooding. We're waiting on rain. We are told - and my sources are very good in the CNN Weather Center, that those heavy rains are coming back our way. It could be five to 10 inches. So the rain itself is not done for some time even if we're in a break right now.

The big focus, of course, is not just these flash floods, as you mentioned. Millions of people under flash flood warnings. They extend all the way up into Memphis. But the other issue is going to be flooding.

The Mississippi River just behind me here has essentially been at flood stage for a months since about February. Flood stage is 30 feet. We're looking forward to crest at 43 feet. So if you think about that, there's a lot of water that is essentially coming in. And of course, it's not just Baton Rouge, and if you really follow the line of the Mississippi, that's where you may see some of the heaviest rains.

As you just pointed out, some of the heaviest rains to hit New Orleans are happening right now, that's where our Gary Tuchman is in the thick of those rains. So Gary what else are you seeing this morning?

TUCHMAN: Well, Erica you're right. We've been here Friday, Saturday and now today on Sunday, and this is the heaviest rain we've seen here in New Orleans. But the encouraging news is they haven't gotten nearly as much rain as they thought they could have gotten.

Initially when we came here, the possibility was for up to 20 inches of rain here in New Orleans, Louisiana, which would have been devastating. Right now the count is about four inches of rain that's 1/5 - 20 percent, that's good news.

Behind me the French Quarter been very quiet. It's very unsettling when you see the French Quarter quiet, because it only means that something bad is going on. During Katrina for days it was flooded and quiet. Last night, on a Saturday night it was quiet, it's quiet right now. The hope is that tonight things will get back to business.

You're talking about the Mississippi River, Erica. I want to show you the Mississippi. We're on the banks of it right now. The Mississippi River it was right now at about 16 and a half feet. The concern before the storm approached is they had over 20 feet - if they got over 20 feet then it could go over the levee system walls and flood the city. That would be the danger.

Right now it's not even at 17 feet yet authorities. Believe it won't go above 17.1. That could be a flood, but not a major flood, because 20 feet causes the flood to go over the levee walls. So there's a sense of relief here in New Orleans.

Nevertheless, it's still raining very hard. This isn't over yet. And they've gone through a lot of bad things in this city, particularly 14 summers ago Hurricane Katrina, so everyone's very wary, nobody's complacent. Erica.

HILL: All right. Well, it's just good to hear Gary Tuchman, appreciate it. My friend we'll check back in with you in just a little bit. I want to bring in our Freddie Ziegler. He is a lead forecaster with NOAA. Good to have you with us this morning. What are you watching specifically this morning?

Good morning. We're watching for our area of Southeast Louisiana and Southern Mississippi. Tropical Storm Barry kind of pulling away slowly and we still have issues across Southeast Louisiana, especially with the water piling up against the coastline and - but some heavy rain in the area.

HILL: So as we're watching for all of that, just give us a sense, how long is this rain going to last?

FREDDIE ZIEGLER, LEAD FORECASTER, NOAA: We're expecting - I just did the forecast. And we're expecting rain threat to continue today through tonight and possibly into tomorrow. We do have a flash flood watch that's in effect and that's going to stay in effect at least through today. And there are some talks about it extending through tonight and possibly tomorrow for parts of the area.

The problem that we're having right now is a lot of the water that wind - that has actually push the water onshore in some of the areas as far as storm surge, once those - once that water gets into some of the rivers and some of the bayous, the runoff from rain that falls in has nowhere to go, and that's - that causes a lot of problems as far as standing water and ponding water and water covering the road in some areas.

HILL: Which is definitely a danger. And just reminding people, once again because we can't say it enough. Not to drive through standing water, you can't see what's in it. We don't know how deep it is. There could be downed power lines.

The other part here is, as you - you know, as you talk about how long the rain could last just in this region as this slow-moving storm continues to move up into the country and bring some of that rain with it.

[05:35:00] When that rain comes down and needs somewhere to go, it's ultimately going to go back - and in many cases back into the Mississippi and right back down into this area. And so this sustained concern about flooding is certainly not something - and this is not a concern that's going away in the next couple of days.

ZIEGLER: No it's not. Locally, as far as the rainfall around the Mississippi River, it's not a problem as far as in Southeast Louisiana locally as far as a Mississippi River. It's a smaller rivers that we were concerned about in our area.

But as to Tropical Storm Barry moves north there's definitely - there's a lot of flash flood watches that are out. They are issued for Mid-Mississippi Valley up to Tennessee and Arkansas and so that may have some issues for tributaries up there that feed into the--

HILL: All other things, we're going to be keeping an eye on. Freddie Ziegler with NOAA, appreciate you taking the time to join us this morning. Thank you.

ZIEGLER: Thank you.

HILL: Just before the break. We showed you some dramatic video. I want to give you a little bit more background now on what happened. So this was a rescue in in Terrebonne Parish here in Louisiana. If that name sounds familiar to folks, that's because that's where we also talked about the rescue of 12 people and a cat yesterday. We showed you some of that video.

This specifically, though, when we look at these horses I believe the water was up even in some areas of the pasture as much as 12 feet, so people coming together to help rescue livestock there, to help get these horses out of harm's way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: And if you just take a look at these pictures for a minute. It reminds you that there is so much that people need to take into account when we're dealing with these weather events. Yes, it is protecting your own family, your neighbors, checking in on those around you.

We talk a lot about pets and we know the laws that were actually passed following Katrina and other events so that people would leave their homes, would evacuate to safety, allowing them to bring their pets.

When you look at horses, though, and cattle, obviously, that is something entirely different to take that into account, so seeing people here banding together, helping to get those animals to safety pretty. Dramatic video and we just want to show a little bit more of that to you. Christi, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Great to see. Really great to see.

PAUL: All right. Hey Erica, thank you so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PAUL: Well, today is the day that we've been talking about for the last few, immigrants across the country are preparing for these ICE raids that are expected to begin in just a few hours.

SAVIDGE: Coming up how even the threat of the raids is creating fear and anxiety for millions of people.

[05:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Well, today ICE agents begin a series of raids targeting undocumented migrants living cross the country.

PAUL: Yes, these raids are taking place in nine cities. The cities you see here on your map. And they're going to target thousands of families who already have court orders to be deported.

Now the action is about protests in cities across the U.S. as well. Take a look at this. Demonstrations in New York - I mean, Chicago is what you're looking at here. The city's mayor previously announced that city would not cooperate with ICE raids.

SAVIDGE: In Tacoma, Washington, yesterday activities rallied outside the detention center where they were stuck behind barricades and crime scene tape, after police shot and killed a man outside the building. According to Tacoma Police, the man was trying to set a building and nearby cars on fire.

PAUL: Now just the threat of the raids, it's been traumatic for immigrant families across the country. This is CNN's Sara Sidner.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This undocumented father says he's never felt this much stress and fear in his 15 years living and working in the United States.

SIDNER: What did you think when you heard that the raids would be happening again?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It's very stressful. It's like you have a disease that's killing you, like cancer, something that makes you feel desperation, he says.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police. Open the door.

SIDNER (voice over): Fear and desperation are exploding in immigrant communities across the country after the Trump Administration announced raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents set to begin this weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Psychologically, you live in fear. You live thinking that any day, any moment, you will get a knock on the door.

SIDNER (voice over): He lays out his documents to show he pays his taxes. He's worked hard as a repairman to achieve the American dream.

SIDNER: Do you think the President has achieved his goal of making people who are here undocumented want to leave?

[05:45:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Yes, he's achieved that. There are many people who don't have a choice, he says.

SIDNER (voice over): But he knows the life built with his wife together in California could be wiped away with a knock on the door from an ICE agent. He says he left El Salvador for economic reasons after his first wife died in childbirth and he could not make enough money to provide for his three children there.

He entered the U.S. illegally via the Rio Grande in 2005, missed a court date and the court ordered his deportation. He said that is his only crime. He's been trying to remedy it through the courts, which includes making scheduled visits with ICE which leaves him even more vulnerable. At his church...

ADA VAILENTE, PASTOR: I'm putting myself, my church at risk.

SIDNER (voice over): His pastors made clear they're willing to face the consequences of helping the undocumented.

VALIENTE: This is what we need to do. We need to walk beside our vulnerable.

SIDNER (voice over): Their church is a member of a network of churches preparing emergency shelter for people to go into hiding in the short term and if need be, indefinitely.

MELVIN VALIENTE, PASTOR: We have a higher law, the law of love, compassion, and the law of God.

SIDNER: A Trump Administration official says that there are about a million people that have deportation orders similar to the gentleman that we spoke with and that thousands of people that have those orders will be targets of ICE. But he's clear that he says those folks have gone through the judicial system here, and that ICE agents are only following the law. Sara Sidner, CNN, Los Angeles.

SAVIDGE: Thank you, Sara for that. This morning on "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper, Jake will be speaking with Ken Cuccinelli. He is the Acting Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

He'll also be joined by New York Mayor and 2020 contender Bill de Blasio at "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper today at 9:00, that's Eastern Time, right here on CNN.

Well, he already had to resign after his messages were leaked. Now they're more cables from the former British Ambassador to the U.S. Next, what he said about President Trump in the Iran deal.

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PAUL: 48 minutes past the hour right now and a newly leaked cable is published by a British tabloid. The former British ambassador to the U.S. called leaving the Iran deal a quote "Act of diplomatic vandalism". He said President Trump did it to spite President Obama.

SAVIDGE: Now we should point out that CNN has not seen the leaked cables and cannot confirm what they say. You'll remember that Kim Darroch had to resign after "The Daily Mail" reported on another set of private messages. In them Darroch described President Trump as an "inept, insecure and incompetent".

Joining me now live from London CNN Business Reporter Hadas Gold and what's the reaction there to these latest leaks?

HADAS GOLD, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Well, I do have to say it's a little bit more muted after what those leaks said last weekend which were clearly more explosive. But I'll show you the cover of "The Mail", the ones who first published these leaks.

And as you can see, this is the reaction to the latest set of leaks. The latest set of leaks there are two-page memo that the U.K. ambassador to the U.S. Kim Darroch sent after Boris Johnson, who was then Foreign Secretary was at the White House trying to convince the White House to stay in the Iran nuclear deal.

And Kim Darroch wrote back to London, saying it appears to him that the only reason or one of the main reasons that Donald Trump wanted to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal was just to Spite Obama. It was a personality decision, because Obama was the one that got them in to the Iran nuclear deal.

[05:50:00] Kim Darroch wrote in these alleged leaked cables also saying that the senior officials like Secretary of State Pompeo couldn't give him really any other reason to pull out of the deal other than it was a campaign promise. And that it appeared to him that they had no Plan B or really what to do other than potentially reimposing sanctions.

Now this matter is not only because of the increasing tensions we're seeing at this moment with Iran, but also because it further adds to this impression that a lot of diplomats abroad have that the Trump administration doesn't necessarily operate on sort of methodical decision-making. And that they're making a lot of their decisions base off of whim and personality of the President. It makes it very hard to conduct diplomacy.

But obviously these leaked cables were very damaging to Kim Darroch. He had to resign. As a result of them and also as a result of Boris Johnson, the man that he was helping in Washington did not fully support him in a debate, because right now Boris Johnson is running to be Prime.

PAUL: All right. Hadas Gold that's a great - you know just cover on everything that's going on there. It sounds like it's nothing but chaos, thank you so much.

GOLD: Thanks.

SAVIDGE: Meanwhile protesters gathering in Hong Kong for yet another day of marches. Coming up we're live from there as demonstrators work to spread their pro-democracy message.

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PAUL: What you see there is what's been happening in Hong Kong, Police cracking down on demonstrators, in what's becoming really a summer of unrest in the Chinese territory. The protests began two months ago in reaction to a controversial extradition bill, but protester demands are growing with demonstrations against police violence and a demand for freedom of the press.

[05:55:00] SAVIDGE: CNN International Correspondent, Matt Rivers, he joins us now from Hong Kong and Matt what do you see?

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Martin, Christi, this has become a repeat occurrence here in Hong Kong, another weekend another protest. Today's protests compared to when I joined you yesterday, this protest is by orders of magnitude larger.

Organizers are saying well over a 100,000 people came out here. We're not in the main part of Hong Kong, in its main kind of central island where we've seen the largest protests, and that's by design.

What's happening out here is organizers want to take their message to all parts of Hong Kong. And also this is an area where Mainland Chinese often come down here to shop and so they know that protesters and they want to make sure that their message is heard in the Mainland. And so they figured, well, we could come up here and show what's happening.

So around a 100,000 people peacefully marched, but it's right around now, what we've seen in the past this is when things start to transition. If there's going to be violence between protesters and police, this is when it will happen.

And one of the tell-tale signs - I'll step out of the way. I don't know if you can really see it, but what happens is there's corridors that protesters usually set up. They are like supply lines and they have their weapons, so to speak, of choice.

In these protests what they do is they bring in umbrellas, they bring in scissors. They put plastic wrap over their arms and legs to make sure that they're not burned by pepper spray, and that's them kind of gearing up for clashes with police.

We're not sure that that's going to happen tonight. We're going to be watching it. But it has happened in the past it's certainly a possibility. We got to step out of the way here now. So these would be protesters guys bringing a barricade up - you can see that's something that happens quite often here.

They make these metal barricades and they use that to clash with police to make police movements a little bit harder, and so that's what's happened here. And that's a sign that we could see more violence tonight. SAVIDGE: Hey, Matt, real quick, what's the reaction of authorities when they see all of this?

RIVERS: Yes, I mean usually they're pretty restrained. Let's step down here now, let's get out of the way here. Usually, they're generally pretty restrained, Martin. But they get to a limit where they say, OK, we're going to allow a certain amount of violence, we're going to allow a certain amount of barricades being built.

But at some point, like we saw last night, they move in. And when they move in, they move in fast. Tear gas, pepper spray, full riot gear, baton, shields and that's certainly what we could see tonight.

PAUL: Wow. Hey, Matt Rivers, you and your crew take good care there. Thank you so much.

SAVIDGE: Well the President is once again reviving one of his favorite titles, "Stable Genius", only this time he's giving it memoir third- person flavor with plenty of things for himself.

PAUL: We going to let Jeanne Moos explain this one.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The "Stable Genius" is once again reared his head, only this time President Trump added, "So great looking and smart, a true stable genius!"

Previously, he neglected to praise his looks.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm a very stable genius.

TREVOR NOAH, HOST, THE DAILY SHOW: A stable genius, which I guess is Einstein if he owned a comb, I think.

MOOS (voice over): His latest revival of the phrase, brought back all the stable jokes. Many noted a math mistake in the very same tweet, "That's an improper fraction stable genius". "Oh, My goodness. Time to bring out the presidential strength Covfefe for narcissistic personality disorder".

There were references to the President admiring his image in a mirror, including this one inspired by an SNL skit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm good enough.

MOOS (voice over): The President also likes to thank himself for country is the envy of the world. Thank You, Mr. President. He's an expert at patting himself on the back in the third person no less.

TRUMP: And you're all going to say "Thank You, Mr. President".

MOOS (voice over): This is the guy who was thankful for himself at Thanksgiving.

TRUMP: For having made a tremendous difference in this country. I've made a tremendous difference in the country.

MOOS: We are giving this a name. This is TNT - Trump Narcissistic Trolling.

MOOS (voice over): He's trying to crack up his supporters, while agitating his critics. Like the fly that agitated him during his social media summits.

TRUMP: Oops, how did a fly get into the White House? I don't like it. I don't like flies.

MOOS (voice over): In a rare humble for him moment, the President said he's a good speller but--

TRUMP: The fingers aren't as good as the brain.

MOOS (voice over): That's stable genius brain that thanks itself.

TRUMP: Say thank you Mr. Trump.

MOOS (voice over): Someone compared it to giving himself a medal and we know who would be on the medal, because they sell it for $45 at donaldjtrump.com.

Jeanne Moos, CNN.

TRUMP: I'm a very stable genius. Thank you Mr. President.

MOOS (voice over): New York.

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