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Dorian Heads toward the U.S.; Capt. Garrett Black is Interviewed about Inside a Hurricane; New Round of Tariffs Takes Effect; Residents Prepare for Dorian; Israel and Hezbollah Trade Fire. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 02, 2019 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:30:54] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, welcome back. John Berman here in Jensen Beach, Florida. This is CNN's special live coverage of Hurricane Dorian.

We're just getting word of the first fatality from this storm from Abaco Island in the Bahamas. An eight-year-old boy apparently drowned in the floodwaters. You may have seen some of the pictures there of the enormous storm surge. Twenty feet flowing through the streets on that island. And we now understand that an eight-year-old boy has died. Very likely just the first of what we will hear could be many, many fatalities there. The people there are waking up to still a category five storm pounding that island.

Here in Florida, it's a strong, steady wind. All eyes on the forecast as the storm moves so slowly this way.

Let's go to Chad Myers in the Weather Center to get the latest forecast.

Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John, still moving to the west, maybe northwest at one mile per hour. And that's just a devastating number because it's just hours and hours of wind devastation over this same area. You lose a shingle, then another, then another, then the roof, and a window, and it just keeps going, just keeping pounding, just won't stop.

Here is the radar, though. I'm going to zoom into the radar. This is out of Miami. One thing I'm noticing here is I'm beginning to see a second eye wall develop here. And that's good news and bad news. That second eye wall will cut off the moisture for the inner eye wall and we'll lose the 165 mile-per-hour winds, because the big winds are only in the inner eye wall.

Now, what that does, it will make the outer eye wall the main eye wall and it will spread out the wind. We won't be 165 anywhere when that inner eye wall dies. We'll be 130. But we'll be 130 in a much larger, more spread out area. So if this thing is only 60 miles from the coast, there will be wind gusts on the coast of a hundred, without a doubt. We're still going to see wind gusts along the Florida coast and likely up the Carolina coast to 100 if this eye wall does collapse and the outer eye wall does take over.

Now, so far we are only the outer part of the cone of uncertainty on land. But this is what we're going to see. For tomorrow we're going to see wind speeds 70 for Stewart, 73 for Melbourne, all the way up to Daytona, likely 72 as well. And that's if we don't get this storm five miles closer to the U.S. we'll double some of these numbers. That -- please, we're not going to do that. We're going to keep this off shore. We are not going to have anything like that on the U.S. coast so far.

John.

BERMAN: All right, let's hope, Chad. But, again, I think the important point there is even with the safer of the forecasts, you're still going to get near-hurricane-strength winds on the Florida coast where I am and people need to be ready for that.

All right, this storm has been described as one of the worst ever to make landfall in the Atlantic. It is the worst -- absolutely the most powerful hurricane on earth over the last year.

Air Force Captain Garrett Black flew into the storm just yesterday, took an extraordinary picture from inside the storm where you can see with vivid, vivid detail this eye wall.

And I'm joined by Captain Black right now from his base in Mississippi.

And, Captain, than you so much for being with us.

Just describe what you saw inside this storm.

CAPT. GARRETT BLACK, AERIAL RECONN. WEATHER OFFICER, U.S. AIR FORCE: Yes, sir.

First off, good morning.

The storm itself, once we got into the eye, was absolutely incredible. It's one really that I've never seen quite to that extent with the stadium (ph) effect. We had the giant cumulus towers surrounding us that gave us the same effect that it felt like we were sitting in the center of a football stadium. And then we could also see the water at the surface and see how calm it was directly below us, but then you could see off in the distance and how large the waves were. It was really a surreal moment.

[06:35:01] BERMAN: Yes, the stadium effect is something that I can't imagine being in the middle of. We sort of get a sense of it from the picture.

It was 185 mile-an-hour winds when you were flying through. What was that like?

BLACK: Yes, it was -- it was rather remarkable. We -- we entered the storm when it was a category four. And as we continued to fly it, we saw the pressure continue to drop inside the center and the winds continued to pick up. And the final report when we left, right as it was ready to make landfall there in the Bahamas, the winds were 185 miles per hour, which is absolutely terrifying and catastrophic, especially for the Bahamas there.

BERMAN: So, Captain, it wasn't from your flight, but we have seen video of the lightning, just the constant flash of lightning that takes place when these reconnaissance flights go through a storm. What's it like with all that lightning flashing all around you? I know passengers, when we fly on -- on domestic flights or consumer flights, normal flights, we all get scared when we see a flash. But it's everywhere when you're flying.

BLACK: Yes, it takes a while to get used to it, to be honest. Still to this day I'm typically staring at my computer, looking at the data as it's rolling in. But you'll see a flash of lightning out the window, realize you're in an airplane and that's pretty nonstandard. So it always kind of grabs my attention.

And especially when you see lightening, a lot of times it's a sign that the storm's intensifying. So it can be also a great piece of data to understand kind of what's going on in the storm.

But, to answer your question, it's a -- it's a very interesting and eerie feeling.

BERMAN: All right, Captain Garrett Black, thank you very much for joining us this morning. Thank you for what you do. It's because of the work that you've done and the scientists have done that we have such an incredible look at this storm, Hurricane Dorian, as it passes over the Bahamas and comes ever closer to Florida.

Erica, I'm going to throw it back to you.

But, again, what's interesting this morning is the steadiness of this wind. It is this driving, steady force, not gusting so much as just increasing ever so slowly.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, and it will be there for a long, long time, as we know.

John, thank you.

Over the weekend, you may have missed it, but something really important happened yesterday that could make your next shopping trip, and the one after that, and the one after that more expensive. The latest move in the president's trade war with China and what it means for you. That's next.

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[06:41:27] HILL: The U.S. trade war with China is escalating. New 15 percent tariffs are now in effect. And this means prices for some clothes, look at that list, diapers, shoes, sporting goods, meat and dairy products, smart watches, TVs, they could all be going up. I want to bring in now Catherine Rampell, "Washington Post" opinion

columnist and CNN political commentator, and CNN contributor Bianna Golodryga.

As we look at all of this Catherine, JP Morgan is estimating that the cost, especially with these new tariffs, of the tariffs is likely to cost the average American household a thousand dollars a year. It is U.S. consumers who are paying those tariffs.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

HILL: It is not China.

RAMPELL: It is not China. We have multiple studies to that effect, even before this latest round of tariffs was announced, from economists at Princeton, Yale, Harvard, the New York Fed, all sorts of, you know, elite places where they're -- they're independent, they know what they're doing, and they've all found that the tariffs are being primarily borne by Americans. And what's puzzling is what the strategy is here. I mean why are we punishing our own consumers, our own businesses through layers and layers of uncertainty to try to get China to do who knows what, right? Because if Trump is trying to ratchet up pressure on China, which he sort of is but he's sort of imposing that pressure on our -- on us, but he's not clear about what the objectives are, how can China even make concessions to give Trump what he wants? All he's doing is punishing both sides but primarily us at this point.

HILL: Well, and it's interesting, in a couple of his tweets over the weekend, he noted in one, there's no reason to buy everything from China. Which, listen, there are plenty of people who would look at that and say, he's absolutely right, let's figure out how to do more here in the U.S. or perhaps what other people many see as more favorable trading partners.

But he also called this, and his words are, quote, very successful trade battle with China. It's confusing to China. It's confusing to U.S. companies. It's confusing to consumers. So where does anyone go with this then, Bianna?

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN COMMENTATOR: Well, the president has gone from saying this is definitely not a tax and that China is paying for it, to saying now that this is somehow a patriotic act that we're doing now and that companies that don't leave China -- remember, he went into this saying, I'm looking out for U.S. companies now and the past few weeks have sort of been vaguely and sometimes just up front about threatening U.S. companies that will not get out of China.

His language keeps changing every single day. It's clear now that the administration is acknowledging that this is going to be a tax on consumers. It's why some of these tariffs will be going into effect closer to December, especially on electronics and bigger ticket items that so many Americans depend on, especially around the time of the holidays.

But the president does not seem to have a long-term plan. He thought that this is something that he could work out vis-a-vis this great relationship with Xi Jinping and have it as a bilateral deal. You think about what a multilateral deal may have looked like, whether it's TPP or something along those lines where you could have had other countries involved. Now the pressure seems to be more on the United States. China saying, you know, at this point, we're hurting as well, but we can withstand this pain because we want to see what's going to end up happening politically in the United States. They feel like they have more leverage at this point.

HILL: And to both your points, it's not clear exactly what the end game is here.

GOLODRYGA: Right.

HILL: What we do know, though, is this is a consumer based economy. And there is a lot of talk these days about how strong this economy is truly and what's coming down the road.

How much do these tariffs -- these new tariffs and the ones that are coming in December, how much do that play into that economy?

RAMPELL: Well, it's concerning, right, because the narrative so far has been that, OK, business investments fell last quarter. Businesses are nervous. They're concerned about all the uncertainty about how much they're going to pay and what the rules of the road are. But, consumers, that's the engine of the economy. Consumer spending has been quite strong.

[06:45:04] However, this past month, we got our lowest consumer sentiment numbers all year. There are other signs that consumers are nervous about the future of the economy. As you mentioned, the cost of these -- of the accumulated tariffs is somewhere in the hundreds of dollars to about a thousand dollars depending on the household, which will wipe out entirely the benefits of the tax cut. So all of that put together suggests that the one thing that we have going for us, the strong American consumer, could falter.

GOLODRYGA: And U.S. businesses as well, specifically small businesses. Their consumer sentiment and their business sentiment has gone down as well over the past month. And there's just this aura of uncertainty, not knowing where this is going to end, how this is going to end. The president likes to say, well, we can go and deal in other countries, in other Asian countries. Some businesses are moving over to Vietnam, what have you.

But the same could be said about China. And China's turning to other countries. You're seeing wheat exports from countries like Canada skyrocket, while wheat exports from the U.S. are going down as well. The big question is, what is this going to do to U.S. farmers who are already hurting and what is this going to do to the president in 2020?

HILL: A lot to focus on. A lot to keep our eye on.

Catherine, Bianna, thank you both.

John is in Florida as he continues our coverage of Hurricane Dorian. And, John, I can just from the last few minutes, seems like things are

certainly picking up.

BERMAN: Yes, this is what we call one of the bands. It just picked up almost immediately here. You -- I think you can see the rain, horizontal rain at this point blowing through. The wind definitely picking up. And this is really just the beginning.

When we come back, we'll get am update from some of the evacuation routes through Florida and the southeast. Stay with CNN's special live coverage of Hurricane Dorian.

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[06:51:03] BERMAN: All right, welcome back. John Berman here in Jensen Beach, Florida. This is CNN's special live coverage of Hurricane Dorian.

And here we go, this is the beginning of one of those outer bands passing through. Just had some driving rain to go along with the steady winds that we've had here. A as about hundred miles that way the center of the storm continues to pass over Grand Bahama Island. Freeport getting hit very hard. We'll check back in with our Patrick Oppmann, who is there riding out the storm.

Here in Florida, everyone watching the forecast very quickly and the radar again as these bands, you can see them passing through.

Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for several counties along the coast. As a precaution and also because no matter what happens there will be a storm surge here and you will feel the effects of a hurricane.

We're going to go to Martin Savage, up the coast from where I am in Vero Beach.

Martin, tell us what you're seeing.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Yes, conditions here not as bad, obviously, as what you're feeling. The waiting game is underway. You can see, as the sun starts to appear, the people have started to come to the waterfront here, all drawn with the curiosity of wondering what the next 48 hours are going to bring.

They're at a level two here as far as emergency preparedness. Level one, though, less than about an hour away from now. That'll mean that the first emergency shelters open, but more important for this area, it means that the mandatory evacuation order goes into effect. There are thousands of people that live out on the barrier island here and they're going to be told that they have to leave. It also impacts low lying areas and anybody who lives in what they call an unsubstantial home. That would be like mobile homes.

They're expecting here winds of up to 80 miles per hour, so hurricane strength. We're also expecting maybe a storm surge of up to seven feet could overtop some of the dunes. And they're expecting four to seven inches. The worst of it, though, they're not expecting for about 24 hours here.

How many people will be here at that time remains to be seen. The bridge wills stay open as long as nature allows. But once the winds get too high, the county will shut them down. The last warning will be when the bridges all go in one direction. So, John, right now people just waiting and wondering.

John.

BERMAN: Waiting and wondering.

And where I am getting wet, Chad, but the key is move now -- sorry, Martin, move now if you can because tomorrow, as it gets worse, you won't be able to get around.

Martin Savidge in Vero Beach, thanks very much.

Erica, let's go back to you.

HILL: All right, John, thank you.

It is really remarkable just to think about how quickly it has picked up and what that tell us about what is to come.

We will have much more as our special live coverage continues here on NEW DAY. Stay with us.

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[06:57:47] HILL: Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah and Lebanon remain high after the most serious cross border fire exchange in more than four years. And that has many people wondering if they could be on the brink of war.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is live for us in northern Israel with the latest.

Oren, good morning.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica.

We've heard drones above our head all morning and we saw a U.N. helicopter patrolling the border and the Israeli military, the (INAUDIBLE).

It is a very different story here than it was just 24 hours ago. It was 4:15 p.m. on Sunday afternoon when Hezbollah, an Iranian backed proxy in Lebanon, fired anti-tank missiles at northern Israel. One of those missiles hit right here behind me, a building in this military headquarters here. Another one of those missiles struck a military vehicle about a quarter of a mile away from where we're standing.

Israel responded severely and quickly, firing more than a hundred artillery shells into southern Lebanon towards where they say that anti-tank missile was fired. They also used what they called very limited helicopter fire.

But just as quickly as this started, it seemed it was over. Israel lifted civilian restrictions in northern Israel, giving a strong indication that at least, at this point, Israel receives this round as -- of hostilities as coming to an end. That doesn't mean it's suddenly calm and peaceful along the border, but most here in northern Israel have returned to a normal routine here in that narrow band of villages and communities along the northern border.

Erica, you mentioned five years ago. It was January, February of 2015 when we saw the last exchange of fire that resulted in casualties on both sides of the border here. That was limited in scope and in depth and it seems this one is as well.

Erica, at this point, Israel says there were no injuries on this side of the border. We will certainly see how and if this develops from this point.

HILL: Continue to keep a close eye on it for us. Oren Liebermann live for us there in northern Israel, thank you.

We are also, of course, keeping a very close watch on Hurricane Dorian as it moves toward the U.S. East Coast. NEW DAY continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: All right, welcome to this special edition of NEW DAY. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm John Berman live in Jensen Beach, Florida. Erica Hill is with me in New York.

[0700:07] You can see it right now, these are the outer bands.

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