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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Hurricane Laura Slams Into Gulf Coast with 150 Miles-Per-Hour Winds; Laura is Strongest Hurricane to Hit Louisiana in More that a Century; Hurricane Laura to Cause Unsurvivable Storm Surge; Athletes Take Stand After Kenosha Police Shooting; Pence Makes Case for Trump as Law and Order President; RNC and the Trump Economy. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 27, 2020 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, unsurvivable storm surges as hurricane Laura slams the Gulf. CNN has it all covered right now. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is EARLY START and I'm Laura Jarrett.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Thursday, August 27. It is 4:00 a.m. exactly in New York, 3:00 a.m. in Texas and Louisiana.

Breaking this hour, the strongest storm to hit Louisiana in a century making landfall in the last two hours. Category 4 hurricane Laura is expected to bring storm surges that officials call unsurvivable. Storm surges through Louisiana and Texas as far as 40 miles inland. Louisiana has not seen a storm this strong in 150 years. Surges of 15 feet or higher could overwhelm coasts in both states.

JARRETT: And water levels are already rising quickly, more than 1.5 million people are under some type of evacuation order. Coronavirus and the need to maintain social distancing only complicating the hurricane response in Louisiana. The state is taking people to hotels instead of shelters. Laura will be just the tenth hurricane in history to make landfall in the U.S. with winds up to 150 miles per hours or more -- that's since record keeping began back in 1851.

ROMANS: So. Power is already out for more than 200,000 customers in Louisiana. Conditions are deteriorating rapidly in Lake Charles and that is where CNN's Martin Savidge is this morning. He joins us live from inside the hotel. Martin, I'm assuming because the winds are strong outside it is not safe to be out in the open?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly right, Christine. I mean, there was a time that we were out there earlier this evening and then it just became far too dangerous. I mean, the winds were not only howling, the rain was coming in a horizontal position. There were already trees down. We could see that the power in the area was suffering. And it just was too dangerous for the crew and for us to be out there.

We had a brief lull and you could say that was the eye. I don't think that we got the full-on eye. And now we're getting all the alerts of the extreme wind warnings. And this is a new alert that's coming out and it's basically saying that you need to seek shelter now because the wind speeds are going to be excessive.

You might be able to tell at times behind us through windows, you can see them moving in and out, that's the pressure of this storm as it moves past. In Lake Charles, there is extreme fear as to what daylight is going to reveal. Also, this is 30 miles away from the coast, but they too were worried about storm surge here. And there were people who decided that they wanted to ride it out, many of them fearful of the coronavirus saying that they were more worried about catching coronavirus in an evacuation shelter than they were of this storm.

The truth is this storm was far more dangerous than anything that they might find in an emergency shelter. But that choice is no longer an option for them. So right now, in Lake Charles, the anxious moments and hours of waiting for this storm to pass and daylight to reveal what many believe will be a very, very devastating scene.

ROMANS: Yes, a harrowing night no question. And the window to move is closed. This is now bearing the brunt of this storm there in Louisiana. OK, Martin Savidge, thank you, Martin -- Laura.

JARRETT: All right, Beaumont, Texas is also in the path of hurricane Laura. CNN's Derek Van Dam is there and joins us live. Dear, I know you been outside for a while now and you are getting pummeled. What are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning, Laura. Good morning, Christine. You know, we are getting battered here in Beaumont, Texas. But just 30 miles to our east, they are getting absolutely crushed. We have had tropical storm, to hurricane force gusts pretty consistently at least for the past two hours. They come in waves. A lot of familiar sites like transformers flowing in the background, lighting up that purple sky that we see so often during the middle of an intense hurricane just like major hurricane Laura is.

There is a false sense of security when the eye of a hurricane moves inland. A lot of times people will get into the eye, the calm quote/unquote part of the storm. They'll go and inspect to see if they had any property damage. But what they don't realize or what they don't understand is that at a moment's notice the back side of the storm will come their way, change wind directions and pick up in a moment's notice as well. So whatever debris or whatever damage there has been left over from the north side of the wall will wrap back in and potentially blow that across their property and putting them in danger as well.

[04:05:00]

Most people have evacuated the area in Jefferson County and Beaumont, Texas where I'm located. But again, when we go hurricane chasing, this is a game of miles. We are on the outer fringe of the strongest part of hurricane Laura which has been good for broadcasting because, hey, we can actually get to air. We still have electricity. But the same cannot be said for the hundreds of thousands of people across central Louisiana that are dealing with no power and that number is just going to skyrocket.

In fact, we talked to a Beaumont police officer earlier this morning. She told us that previous hurricanes had actually knocked out power in some of the rural areas of southeast Texas and into Louisiana for upwards of a month. So, people need to be prepared for those types of conditions. No services, no electricity going forward. And we also know that fire and police and search and rescue will not start to reinitiate those operations until winds drop below tropical storm force.

So, we still have another 6 to 12 hours where I'm located in southeast Texas. I mean you can clearly see we're still in tropical storm conditions with the winds being as violence as they are. But again, we are on the outer fringes of the worst part of Laura's wrath. Back to you.

JARRETT: Yes, I mean the power outages are just incredible. Up to 275,000 people now combined in Texas and Louisiana. So, this is just climbing. Derek, I know you're going to stay with us, and we will come back to you later this morning.

ROMANS: OK, so where is hurricane Laura headed now now that it's over land? Meteorologist Chad Myers is in for us. He's tracking this storm. And, Chad, this is the kind of storm that can redraw the coastline, new inlets. This is a powerful, powerful storm here.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And the water is still rising. I know, we think about, oh, the eye has passed, now the water will go down. That's not the case. The surge is still moving inland. Moving north of I-10. The water is still flowing the wrong direction in these rivers.

So right now, Lake Charles in the eye, the winds have calmed down, but the winds will come in from the west here probably in the next 10 or 15 minutes, as Derek was just talking about. Don't go out there even if you still have power and you're watching us, you don't want to be outside but it's still coming.

Well it did make landfall a couple of hours ago near Cameron, Louisiana. A devastating blow. We talked to Dr. Ken Graham yesterday live and he said this was going to be catastrophic. And then about two hours later, the words came out from the National Hurricane Center that said unsurvivable. So that was just one step up. I think that they got to catastrophic, they knew what that meant. But then people didn't really realize it and the unsurvivable part is what you been talking about now here on CNN for hours and hours.

Where did that word come from? It came from the National Hurricane Center. There is the eye right there, Lake Charles moving to the north. Alexandria, you're in it. Also, on the east side of this, there will be tornados. Tornadoes through here, through the bayou and the water is still rising there. Significant surge well east of this storm. There could still be 10 to

15 feet surges east of the storm not just here where the storm made landfall as a strong category 4 but a very strong category 4. Now we're down to 130 miles per hour, we won't know the difference. So many things are torn up. Now debris is flying around. Everywhere that you see purple here that will be 110-mile-per-hour or greater. And so, right now it's 130 miles per hour. And it's probably from side to side 30 miles wide. That is a 30-mile-wide EF-2 tornado that's hitting everyone in its path. And then the surge with it as well.

Things, roofs -- I mean, when you look at an EF-2 tornado, the roofs are gone from most houses and that is what is happening with this 30- mile-wide swathe as the storm moves to the north.

Here is where we started the day. We've watched it painfully hour by hour get stronger and stronger, hurricane hunters flying through it. I can't imagine the turbulence that they flew through this to give us this data, but there it is, 130 with still gusts probably to 160 -- it says 185. I don't think that's probably still going on. But you can still get a gust there somewhere of 135, 140. And the pressure is still very low.

It isn't going to lose a lot of wind speed because what we call angular momentum. As this eye makes landfall and it gets smaller, think about the eye that Andrew had, it was so small and that is why it got to that EF-5 or that 5 tornado category. That's why because it was such a small eye. This eye is going to continue to shrink and the winds will continue to be strong for hours and hours and hours and that 15 to 20-foot storm surge there over Cameron, over Holly Beach, over these little towns here up and down and along the coast here.

Those towns aren't 15 or 20 feet high. Plus, the buoys in the Gulf of Mexico had waves at 35 feet. So, think about 15, 20-foot surge and 30- foot waves.

[04:10:00]

There is the inundation map here. Here's how far the water has moved through these bayous up the rivers and even into Lake Charles. I'm even fearful for our crews there at the hotel in Lake Charles because the water is still coming up. And that hotel that they are in is actually on the water. So, it's the strongest building we could find and that's where we put people. We put people where they can be in the best possible places.

There will still be some significant rainfall here. I think 10 inches of rain would certainly not out of the question. There's the storm right there. Lake Charles. I'll take you ahead for a few more hours. We're go all the way to 5:00. That's later on, that's 5:00 Central, 6:00 Eastern. Moving up Alexandria, that's when you get the worst part of it. It's still going to be 110 or 120 mile-per-hour storm there and then it moves to the north.

Losing some strength because it is not over water, but for the first 20 miles from Cameron all the way to Lake Charles, there's not much land there. There's very low land and it's very wetland in some spots and that's where this weather is going here. Hurricane Laura up through Shreveport and then finally back. I even think will have power outages around Little Rock. This is going to be a long duration and years cleanup at least -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, thank you so much, Chad. Keep us posted. We know in about 49 minute, there is going to be another update from the National Hurricane Center. So, we'll talk to you about that when we get some new information.

All right we're watching all of this. We'll be back with you right after the break.

[04:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Athletes across the U.S. are taking a stand after police in Kenosha, Wisconsin shot Jacob Blake seven time in the back. According to reports the L.A. Lakers and the L.A. Clippers voted to boycott the rest of the NBA season while the other teams voted to keep playing. It began with the Milwaukee Bucks players deciding to boycott their playoff game Wednesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNY SMITH NBA ANALYST: Well we take the court and represent Milwaukee and Wisconsin, we are expected to apply at a high level, with maximum effort and hold each other accountable. We hold ourselves to that standard in this moment and we are demanding the same from lawmakers and all law enforcement. We are calling for justice for Jacob Blake and demand the officers be held accountable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The Bucks move cascaded. Three NBA playoff series put on hold within hours. The WNBA, Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball games were called off as well. Including the Reds/Brewers game in Milwaukee. Long time NBA player and broadcaster Kenny Smith took a stand of his own.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: And for me, I think the biggest thing now is to kind of as a black man, as a former player, I think it's best for me to support the players and just not be here tonight.

And figure out what happens after that. I just hope you all don't question that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I respect that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Wow. I mean, the moment of reckoning over racial injustice in this country. The Bucks ownership backed the move to boycott. The teams senior vice president tweeting. Some things are bigger than basketball.

And former President Barack Obama praised the Bucks players for quote, standing up for what they believe in.

JARRETT: Investigators have finally released a rough timeline of what they say happened Sunday when Kenosha police shot Jacob Blake. But but there are still a lot of questions on all of this. Wisconsin's Attorney General says that police were called by a woman who said her boyfriend was at her place because he wasn't supposed to be. So, officers arrived and attempted to arrest Jacob Blake although the officials have never really explained if Jake was in fact the boyfriend who the woman called about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH KAUL, WISCONSIN ATTORNEY GENERAL: During the investigation following the initial incident, Mr. Blake admitted that he had a knife in his possession and DCI agents -- that's the Division of Criminal Investigation -- recovered a knife from the driver's side floor board of Mr. Blake's vehicle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

A Blake family lawyer says Jacob did not have a weapon in the car. The officer who pulled the trigger has been identified as seven-year veteran Rusten Sheskey. He is now on administrative leave.

Meantime a suspect has been arrested in the shooting that killed two people early yesterday. This is 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse. He's been charged with first degree intentional homicide. CNN has confirmed he stood in the front row January Trump rally in Iowa.

JARRETT: And CNN has learned that Facebook failed to shut down the page of a group encouraging armed citizens to take to the streets of Kenosha before yesterday's shooting. Multiple users reported the account but were told it didn't violate Facebook's rules. Once again raising serious questions about how the company moderates its platform.

All right, still ahead for you, we are following this catastrophic storm, hurricane Laura. The eye of the storm has crossed over Lake Charles. The damage still unknown in the dark right now. Stay with us.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Breaking this morning, hurricane Laura making landfall just a couple hours ago as a category 4 storm bringing with it, devastating winds to the Gulf coast. Officials say unsurvivable storm surges could hit Louisiana and Texas as far as 40 miles inland. Surges of 15 feet or higher could overwhelm coasts in both states. Water levels are already rising quickly, more than 1.5 million people are under some type of evacuation order. We are reporters live in Texas and Louisiana in a few minutes. JARRETT: This monster storm and the unrest in Wisconsin largely

overshadowing the third night of the Republican National Convention. But the Kenosha police shooting was top of mind as Vice President Mike Pence took the stage. A campaign official told CNN this week that the Trump team believes the convention's message of firm defense of law enforcement and no acknowledgement of the violence faced by black Americans, that strategy is working. How so? Well, they don't say. But in a last-minute change the campaign decided to reference Kenosha only as a warning about a Biden presidency, however. Even though the violence is happening on President Trump's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Last week Joe Biden didn't say one word about the violence and chaos engulfing cities across this country. So, let me be clear. The violence must stop whether in Minneapolis, Portland or Kenosha. Too many heroes have died defending our freedom to see Americans strike each other down. We will have law and order on the streets of this country for every American.

Joe Biden would double down on the very policies that are leading the violence in America's cities. The hard truth is you won't be safe in Joe Biden's America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: It's worth noting, Pence who heads the coronavirus task force spoke to a crowd that was noting wearing masks. Yet again, several in attendance say they were not tested for coronavirus. President Trump making an appearance at the end of the night there. Campaign officials tell CNN, despite the hurricane, as of now the President's acceptance speech will go on as scheduled tonight on the South Lawn of the White House.

ROMANS: Another recurring theme of the RNC is that the President has crafted and economy like no other.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP JR., PRESIDENT TRUMP'S SON: Trump's policies have been like rocket fuel to the economy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The President also built the most inclusive economy ever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Americans are going back to work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An economy soared to new heights.

PENCE: We built the greatest economy in the world. We made America great again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:25:00] ROMANS: The fact is (INAUDIBLE) on the direction of the data, not the depths of the crises. Instead of the main street pain, the President is taking credit for Wall Street gains. And take a look at stocks since inauguration day, the Dow is up 43 percent, the S&P up 53 percent and Nasdaq is up an astonishing 109 percent. These are numbers this team likes to talk about.

Now the Vice President claimed the administration inherited an economy struggling to break out of the slowest recovery since the great depression. While the recovery was slow, it was one of the longest expansions on record and it just ended this year because of the pandemic.

Now on jobs, the President likes to take credit for the gains, ignore the losses and declare victory in these small records and rebounds from the crisis. Over-9 million jobs were created in May, June and July, but look, the sheer size of the jobs crash was so unprecedented, it erased nearly a decade of job market growth.

To be honest here, Trump is now in a jobs hole. He is down a net 5.8 million jobs since he took office. And the stock market is up, Laura, but jobs have a lot of recovering to do. The President and his team really focusing on this message that they are trying to send that only he can make a great economy and it is great begin.

JARRETT: They went all in on this message, but it doesn't match reality. It was one thing before coronavirus, but the situation has changed. It's very different for people on the ground.

All right. Still ahead for you, we're following this monster storm pummeling the Gulf. We'll have live reports in Louisiana and Texas up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ROMANS: Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: I am Laura Jarrett. About 29 minutes past the hour here in New York.

And we begin with the big breaking news this morning. The strongest storm to hit Louisiana in a century making landfall overnight. Category 4 hurricane Laura is expected to bring storm surges to Louisiana and Texas that officials are calling unsurvivable as far as 40 miles inland. Surges of 15 feet or higher could overwhelm coasts in both states.

Water levels are already rising quickly, more than 1.5 million people are under some type of evacuation order. Coronavirus and the need to maintain social distancing is complicating the hurricane response.

END