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Coast Guard Believes Missing Ship Sank; Historic Deadly Flooding in South Carolina; Survivor Recounts Her Chilling Story; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 05, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:01] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: 7:00 a.m. on the West Coast. I'm Ana Cabrera in for Carol Costello. Thank you for joining me. We begin with some breaking news.

Any minute now we're expecting an update from the Coast Guard on that missing cargo ship El Faro. Now the Coast Guard says that they do believe the ship sank in Hurricane Joaquin, but they continue to conduct search and rescue missions for the 33 people on board, including 28 Americans.

Now El Faro disappeared near the Bahamas last Thursday. It was en route to Puerto Rico. Search crews discovered a 225-square mile debris field. They found life jackets, containers, even an oil sheen. But so far they have not confirmed whether it came from El Faro.

I want to bring in CNN's Alexander Field, who has been tracking the latest developments in this story. So now they're saying they believe the ship sank.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and this has been an agonizing wait for the families. They lost contact with the ship on Thursday so it's been days now. Families waiting for word. They did see these signs yesterday, the initial signs of this debris field. They've now identified the debris field as being some 225-square miles. And the very painful news that you're hearing from the Coast Guard here that they believe that the ship did sink, but we need to underscore the point that they are continuing to treat this as a search and rescue operation, because there are 33 people who are aboard this ship.

The owner of the ship has come out yesterday, saying that one of the containers that was found had been on the ship. The Coast Guard did not come out and confirm that the debris that was found was in fact related to the ship. That should be what we are anticipating hearing in the next couple of minutes as the Coast Guard holds their press conference. But what we know is that this a ship that left Jacksonville on Tuesday. They were making a trip to Puerto Rico. Obviously, there were concerns about the weather, a tropical storm that developed into Hurricane Joaquin.

There has been word from some of the family members of the people who are on board this ship that they had earlier expressed confidence that, you know, the captain was certainly aware of the forecast. They felt secure and confident about their loved ones on board this ship. But we did hear also from a mother who got an e-mail from her daughter who was part of the crew, saying the weather had gotten bad. It was obviously raising concerns on board. We know they recovered a number of items now. They have spotted life jackets and oil sheen, the containers that we mentioned.

CABRERA: Yes, we saw that video, two of them pulling up that life ring that they also found in the water. And when you talked about the conditions at the time that the ship went missing, unfortunately the conditions still aren't good. I mean, we're hearing that search teams have had to weather 150-mile-per-hour wind gusts, 30-foot waves.

FIELD: Waves. Right. When you talk about the kind of conditions that would be a problem for a container ship making this route, you know it's also a problem for rescue teams. And the break really did come from some of the planes, the search planes that were flying over the water. They've covered 70,000 miles. That's how big the initial search area was.

CABRERA: And right now, in fact, they're giving us the update. Let's listen in.

CAPT. MARK FEDOR, U.S. COAST GUARD: Anybody who has had contact with the steamship El Faro so we wanted to provide you an update. We really started our search efforts on Friday. And at that time we were not able to get to the vessel's last known position because Hurricane Joaquin was essentially sitting right over it. So we weren't able to get there. On Saturday we could get to the vessel's last known position but the search conditions were horrible.

We were facing 100-mile-an-hour winds, 40-foot seas, less than a mile visibility, so we really couldn't get a good picture, a good idea of what was out there. Yesterday was the first day where we really had favorable search conditions. And we took advantage of that. We had multiple long-range aircraft out there, including Coast Guard C-130s and Air Force C-130 and a Navy P-8 aircraft.

And I want to just focus on the Navy P-8 aircraft. That's a pretty sophisticated aircraft. We flew it very high, up at 27,000 feet altitude so we could scan a very wide area. We've covered 70,000 square nautical miles yesterday, looking for the El Faro, so based on all of that, for our search planning efforts, we are assuming that the vessel has sunk. We believe it sank in the last known position that we recorded on Thursday.

So what that means, though, we just change our search planning efforts. We are still looking for survivors or any signs of life, any signs of that vessel. We are still doing that. So the search for survivors continues. Yesterday, because of those favorable search conditions, we were able to see a lot of material that was at sea. A lot of things that came from a container ship, of that size. So we know we recovered the El Faro's life ring.

We also recovered a lifeboat that had the markings of El Faro on it. It was heavily damaged, but it was recovered, no signs of life there. As we went through the day yesterday, we had multiple reports of emerging suits, survival suits that were floating in the water, life rafts and lifeboats.

[10:05:10] We had to check each one. We did that methodically because we wanted to make sure there were no signs of life. We were hoping to find a survivor, so we needed to check every one. In one of the survival suits we did identify human remains in one of the survival suits. We lowered a rescue swimmer to confirm that the person was deceased, and it was basically unidentifiable. We needed to move from there quickly because there were other reports of survival suits as well as lifeboats and life rafts. And we checked those methodically through the day. No other signs of life at this time.

So as I mention, we are not looking for the vessel any longer. However, today we are still out there searching. We've modified our search efforts to focus more on potential people in the water, lifeboats and life rafts. So we've kind of brought in that area. There are two primary areas of concern that we're looking at. One, debris field. It's about 300 square nautical miles is in the vicinity of the last known position of the vessel. There's another debris field that's about 60 miles to the north of that one. That's a little bit smaller. It's about 70 square nautical miles.

We are searching both of those. We have three Coast Guard Cutters on scene. There are three commercial tugs that were hired by the shipping company. And we have a full schedule of aircraft that are flying all day today. But again, we are going to fly them much lower and focused in on smaller objects at sea.

So that is our plan moving forward. We remain hopeful that we will try. We will hopefully find survivors. That is our focus as we move forward.

Be glad to take a few questions.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can they survive in category 4, borderline category 5 hurricane, and what are the expectations?

FEDOR: So there were two lifeboats that were on the El Faro. They could each hold about 43 people. The one we found had no signs of anyone being in it. What we have to assume as search planners is if the vessel did sink on Thursday and that crew was able to abandon ship, they would have been abandoning ship into a category 4 hurricane. So you're talking up to 140-mile-an-hour winds, seas upwards of 50 feet, visibility basically at zero. Those are challenging conditions to survive in.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What are these life suits and other stuff happen to help somebody in conditions like this?

FEDOR: These survival suits are -- they can float, so they keep you upright, so you can -- and they also try to hold off hypothermia so you can stay warmer a little longer. Because even in warm weather conditions, you're susceptible to hypothermia. And there's only so long you can survive in the ocean.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are there any type of GPS on those suits or on the lifeboats themselves?

FEDOR: That we don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How many were reported? How many survivors have been reported that you know of might be out there?

FEDOR: The ship had a total of 46 survival suits on board. We've only been -- been able to locate less than a handful.

(CROSSTALK)

FEDOR: So, again, in search and rescue, there's an art and a science to it. The science is really just physiologically how long can you survive in the water. In warm water conditions, that's about four to five days. Then you kind of look at the art of it is, you know, these are trained mariners. You know, they know how to properly abandon ship. They know how to survive in the water. So we take that into account as well.

But we also have to look at the conditions I talked about before, if they were able to abandon ship, it would have been in very challenging conditions. A category 4 level storm, where they might have been in a life raft or even just in the water directly.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How many people have survived a category 4, the hurricane after, you know, staying on the ship or a life boat?

FEDOR: You know, I can't speculate as to that. But we're not going to discount somebody's will to survive, and that's why we're still searching today.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The remains that you did find, were they (INAUDIBLE)?

FEDOR: No. We were not able to recover those remains. Our focus is on survivors. So we lowered a rescue swimmer into the water. That person confirmed that the body was deceased. It was unidentifiable. So we needed to quickly move to other reports of life. And the reason we have to do that is the ocean is not a static being. It's alive, it's dynamic, it's constantly moving. So when we have the reports of other life rafts, life boats, we need to get out there and quickly identify, and see if there's any signs of life.

If we don't do that right away, then it could sink, it could disappear. We might not be able to relocate. So, again, our focus is on survivors. That's our mission.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Will you search throughout the night?

[10:10:04] FEDOR: We will. We'll have aircraft throughout the day. Those three Coast Guard ships as well as the three commercial ships will remain out overnight. They were out last night as well, continually searching.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Was there any kind of warning that went out, letting the ship know it shouldn't be there, it should turn around?

FEDOR: We -- you know, it was posted on the National Hurricane Center's Web site that there was a tropical depression forming on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we all know it developed into a hurricane. I don't know what the master was thinking or what his company had told him. All we know is they left on Tuesday. They were supposed to arrive -- they left Jacksonville on Tuesday. They were supposed to arrive in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Friday.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

FEDOR: There will -- you know, again, my focus now is on the search and rescue aspect of it. There will be an investigation going forward. The National Transportation Safety Board will lead that investigation. The Coast Guard will be a part of that and will probably also conduct a separate investigation. That's down the road. My focus right now is on the search and rescue efforts.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You concluded that the ship has sunk and you mentioned last week that the ship lost power -- reported losing power. What happens in that kind of sea? 50-foot waves, I think you said.

FEDOR: Right. Right.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What happens?

FEDOR: So the worst spot for any ship to be in is when you're disabled, you lost all propulsion, you have no means to move that vessel. You become very susceptible. You fall into the trough, basically between the waves. So you fall into the waves so everything is hitting you from the side. All right. So you're looking at 140- mile-an-hour winds, 50-foot seas hitting you from the side.

The vessel we know was carrying 391 containers so it had a lot of topside height to it where the winds and the waves could hit it. Had 294 trailers and automobiles below deck. So it was heavy. It was weighted down. We also know that the vessel had a list to it, meaning it was leaning over about 15 degrees because they had some water intrusion earlier. That just increases the danger of the situation that they were in, to be able to survive that type of condition.

CABRERA: We are listening in here to the U.S. Coast Guard providing an update on their search for a missing cargo ship that has been missing now since Thursday with 33 people on board, and really the headline from this update is they are no longer looking for the ship. They are just focused on survivors. And they did, in fact, find one deceased person among the debris field. They found a survival suit with human remains inside, is how he put it.

I want to bring back Alexandra Field who has been following the story closely for us. It doesn't sound good.

FIELD: A lot of grim details obviously coming from this press conference but underscored by the hope that a survivor could be found. And you heard the Coast Guard captain say, they will not underestimate someone's will to survive. It's something that they won't discount, but he continued to reiterate how difficult the conditions of survival would have been here.

The discoveries were made yesterday. That's when they located the initial debris field that led them to believe the ship had sunk. They started to find evidence that the material in the water had, in fact, belonged to El Faro. They told us that they found a life ring that has been on board and also more chillingly an empty lifeboat.

We do know that there was a second lifeboat aboard that ship. It could hold 43 people. There were 33 people on board the ship. The rescue and search effort right now will concentrate on trying to spot any life rafts in the water, any lifeboats in the water. And additionally, any of these survival suits where human remains were found.

We did learn that they were not able to identify the person who had been in that suit. But the Coast Guard there saying, again, that these are people who would have had to abandon ship during a category 4 hurricane. It has made the search and rescue conditions incredibly difficult. And also of course make the conditions for survival incredibly difficult.

CABRERA: If there's any silver linings, at least it's warm water so the chance of survival is increased because of that. He said scientifically, you know, the survival rate, four to five days. We're right on that border. So let's just --

FIELD: They've got two debris fields that they can look at now.

CABRERA: Yes.

FIELD: It gives them some direction in this search that's covered more than 70,000 square miles. A huge area.

CABRERA: Unbelievable. All right, Alexandra Field, thank you so much for that update.

And coming up, more bad news in the southeast. The death toll mounting after floodwaters have ravaged the area. We'll get an update from our Nick Valencia live on the ground there when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:18:39] CABRERA: We turn now to the deadly flooding in the southeast. In just over an hour, South Carolina's governor, Nikki Haley, will address her state and the news media. The governor already calling this flooding 1,000-year event as the death toll continues to climb this morning, now at seven.

CNN's Nick Valencia is joining me from Columbia, South Carolina -- Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No exaggeration, Ana, when we say that it's a desperate and dire situation for the state of South Carolina. This rain has just been relentless, nonstop. Just when you think you're getting just the slightest bit of relief, that rain picks back up again and intensifies. People have had to be rescued by boat here. 600 National Guard troops at the ready. Earlier we caught up with the mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, who said the situation here is a desperate one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR STEPHEN BENJAMIN, COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA: It's dire. We continue to work together. I will tell you we couldn't have had greater support from federal government, our U.S. Army base here at Ft. Jackson. Our governor is leading on this issue. All the local law enforcement, National Guard folks, working together.

The primary mission of preserving human life, we're working, of course, every single day to preserve property. Property can be replaced. We're working to make sure we preserve human life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: We're at a hydroelectric plant here in Columbia where the river behind me has swelled 15 feet higher than normal. It has gone down just a little bit. If you want to see, zoom in on that water line there about two feet, I'd say, or so. Maybe three feet that it's gone down.

[10:20:10] But, Ana, the rain has just been so consistent. And when you look at the weather models, it's like a stream that's just lingering over the state and it doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon -- Ana.

CABRERA: All right, Nick Valencia reporting again in Columbia, South Carolina. Our thanks to you.

Meteorologist Chad Myers is watching what's happening there from our weather center.

Chad, how much more rain are we talking about?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Probably no more than a quarter of an inch for South Carolina. The heaviest, Ana, now has moved up to North Carolina. And eventually even toward Virginia beach. But the flood warnings and the flash flood warnings will not go away for many days. Flash flood warnings maybe, but these flood warnings. And these rivers will be at flood level for weeks, I think, before that water finally all gets into the ocean, into the Atlantic Ocean.

We have rain on top of upstate, which is up here into Greenville and north of Columbia. All of that water has to run downhill. There is the hurricane that we talked about with El Faro, the ship that was lost down to the south, but that did not have anything to do with 95 percent of the rain that happened in the Carolinas. That was a separate low pressure center, that as Nick was talking about, it's a fire hose that just wouldn't stop. It kept pointing right at South Carolina all weekend -- Ana.

CABRERA: They are still feeling that impact. Chad Myers, thanks for keeping an eye on it.

MYERS: Welcome.

CABRERA: Still to come here, she was one of the survivors who witnessed last week's mass shooting in Oregon and she will never forget.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRACY HUE, SHOOTING SURVIVOR: I was sitting in the front of the classroom, facing the teacher when everything happened. He just came in and shot towards the back of the wall and told everybody to get in the center of the room.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:26:14] CABRERA: The campus of Umpqua Community College has reopened this morning for the first time after last week's deadly shooting rampage. Classes, however, will not be held at all this week, only counseling services.

CNN's Sara Sidner spoke exclusively with a survivor who opened up about the chilling and the graphic scene she witnessed when the gunman executed her professor and her classmates and she, too, was shot.

Sara joins me live on the campus in Oregon. Sara, where was she when the shooter came in?

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: She was in the front row when he came in, armed to the hilt, she said. He had guns, he was wearing a bullet-proof vest. And she said he didn't say much at first, started shooting people, telling everyone to come to the center of the class, and on that I'll let her take over the story from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUE: I really don't know how I survived. I just -- I don't know. I was actually planning on just, you know, waiting to see the black light, you know, just waiting not to see anything anymore.

SIDNER (voice-over): Tracy Hue lived because she played dead.

HUE: I was sitting in the front of the classroom, facing the teacher when everything happened. He just came in and shot towards the back of the wall and told everybody to get in the center of the room.

SIDNER: It was one of her fellow students. He showed up on the fourth day of classes with guns, not books. He set his sights on classroom 15 in Snyder Hall at Umpqua Community College.

HUE: He seemed happy about it. He didn't seem stressed. He didn't seem nervous. But when he came in, he told everybody to get on the ground, so everybody tried to huddle to the ground. And then the girl in the wheelchair tried to get -- she got off and tried to get down on the ground.

SIDNER (on camera): Wait. There was a woman in a wheelchair doing all this?

HUE: Yes. And she had a dog with her. But the dog was just on the ground. And she got off the chair. She went on the ground. And then he told her to get back on the chair. And then she tried to climb back on the chair and then he shot her.

SIDNER (voice-over): Tracy didn't know it yet, but the girl in the wheelchair was dead. He turned his attention to Professor Larry Levine.

HUE: He told the professor to get down on the ground as well. So he was trying to crawl down to the ground with us and he shot the professor. And then he just started shooting everybody on the ground. And that's when I knew that, you know, this is it. I'm probably going to die, you know. I probably won't see my kids anymore, I probably won't see anybody anymore.

SIDNER: Face down on the ground, hit by a bullet in the hand, she thought about her three children and waited to die.

HUE: The warmth of those blood that was all over me, that's when I knew that it was real and, I remember whispering to one of the person that was next to me. You know, he's only one person. All of us, you know, we just got to do something about it or, you know, we're all just going to die.

SIDNER: But then she heard the shooter make a promise. He would spare one of the male students.

(On camera): What did he say exactly?

HUE: He said that you're the lucky one. I'm -- you know, I'm going to let you live, but I'm going to need you to go and tell the police everything that happened and give them this.

SIDNER (voice-over): He handed the man an envelope to give to police. And then started asking his victims about their religion.

HUE: He just asked, are you Christian? Do you believe in God? And then they said, yes. And he said, good, I'll send you -- you know, I'll send you to God. You'll be visiting God pretty soon. And then he shoots them.

(CROSSTALK)

SIDNER: Did he --

HUE: And he asked them about being Catholic. And they said, yes. And then he still shot them. I seriously don't know where he shot them or who he killed, but he shot them either way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[10:30:04] SIDNER: When you think about what she went through and the remorselessness of the shooter, it is one of those moments that she thought that this really was it. (END)