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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Florida Braces for Hurricane Michael; Hunt Is On For New U.S. Ambassador to U.N.; Khashoggi's Fiancee Appeals to Trump; Trump Promises Another North Korea Summit; Sears Hires Bankruptcy Expert. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired October 10, 2018 - 04:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:32] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Dave Briggs. It is 4:30 Eastern Time. Welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world.

Our breaking news coverage of Hurricane Michael continues, now hours away from landing a devastating blow on the Florida Panhandle. In the last couple of hours, Michael has grown to a category-four storm. That makes it the most powerful hurricane to hit the panhandle in more than a century.

At least 22 counties with nearly 2.5 million residents under evacuation orders at this hour. Mandatory evacuation orders in 13 of those counties. Voluntary in another nine. Florida Governor Rick Scott calling Michael a monstrous, dangerous storm that could kill you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: If you're under an evacuation order, listen to it. Leave now. Do not take a chance. You don't know if roads are going to get closed. You know, we're going to do everything we can to help you, but do not wait.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: People across the panhandle preparing as best they can. Store shelves cleared out as residents stock up, 34 shelters opening according to the governor's office. Several hospitals closing in the area forecast to take the hardest hit.

CNN brings you live coverage from Destin and Apalachicola on the Florida panhandle, and from the CNN Weather Center where we start with Chad Myers.

Chad, good morning. What is on the way?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Dave. A hundred and forty mile-per-hour storm with higher gusts right now.

Flight-level gusts at 159 miles per hour. Now, no one lives at flight level but the brave men and women in these planes deserve credit from all of us to tell us what this is going on. They've been bringing updates all night long, and they're flying through storms that I would never get in an airplane.

This thing goes all the way from New Orleans. Look at the western edge of this cloud cover, all the way to Tampa. And there's going to be more surge flooding in Tampa again today, because we're getting up into the high tide, you're 2.5 feet above here.

We talk about all the surge that's going to be here, but there's surge along the coast, as well. And look at the size of the higher, colder cloud tops. This is all the way from Mobile, certainly all the way to Apalachicola. And there's the eye.

Now, the eye is forecast to turn slightly toward Panama City. I haven't seen that turn yet today. You can watch this eye go all the way up, and it's just pretty much going straight. So, if we take this and even turn that tide just a little bit farther to the left, Panama City gets it a lot worse, Port St. Joe a little less, Mexico Beach a little less, but many of these areas here.

These old, quaint little towns especially east of Panama City that aren't built up with high-rise condos. They may be unrecognizable with 140 mile-per-hour winds. They're made out of sticks. They're two by four buildings. They're not concrete and steel.

There's the eye. You see it on the radar south of Panama City, about 130 miles from Panama City. There's the turn that the hurricane center is forecasting.

Now, we'll see, because in about 20 minutes or so, we'll get a new update from the hurricane center. They're getting more passes from the eye -- through the eye from hurricane now. We do know that there will be significant power outages all across the Southeast. Likely not enough crews to put all of these power lines back up in a week.

It's going to be a long process, because right through here, there are so many trees that are going to come down. Those trees are going to fall on power lines. Those power lines are going to come down. They're going to have to put power lines back up, and also power poles back up because they'll come down, as well.

This is going to be a real dangerous event for many people there, even inland, because we have hurricane warnings all the way up to Albany, Georgia. This flooding here, the 13-foot storm surge, and in the ocean, in the Gulf of Mexico, I looked at a wave that was 28-feet high at one of the buoys.

So, here you go, this is the forecast radar. This is what we think is going to happen. The radar model coming out of the computer itself, bringing that landfall today, probably ten hours to the eyewall, the worst of it, and then a calm in spots because you're in the eye, then the back side as we saw in Wilmington. That was part of the devastating event there across parts of the

Wilmington area. And our Derek Van Dam was right smack dab in the middle of it. And I think you are again this time.

ROMANS: Yes, he is.

Let me ask you quickly, if you haven't left yet, right, if you're waking up this morning in the Florida panhandle and you see a category four and think you might have underestimated the power of this, do you stay put, or do you go?

[04:35:08] MYERS: You want to run from the water get away. If you know that your house is going to get hit by water, you need to be out of there for sure, because water is heavier than air, and it kills you.

If you are going to get into a wind, you can hide from the wind. Stay away from winds, interior -- almost like hiding from a tornado. It will take ten hours to go away.

I checked all the winds. Apalachicola, you have gusts of 26. Panama City about 13. Now, bridges shouldn't be closed at those wind speeds. There may be a window this morning.

But check some type of app.

ROMANS: Yes.

MYERS: Make sure that your exit strategy works rather than getting ten miles north and having to turn back and go back home. You need to prepare for the eventuality that all of the roads are going to be closed today.

ROMANS: I know. We've seen fatalities before, where people in the last minute get scared, get in the car with kids, get, you know, find themselves in the trouble. So, everyone, please plan. This is a very big storm.

All right. We'll come back in a few minutes, in about 20 minutes you'll have another update for us, Chad. So, thank you.

So, Florida panhandle's bracing for the impact. Already we're seeing the storm's effects. Derek Van Dam live in Apalachicola with more -- Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning, Christine.

The mayor of Apalachicola trying to lead by example, evacuating himself and his family. Look at the deserted almost ghost town that's behind me. One lone pressure car, seems as if someone decided to ride out the store. There are news personnel and some emergency personnel still roaming the streets here. Of course, mandatory evacuation.

If you just look at the vegetation around this area, Apalachicola is located on the big bend of Florida's panhandle. It is surrounded by a national forest. So, Chad was talking about downed trees, power lines, that will certainly be a factor here.

There are some large bridges that connect Apalachicola to the major part of the panhandle. And if the winds get over tropical storm force, they close those down very, very quickly.

The other thing is, too, that if you look at a map of the panhandle, you'll notice it's in the shape of a C. That's the big bend we talk about, almost a catcher's mitt. Any time you get a large swell of water from a hurricane -- an approaching hurricane, it literally just catches the water from the Gulf of Mexico.

That's exactly what Hurricane Michael is doing. It is bringing all that water and will deposit it in the storm of a storm surge that's over my head in this area. Right now, sea level, we're about 13 feet above sea level.

We had to evacuate from the previous live shot location because it was only four feet above sea level. So, too dangerous for our crew. We have the ability to be in a safe position when the weather really starts to deteriorate. We're in Apalachicola on the Florida panhandle, we'll send it back to the news desk with Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Thank you so much, Derek.

Stay safe. Keep moving if you have to. We'll follow the storm track here.

BRIGGS: All right. Joining us now on the phone is Kyle Bower. He's a professional storm chaser with SVL Media. He's in Panama City, Florida.

Kyle, good morning to you.

You are right where the storm is to make a direct hit. How is what you're seeing in terms of the this wind speed, expected storm surge, compare with storms you've seen in the past?

KYLE BOWER, PROFESSIONAL STORM CHASER (via telephone): Yes, this is -- I'm under the belief that unfortunately this is going to be one of the strongest hurricanes that I've been through at a possible cat four at landfall. The good thing here we're seeing here on the ground from Panama City happens to be here, particularly at the hotel I'm staying at, a lot of people did heed warnings.

Unlike Florence a few weeks back, right now, there's a lot of empty parking spaces in the hotel. That's a good sign that a lot of people are just not in the vicinity at all.

ROMANS: What's the biggest for you, Kyle, there. I mean, you'll be hunkered down over the worst of it. But the wind speeds just seem devastating.

BOWER: Yes, absolutely. And last night as well, we did receive an extreme alert on the wireless emergency alert system. That was to evacuate zones A, B, and C here, low-lying areas and mobile homes for surge, as well. So, this is a serious surge concern for a lot of these low-lying area

areas. There is no terrain pretty much over 25 feet. So, you're looking at anything over 13 feet. From that point, anything under 13 feet is a real risk along the shore.

BRIGGS: Just massive. Governor Rick Scott tweeting at 1:00 a.m. this morning, this is your last chance.

So, given that, we hear from the public, why does the media stay, why do storm chasers like yourself stay when a dangerous storm is coming? How do you stay safe?

BOWER: Yes, absolutely.

[04:40:01] Over the years of doing this, as you guys know as well, I'm a firefighter with multiple different certifications out of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. But we do have shelters that we take refuge in. Looking at our hotel here with the cinderblock foundation, the stairwells, as well, we'll be having particular locations where we'll be safe, riding out the storm, bringing live information to the National Weather Service, reports from the field is very vital, as well.

ROMANS: All right. Kyle Bower, stay safe. We'll talk to you again soon. Check in with us if you can.

Again, this is a category-tour is storm and strengthening. Florida's Gulf Coast -- since records began in 1981, Florida's Gulf Coast has never seen a storm of this magnitude. Stay safe. Thank you, Kyle.

Officials in Florida trying to get people to heed evacuation orders. You'll hear from one, next.

BRIGGS: Plus, the fiancee of a missing Saudi journalist makes a public plea to President Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:10] ROMANS: All right. Breaking news, Hurricane Michael is now an extremely dangerous category four storm, a 130 mile-per-hour storm, threatening storm surge.

CNN's George Howell is live in Destin, Florida.

Good morning, George.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, good morning to you.

You know, we have been seeing the rainfall associated with this storm. No winds yesterday, but you described what's to come. Winds in excess of 130 mile-per-hour. Very strong winds on the way. The rains, we're feeling the first bands from Destin, Florida, to Panama City, which is expecting the eye of the storm to come here mid-afternoon.

And everything east of Panama City, Christine, that's going to see the stronger winds. That dirty side of the storm where tornadic activity is possible.

Apalachicola, Florida, one city that will feel the impact. I spoke with the mayor a short time ago. The mayor said, look, he's leading by example. He was out of there. He hopes others would do the same. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAN JOHNSON, MAYOR OF APALACHICOLA, FLORIDA: The word that we was putting on the street was to evacuate. I wanted to lead by example. So, I'm here with my family hopefully in a safe situation.

We've had those near misses of people not taking it serious. I'm telling you, all the predictions and projections of this storm indicates that we need to take it as serious as possible. Those people that decided to stay, I wish them well. Those people that decided to leave, they did the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: This particular storm has a very specific trait. It is a strong storm, it is a fast-moving storm, Christine. It will pack a punch here on the coastline. Certainly there will be damage left behind, Christine.

ROMANS: Yes, wind and water both will be deadly here. Please be careful, George, and move when you need to. Thank you.

BRIGGS: All right. Let's talk some politics now. The search for Nikki Haley's replacement is now on. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations stunned Washington with an announcement she plans to step down by the end of the year. Speculation rampant over the reason for her abrupt departure which a source says caught Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton by surprise.

Haley herself said she simply believes in term limits and that it is time to step aside. One source says she wants to make more money to put two children through college.

One thing Haley was clear about -- she will not run against President Trump in 2020.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: No, I'm not running for 2020. I can promise you what I'll be doing is campaigning for this one. So, I look forward to supporting the president in the next election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president heaped praise on Haley, calling her a fantastic person who has done an incredible job. Among the names floated to replace Haley is former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, Dina's certainly a person I would consider. And she is under consideration. We have actually many names. And, you know, Nikki has been great. Nikki is going to be working along with us and helping us with the choice. Plus, she's going to help with 2020.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Also, the current ambassador to Germany, another name you're hearing, Rick Grenell. The president says he plans to name Haley's successor in two to three weeks.

BRIGGS: President Trump did make a case for one possible replacement for Nikki Haley, his daughter Ivanka. Now, he insists there is no one more qualified.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The people that know know that Ivanka would be dynamite. I think Ivanka would be incredible. But it doesn't mean -- you know, I'd pick her because you'd be accused of nepotism, even though I'm not sure there's anybody more confident in the world. But that's okay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Accused of nepotism or guilty of.

Offer or not, Ivanka's not interested. The first daughter tweeting it is an honor to serve in the White House alongside so many great colleagues. And I know that the president will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley. That replacement will not be me.

ROMANS: President Trump heads to another campaign rally tonight in Erie, Pennsylvania, with less than four weeks until the midterm elections.

Last night in Iowa, the president raged against the Democrats, insisting they had only one goal in the confirmation fight over Brett Kavanaugh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: From the very first minute Brett Kavanaugh was nominated, radical Democrats were on a mission to resist, obstruct, delay, demolish, and destroy. They wanted to destroy that man. Of course, they want to destroy me, too, but that's OK.

(BOOS)

Me, we understand. Him, how can you do that? They want to destroy everything. That's all they're good at -- resisting. Their whole campaign is resist.

[04:50:00] Ours is to create.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: According to a new CNN poll, Democratic voters are fired up for the midterms. Fifty-four percent of likely voters saying they support the Democrat in their district with 41 percent backing a Republican. That's the widest margin of support for Democrats in a midterm cycle since 2006. The last time Dems won control of the House.

BRIGGS: The fiancee of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is pleading with President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump to shed light on his disappearance. In an op-ed in "The Washington Post", Hatice Cengiz writes that Khashoggi was concerned he might be in danger when he went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to pick up paperwork for their marriage.

She's calling on the Saudi King Salman to release close circuit video from the consulate to prove her fiance left the building as the Saudis claim. President Trump has said he is concerned about Khashoggi's disappearance.

ROMANS: With new details about a possible second summit between President Trump and North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un, the president says a second summit is happening and, quote, not too far away. He said it probably would not happen in Singapore like the first one.

The president praised what he calls his administration's speedy progress, easing tensions with Pyongyang.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have agreed to meet. And I have agreed to spend time. But how long has it been since we left Singapore? Three months or so. I think the speed is amazing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Later, the president said the next summit with North Korea would happen after the midterm elections because he's too busy now campaigning for Republican candidates.

BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, our breaking news coverage of Hurricane Michael continues, and a brand-new update coming up in just minutes. We'll bring it as soon as it happens.

ROMANS: Plus, more signs too a struggling iconic American retailer could be nearing the end of the line.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:56:31] BRIGGS: Taylor Swift using her acceptance speech for artist of the year at the American Music Awards to send a political message to her millions of adoring fans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR SWIFT, MUSICIAN: This award and every single award given out tonight were voted on by the people. You know what else is voted on by the people --

(CHEERS)

Is the midterm elections on November 6th. Get out and vote. I love you, guys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: On Sunday, Swift announced on Instagram she'd be voting for Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee, going out of her way to mention Phil Bredesen, the Democratic candidate for Senate. On Tuesday, President Trump said he liked her music, quote, about 25 percent less now.

Sports news, the Boston Red Sox moving to the American League Championship Series. The Yankees staying home. The Bronx Bombers at home, rallying for two runs off Boston closer Craig Kimbrel in the ninth, but falling short. Game four of the ALDS, 4-3. The rookie out at first, just barely. You can see on the replay there.

Boston celebrates at Yankee Stadium. And, boy, did they. They now face the defending champ Houston Astros with the winner heading to the World Series. That starts Saturday, Dodgers and Brewers starts Friday.

ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. Global stocks mixed after the Dow and the S&P 500 closed lower. Investors concerned about global growth. The IMF, the International Monetary Fund, cut its growth forecast for both the U.S. and China for next year.

Predicting the two will feel the brunt of their trade war next year. Starbucks shares rose 2 percent. Activist investor Bill Ackman revealed he invested $900 million in Starbucks. Ackman calls it a good bet. He says Starbucks still has room to add stores in the U.S. and he says China is a huge to opportunity for growth.

Sears is doing everything it can to avoid bankruptcy. The struggling retailer hired a bankruptcy expert, Alan Carr, CEO of a restructuring advisory firm, adding him to the board of Sears. Sears has a $134 million debt payment due Monday and dwindling cash horde to pay it back. Sears hopes Carr can help structure its debt. If not, he could guide through bankruptcy.

"The Wall Street Journal" reports Sears has already prepared a filing. Sears stock is down 83 percent this year to below $1 a share. An American icon there.

Amazon getting rid of a secret A.I. recruiting tool. Artificial intelligence recruiting tool. Why? Bias against women. "Reuters" reports that Amazon has been using artificial intelligence to review resumes, rating candidates to find top talent for tech jobs, but overtime, Amazon's system began, preferring male candidates to female. In other words, it learned gender bias.

The computer vetted applicants by observing patterns in resumes, and most came from men. So, it began ranking men higher than women. Even artificial intelligence, we have gender bias. Good God.

BRIGGS: All right. Our breaking news coverage of Hurricane Michael continues right now on EARLY START.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BRIGGS: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Wednesday, October 10th, 5:00 a.m. exactly in the East. We welcome all of our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world.

Breaking news: Hurricane Michael now just hours away from landing a devastating blow to the Florida panhandle. You are looking at the latest radar loop. In just the last couple of hours, Michael has grown to a category-four storm.