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Flooding Hits South Carolina; Survivor of Oregon School Shooting Gives Interview; Interview with Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 05, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is October 5th, 8:00 in the east. And we do have breaking news. The death toll on the rise in South Carolina. It's now at six, but the number is early, unfortunately. The situation will be bad there not for days, for weeks. First responders right now are in the thick of it, resuming search and rescue operations, looking for people who need to be evacuated from flood-ravaged neighborhoods, including Columbia, which is the state's capital.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Governor Nikki Haley calling the severe deluge 1,000 year event. Staggering rain total forcing the closure of roads across the state. We begin our coverage with CNN's Nick Valencia. He is live in Columbia. Nick, what does it look like?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Large parts of Columbia are without usable drinking water. Across the state more than 21,000 people are without power as the storm continues to linger and hammer South Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: A state of emergency underway in multiple states along the east coast this morning. Flood watches in effect from Georgia to Delaware, as a deadly and historic amount of rain bears down on parts

of South Carolina.

GOV. NIKKI HALEY, SOUTH CAROLINA: We haven't seen this level of rain in the low country in 1,000 years.

VALENCIA: Search and rescue operations will continue this morning in Columbia. The capital pummeled by its wettest day on record, parts of the coast receiving up to 24 inches of rain in 24 hours, forcing more than 750 motorists to call for help Sunday, trapped by the raging waters.

CHIEF SKIP HOLBROOK, COLUMBIA POLICE DEPARTMENT: Our concentration right now, obviously, is emergency and rescue.

VALENCIA: Officials deploying more than 600 National Guard members as local authorities say they've carried out more than 140 water rescues in one county alone. By air, the Coast Guard rescuing a mother and her 15 month old child from their flooded home, by boat, officials rescuing this man after he was found clinging to a tree after driving through a road barricade. MARK REED, GEORGETOWN COUNTY EMS CHIEF: This guy could have lost

his life. Luckily, we were able to get manpower down here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just made a mistake.

VALENCIA: Another motorist doing exactly what officials say not to do, try and drive through the deluge. Moments later, the truck's bed is the only thing above water as a tree limb keeps it from going downstream.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have lost everything.

VALENCIA: For many their cars left submerged.

MAYOR STEVE BENJAMIN, COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA: What we continue to go through is unlike anything any of us have seen.

VALENCIA: Officials closing all highways across the city as roadways collapsed and dams were breached, historic rain overflowing lakes and rivers across Georgetown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The lake is all the way past the tree line.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: If there is some good news we can offer at least here from where we're standing at the hydro-electric plant, in the last couple hours since we've started reporting the water has gone down two to three feet. But just when you think there is relief, the rain picks up again. Michaela?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. And we can see it and hear it, and we know it is supposed to fall across South Carolina today. Thanks so much, Nick. We know it's expected to taper off later today. But that doesn't necessarily mean the flood danger is over. We want to turn to our meteorologist Chris Myers live from the CNN Center. Just because it's not falling doesn't mean it's hasn't already inundated the ground.

CHRIS MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right, Michaela. And because it has rained uphill, eventually, all of the water will run downhill into places that aren't flooding right now. That water bubble will eventually make its way to the low country and even into the ocean eventually.

We have flood warnings from North Carolina to South Carolina and Charleston and that will continue. River flood warnings in many more areas than that. Let me give you an idea here of what is going to happen. The rain will get up to North Carolina today. It will shift away from South Carolina at least for briefly a time today. That's the good news, although it will shift flooding rainfall to North Carolina.

Let me put some context on what this 1,000 year thing means. Think about horse racing and you bet on a horse and it's two to one. This is like a river event, a flood event that could half in any year, it would be 1,000 to one. So if you put a $2 win ticket, you'd win $2,000. But you get the idea. It's just a 1,000 to one shot of this happening in any given year, not that this happened in the year 1,015 and the Native Americans have it written on a tree somewhere. That's just not how it happens. It's the average or chance of this ever happening again.

And the numbers we are seeing here are staggering -- 20, 25 inches of rainfall. Where does that go? Two feet of rain, it all has to wash downhill.

So what happened? The rain came off the ocean. It came down here into the mid-country upstate and all the way to the low country. And that rain came down for hours, like 36 hours at a time, it just continued to rain.

[08:05:05] So we have all of this water, this entire bubble, 20 inches or more has to eventually get down to the ocean. That's going to take some time. And that may take more than weeks in some spots for the water to truly recede back to where it was.

CUOMO: All right, Chad, probability is good comfort but not right now because they're dealing with the reality on the ground. So let's get to Wyatt Coleman, chief of the West Columbia Fire Department. Chief, we know you're against it. We know you're very busy, so thank you for the time. Exactly how you were urgent is it right now? What are you up against?

WYATT COLEMAN, CHIEF, WEST COLUMBIA FIRE DEPARTMENT: We're still up against a lot of flooding in the low homes right here on the river. We have a voluntary evacuation of the homes right now. Some of the water is still receding but we're still having to do rescues for people stranded.

CUOMO: Do you have the resources you need? Are you asking for volunteers who are in the surrounding areas to come with John boats or anything, or is the state helping you?

COLEMAN: The state does have resources that we can tap into. But right now, we don't need them. We have all the aid with all our surrounding counties. So if we need any aid we just notify the next county, and they send it to us.

CUOMO: You all in positions of leadership there are doing pretty good in tone. Everyone is measured in their response. But how tough is this for you?

COLEMAN: This is pretty tough. Yesterday, one of our fireman was doing a swift water rescue and lost contact with him. Luckily, he was able to hang on to the victim and they later found him. And everything is fine right now.

CUOMO: Always reluctant to report the death toll. One, it changes, and, two, when it's low, it inspires false confidence. What do you tell people that see the rain is slowed down, they want to get in and get out, they want to get themselves out, get supplies, what do you tell them? COLEMAN: We're telling them to stay home. None of the

restaurants are opening up. Most of the grocery stores are closed. They need to stay off the roads. We have probably about ten dams that broke in Lexington County yesterday and flooded the roads and washed the roads completely out. People were steadily going around the cones and trying to drive through there. And this is where the rescues are having to come in at.

CUOMO: Do you think there's anything that can be done to help the waters recede, or is this just about time?

COLEMAN: This is just about time really. It is my understanding that the Lake Murray Dam right now is flowing 38,000 gallons of water a minute to relieve the pressure on the dam so it won't overflow. So all that has to come downhill, and it's coming toward us.

CUOMO: What can you tell people? Want you to use our CNN capabilities here to get the message out. What should people know?

COLEMAN: They need to just stay home. They really do. The governor has asked them to stay home. We're asking them to stay home and stay off these roads so when we need to go rescue people we're able to get through there with no problem.

CUOMO: Hard to do though, right, sheriff? If you're there, if you have someone who needs things and you're taking care of them and you're just getting scared about the water being around you, people like to take matters into their own hands. What's the balance?

COLEMAN: Well, they need to leave it to the professionals. A lot of times, the people get out here in the John boats and don't know the swift water type situations, and they get in trouble themselves and then we have to go rescue them. All our rescue teams, swift water technicians, have the wet suits and the preservers to, you know, sustain their life in case they get in trouble. But these people doing their John boats and stuff, they need to stay out of the way, if they don't mind.

CUOMO: We're telling people, because of the overflow, you have to boil your water right now because the sewers are backed up. Obviously it's going to affect everything. You've been there your whole life. Have you ever seen anything like this? How do you explain it to yourself?

COLEMAN: No, sir. I've been with the city 39 years and I've never seen the river this high before. We've had flooding before, but nothing like this. So we pulled in extra crews to handle any situation that we might come across.

CUOMO: All right, well, let us know what we can do to get the word out. We'll help any way we can, including the umbrella over your head. But you have much bigger priorities including the rainfall. So let us know how to help you, sheriff.

COLEMAN: Thank you, Chris. Appreciate it.

CUOMO: All right, you take care. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: They have their work cut out for them today.

So meanwhile, another story to tell you about. Philadelphia-area universities are on high alert this morning after threats made on social media over the weekend. CNN's Evan Perez is live in Washington with the very latest. What were these threats, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, this is a warning about potential violence today at about 20 universities in the Philadelphia area are on alert. It's all because of a social media posting that makes reference to last week's community college massacre in Oregon. One of the posting claims, quote, "The first of our kind has struck fear in the hearts of America. On October 5th, 2015, at 1:00 central time, a fellow robot will take up arms against a university near Philadelphia."

[08:10:02] The postings prompted the FBI and the ATF to issue advisories to colleges in the area. Law enforcement officials say there is no specific threat. The FBI says it warned universities out of an abundance of caution but, quote, "no specific college or university was identified in the posting."

This all comes on a weekend when authorities in northern California announced they arrested four high school boys who they believe planned a shooting attack on a gathering at their school. And as you know, these things come up all the time. It could be a hoax. But these colleges that receive these warnings, including Drexel University, Temple University of Pennsylvania, they all say they plan to increase safety patrols today, Michaela.

PEREIRA: And hopefully students and people in the area will stay on high alert. Evan, thank you for that. Keep us updated on that, OK?

Meanwhile, a student who survived the Oregon college massacre spoke out exclusively to CNN. She said that the 26-year-old killer simply showed no mercy. Sara Sidner is the one that spoke to her. She is live in Roseburg, Oregon. And it's a very difficult conversation to listen to we want to alert our viewers.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is very, very difficult. It was difficult for her to tell us. She didn't want her face on camera, but she said it was OK to use her name. This is a mother of three children, a six-year-old, a 12-year-old, and a 13-year-old. And she had to explain to them what happened when they found out that their mother was inside the classroom when the shooting happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRACY HUE, SURVIVOR OF UMPQUA COMMUNITY COLLEGE SHOOTING: 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, just waiting to not see anything anymore.

SIDNER: Tracy Hue lived because she played dead. HUE: I was in the front of the classroom facing the teacher when

everything happened. He just came in and shot towards the back of the wall, told everybody to get into the room.

SIDNER: It was a fellow student. 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. And he told everybody to get on the ground. Everybody tried to huddle to the ground. And then the girl in the wheelchair tried to -- she got off and tried to get down on the ground.

SIDNER: There was a woman in a wheelchair, as well?

HUE: Yes, and she had a dog with her. But the dog was 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: 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. He was trying to crawl down on the ground with us. Then he shot the professor and then he just started shooting everybody on the ground. And then that's when I knew that, you know, this is it. I'm probably going to die. 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 the blood that was all over me, that's when I knew it was real. And I remember whispering to one other person next to me, he's only one person. All of us, we have to do something about it or 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.

What did he say exactly?

HUE: He said that you're the lucky one. 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: He handed the man an envelope to give to police, and then started asking his victims about their religion.

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

SIDNER: You have no idea the courage it took for Tracy to sit down and talk to us about what she witnessed, about her feelings, about how she survived. She was, she says, one of only three people in that classroom able to walk out of that classroom. The rest were either dead or so badly injured or so terrified that they had to wait to get out of the classroom with help from paramedics and police. Back to you guys.

PEREIRA: Sara, I mean, it's just -- it's unbelievable. You hear her say that they -- she, at one point, thought they had to take matters into their own hands, that she was still willing to do that. That was your sort of visceral reaction.

[08:15:08] CAMEROTA: Yes. And, you know --

SIDNER: She was willing to risk her life.

CAMEROTA: Right. I mean --

SIDNER: She was risking her life at that moment.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. And, you know, psychologists talk about the ripple effect of violence. Hearing her talk about her three young children, all I believe under 12 years old, who now have to live with the trauma and fear that their mother came so close to dying forever.

CUOMO: They also have the solace that she didn't die.

SIDNER: Absolutely.

CUOMO: Which something that matters also.

One of the big challenges for people like this mom is dealing with the fact that she lived.

PEREIRA: I know. The survivor's guilt.

CAMEROTA: That, too.

CUOMO: Just the fear that you almost died, sometimes is something that stays with you for a long time.

PEREIRA: But, Sara, you said that she plans on going back to school?

SIDNER: I asked her, I said, what are you going to do now? She said, look, I decided to become a nurse. That's what I was in school for. I have to go back. I have to do this for my family.

I can't -- I can't just stop. I need to be able to help provide for my family. Her husband is here with her, but most of her family lives in California. She says, I just -- I have no choice. I have to do this for them.

I just thought, that was so incredibly touching because you do realize, this is the only community college in the entire county. I mean, this is it for her. This is closest she can get to be able to go to school and be able to take care of her children. She's not going to stop.

But I also asked her if she was able to talk to anyone, get any kind of counseling, and she says, I'm just not ready yet. I haven't done that yet.

So, the first people outside of her family she talked to was us.

CAMEROTA: Wow.

CUOMO: That's not the best situation in the world either. I mean, the earlier you get the help, the better.

CAMEROTA: Sara, thanks for bringing us that story. It's powerful.

Of course, the debate over guns is heating up now following that massacre in Oregon. So, what does GOP contender Mike Huckabee think is a solution? We'll ask him, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:20:42] IAN MERCER, OREGON GUNMAN'S FATHER: How on earth could he compile 13 guns? How can that happen? You know? They talk about gun laws, they talk about gun control. Every time something like this happens, they talk about it and nothing is done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, that was the father of the Oregon gunman, speaking exclusively to CNN.

Hillary Clinton is set to outline her gun proposals today. Let's hear from the other side of the aisle. Republican presidential candidate, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee joins us now.

Good morning, Governor. Thanks so much for being here, even for this terribly upsetting topic.

Let's talk about what the father said. He wants to know how his son stockpiled 13 weapons. What's your answer?

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, he was able to do it because nobody really reported any of the signs. This guy apparently was a loaner. He exhibited some traits of behavior and attitudes that were warning signals, but nobody acted upon them. And he was able to obtain those weapons, some of which came, apparently, from his mother, some that he obtained.

I think we always talk about what the weapon was, but whether it's a pressure cooker or whether it's a gun, we're dealing with people who are either deranged or they're very focused because they want to kill people in the name of terrorism. You know, we have a not so much a gun control, we have a problem with sin and evil. This is an evil thing, when people kill another person. It happens way too often.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HUCKABEE: I hear people say, we just have to do something, but we need to do something that makes sense and something that helps.

CAMEROTA: Of course. So, let's talk about that, OK? Let's talk about the solutions, because I know that you've said this is a mental health issue, in addition to being evil, as you said, it's a mental health issue, not a gun issue.

So, let's talk about that. What is the solution? If you know someone, if you have a neighbor who is a 20-something-year-old guy, who is a loaner, who is withdrawn, who lives with his mother, has an arsenal of guns, what are you supposed to do?

HUCKABEE: Well, all over New York City, and you've seen the posters that say, if you see something, say something, and I think that's really the basic premise that we all ought to operate under, what I would call the voluntary social contract.

If you see someone, if you know someone, whether it's in your family, you should say, first, you know, try to find out what that person is all about and thinking. If you need to, report them to the police and say, this is a person that is just exhibiting some behavior that is a little creepy and frightening. That's better than going to the people who are trying to protect themselves and say, we're going to come after you.

CAMEROTA: Sure. But what's the law? I mean, what is the law?

If you go -- if you call the police and say, my neighbor is kind of creepy, he never had a girlfriend, he's a loaner, he has a gun -- actually, there is no law on the books that would allow the police to show up and do anything with that person. I mean, that's the problem, is that we can all agree there is a mental health component here, with the latest mass shootings we've seen, but there's no law to stop it. I mean, can you propose anything that the police could do about that situation?

HUCKABEE: Well, I think you're in a very dangerous zone, and this is when the president gets up and says, we need those common sense laws, the common sense measures, but he's never defined them, because, frankly, there is no law that prevents people from doing things that are violent. I mean, there are a lot of crimes that nobody sees coming until it's too late.

But I think -- I want to go back to the heart of it. This is a matter of evil. It's a matter of a culture in which some people, this guy, for example, wanted to be famous. He made very clear, he wanted everybody to know who he was because he was a loaner.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HUCKABEE: I think the sheriff and your network and others said, we're not going to elevate this guy to a celebrity status by keeping his picture and name on the screen.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HUCKABEE: I think that's one of the most important things we can do.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I think that maybe that is one little incremental step, that we don't announce the names of mass shooters.

Jeb Bush said, basically, bad stuff happens. Is that your feeling about these things, too?

HUCKABEE: Well, you know, I think that was taken out of context.

[08:25:00] Let me defend Jeb, and I'm, you know, an opponent of his in the primary, but he was asked a question. I think he probably would have worded it differently if he had it to do over. I think what he was trying to say is, look, car wrecks happen every day. There are airplane crashes. There are things that happen, some which we can prevent and some we can't.

But we can't -- for example, we could stop most of the car wrecks if we restricted speeds to 25 miles per hour. There would be few car accidents if no car were allowed to go faster than 25 miles per hour.

CAMEROTA: Sure.

HUCKABEE: But as a society, we would never accept that. So, sometimes, we have to decide what risk are we willing to take?

CAMEROTA: Sure.

HUCKABEE: Never be an airline crash if we never had airplanes fly. I think what he was saying was --

CAMEROTA: I mean, are you saying, governor, that there is nothing we can do about school shootings and mass shootings? This is a risk we're going to have to take because we respect the Second Amendment and people have the right to have guns, so I guess school shootings come along with that?

HUCKABEE: No. I don't say that at all, Alisyn.

The fact is, schools -- I know we perceive they're the most dangerous place and it's worse than it's ever been. Statistically, that's not true. Here's a figure I never hear talk about -- 2 million times a year, the presence of a gun in the hands of a legal gun owner stops a crime, a violent crime. We never hear that part of it.

The fact is, every time we have had one of these shootings that the president mentioned, every one of them, happened in a gun-free zone. So, you know, we can say we're going to have more gun-free zones, but that ends up being the worst thing, because it just gives the shooter a real confidence that he walks into that environment and he's the only one armed. Even in this case, it turns out that he shot himself. But it was only when the police confronted him that he did that.

CAMEROTA: You know, Governor, there was someone actually in that vicinity, another student, who did have a firearm. He had a concealed carry license. He was a veteran.

He talked about why he decided not to try to kill the gunman. Listen to this for a second.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were quite a distance away from the actual building where it was happening, which could have opened up us to be potential targets ourselves. And, you know, not knowing where SWAT was on their response time, they wouldn't know who we were. If we had our guns ready to shot, they could think we were the bad guys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: I mean, there you go, that's a logical fear. If he had drawn his gun and raced to the scene, he was afraid he would have been shot by the SWAT team. You know, it doesn't always work that way, that more guns would have stopped this crazed gunman.

HUCKABEE: No, what he did was exactly right because he was a distance away. He wasn't like in the presence of the shooter. He did what everyone is trained to do if you've had a concealed carry permit. It's not to go brandishing your weapon as soon as you hear of something going on. You're not a cop. You don't get to run to the scene.

But if you're at the scene and somebody starts shooting and someone in that classroom had been able to bring a weapon out. What we did have was a true hero. Chris Mintz, who was a ten-year army veteran who was shot five times by this guy, but he tried to stop him. He physically tried to stop him. There were heroic actions in the midst of this.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HUCKABEE: But nobody is suggesting if you have a gun, you're a mile away, you jump in your car and drive over and run out with your gun in the air. Gosh, that is a good way to get killed, because the cops don't know whether you're part of the active shooter scenario or whether you're a defender.

CAMEROTA: That's the point, it's chaotic.

HUCKABEE: No one is suggesting that.

CAMEROTA: It's chaotic when these are unfolding.

HUCKABEE: Yes, absolutely it is.

CAMEROTA: Let me show you what Hillary Clinton is proposing today. She's suggesting gun control issues. I want to get your comments.

Tighten the gun show Internet sales loophole, OK? Isn't that a no-brainer? Shouldn't there be universal background checks and people not be able to buy guns online? Are you comfortable with that suggestion of hers?

HUCKABEE: I mean, if it would prevent, but statistically, that has almost virtually no impact whatsoever on gun crime. So, once again, I think these are the measures that get proposed because they sound good, but if you look at the figures, that doesn't really change the dynamics.

CAMEROTA: OK. You're still comfortable. You'd be comfortable with that?

I mean, universal background checks, 93 percent --

HUCKABEE: I think it's up for debate.

CAMEROTA: Ninety-three percent of the American public support universal background checks. Do you support those?

HUCKABEE: As long as they're done without this extraordinarily cumbersome process, I think it can be done. There have been a lot of proposals where it can be an instant background check. I think those are things that even the NRA has supported in the past.

CAMEROTA: So, Governor, where does that leave us? I mean, how do we move forward, thinking we can send our kids to school and this won't happen?

HUCKABEE: Well, the fact is, sending your kids to school today is much safer than sending my kids to school 30 years ago when they went.