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Crew of Soyuz Spacecraft Rescued After Launch Mishap; 2 Killed as Michael Carves Path of Destruction; Catastrophic Damage Across Panhandle. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired October 11, 2018 - 06:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Thursday, October 11, 6 a.m. in the east. And I am standing in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael.

[05:59:55] This is Panama City, Florida, where this storm passed through a little bit east of here when the eye made landfall. It brought 155 mile-per-hour winds, two miles per hour short of a Category 5 storm. The most powerful storm ever to hit the Panhandle, one of the most powerful storms ever to make landfall in the United States.

We know that two people have died already as a result of this storm, a man here in Florida, and a girl, an 11-year-old girl in Georgia. Trees fell on their homes.

Just to give you a sense of the power of this storm here in Panama City, I'm standing in what was some kind of office grocery complex. This was not some flimsy wooden structure. This was a building made of cinder blocks. You can see right here, simply blown to smithereens.

Again, this is the aftermath. But Michael is still very much a dangerous storm. We'll show you where and where it's headed in just a moment, but first, I want to go back to Alisyn Camerota in New York, because there is still more breaking news.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Sure is, John. So we will be back with you momentarily, but here's another breaking story. There's been an emergency aboard the Soyuz spacecraft that was carrying an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut. They had to abort a launch after a failure of one of its rockets.

You're about to see some of the video, so let's get right to CNN's Fred Pleitgen. He is live in Moscow with this developing story.

Fred, what happened?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn.

Yes, it is actually developing as we speak. And, you know, this was a major incident in this launch, but it also seems as though it could have been a lot more catastrophic as it was. We know from space travel from incidents in the past how small the

margin of error is when you're shooting people into space. Trying to piece together what happened. Here's what we know so far.

This rocket took off with Nick Hague, the American astronaut, and the Russian astronaut, Alexey Ovchinin, and I would say about three minutes, a little less than three minutes into the flight, it was the second stage of the Soyuz booster rocket that seemed to have some sort of technical malfunction.

I listened to the broadcast as it what going on, and it was amazing to hear the astronauts, how calm they remained when they realized that this rocket was not working properly. They then detached the capsule from the rocket and went into what's called a ballistic descent back to earth. That's basically a much faster descent than would normally have, if you're trying to get back to space.

It seems the parachutes -- the parachutes deployed. They landed about 250 miles away from where the rocket took off. And the latest that we have -- and again, this is just coming in -- is that there are helicopters that have been on the way to the site of where they landed. We hear that the astronauts are alive and are apparently in good condition, as the Russians put it.

Apparently, there are crews that are on the scene right now. Russian paratroopers actually jumping out of helicopters to get to that site as fast as possible. Of course, we'll keep giving you updates as exactly how these astronauts are doing.

Just a quick word, though, the American astronaut, he's only been with the astronaut program of NASA since 2013. It was going to be his first flight into space, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Hey, Fred. That video is incredible. I mean, that's a very hard landing. It looks as though -- I mean, it gives the impression that something explodes upon impact, but in fact, it looks like maybe it's -- they're just falling into kind of a dusty field.

PLEITGEN: Yes. I think that it's probably them falling into a dusty field. You know, that area around Baikonur, which is actually in Kazakhstan. It's not even in Russia. That's a very dusty kind of steppe type area that they would have been landing in.

But of courses, you're absolutely right, that landing, nonetheless, would have been fairly hard. They do deploy those parachutes, but of course, this is not the usual situation for that spacecraft to return.

It is made to withstand a large amount of impact. That's how Russian space travel is. You know, that's -- that's the way their capsules do land. But it's certainly does seem to be that it's harder than usual.

But you know, the real miracle in all of this -- I want to call it a miracle. It's truly really unclear whether or not this is something that the astronauts initiated or whether the spacecraft initiated it themselves, is that they were able to get off that rocket as it was malfunctioning. Because you know, we've seen, in the past, disasters in space travel. And they don't usually end as well as this one seems to have ended.

So the Russians continuing to get us information. We're getting it as it comes along, but it really seems as though these two astronauts -- I wouldn't want to say they got lucky, but they certainly seemed to have been very calm, very cool and relaxed and extremely professional in a very, very difficult situation.

CAMEROTA: Yes, you're so right, Fred. I mean, they survived. And just one more time, is NASA in touch with the American astronaut now?

PLEITGEN: Yes. I'm not sure whether NASA is in touch with the American astronaut directly, but NASA has also put out information, saying that they know that the astronaut is doing OK.

Basically, what seems to have happened is that, while all of this was going on, when they noticed that something was wrong with the booster and then after they detached and were in a descent, the astronauts pretty much at all times seemed to have been in touch with mission control.

Now mission control not only has Russians in it, because of course, this is a combined mission, it's got Americans in it, as well. So NASA, through the folks that would have been in the Russian mission control room, they would have had contact with the two astronauts, as well, so they would have known what's going on. Not the exact status of the astronauts but, certainly, whether or not they were still alive, whether or not they were still conscious and how they were doing when they were coming down and possibly also after they landed, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, Fred. What a story. What video.

Thank you for bringing us all of the developments in this breaking news and, obviously, we will check back with you throughout the hour as you get more information.

Meanwhile, John Berman is in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael. It is astounding, John, to see where you're standing and what it looks like just hours after that Category 4 hurricane tore through that area. So tell us about your surroundings.

BERMAN: Yes, Alisyn, it's really hard to figure out what this building was. We think it was some kind of office complex. We can see the desks here, just behind the desk. I don't know if you can see it. There's actually a road sign, a green road sign. And then there's a bakery and a grocery store with the roof just collapsed in inside the building.

Obviously, this structure could not withstand the wind. The wind was part of the story, with trees down, structures down, debris strewn everywhere near where I am. But the wind, only part of the story. Catastrophic storm surge along some coastal communities if you've heard about the town of Mexico beach, Apalachicola. They suffered great damage. We will get reports from there throughout the morning, but I do want to highlight, even as we are standing amidst this debris of cinder blocks, cement and wood and twisted metal that Hurricane Michael is not a hurricane anymore but is still very much an active, dangerous moving storm.

So let's get the forecast and the update on that right now.

Let's go to Chad Myers in the Weather Center -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: John, it's still a 50-mile-per-hour storm, very close to Augusta, Georgia. And that 50-mile-per-hour wind is still high enough to knock down trees in its path right now.

The big story is the rain and also, there's still a tornado watch on up to the north of that eye. So there still could be some spin. Now, we only had three reports of tornadoes yesterday, which in my mind -- it blows my mind that, in a storm this strong, there was only three. So that was pretty good.

And then we move on up toward Norfolk and the end of the day. Two p.m., this thing is east of Charlotte. We are going to see more rain. We are because it's moving so fast, not going to see the type of rain we had with Matthew.

So here's where we were. Monday to the east of Cancun at 80 miles per hour. At this point in time, the forecast was for a major landfalling hurricane, very close to Mexico Beach, which is unbelievable, this far away. And it did become a major hurricane, but that was on Tuesday. And then it got bigger and bigger and bigger. And by Wednesday in the afternoon, we were all the way to almost Cat 5.

So the exponential damage from Panama City through Panama City Beach to the north not as bad. And then Mexico Beach and all the way down to Port St. Joe, that's where the catastrophic damage is right now. We're trying to get there. It is very difficult. Every tree is down in the area or stripped of its bark, literally. It looked like a tornado went off, of the pictures I've seen so far.

Daybreak will make a big story for this right now. Heavy rainfalls still possible and that heavy rainfall was somewhere between four and fix. This was the third lowest pressure ever for a landfalling hurricane in the United States beating Katrina and also Andrew -- John.

BERMAN: Chad, it really is amazing. This wasn't a forecasting problem. You told us how bad this could get. This was a "people didn't want to believe how bad the forecast really was" problem. They thought it might just stay as a Category 2 storm. It didn't. You told us it was going to get stronger, and it very much did strengthen it, even as it made landfall with 155-per-hour winds. As you say, damage everywhere, and it looks very much like a tornado had it passed through here. We're not sure. We don't know what happened to this building as it was blown into smithereens, the cinderblocks simply blown everywhere.

Again, this is the wind damage, but Chad was talking about the damage from the storm surge and that combination. One of the areas that really got hit by that problem east of where I am, just a little bit, Apalachicola. Our Derek van Dam, and I know you probably were watching Derek yesterday. Right in the thick of it, Derek joins us this morning.

Derek, how are you doing?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're doing OK. Everybody is safe, John. Thank you for asking.

You know, significant impacts from storm surge in Apalachicola, as you mentioned. What you're looking at behind me is a pile of oyster shells. We're in an area near the Apalachicola River that has fishing businesses that line this region.

But what's important is the high-water mark behind me. You can see the debris left over from the remnants of what was a storm surge that rose to over seven feet. It was just above my waist at that particular point. But the land here slopes all the way down to the Apalachicola River, which is about 200 yards to my left. But it only takes one foot of moving water to lift a vehicle.

[06:10:07] Can you imagine what seven feet of moving ocean water can do? This is a golf cart that came, probably, from a few blocks down the road. But look behind me, and you can see a semi-trailer in a very precarious position, obviously impacted by the effects of storm surge. It lifted it and put it on -- partially on its side.

Franklin County, where I'm located on the Big Bend of Florida's Panhandle, susceptible to storm surge, but also susceptible to strong winds. We have power outages, communication outages. It is going to be that first light that John was talking about that's really going to give us the whole scope of the damage that was left over from the fury of Hurricane Michael.

Back to you, John.

BERMAN: All right. Derek van Dam, we are so glad to hear your voice, so glad that you and your team were safe this morning. We know yesterday had harrowing moments for all of you. Thank you so much for being with us.

As Derek said, I should have noted this before. There are more than half a million people without power this morning in three states. I suspect that number may not go down very soon, and it could go up, given the scope of the damage here, Alisyn. You can see once again around me just how powerful this storm was.

And these winds were very fierce. And they were fierce and sustained, 100 miles an hour to 120 miles an hour in this area for well over an hour, just too much for buildings like this to sustain.

CAMEROTA: So John, just tell us about your experience. Because the last time we saw you on NEW DAY, you were in Panama City. You were hightailing it out of there, because Chad had warned that the winds were going to be 145 miles per hour as they came on shore. And we have video of you here just being battered around by all of the wind and the rain. And so then what? What happened when you left us with these cliff-hangers? BERMAN: We got off the beach, because the beach wasn't going to be

safe. And probably, the beach wasn't going to be here once the storm hit. We head about a mile inland to a hotel. And as the storm hit, I was outside with Diane Gallagher, and we were just outside the hotel, maybe 15 feet away from the corner of the building. And the wind was so fierce, just streaming through.

You could see it horizontally, carrying debris, carrying the rain which felt like nails on your face. You almost couldn't stand with the rain biting into your face like that. And it went on for a long time.

Now, I was in Florence a few weeks ago, and the winds substantially stronger here yesterday than they were in Florence. Florence was a category 1, 75-mile-an-hour sustained winds. This was 100-plus miles- per-hour, gusts of 120, maybe even higher. It was very piercing and too dangerous to be out in the middle of it. So we were sort of sheltered as much as we could by the corner of that, talking over myself, explaining yesterday what was happening, Alisyn.

But you can see just how difficult it was to be outside yesterday. And that wasn't even the center of the eye. This was the western wall that hit us here in Panama City, Panama City Beach, the worst of it about 20 to 30 miles east.

And we're still about 90 minutes from sunrise. We're only beginning to get a sense of the scope of the damage.

I can tell you that this is the building -- obviously, I'm standing in this destroyed building right here. But just behind the camera, we couldn't get enough lights on it. We think there's a school that had its roof collapsed in, and there's also buildings just over there that have fallen apart. It's a mess around here, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: If we're looking at that video, I think that might have been the school that you were referencing. The whole roof has been blown off. This is a live camera that we have set up. So we are looking at what I guess was the school.

I mean, that is just demolished. You know, kids -- who knows when they'll be able to go back to school here. That's the problem. I mean, the aftermath of this, it's not over. You know, we -- we pick up stakes and leave after the worst of it, and then people deal with this for months, as we know, to come, even a year, as we've seen in Puerto Rico.

So John, we're very glad that you're safe. We're very glad that you're still there to show us what's happening today, and obviously, we have a lot more to cover with the storm. So we are going to have lots and lots of guests.

I do want to update now on the story that we have led with. There's been -- there was a mishap of some kind aboard the Soyuz spacecraft, carrying an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station. The crew had to abort the launch after one of the rockets failed.

NASA now reports the crew is out of the capsule and in good condition. But you should see what a hard landing they had to make as this capsule plummeted to the ground. This could have gone much worse.

We are still waiting to hear from the astronaut and the cosmonaut, but they have survived this, even though, as you can see, their capsule coming to earth. And wait until you see the hard impact of their landing.

So John, we're continuing to cover all of this. It's just an incredible video that we're watching and an incredible story of that happened in the sky there.

[06:15:06] BERMAN: Yes, it sounds remarkable, even more remarkable that everyone on board that capsule survived. That is terrific news. I look forward to hearing more about that throughout the morning. Thanks so much, Alisyn.

Even as we are learning more about the scope of devastation here from Hurricane Michael you can see the wind damage, but there are also people stranded in their homes still from the storm surge and all that rainfall. We're going to speak to people very much involved with some current ongoing rescue operations. A representative of the Cajun Navy will join us neck.

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BERMAN: John Berman here in Panama City, Florida. You can see the aftermath of Hurricane Michael all around me. A building just ripped to shredded. We are watching the storm all morning long.

Ninety minutes until sunrise here on the Panhandle. Still just getting a sense of the scope of the devastation. Yes, there's wind damage but also the storm surge was so fierce, so high and so dangerous, we don't even know how bad it is in some places.

Joining us now by phone is Jason Gunderson. He's a member of the Cajun Navy, that group founded after Katrina. Volunteers that go to places in need and rescue people in need. He joins me now from Callaway, which is just slightly east of where I am across the water from Tyndall Air Force Base, an area that was so hard hit by the wind and the water.

[06:20:17] Jason, if you can hear me, tell me what you've been seeing.

JASON GUNDERSON, MEMBER OF CAJUN NAVY (via phone): Can you hear me OK?

BERMAN: Yes, sir.

GUNDERSON: Can you hear me OK?

BERMAN: Yes, sir.

GUNDERSON: OK. You said you can hear me OK. Is that correct?

BERMAN: Yes, we hear you great, Jason, go ahead.

GUNDERSON: All right. I'm sorry. It's just I've been having bad signal all day long. It's -- it's very hard to explain. The only way I can explain it through my eyeballs is a third-world country war zone. It's beyond recognition and of being repaired.

There's telephone poles down. Every single telephone pole is snapped in half. There's power lines on the ground, live power lines. Muddy waters. Trees twisted around. Buildings folded in half, no roofs. It's a very surreal situation.

And to say the least, I'm honored to be out here to help and with the group that I have, with the United Cajun Navy, we -- we spread across the countryside, you know, for multiple hurricanes. And I work with an amazing group of people, and I'm volunteering all of my work and taking time off from my kids and going to help.

BERMAN: We are so lucky that you are willing to do that, to go and help people. Tell me about the people who are in need in Callaway.

GUNDERSON: Well, as of right now, the guys and I, are -- we are in the mobile command unit, which is an ambulance. And we have been going around on phone calls coming in from our commanding officers to rescue at some addresses, and we've coming up to some pretty horrific situations.

We rescued an elderly lady earlier. Roof ripped off, had to cut the trees just to get the vehicle down the road. There's no power anywhere. We get inside -- we get inside the home, and the lady is in a pretzel position underneath a bunch of rubble, about 250-pound elderly lady. And where she was at, if you look above her head, there was no roof. And all you could see was the stars and the trees that's mashed in on top of her.

Pulling her out, we had to rip a door off the wall, use it as a gurney and take her out of the house with it. She was all busted up and bloodied from head to toe.

We just came off a rescue a few minutes ago. We went to an abandoned house on a call that we got from our higher up. Two beautiful abandoned dogs that got left behind in the storm, and a cat. We currently have them in the mobile command unit right now with us. And nobody has taken them.

There's no power anywhere; there's no resources. We're -- it's just survival mode out here, and it's very scary. It's very surreal. It's heartbreaking. I'll tell you -- I'll you that, to say the least; it's heartbreaking.

BERMAN: It sounds heartbreaking. Again, and it sounds like the people there again are lucky you are helping them however you can. At this point does it look it was mostly like wind damage, or are you still dealing with floodwaters? GUNDERSON: No, it's not the floodwaters; it's the wind damage. It's

serious, serious wind damage. It's a different type of hurricane than what happened with Hurricane Katrina and Harvey and Florence. This is -- this is severe. This is severe wind damage.

The wind that came through here is surreal. It destroyed everything. It hit land three miles an hour short of a Category 5 hurricane. And where we are at right now and the devastation that we've seen in Callaway and -- what's that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lynn Haven.

GUNDERSON: -- Lynn Haven are just -- I don't know how to even explain it to you. Like I told you earlier, the only way I know how to explain it to you is a third-world country war zone. It's unlivable, and it's going to take at least two years to rebuild this place back.

BERMAN: Jason, you're doing a terrific job explaining to us what you're seeing. Just a couple quick more questions. No. 1, have you seen any state or federal resources on the ground there yet? And have you seen any fatalities?

[06:25:10] GUNDERSON: No, sir, no fatalities yet. Thankfully, we're not having to deal with that just yet. It might come in the future.

As far as any kind of federal assistance or anybody being out here from the government, I have not seen them yet. We're actually sitting in front of a law enforcement type of -- let's see, a fire department/law enforcement agency. And they have no power, generator. Everybody is sleeping on the ground. So we're parked across the street, sleeping in the mobile command unit. The United Cajun Navy mobile command unit, which is an ambulance.

We're sleeping there overnight. We're all soaking wet, muddy, dirty, stinky, bloody, you know, the whole nine yards and this is survival mode. There's no other way to explain it, is survival mode. No food. We've been awake since 5:30 yesterday morning. We're on no sleep. Just the sights that we've seen and the detours that we had to take just to make our -- excuse me. It's -- I'm working on no sleep. Just to make our way around town is a challenge within itself.

BERMAN: Yes.

GUNDERSON: Everywhere we go, it's blocked off. I got another guy driving. I'm hanging out the window with a spotlight just to navigate. If it takes you 15 minutes to get somewhere, you can say that's going to take you four hours. If you need to turn around and go another 15 minutes --

BERMAN: Jason --

GUNDERSON: -- that's another four hours. It's impossible to get around.

BERMAN: Jason Gunderson, do we a favor, thank the person to your left, thank the person to your right and thank you for everything you're doing on the ground there in Callaway, which you say you've never seen anything like it. Wind speeds of 155 miles per hour just devastating that town. Again, thank you for the work you're doing there.

GUNDERSON: Yes, sir.

BERMAN: Please stay safe. Thank you, Jason.

GUNDERSON: Yes, sir. And it's a team effort.

BERMAN: Jason Gunderson, a volunteer -- we know. We know, and all of you are so necessary, and all of you are doing terrific work. Jason Gunderson with the Cajun Navy on the ground in Callaway, which is a little bit east of me, much closer to where the center of this storm made landfall, with wind speeds of 155 miles per hour, Alisyn.

I have to say, listening to him was sobering. That is someone who has been involved in rescue and relief operations for years, and he says he's never seen anything like this.

CAMEROTA: Listen, the Cajun Navy is impressive. When they swing into action, they work. I mean, they just go out on these rescues and, as he said, you think it's going to take 15 minutes. It takes four hours. They're operating on no food, no sleep. It's really wonderful how they sacrifice to try to save people.

So John, we will be back with you momentarily. But there is a lot of other news, including pressure building on the Trump administration to confront the Saudi government about what happened to a missing journalist, who is feared murdered. That's next.

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