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Powerful Earthquake Hits Japan; Zhigang Peng is Interviewed about Japan's Earthquake; DeSantis Takes Jabs at Trump and Haley; Candidates Prepping for Final Iowa Pitches. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired January 01, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, and Happy New Year. I'm John Berman, along with Rahel Solomon this morning.

And we are here following breaking news.

Tsunami warnings are in effect for the western coast of Japan. This after a powerful earthquake struck several hours ago.

(VIDEO CLIP)

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: And this is the moment that the 7.5 magnitude quake struck. You can see just incredibly and hear the cars rattling.

Japan has now downgraded the warning from major tsunami warning to tsunami warning. But that still means that nine-foot waves are possible. The warning right now is for people to get to higher ground because every minute counts.

(VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: And this was the scene at a bowling alley, where people were enjoying the New Year's Day holiday when the quake hit. You see them there, hiding under the tables as everything really shakes around them. Some buildings have collapsed and people are said to be trapped in the rubble.

A hospital in the area says that they're receiving injured patients, but some doctors haven't been able to get to the hospital because roads are damaged, and several highways are closed. We're hearing that at one hospital people are being treated in the parking lot. There have been more than a dozen aftershocks, and that could continue for days.

We have team coverage for you. CNN's Hanako Montgomery is in Tokyo and Derek Van Dam is at the CNN Weather Center.

Hanako, we want to start with you. And I understand you have some new reporting on the damages. What are you learning? HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Rahel.

Yes, so we've heard from NHK, Japan's public broadcaster, that there have been at least two people who are experiencing cardiac arrest. We also know that 33,000 homes in Ishikawa prefecture are experiencing blackouts. We also know that bullet trains, train lines are being suspended and that there are just so many cracks in the road that it's difficult for emergency personnel to get to Ishikawa prefecture, like you said.

We also know that 1,000 self-defense force personnel have been dispatched to the area. On top of that, 1,700 personnel from Japan's firefighters have been dispatched to help with emergency response. Twenty aircrafts within the self-defense force are also just monitoring the area, trying to assess what kind of damage has been caused by this earthquake, by the tsunami.

We're also seeing really just scary footage of just fires roaring in Ishikawa prefecture as people try to escape their homes.

And I just want to take a moment and kind of contextualize this as well because today is New Year's Day in Japan. We don't really celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas here, so New Year's Day is really a time when many people celebrate with their families, with their friends in their homes. And, suddenly, right, this earthquake hit at 4:10 p.m. local time, which really just shocked many people.

But also the western coast of Japan isn't really associated with very big, natural disasters. Of course we saw the 2011 triple disaster, and that was on the eastern coast of Japan. So really this has been a shocking moment and a very terrifying moment for many people on the western coast of Japan, Rahel.

SOLOMON: Yes, as you point out, most people would have been likely home with their friends or family when this - when this took place.

Hanako Montgomery, we will continue to check in with you throughout the morning. Hanako, thank you.

BERMAN: All right, the earthquake triggered smaller tsunami waves reaching about four feet. The warning that is in effect does raise concerns that the wave could reach about 10 feet.

Derek Van Dam has been watching all of this from the Weather Center.

Derek, give us a sense of what you're seeing.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS CERTIFIED METEOROLOGIST: Well, I think it's important for our viewers who are tuning in this morning across the world, maybe in Japan or here domestically in the United States that, yes, the threat has not diminished from tsunami activity just yet. And I'll explain why in just one moment.

Keep in mind, a tsunami is not necessarily one wave of water. A tsunami is a series of waves of water. And a lot of times the separation between the wave crests can last anywhere between five minutes to upwards of an hour.

[09:05:04]

And there's a lot of local topography that could extend this threat even further. And I'll explain why. Here's some of the first visuals we're getting out of this region in terms of the tsunami advancing inland. This is the Taski (ph) River in Jutsu (ph), Japan. This is just off the Ishikawa prefecture near where the magnitude 7.5 struck overnight. And that video you saw is fitting the narrative of some of the observed wave heights from the tsunami that we have seen, roughly upwards of 4 feet across the western shoreline of Japan from this powerful, powerful earthquake.

But the threat is not over and the Japan Meteorological Agency, the local meteorological agency on the ground that issues the warnings for tsunamis, is actually picking up on that as well. Keep in mind, we have tsunami warnings for upwards of nine-foot waves still possible. Here's the local topography I talked about being a factor. That's the Ishikawa prefecture just near the magnitude, the epicenter of the earthquake. And when we get that sloshing effect in between the bays and the canals within that peninsula, we can have that water slosh back and forth, back and forth.

And even on a regional scale, you don't have to look far before we see another land mass being Korean peninsula and into Russia. So that water from a powerful earthquake is propagated outward and then bounces back off of the land. This is similar to if you had a bathtub full of water and you were to drop a rock in the middle of it, you would see that waves bounce off the edges of your bathtub and come back towards the middle creating the chaos that ensues in the form of a tsunamis, right?

So, tsunamis form with this separation of the tectonic plates. It forms a wave at the surface. And that wave grows larger as it reaches the coastline. It's called bathymetry. And it's all about that little specific coastline that lines the western sides of Japan.

BERMAN: Derek Van Dam, watching the tsunami threat for us. Derek, thank you very much.

Just to give people a sense of the geography here, what we're talking about, this is the Ishikawa prefecture right here. This was the epicenter of the earthquake. Tokyo, across the island, about 180 miles away, the earthquake absolutely was felt in Tokyo by tens of millions of people. But the epicenter here, the Ishikawa prefecture here, the population there is much lower. It's a prefecture with a population of about one million people right here. The major city has fewer than half a million people.

Still, there are tens of thousands of people inside the extreme danger zone. Let's talk more about the threats they're seeing, particularly the tsunami threat. This is the area of greatest concern right there.

With us now is Dr. Zhigang Peng, professor of geophysics at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Professor, thank you so much for being with us.

What are you watching most closely this morning?

DR. ZHIGANG PENG, PROFESSOR OF GEOPHYSICS, GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: Well, you have already talked about a tsunami. That's definitely one of the things we have to be really watching out. But another thing I should point out is that because of the event of this size, that we expect lots of aftershocks. And as you probably know, houses in Japan they're not very strong. They're mostly wooden building structures. So they can withstand some of the shaking. But if you have continuous vibration, mostly aftershocks, then that could cause some damages. And as you've already pointed out, that sometimes if it cause fires, that cause - that get -- become another problem.

So, those are primarily two things that I think, you know, people at the epicenter region, you know, really have to watch out.

BERMAN: Yes, again, and I can show people some of the video of the various shaking and damage. This was an island off the coast here. You can see the roads there are damaged and cracked. This, obviously, makes it difficult to get aid and to get rescue operations underway if they're in any way needed. Obviously, there is more shaking and whatnot in other places as well.

And I'm glad you brought up aftershocks because I think in some ways the very term diminishes the threat. These are earthquakes. They may not be as powerful as the initial earthquake, but the repetition in and of itself can be very dangerous. Can you explain that?

PENG: Absolutely. So, one of the things that we know, and I can point out, is typically (INAUDIBLE) the people think that aftershocks are smaller than the main event, but there's always a very small percentage, we talk about maybe like 5 percent or 10 percent chance that an aftershock could be larger than the initial event. And in that case, of course, we call the aftershock as the main event and we call the previous event as the main shock. So, things like that could happen. But it's a very small probability. But it's not zero. So, that's one thing I like to point out to your audiences is that the sequence is still unfolding. It's not over yet.

BERMAN: And, again, as we look at the map of Japan right now, people will remember 2011, the earthquake and the tsunami there that had a huge impact, killed 20,000 people and, of course, damaged the Fukushima power plant north of Tokyo there.

[09:10:04]

We are not hearing of any abnormalities at the nuclear plants, particularly on the western coast near the Ishikawa province. But what would you be looking for over in the next several days insofar as that's concerned?

PENG: Right. I think when you talk about this, you know, earthquake, the size matters. So, the event that occurred in 2011 is definitely much larger and, of course, is mostly offshore and triggered a much larger tsunami. So, for now, I think with the event of this size, you know, the tsunami probably is almost over or will probably lingering for a while. So, that probably won't be a concern.

One of the concerns, of course, obviously, which is hard to tell at this case, as time is, whether or not there will be something bigger happen. So, that will be probably one of the main concern.

I want to actually point out, as I was checking with my colleagues in Japan, is that this region apparently is a region that had an ongoing earthquake swarm that had been lasting for several years. And so when you say earthquake swarm, that means a lot of events that actually happening in a very short time period, but in this case lasts already for several years.

In addition to this event, the 7.5 event, actually we also have a magnitude 4 - 4 shock that occurred about five minutes or eight minutes before. So, this is -- what we're seeing here, of course, is a larger event, but we should look at in a larger context. In this region there are ongoing earthquake activities that have already lasting for several years and here comes the big one. So, I think that's one thing to watch out is what's going to happen next.

BERMAN: Dr. Zhigang Peng, thank you so much for helping us understand what we're seeing and perhaps will see in the hours and days ahead. We appreciate your time.

Rahel.

PENG: Thank you very much.

SOLOMON: All right, John, still ahead, we continue to follow that breaking news live in Japan this morning. Right now, as we've been saying, a tsunami warning still in place. Stay with us for the latest as authorities continue to assess the damage.

Plus, the latest options facing Donald Trump's legal team as they start the new year preparing for two appeals to state decisions that could kick him off their ballots.

And the U.S. sinks three of four boats operated by Iran-backed rebels. What the Pentagon is saying about U.S. involvement and security around the Red Sea as attacks on merchant ships continues.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:16:25]

BERMAN: All right, the breaking news this morning, Japan is bracing for aftershocks and a tsunami warning is in place after this major powerful 7.5 magnitude quake hit several hours ago. It struck around 4:00 p.m. local time. People there celebrating the new year. You can see some of the stores there filled with people as the shaking knocked all those goods off the shelves there right onto the floor. People in Tokyo, which is about 180 miles away, they felt the earthquake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MOTOKO RICH, TOKYO BUREAU CHIEF, "NEW YORK TIMES": It was really strong, actually. We were just hanging out in the living room, it's New Year's Day, and then all of a sudden we could really - we could see that the pictures were rattling in their frames on the walls and the whole room was swaying and a little alarm went off. So, I knew right away it was very strong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Yes, you're - there's no mistaking it as it's going on. And this went on for some time. More than a dozen strong aftershocks have been recorded. They could continue for the next several days. Japanese officials are warning that the tsunami waves could reach as high as 10 feet, that is the current warning, with waves up to 10 feet high. Emergency responders, they are deployed. Multiple fires reported. At least 33,000 homes at this point, customers without power. There were some flight cancellations due to cracks on the runway in the major airport in the western part of the country as well.

SOLOMON: All right, we're going to keep a close eye on that.

We also have, of course, officially entered the 2024 election year and the Iowa caucuses are now just two weeks away, followed closely by the New Hampshire primary and then Super Tuesday. It's also shaping up to be a monumental year for Donald Trump, who faces 91 charges, potential Supreme Court challenges and Republican rivals trying to take a dig out of his commanding polling lead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So, let's get it done. We have 2024 ahead of us. We hold the future in our hands. We have it within our power to put this country on a totally new trajectory.

Donald Trump is running on his issues. Nikki Haley is running on her donors' issues. I'm the only one running on your issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: All right, let's bring in Eva McKend, who joins us now.

Good to see you, Eva.

So, the Iowa caucuses quickly approaching. What are you watching?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Rahel, time really running out here. The Iowa caucus is January 15th. Mark your calendars. Governor DeSantis and his family joined a New Year's Eve gathering last night, that's where you saw him there, where he suggested to supports he would aim to outwork his opponents in the closing days here. He's really employed this all in on Iowa strategy, leaning hard on the critical evangelical voters in the state and racking up key endorsements.

He's also traveled to all of the state's 99 counties. But Governor DeSantis, and the rest of the field, still trail far behind frontrunner former President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, Nikki Haley, she's running in second place in New Hampshire, which goes just after Iowa. Her top surrogate, Governor Chris Sununu, he wants the field to consolidate around her as the anti-Trump alternative.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R-NH): He knows his voters who want to see Trump defeated are all coming over to Nikki Haley. In fact, the only person that wants Chris Christie to stay in the race is Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: So, Chris Christie, who Governor Sununu referenced there, has shown no indication he's prepared to leave the race, even cutting an ad last week indicating as such, that he's still very much in this. And if you travel throughout the state, which I did last week, you will see that he has a solid base of support as well.

[09:20:06]

Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy spending a considerable amount of time in Iowa. And former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, he's still in the contest, too, Rahel. He's campaigning in Iowa this week as part of his return to normal tour.

Rahel.

SOLOMON: All right, Eva McKend, thank you. We'll check back with you soon.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, CNN political commentator, former Democratic state representative in South Carolina, Bakari Sellers, and CNN's senior political commentator, former special assistant to President George W. Bush, Scott Jennings.

Happy New Year, gentlemen. It is great to see both of you. Surprising, frankly, to see both of you awake at 9:20 a.m. on New Year's Day, and I do appreciate you both being here.

Let's talk new year's resolutions if you're heading into the campaign season for these candidates. If you're Donald Trump, Scott Jennings, and you are looking at this year layout before you, what is it you think you need to do in the next several weeks?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, well, the first thing he wants to do is crush in Iowa and win New Hampshire and end this race. I mean the faster he can get through two wins, it will effectively end the race and set him on course to be the Republican nominee without much concern. The disaster for Donald Trump would be, say, if Ron DeSantis slips up and gets pretty close to him in Iowa, or somehow ties him or overtakes him, and then Nikki Haley does the same thing to him in New Hampshire. That would be a nightmare for him. But a dream scenario for Trump, and it's within his grasp, is to win by a record amount in Iowa and then turn around and fend off a harder state for him, New Hampshire, where you've got Haley, and as was mentioned in Eva's piece, Chris Christie dragging her down there as well.

BERMAN: Yes, you know, Bakari, do you think that Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire, urging Chris Christie to get out, do you think that's going to have the impact that maybe Governor Sununu wants? Is Christie going to hear that and say, OK, since you said it, I'm going to get out now?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I think we all know Chris Christie not to be that person. I actually think Chris Christie is doing an honorable and noble deed here in being somebody who is trying to pull the Republican Party back to the age of Reagan. I mean, a party that actually stands on conservative values and not this -- these lies and consumed by the cult of personality that is Donald Trump. So, hats off to Chris Christie.

I don't think it's enough, honestly. I know that Governor Sununu and Chris Christie and even Nikki Haley are putting their hats on New Hampshire. However, respectfully, Donald Trump's up by 60 points in South Carolina. So, even with a decent showing in New Hampshire, it's already game, set, match. The new year's resolution for Donald Trump is to start running a general election because the election he's running right now will get him beat again by Joe Biden, which I have no issue with whatsoever.

BERMAN: Oh, what do you think of that, Scott? Bakari is saying the election that Donald Trump is running right now, and one where if you look at the head to head polls he is either tied about President Biden or slightly ahead of President Biden, Bakari is saying that that will not last as the months continue.

JENNINGS: Well, we'll see. I mean a lot of things - a lot of things are going to happen between now and November. He's, obviously, got his legal issues that are going to come and remind people of all the things that he's in trouble for. On the other side of the equation is, is Joe Biden running the kind of campaign right now that would get him re-elected in November. I mean in some ways these guys are magnets for each other and they both have glaring weaknesses. And, obviously, independent voters are not happy with the current president. But in the last midterm, we saw independent voters not happy with the current president and they still voted for his party anyway. Are they going to do that again?

So, there's a lot of unknowns, I hesitate even to hazard a prediction on how this is going to turn out because I don't - I just don't really know. I think the American people don't want this choice, they don't want this rematch and there is some nostalgia for Donald Trump's economic policies, but there's probably not any nostalgia for some of the other things that he did or stands for and the way he left office. There's certainly no love for Joe Biden's agenda right now either. It's really a toss-up affair in my opinion right now as we get going.

BERMAN: Bakari, I've been in Iowa with you. I remember sitting in the lobby of a hotel with you in Iowa four years ago before the caucuses, albeit the Democratic caucuses four years ago. In these days before people actually show up to vote at these very unusual and unique caucus events, what do you think the voters are actually considering and shopping for? Do you fundamentally believe that all these Iowa voters have looked at Donald Trump for so long right now are still shopping with just 14 days to go until the caucuses?

SELLERS: You know, this is going to be really tough. I don't think they're still shopping. I mean you know Donald Trump now. You know everything he stands for. You know everything he brings to the table. The question is, can someone persuade you that they can be a better president than Donald Trump, give you something different.

[09:25:02]

I think that Nikki Haley fell out of favor with some voters last -- over the last couple of weeks, not necessarily with the inability to tell you what the Civil War started because of, but just because of the way that she handled that limelight and the follow-up questioning.

I do think that somebody who's going to do surprisingly well in the Iowa caucuses is probably Vivek Ramaswamy, which is going to surprise a lot of people. I don't think of him as much of a candidate, but I think Iowa is suited for him and the caucus scenario is suited for him to go in and kind of do that hand-to-hand combat. And so we shall see.

But Donald Trump is in great position in Iowa. And I think unless -- Scott knows Republican voters way better than I. Unless he tells me something differently, I'm just going to think that Donald Trump wins this going away.

BERMAN: Bakari Sellers, Scott Jennings, our thanks to both of you. I hope you have a wonderful New Year's Day.

SELLERS: Thank you. You as well.

JENNINGS: Happy New Year. Thanks, John.

SOLOMON: All right, still coming up for us, people in Japan now moving to higher ground after a major earthquake on this New Year's Day. Coming up, the latest warnings.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)