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Staten Island Ferry Crashes Into Terminal; Nashville Floods Leave Destruction in Their Wake

Aired May 08, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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

RICHELLE CAREY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, I'm Richelle Carey.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes. On this CNN Saturday morning we're keeping our eye on a breaking story out of New York. A Staten Island ferry has ran into the terminal in New York.

Our Susan Candiotti is there up in New York. Susan, tell us what we know and what we don't know about this accident.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not very much at this time. T.J., good morning. I'm headed to the scene right now. But the fire department here in New York says the ferry hit a dock on the Staten Island side and at this time they know of no major injuries at this time. Minor injuries, yes, there are reports of that.

They are obviously approaching the scene as well. We are also making our way there.

Now, just to refresh our audience about the Staten Island ferry, it's a busy, busy mode of transportation between Staten Island and lower Manhattan and takes upwards of about 60,000 passengers a day. I presume that that would be a much lower count on the weekends, but it's certainly the only way you can get between Staten Island and Manhattan if you're not driving a car, of course.

Now, the DOT here, the Department of Transportation, has about nine ferries that make that route on a daily basis. Right now we're on our way over there to see firsthand what the situation is.

But if there is any good news to be known, at least they are saying now, no major injuries are involved. What caused is not known or what happened or why it happened.

HOLMES: And we don't know just yet exactly what this was. But the question has to be asked and we probably don't know it just yet, but no indication that it was anything other than an accident given what New Yorkers have gone through in the last week. Again, very early here, but no indication of anything other than an accident right now?

CANDIOTTI: No. And that's not even come up, T.J.

HOLMES: OK. Susan Candiotti, we do appreciate you heading to the scene. We'll touch base with her once she gets there. Again, the Staten Island has crashed. Some injuries we know of but we don't know the extent of those injuries. We are on top of it. Stay with us.

CAREY: All right, in the meantime, let's take a look at some of the other stories that we're following for you today. The funeral for Yeardley Love begins shortly at a church in Baltimore. She was a UVA lacrosse player found dead in her apartment.

George Huguely, a player on the Virginia men's team, has been charged with first-degree murder. His lawyer says it was an accident. The two did have a relationship but that relationship had ended.

All right, this massive dome is now settling on the sea floor 5,000 feet below the surface. BP officials are trying to get that massive leak capped. They say this is like lowering a four story building on to the head of a pen. They are trying to deal with the oil rig explosion.

They hope to connect this thing to a drill ship this weekend. If it all works the way it's supposed to, they could be sucking oil from the containment dome to the ship by the first of the week.

Ash from that volcano in Iceland is causing more air travel -- 15 airports in northern Spain are closed now, probably closed for at least two more hours. The ash cloud is expected to the south and east and that could lead to more airport closings. We'll keep an eye on that for you.

HOLMES: Well, Nashville is trying to return to some sense of normalcy. This is what we know now. The flooding has caused more than $1.5 billion in property damage just in the Nashville area. Most of the water that had inundated several neighborhoods is beginning to recede.

Still, some of the rivers have a ways to go down. The Grand Ole Opry House is just one city landmark that has been damaged. No word on when that will reopen. Last weekend's storm has been blamed for 31 deaths in three states, 21 deaths happened in Tennessee.

Let's talk to our Martin Savidge in Tennessee for us right now, in particular in Nashville. Martin, good morning to you once again. Try to put this in terms, and we've been say so much attention has been -- and rightly so -- on what happened in Times Square and what has been going on in the Gulf. But there was a major disaster still taking place in Nashville right now.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, T.J. The Cumberland River is one of the major culprits in this disaster. As you look down there, you can see a stone monument. It's a measure of water level. When we were here on Wednesday, the water was to the very top of that marker, and it was just about over the top of the nearby street lamps.

And at one point, at the peak of the flooding, it was above all that. So the water has receded sense the peak of the flooding.

But as the water levels have gone down, others things are going up. The death toll has gone up. It's at by one, standing at 22 for the state of Tennessee. And also the number of counties that have been declared major disaster areas has been increased to 30. The governor has requested at least 52 counties in the state be declared, but right now it stands to 30 that have officially been declared.

All of this comes as people deal with their personal tragedy. We went through one neighborhood to get a gauge on just that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: On West Hamilton street, everything everyone ever had is now on the sidewalk for everyone else to see.

WILLIE MAY STRICKLAND JORDAN, FLOOD VICTIM: The water just gushed in and it had a force to it.

EVELYN PEARLBELL, FLOOD VICTIM: They put this rope around me and pulled me through this water. It was scary. I was so scared.

RONNIE COLEMAN, FLOOD VICTIM: The water around us there and in the living room. And I can't swim.

SAVIDGE: Two days of rain and water did this to a working class neighborhood where most have lived for decades and few have flood insurance. Everyone dreaded coming back.

REBA PERKINS, FLOOD VICTIM: And we prayed that we would not -- whatever we found, it would be something that we could learn from.

SAVIDGE: Soon, the first trips to the curb began.

SAVIDGE (on camera): What have you lost?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I lost everything. Everything was ruined.

SAVIDGE: Are you worried?

CAROLYN PHILLIPS, FLOOD VICTIM: Yes. But I'm going to be OK. We're going to be OK.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Like they say, one man's trash is another's treasurer. Kelando Hambric gets $135 a ton from the scrap dealing.

SAVIDGE (on camera): And what are the things that you carry away most?

KELANDO HAMBRIC, SCRAP DEALER: Refrigerators, driers, water heaters, the heavy stuff.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Ronnie Coleman lost everything and gained something.

COLEMAN: I kept stopping and thinking that I'm alive. Everything else, the rest of my life, if I have to fight cancer or whatever, it's going to be a piece of cake after what I went through.

SAVIDGE: I watched with Sherri Hathaway as a city truck loaded her stuff for the dump.

SAVIDGE (on camera): Is that your life going away?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it sure is, children's lives, our lives.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): For her 24-year-old daughter Jamie it was too much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hard to watch it. I mean, this is everything we own, everything.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: And it is extremely hard to watch that, it doesn't matter who you are, to see someone's lifelong possessions being carried out to the dump. We should point out, this being the first Saturday after the disaster, volunteers are out in full force in neighbor. T.J.?

HOLMES: Martin Savidge, we appreciate it so much.

CAREY: Well, let's get back to the breaking news now. Staten Island, apparently the ferry that gets people between Manhattan and Staten Island has crashed. Josh Levs has new information for us.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We're getting initial information. Authorities at this point are not saying that there are major injuries at all, but a lot of people at Staten Island not sure.

Let me zoom in here. Let me give you the basic idea. A lot of you know Manhattan when you think of New York. This is the area that we heard that there was a crash. This is where the terminal would be. I have pictures that I can show you.

This is the Staten Island ferry, and it does a really important mission in New York. It shuttles people back and forth along that area. We're following the Staten Island website as well to see if we can get any information there.

But what we are getting out of this area, this terminal right here, there's a picture of it, apparently in the dock somewhere near there, this ferry crashed or banged into the dock. Given what we're hearing, there is not reason to believe immediately that there's any kind of serious injuries.

We want to keep a close eye on this because it could turn into something. And we have heard previous times other problems with other ferries that turned out to be more serious than what initial report suggested.

So we've got our own teams headed to the scene right now. We're going to keep you up to date on anything that we get about what is being reported at this point as a crash at the dock. Back to you guys. CAREY: Thank you, josh.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: Again, we're keeping an eye on it here on this CNN Saturday morning. The word we just got, a Staten Island ferry has crashed into a terminal there on Staten Island. Some injuries to report, we'll keep an eye on this. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. We're keeping an eye on a breaking story out of New York right now where a Staten Island ferry has crashed into the terminal on the Staten Island side

This is a picture of the gray skies there in New York this morning. This happened in the past hour. We have gotten word of some minor injuries and we don't know just how many people might have been on this ferry and how many are actually injured.

These are the very early stages of this, and that ferry takes people back and forth everyday from Staten Island to Manhattan. It would not be as busy on a Saturday or Sunday every single day. Some injuries to report and we'll pass it along to you as we get it.

CAREY: Of course, one of the big stories in the past few days is the flooding in Tennessee and surrounding states as well. People are trying to clean it up and assess how bad the damage is. Let's bring in Reynolds Wolf. And how bad was it? Are they just starting to figure it out?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Incomprehensible is how bad it was. Some people are comparing it to the worst damage they've seen since the Civil War. On the phone now is one of the many displaced by the flooding. Sherri Yates is with us. She and her five children are not living in an emergency shelter, and one of her children has Down's syndrome. Sherri, are you with us?

SHERRI YATES, FLOOD VICTIM: Yes, thank you.

WOLF: Sherri, if you would, take us back to when the floodwaters began to rise.

YATES: At about 7:15 my nine year old ran it and said there's water on the floor. I assumed the roof might be leaking. About ten minutes later she rushed back in and said there's more water on the floor.

At this point we investigated and looked at the floor and the water was perhaps just a little above my ankles. OK, so I put all of the kids in the room and started looking around and just to see what was going on.

Within two to three minutes the water was just to my knee. By this time I had my high platform bed in my room. I decided that this would be a good time to call 911 services. So my initial call to 911 was not answered, which I understand they were really busy.

WOLF: My goodness.

YATES: The second go round I did get answered. They wanted to know what my emergency was and I said I have rising water in my house. And they said, can you get out? No. Do you have an attic? The house has an attic but doesn't have a stairway to the attic. So we started to panic then. The waters ...

HOLMES: Sherri, if you can hold on one second. This is T.J. Holmes. These are the first live pictures in from New York. Do I have this right? From New York, the Staten Island accident. We will get right back to Sherri. My apology, but we wanted to bring this to our viewers because we have been following this breaking story.

These are the first picture that we are getting. We talked about some of the walking wounded, and this clearly is showing some people being treated in some way. We don't see them having to be carted off.

Actually, I'm told, we're going to see another set of video which some people had to be put on actual stretchers. So the injuries, we're told, they are minor still, but some people are still having to be treated.

Again, Staten Island ferry here has crashed within the past hour or so. Not sure how many people might have been on that ferry, but crashed into the terminal on the Staten Island side.

CAREY: It appears to be a pretty overwhelming turnout. You can see lots of security officials showing up because when something like this happens at the Staten Island ferry, we're hearing that there are minor injuries but we don't know that. Thousands of people take that very every day.

In New York City, you never know. So really an overwhelming response from officials, lots of firefighters on the scene. You can see a few people on gurneys now. Again, just because someone is on a gurney doesn't mean that it is serious injuries.

HOLMES: And during the week it carries about 60,000 people every day back and forth. And a lot of people in other parts of the country are not familiar with ferries. You may not have them in your town. But people need to get back and forth from Staten Island to Manhattan.

But on a Saturday you wouldn't have as many people going back and forth to work and from home. So hopefully not as many people on.

These are just some of the first scenes that we are seeing, but like Richelle was just saying here, it seems to be a pretty -- and they do. I have the response to an accident like this, but we don't have word on what caused this accident.

But we don't know just how great of an impact it was either with this ferry running into that terminal. Certainly enough to give people enough jolt that they needed some kind of medical attention but we don't know if we can call it a major crash. Clearly we are seeing there were enough injuries, the walking wounded, as we described them earlier. Also, at least nine ferries, we're told, go back and forth, are making this trip on a daily basis. But, again, we don't know how many or how packed these might have been on this day.

CAREY: All right, and certainly if there's minor injuries from something like this, that's going to be good news because there have been serious injuries before ferries. Back in 2003, that crash led to fatalities.

But it appears what we're seeing now are minor injuries. It looks like the firefighters are trying to calm down a little girl, ask her what happened. I think that's her again. And she may actually be enjoying talking to the firefighters.

HOLMES: Well, you know, you can just imagine how scary it must be for anybody on board. You are almost home, quite frankly, and then boom. We don't know how, again, the severity of that crash, some of the viewers coming in possibly joining us here.

Staten Island ferry has crashed into the terminal there. It's on the Staten Island side. This is on a Saturday morning in New York. Now here you see firefighters carrying someone to be treated. We were told by officials that there were minor injuries to report. We don't know how many.

We also haven't gotten any word on serious injuries. That could be great news that we could be able to report right now. However, this is still a developing story, a developing situation. We don't know the severity of some of these issues.

Again, when you see people here being carrying off that need other assistance, the walking wounded. And on one of these big ferries, you're not necessarily looking out there and watching exactly where it's going and how close you are to the dock. You're just sitting there minding your business and then you get rattled.

So that certainly had to be a shock for a lot of people. But minor injuries, and hoping that that is all it is.

We would have to mention here as well, given what New York is going through with the Times Square bomb attempt and having to be evacuated, it turned out to be a cooler, people are on edge. Any accident, anything involving transit, and a lot of people will just get a lot of attention and have it in the back of people's minds.

But still, right now, all indication is this is just an accident, and it's being investigated.

CAREY: We're making as many phone calls as possible to try to get you more information. Of course, we call the office at the Staten Island, the office that operates the Staten Island ferry. They are telling us what they are all out dealing with what is happening.

But those are the people we're trying to get as many answers as possible from and look at the pictures to see what we can figure out on the types of injuries involved. We're trying to get you more information on this.

And what a week it's been in New York, T.J., what a week it's been. There was the attempted bombing last weekend, yesterday. People are on such heightened alert that a lunch cooler would clear Times Square. Everything ended up being OK.

And now this accident on the Staten Island Ferry, some folks have to take it every day to get to where they are going. Now, no doubt, their nerves are a little rattled. From everything that we're hearing, it appears to be an accident.

HOLMES: We certainly want to make sure that we reiterate that point, something else crazy happening in New York.

It looks like a live reporter in New York. Let's listen in to his reporting right now.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... the dock, it sped up and slammed into the dock. It could be dozens of people injured as a result of this. Joining me right now, Alex Gonzales was on that ferry coming from New York to Staten Island about 9:25. Tell me what happened, Alex.

GONZALEZ: As we left the boat, it was smooth sailing. As we approached the dock, it started speeding up. I got a little nervous because I was wondering why it was speeding up so fast. As soon as we got to the port it just slammed right into the dock and pushed everybody back.

There was a young lady with a child that flew literally. It was chaos, pandemonium. It was like something I've never been involved in in my life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was going through your mind when this was happening?

GONZALEZ: "I hope I don't die." That's what I felt like. I don't want to die right here on the ferry. I come out here every Saturday. I just don't want to die.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's talk about the injuries. Did you say there were people around you?

GONZALEZ: There were a lot of people were taken off on gurneys and stretchers. It took us about maybe ten to 15 minutes before they let the people that were able to walk off. So it was chaos in there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again, take me back to the moment before it happened. As you were approaching the ferry, right?

GONZALEZ: So as you were approaching the ferry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything was usual. Smooth sailing. We went back inside, sat down. And then all of a sudden as we approached the dock it just started speeding up, literally fast, like what's going on here?

And then as soon as like it was maybe 20 feet away, it was like, this boat ain't going to stop. And as soon as it crashed it pushed the whole dock in, the bridge and everything.

And then that's when all of the cops came running down and all of the ferry -- I guess security started coming down telling everybody to sit down. There was an old lady next to me that felt like she was having a heart attack. So it was scary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Talk about the impact.

GONZALEZ: It was like so hard. It threw you back. There was a lady with a child that got thrown from the front out into where we were sitting, like literally maybe about ten feet. That's how hard the impact hit. It was like boom and everything got pushed back. We saw the bridge get pushed in.

The sad thing about it, it's the same boat several years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are we sure about that?

GONZALEZ: Yes. We are definitely sure about that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So where were you on the ferry when this happened?

GONZALEZ: Right on the first tier right in front. Right there, like literally I just walked in maybe ten minutes before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And did you see it happening?

GONZALEZ: Usually when we come here it goes smooth sailing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

GONZALEZ: This time it sped up for some reason. And there were several people around me who were like, why are we speeding up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

GONZALEZ: And I was like, I don't know. And, boom, impact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So obviously, I don't know if you know this, but this could be a ferry-operated error? What did it seem like to you?

GONZALEZ: I would think, truthfully, I don't know if there was something wrong with the ferry, but who knows.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again, we're getting a report of dozens of injuries. Did you have this sense of that as you were on the ferry right after it collided on to the dock?

GONZALEZ: Yes, absolutely. I saw that there was a lot of people hurt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again, what do you make of this? You take the ferry every Saturday morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And right now I'm scared to go back on there. This is the second time in about seven or eight years that all I do is go back and forth, and then look at what happens. You have people on gurneys literally laying in the station. It's sad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are getting reports of 60 people injured. When you hear that number, does it surprise you at all?

GONZALEZ: Not at all, because there were at least several hundred -- I would maybe say 200 to 300 people on it. But the impact alone jarred you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

GONZALEZ: Like it just -- as soon as it hit, your body rocked. And if you didn't get a grip, there are a lot of people that were just sitting there not even paying attention. But once I saw it, boom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So give me one second. We'll come right back to you, Alex.

Let's get this one lady. Can we grab her over here? We're getting reports of 60 people injured as a result of this dock crash and ten people seriously hurt. Eyewitnesses say it happened at about 9:25 this morning as the ferry was heading into the dock it sped up and crashed. You saw all of this happening.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I did. I was standing by the glass doors that open up. I saw the ferry coming. And it wasn't slowing down. And then you heard a horn and then a boom. And then he crashed right into the ramp.

And everybody inside the terminal took off running outside the terminal thinking that the boat was coming where we were. So we were extremely afraid. Everyone was afraid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things that you described when we were talking to you earlier was a big black plume of smoke. Can you talk about what you saw?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like a burst of fire that came out the back of the boat when he hit. That's how hard he hit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was going through your mind.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Death. And when I went around, it just put you in the mind of 9/11. When you watch those people being carried off the boat on a ramp that they made, they had to put a ramp from the boat to level ground to carry those people on the stretcher.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And with all of the fire trucks and the police and ambulance, it's like -- it just put you there at 9/11.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me just one second. I want to bring you up to speed. About 9:25 we started getting reports that a Staten Island ferry crashed into the terminal. We're getting reports that 60 people were injured and about ten people seriously injured.

What is your name?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is Judy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you think as this was happening?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought I was dead. I thought the boat was going to hit me. It was behind me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it was frightening to just be there and watch?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was, for any human being.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Talk about the people that you saw.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted to cry for them. It puts you in a mind of 9/11. Innocent people. I don't know what was wrong with the captain of the boat. But it was very frightening for any individual to watch something like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so you take the ferry. Will this influence ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I had a 10:00 class that I'm just not going. I'm calling my professor trying to get to her to let her know I won't make it today. I'm not going to make it. It's already too late to go any way for me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again, I want to reset the clock. At about 9:25, the Staten Island ferry approaching Staten Island came crashing into the dock. Eyewitnesses tell us that just as it was approaching the doctor for some unknown reason it sped up. This eyewitness just said that she thought the ferry was actually going to come through the glass window inside.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly. And everyone took off running out of the terminal. And that's how frightening it was. That's how loud it hit and how hard it hit. The black plume was smoke coming out of the boat. I don't know what that was.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again, about 9:25 the Staten Island coming from New York City into Staten Island and came crashing into the dock.

I want to bring Alex Gonzalez. Alex, can we have you back on? You were on that ferry. Re-explain to us what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was smooth sailing. It was like a typical ferry ride.

HOLMES: All right, we just lost that signal there but we picked up a lot of information there at least from the witnesses. We heard from a witness that was actually on that ferry. We heard from someone actually in the terminal. So we got eyewitness accounts from both ends of where this was happening.

The man on the ferry said they sped up before they got to the dock. Again, for our viewers, we're at the bottom of the hour, about 10:35 eastern time, about an hour ago, that's when a Staten Island ferry ran into the terminal on Staten Island side.

Every single day there are about 60,000 people that are on these ferries. Not as many people on Saturday on Sunday, but still it runs all day in 30-minute intervals today. It provides this service, a service that is clearly needed.

According to the people on the ferry, it was getting close to the dock and it actually sped up. Now, the man described the scene was chaos and pandemonium was the word he actually used. He said people went flying across the floor actually on the ferry because of the impact, because they sped up in such a way that it hit that hard that people flew across.

His direct quote was, "I hope I don't die." That was what went through his mind. He also said it started to rain in New York. Not sure what factor that might have played. Maybe it did. Maybe it didn't.

You are seeing pictures here of the people on the ferry. We also saw other people on gurneys being treated. According to the affiliate there we were listening too, they have reports of 60 people injured and at least ten of those injuries are serious.

Also, another witness who was actually in the terminal when the boat hit, they saw this hit.

I'm getting word now, I want to go back to the injury that we just got. Mayor Bloomberg, mayor of New York, now getting official word that they had 60 injuries. These ferries can take thousands of people. We don't know how many happen to be on the boat this morning at this time of morning, around 9:25, heading back to Staten Island, but 60 is not an insignificant number of people to be on that ferry.

Again, people on the terminal also describing what they saw in the terminal. They ran out because they heard the impact, and some also saw this ferry coming and ran out of the terminal. People describe the scenes. There was an emergency response.

Our Ross Levitt is on the phone with us now on the scene. Ross, if you're there, set the scene for us and tell us where you are and what you see.

ROSS LEVITT, CNN PRODUCER: I'm inside the terminal looking at the ferry that crashed. There are investigators on the boat starting to take what appears to be witness statements. And also before this I was on the other side and saw a very large triage area where they certainly have quite a few injured people down there being tended to. There was an enormous response from first responders at this point.

As you mentioned, it is indeed raining here. And I'm sure Reynolds could expand on this, but from Staten Island, I can see the skyline of Manhattan across the way. So it's not as if we're in like a zero visibility situation.

However, the weather is not good today. It's certainly raining and overcast here. But at this point I do not see damage on the boat itself. But it obviously crashed because we are seeing quite a few injured people. You are giving the number 60, and that doesn't seem unreasonable.

HOLMES: Ross, do you have any idea how many people might have been on the ferry this morning if people are still milling about? You might just be giving me a rough estimate of what you see, but any idea how crowded the ferry might have been?

LEVITT: Well, we're getting information from the coast guard that says 95 percent of the people were not injured. So if extrapolate that number, it should like there may have been somewhere around 500 people on the ferry. But that's just a guess. And obviously that's going to be a long time coming.

HOLMES: Ross, I wanted to give you as much of a description. We're hearing that the ferry sped up and some people actually flew across the room there, flew across the ferry because the impact was so great. You described from what you're seeing, it doesn't look like much damage.

Give me more of your vantage point and just what you are seeing with this ferry, how it's come to rest there at the dock.

LEVITT: It might just be a matter of my vantage point. I'm only seeing a small part of the ferry. There are other parts that are extremely damaged, and I'm just not seeing it. These ferries are very large and our access is being limited obviously by the first responders who need some space to do the job that they need to do.

I've run from one side to another side and trying to get a glimpse of this as much as possible to understand how big of a crash this actually was. But from where I'm standing at this point, I'm not seeing damage, but that doesn't mean there isn't damage.

HOLMES: Ross, one more thing here. Can you tell if the ferry came to rest at the dock where it would have been parked and it's just that it hit that dock too hard, or did it actually come to rest outside of its parking area, if you will.

LEVITT: Well, it's now at a dock used here at the St. George terminal. It does appear to have come to a dock. But we don't know if it's moved since it crashed. Just because it's here now doesn't mean that's where it impacted. But it's sitting where you would expect the ferry to be. I've come here several times.

HOLMES: Ross, stay close to that phone. We'll be getting back to you, our producer Ross Levitt on the scene there.

CAREY: And we talked to Ross. We asked about the questions of visibility. He said that there is not zero visibility. You can see things. But there may be limited visibility. It's also raining right now. We're going to talk to Reynolds Wolf right now. Reynolds, could visibility have been an issue?

WOLF: There's no question about it. You've got overcast conditions right now. Scattered showers are coming through. We've got a reporter live on the scene who is interviewing some of the people who were actually taking in the crash itself. You can see the rain coming down.

And the scattered showers coming through, some of these have been ferry heavy. There's no question that when you have the heavier downpours it not only brings in rainfall but wind hits the water and then spreads out making very choppy conditions.

And New York and you've got Manhattan right up here and a couple ways you can go, take the Brooklyn Bridge, but one big mode of transportation you have is the Staten Island ferry. It launches from this point all the way up to Manhattan, perhaps over to Brooklyn, or in the reverse direction.

But it's a huge thing, as you mentioned, get up to 1,000 people on these boats. We're going to stay on top of the situation for you. Weather may have played a part, visibility, rain, wind, often play a factor.

CAREY: All right, the latest number that we're hearing is there were 252 people on board this ferry that takes people between Manhattan and Staten Island, 18 crew members. The mayor's office, Mayor Bloomberg, says that there are 60 people injured.

There is conflicting information on if any of those are serious. We're hearing the majority of the injuries are minor, which seems amazing when you think about the words that you've heard, those witnesses describe basically that the ferry not only did not slow down but seemed to speed up as it was coming into dock, and it threw people clearly from several feet off their balance and that's coming from two different vantage points.

And that's coming from someone who rides the ferry every Saturday, this Saturday, no different than any other. He's on the ferry and describes a very frightening scene. And then we heard the same description from a woman who saw it from the other side. She was in the terminal and they saw the ferry coming at them and people basically took off running.

So when you picture something like that, it seems like there would be quite a few injuries, and the numbers that we're getting is 60 injuries out of the 250 people plus that were onboard this ferry.

HOLMES: And that would be a higher proportion of the people who are on there to be injured. We just heard some reports that some officials were saying that 95 percent of the people on the boat were not injured. Well, if you only have 250 and 60 of them were injured, that's about a quarter of the people on there.

Again, 60 injuries, some of those describes, ten described as serious injuries. We're going to take a quick break. But we want to for those of you just joining us let you know what is going on. A Staten Island ferry has crashed into the dock. We don't know why. It happened about an hour ago and there are 60 injuries to report. We're on top of this story. We're right back on this Saturday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back to the CNN SATURDAY MORNING. We're following breaking news out of New York. We're following this ferry boat crash that happened at Staten Island, about an hour and a half ago now.

But according to the mayor, there have been 60 injuries to report in this accident. Some of them, according to our New York affiliate, have been serious, at least ten of them.

But this happened about an hour and a half ago. We don't know why, what caused this. But what we do know is that this ferry, which takes people back and forth from Staten Island to Manhattan every single day of the week, only had 250 passengers on it. On the weekend, 250 people on board and of those 60 were injured.

You're seeing some of the injured and some of them walking wounded, as they're described, some of them just shaken. It has been described that the boat actually sped up as it got to the dock and then, boom, we heard people describing it just like that, a loud bang as people flew across the boat. Again 60 people injured, another ten are seriously.

CAREY: U.S. coast guard, Barbara Miller, joins us now by phone. Barbara, are you hearing some of the same accounts that we are, some people saying that it seemed as if the ferry, at the very least sped up?

BARBARA MILLER, U.S. COAST GUARD: The coast guard has received conflicting reports at this time and we're still trying to sort out the information. However, it was reported that there was a loss of propulsion. The coast guard has a team of investigators heading down to the boat at this time to conduct an investigation and get that off the ground.

CAREY: Is your agency the primary on this or will it be kind of a collaboration?

MILLER: The coast guard works very closely with all of its core partners. The NYPD, New York fire department, and emergency medical services, as well as the Department of Transportation which does maintain the Staten Island ferry. We'll be working closely with all of our partners to figure out why this happened.

CAREY: Barbara, we're hearing that this is perhaps the same ferry that was involved in that deadly accident back in 2003. Are you able to confirm that?

MILLER: It was the boat confirmed involved in the incident back in 2003. The coast guard extensively worked with our core planners on that as well. We're working with our investigation to determine what happened in this situation.

CAREY: OK, which could take quite some time. All right, Barbara, thank you for your information dealing with the coast guard.

MILLER: Thank you.

HOLMES: Josh Levs keeping an eye on this boat as well. Josh, you jump in here and tell us what you got.

LEVS: It was the same boat. Authorities are now saying that. And it is interesting because the investigation was pretty extensive at the time.

Could you zoom way in here? This is one image. It's not live. This is the ship that people have looked into ever since that accident several years ago. And in addition to what we just heard, the emergency office management is saying it experienced a hard landing. And there are no major injuries reported at this time.

I want to go over to a couple things and give you all the scene. A lot of you might not know this picture. This is the general area that we're talking about. This is the most famous structure at that terminal.

And these are pictures of people and some stretchers available. We're getting conflicting reports. I'm looking at images from the coast guard, various officials inside New York City, and obviously it's just happened. We are hearing mostly the same report, that there are dozens of injuries. The extent, we do not know that at this time.

I want to take you into this map to show you all what happened and how the ship was traveling. You have a lot of sections that maybe you're seeing in Manhattan.

And what has been coming in lately, we are still hearing from the mayor's office that the number is 60. For how many injuries, there have been total, exactly how bad they are, that's one of the many things that we don't know why right now.

What the coast guard has done is they've blocked off that area. If you are in New York and you were one of the people considering whether you wanted to take that ferry, planning to go anywhere near the St. George terminal, what we're hearing is that most of that area is now blocked off as they investigate all sorts of things that might have led to these pictures that we've been seeing throughout this morning. And it could be anything -- environmental, involving who is operating the ship, something going on the ship, a lot of questions going on right now. It's important to know that the authorities are saying that for this time the investigation is going on and certainly don't expect to try to get to that area as well.

And, yes, here we go. Back to the map. So basically if you're somewhere inside the Staten Island, it's in this area right here that you have a lot that is blocked off right now as the investigation goes on.

Guys, I'm going to be following everything that we're getting as well online. We're looking at twit pics and iReports from people in that area as well as the latest images coming in from the news agencies. We'll have those coming up in just a few minutes. Guys, back to you.

HOLMES: Josh, thank you.

CAREY: We keep hearing about this horrible accident back in 2003. Let's remind people what happened. Eleven people were killed back in that accident in October, 2003. Also, the assistant captain ended up going to prison. He admitted to have drugs in his system.

That name has come up again, the same name of the boat that crashed today as it was going from Manhattan to Staten Island. Witnesses say it looked like it sped up. So we're still trying to figure out what caused it. But some injuries, too.

HOLMES: And some of those witnesses we are hearing from this morning, some actually on the boat and others on the terminal where the boat was taking dead aim. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I did. I was standing by the door, the glass doors that open up. And I saw the ferry coming. But -- and he didn't -- it was not slowing down. It was just coming.

And next thing you know, you heard a horn and then a boom. And he crashed right into the ramp. And everybody inside the terminal took off running outside the terminal thinking that the boat was coming where we were. So we were extremely afraid. Everyone was afraid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things that you described when we were talking to you earlier was a big black plume of smoke.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like a burst of fire came out the back of the boat when he hit. That's how hard he hit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what was going through your mind?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Death. Death. And when I went around, it just put you in the mind of 9/11. When you watch those people being carried off the boat on a ramp that they made, they had to put a ramp from the boat to level ground to carry those people on the stretcher.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And with all of the fire trucks and the police and ambulance, it's like -- it just put you there at 9/11.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAREY: And that account she's giving is really similar to another account we've heard from another gentlemen who rides the ferry every Saturday, the fear of being shaken, literally not knowing what is happening and almost expecting the worst. That's just sometimes in the back of the mind of New Yorkers after everything that they've been through. She referenced 9/11 there.

HOLMES: Even in the past week they've had the images of 9/11 in their head with the clearing out of Times Square with the attempted bombing that we saw a week ago today.

Let's reset this thing for you and tell you what's been happening. We have been following this story for the past hour where about an hour and a half ago a Staten Island ferry ran into the dock on the Staten Island side.

The word is that 250 people were aboard that ferry, 18 crew members were aboard as well. The word is 60 people were injured, most of the minor injuries, but at least ten of those injuries are serious.

We heard from witnesses. In this case, a guy who has experienced riding these ferries every single day, or every week, knew that something was going on and the ferry was not slowing down the way it should. He says the ferry actually sped up and they crashed into the dock.