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Flooding in Colorado; New Jersey Boardwalk Fire

Aired September 13, 2013 - 15:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Plus, sororities at the University of Alabama being investigated for denying young women because of race.

And is your water safe? One state tells folks it's OK to drink. Just don't get it up your nose. Why? Because it could eat your brain.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Top of hour two. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Great to be with you here.

The National Weather Service is calling the flooding in Colorado biblical. Parts of the state are just quite simply underwater after this huge storm dumped as much as 12 inches of rain. People in the town of Lyons were told to get out, get out today. And the governor told all of these people who live there, stay off the roads. And some in Colorado, they're just simply stuck where they are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK BECKNER, BOULDER, COLORADO, POLICE CHIEF: Most roads are closed. US-36 is closed eastbound. You cannot get out of Boulder if you get here. We have some significant rain amounts still in the forecast for later today. Should that happen, we will see additional flooding and additional closures could take place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go straight to Boulder to CNN's Nick Valencia, who is there for us.

Nick, just set the scene for me.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we just got here a little while ago, Brooke. As you can see behind me, the story right now at this hour is the cleanup.

This neighborhood behind me, just a couple hours ago, we would have been underwater. These flooded streets, they are slowly starting to recede and the water is going away, but the Boulder police chief did warn there could be more rain throughout the weekend. He said this danger is not over. Take a listen to what he told the media just a little while ago. I don't think we have that sound bite, Brooke, but getting back to this neighborhood, the good thing for this neighborhood behind me here is it's multimillion-dollar homes behind here. So they're very well built. At least at first glance, it seems to be only superficial damage at this point. But as we drove through these neighborhoods on our way here, we saw a lot of residents just sort of out and about, checking out what happened, taking pictures of this neighborhood.

I have talked to a few residents here, one who just moved from New York, and he said it was sort of crazy to see exactly what happened here. But the streets now, just check this out, Brooke. Big rocks coming down. Imagine these rocks coming down miles per hour at a community here. This street is just littered with them. Tractors are trying to clean up behind here.

I don't know if you can see that, but those are the flat irons right behind me. That's where all the water came down those mountains to saturate, sort of flood this area. But the cleanup continues. Hopefully for now, though, these residents are out of the woods for now -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes, it's incredible just looking at some of the roads. I know many of them have given way. It's tough for folks out there. Nick Valencia, thank you very much, some towns just islands right now because of the water.

Meantime, from all the water to this horrendous, horrendous fire. Disaster strikes the New Jersey shore for the second time in less than a year. It was just 10 months ago that superstorm Sandy happened, devastating New Jersey's iconic boardwalks, and now a massive fire has done this, block after block after block of businesses in Seaside Park and Seaside Heights gone. Months and months of rebuilding after Sandy wiped out. This area had just been rebuilt.

The fire started just yesterday afternoon in this custard shop. Strong winds, 25-, 30-mile-per-hour winds pushed is from business to business here along the boardwalk and it burned for hours as hundreds of firefighters for more than 30 downs battle to put this thing out. More than 24 hours after the fire started, about 100 firefighters are still there, still spraying down some of the hot spots.

New Jersey's governor is vowing to rebuild the boardwalks yet again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I will not permit all the work that we have done over the last 10 months to be diminished or destroyed by what happened last night. We're going to get back on our feet. We're going to do what we need to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I want to go straight to Seaside Heights to Eric Faranda, who lost his business in the fire.

You own Shore Amusements. And, goodness, I'm so sorry for the loss. And I can't imagine wrapping my head around a loss again. Have you been back to see your store?

ERIC FARANDA, OWNER, SHORE AMUSEMENTS: Yes.

We actually watched it burn last night. And we had -- yes, we had a brief view of it today from the street. And it's all gone. There's just nothing left.

BALDWIN: Do you feel like when you say it's all gone, has it fully sunk in yet? Like, here you go again, rebuilding?

FARANDA: You know, that's the thing. We just got over what was a natural disaster.

And now to be hit with this, we didn't even start beginning to pay for the recovery that we started. You know, things were just starting to look up, and now we have to start over again, if we can.

BALDWIN: Just hearing from Governor Christie, you know, I think his quote was, this makes me want to throw up. This is the governor who I know in his childhood went to these spots as well. Can you just tell me, for people who are watching, our hearts go out to you from afar, how can we help?

FARANDA: You know, I have met Governor Christie a couple of times. And he genuinely cares about the area. You can just see it in his face when you talk to him.

I just hope that there's facilities for us to rebuild. I hope there's help from the state that will help us get through this. And for the people, you know, just come back next summer. Hopefully, we will be ready. Hopefully, we will have something to offer. It's really in the hands of the insurance companies and the government if this is going to happen for next year.

BALDWIN: I am so sorry, and I hope yet again, I hope the help comes. Eric Faranda, thank you so, so much.

And a new warning today from al Qaeda's leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, posted an online message calling on terrorists to stage more attacks like the Boston Marathon bombings on American soil. The goal here is to "bleed America economically" by getting the U.S. to spend more on security.

And one of the world's most wanted terrorist said may be dead. He's a rapping jihadist from Alabama with a $5 million U.S. bounty that's been on his head.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OMAR HAMMAMI, ALLEGED TERRORIST (through translator): It all started out in Afghanistan when we fight the oppressors straight off the land.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Omar Hammami grew up outside Mobile, Alabama, reportedly has been killed in Somalia, not by an American drone strike, but gunned down in an ambush set up by furious former bosses, the al Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabab. Hammami has been reported killed before, a couple times, only to emerge alive each and every time.

U.S. officials right now are working to confirm the latest report of his death.

And now to those talks, as we continue our coverage of the crisis in Syria, now to the talks in Geneva aimed at stripping Syria of its massive chemical weapons stockpile.

Secretary of State John Kerry calling his meetings with Russia's Sergei Lavrov constructive. Now we have got news on the impending release of a U.N. report on the use of those weapons in Syria.

Let me take you straight to the United Nations to Nick Paton Walsh.

Nick, what can you tell me about that?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Speaking a couple hours ago where we thought he might have thought were private conversations at a side event here at the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon seemed to have let slip what he understands to be the conclusions of the U.N. report, which most people are telling me is due out on Monday.

That's what the inspectors are going to say happened on the 21st of August in the attacks around Damascus, the gas attack which sparked American interest in military intervention. Let's hear what Ban Ki- Moon had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BAN KI-MOON, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: Our team will come out soon with a report, but I believe that the report will be an overwhelming, overwhelming report that the chemical weapons was used.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: Now, his spokesman went on to say, look, he hasn't seen the report at this point because the report isn't finished and he couldn't say where necessarily the secretary-general had gotten his information from, but it's the first indication we really have inside the U.N. in an open forum that the report is going to make that official conclusion.

Of course, even the Russians accept chemical weapons were probably used on that particular date, but it's beginning to focus people's minds on Monday, the release of the report, and also where does the U.N. sit in all this? Because Ban Ki-Moon in the same speech did go on to say that Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, was in fact guilty of crimes against humanity.

Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BAN: What happened is that he has committed many crimes against humanity. And, therefore, I'm sure that there will be surely the process of accountability when everything is over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: Now, you have got to obviously bear in mind that Bashar al- Assad is watching that and that's the head of the U.N. suggesting he may eventually face international justice for what is going on inside Syria now. All of this is going to play into the delicate negotiations going on right now.

None of it of course, what Ban Ki-Moon says, is legally binding in any way. It's all just his opinions on what is happening, but everyone is looking for this report on Monday to be the independent, credible, definitive judgment on what really happened around Damascus in those terrible attacks we kept seeing on our television screens through amateur videos shot by activists there and I think people also are looking to see exactly what level of detail the report provides, because its job isn't to say who did it, but to explain what happened.

But it may give so much detail, people can begin to deduce exactly who was behind them.

BALDWIN: We will be talking about it Monday. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you.

Coming up, a computer glitch selling round-trip airplane tickets for $5. Will United Airlines actually honor them? We just got an answer.

Plus, the number of close calls in the sky doubling over the past year. We will tell you why.

And have you seen this video? Nicole Kidman hit by a paparazzi. You have to wait for it. She was riding her bike on the street. You're going to see the aftermath, plus whether she has a case. Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: So the number of what they call close calls in the skies when planes are a little too close doubled from 2011 to 2012. The FAA reported almost 4,400 last year. Year before, it was closer to 1,900.

However, analysts are quick to point out that a change in reporting may actually be the reason behind this jump in numbers. New technology now automatically reports all these close calls, and air traffic controllers are now encouraged to report the incidents. They're no longer punished for mistakes.

And this just in, the decision many of you are waiting for, whether united airlines will in fact honor the super cheap fares that ended up on its Web site. Talk about the bargain of a lifetime here, all of us wishing we were on United trying to buy airfare, $10, including tax, from Washington to Hawaii, $5 from New York to Houston.

Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange.

So tell me, are they honoring this, this glitch? ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, they are going to be honoring these bargain basement prices for these tickets.

BALDWIN: Wow.

KOSIK: We found out a short time ago. It is pretty amazing. You wonder how many tickets are out there for that $5 or $10 apiece. It really was the million dollar question when you think about it or the $300 question, depending on how much your airfare was worth.

A short time ago, United tweeted, "We have reviewed the error that occurred yesterday, and based on these specific circumstances, we will honor the tickets."

You know who's making out like a bandit big time? The people who bought multiple tickets. Rick Seaney, the CEO of FareCompare.com, he said that some of these people actually bought more than a dozen tickets to go from D.C. to Honolulu.

BALDWIN: Wow.

KOSIK: God, lucky, lucky. If only I could have been on that site earlier this morning.

BALDWIN: I saw a sound bite of this woman. She said and I bought this ticket and this ticket and this ticket for $5 and $10. And so why did this even happen? Was it some sort of computer glitch, I'm assuming?

(CROSSTALK)

KOSIK: Actually, no computer glitch. United is actually saying it was human error.

BALDWIN: Wow.

KOSIK: We're not really getting any details on exactly what that means or who made the mistake. United is just saying there was an error which resulted in certain fares being displayed at zero, saying we have corrected the error. So, needless to say, Brooke, don't bother going on now trying to get a deal. You are not going to be able to get a deal like this.

BALDWIN: Zeros after that five, back to normal. Alison Kosik, thank you very much.

And coming up, we're going to talk about this underwater grave. That is what officials are calling this giant molasses spill in Hawaii. The goo has seeped into the ocean, killing wildlife and now human lives are at stake. We will talk about that.

Plus, a brain-eating amoeba found in water, and now people in one state worry about the safety of their drinking water.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: A huge spill is killing fish in the waters of beautiful Honolulu harbor. But it's not what you're thinking. This is not oil that's spreading. It is this sweet, sticky stuff, molasses.

More than 223,000 gallons of molasses leaked from a breach in a pipeline. And apparently this all happened when the stuff was getting moved to a ship headed to the West Coast. Now the ship's owner, Matson Navigation, says divers are having to watch very, very closely the liquid's movement and his company is now bringing in people to help support the response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY GILL, HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: Pretty much everything that we imagined is in the harbor water has been negatively impacted and is -- at least some of that population has died.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: It's awful, Chad Myers.

When you look at the pictures of all these wildlife floating around Honolulu Harbor, and tell me this, though. It's not just that. It's sharks. This is becoming an issue with sharks.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, too, and probably an algae bloom at some point in time. Sure, you have these dead animals here.

What's different about an oil spill and a molasses spill is a molasses goes to the bottom. The oil goes to the top. But when molasses and seawater mix, and a fish swims through it, they believe that it kind of coats the gills, and the gills can no longer bring in any oxygen.

BALDWIN: Breathe.

MYERS: And so if there's no oxygen to the fish, the fish literally just dies right there in not too many minutes.

So this spill, now all the way to the bottom, divers are down there looking at it. Believe it or not, there are some crude oils that are so thick, they go to the bottom of the ocean if spilled. There are researchers that use molasses to pretend it's oil to work on the cleanup of an oil spill by using the molasses. So they're thinking they may be able to move some of this equipment out there.

BALDWIN: How do they do that if it's all the way -- if the molasses is all the way on the bottom?

MYERS: You take the suction device and you go to the bottom. You don't try to use a boom off to get oil off, the molasses off the top because it's not there.

You literally have to go to the bottom and suck the stuff off the bottom. Otherwise, the tide is going to take it in and out, but this is not in an open water situation. This is in a bay. All you get is a one-foot tide or a two-foot tide. I'm sure you have been to Hawaii, and the water doesn't go up and down very much. There's not a big tide there because it's in the middle of the ocean.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Like the sugarcane fields, we were talking, it sounds like the extracts from that whole process, and so that's where it's coming from.

MYERS: And 200,000 gallons of this stuff on the bottom of the bay.

BALDWIN: Wow. That's crazy. Hopefully, they clean it up and quickly. Chad, thank you very much much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

BALDWIN: Coming up, a sorority on the campus of the University of Alabama accused of racism, specifically not allowing certain young women to pledge. But there is more to this story than first glance here.

Plus, as the crisis unfolds in Syria, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is back here at home from visiting these refugees in camps right along the Syrian border and he says there's an issue the media isn't talking about and one that gets him -- got a little emotional with me, talking just as a dad. My candid chat with Sanjay next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining me live. We have talked on TV, you being in Lebanon and now you're back here at home. Thank goodness you guys are A-OK, but incredible work over there.

I just want to begin with, here at CNN, we focus so much on the crisis, possible military strike, closed-door negotiations, but you have said the media is not talking about the humanitarian crisis over there.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, I think we hear the numbers over and over again, 100,000 people even before we started talking about chemical weapons who had lost their lives, 1,400 more people.

But I think when you start to learn who these people are, I think immediately, when you say people have died in Syria or people have now been forced to live as refugees, people conjure up images of what that means, who these people are.

And part of the reason they do that is because no one has really told them. No one has really told them their stories. And I find in today's day and world, there's a lot more that sort of ties us together than we realize and those are some of the stories we wanted to do.

BALDWIN: You went to refugee camps. You talked to these people. And we were talking before and you said the biggest misconception is sitting back here in the U.S., we have this sort of stereotype, this idea of what a Syrian refugee looks like. It's not what we're thinking.

GUPTA: We typecast. You know, we're all guilty of it, and I will say myself included. You take short cuts.

But if I tell you, Brooke, that I met this woman who was in her mid- 20. She got married to a man after his mother went up to her one day in a shopping mall and said you must marry my son.

BALDWIN: Wow.

GUPTA: And they got married and it was a good decision for her and they had three kids and they live a very, very happy middle-class life in Homs, a big city in Syria.

They drive their kids to school, they like to play cards at night, they go to the mall and buy nice clothes. She was dressed nicely when I saw her. And then, as she told me, the missiles started to rain down on her neighborhood. It's was when her kid's left arm got really badly burned that she decided that she had had enough.

BALDWIN: Time to get out.

GUPTA: But I think you think about your own neighborhood, people who are watching, your own neighborhood where you live and think what if that sort of thing happened to us? And I don't mean to make this sound overly dramatic, but that's what we're talking about. This is what's happening.

These are people just like us. They're parents who are trying to do right by their kids and by themselves and they suddenly find themselves in this situation.

BALDWIN: You talk about kids. I look at you, I know you're our chief medical correspondent, you're this neurosurgeon, but also you're a dad. I just know you well enough to know you're going to bed at night and you're closing your eyes and you're thinking of the kids you met at these camps.

GUPTA: Yes. That's incredibly -- it's really painful, you know, I think because as complicated as these geopolitical situations are, I can't help but think that, you know, this problem we can solve.

I mean, there are kids who are starving to death. There's no dignified way to describe that.

BALDWIN: Winter is coming.

GUPTA: Winter is coming. And even if they have enough food, it's not enough of the right food, so they develop these terrible diseases. I just -- I don't know how that makes you feel or anybody else who is watching, how it makes them feel.

I don't want to make people feel badly about this, but I do think that this stories can make people feel more connected, maybe more compassionate, and perhaps compelled to act in whatever way they find appropriate. BALDWIN: Thank you for shedding the light on all these stories and going all the way over there.

I know a lot you want to help. So, we have a list of some organizations. Go to CNN.com/impact. Sanjay, thank you.

GUPTA: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Near the bottom of the hour, I'm Brooke Baldwin.

The National Weather Service is calling the floods in Colorado biblical, as in biblical proportions here. Before the rain we had the wildfires in Colorado which we showed to you burning thousands of acres and homes there. And now the rain just won't stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Proceed to higher ground. Do not cross standing or moving water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have never seen anything like this. This is just mind-boggling.

(SIRENS BLARING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You hear those warning sirens going off. Chad Myers says the rain won't stop for at least a couple of days.