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Hurricane Patricia Weakens to Category 2; Kerry to Meet with Abbas, King Abdullah; American Killed in ISIS Hostage Rescue; Investing & Preparing for Natural Disasters. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired October 24, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:13] FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome everyone to CNN's continuing coverage of the Hurricane Patricia in Mexico. I'm Fred Pleitgen here in London.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Great to have you with us wherever you are around the world and the United States as well. I'm John Vause reporting live from Guadalajara, Mexico.

PLEITGEN: We have a lot to cover this hour, but to our top story which is of course in Mexico, where john is, with that now weakening storm.

VAUSE: That's right, Fred. Patricia is now a category 2 hurricane, but when it slammed into Mexico on Friday, it was the strongest hurricane ever. And authorities say it still poses a serious threat.

The big concern now, though, is from the rain and mudslides, which would be caused by that rain which is still falling across many parts of this country. Mexico's president has expressed some cautious optimism.

A few hours ago, in a video addressed to the nation, he did remind everyone here they needed to remain cautious. Puerto Vallarta, which is a very popular tourist area, was expected to bear the brunt of this storm.

Our Martin Savidge was there for most of the day reporting and he tells us that many people there are now breathing a sigh of relief.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rain continuous to fall on Puerto Vallarta. It's been doing that for a number of hours now, but what they did not get was what they much feared, and that was the full impact of Hurricane Patricia.

We never saw hurricane winds here and we definitely did not see any kind of storm surge. Both of which could have been catastrophic in a city that is home to so many high-rise hotels and built right along the oceanfront.

Of course, you know, this is going to be measured over the next couple of days and weeks particularly if there's been extensive damage. It always is the case. It would be safe to say that any nation would have struggled with that very short lead-up time that they had and then on top of that the catastrophic winds and the potential for destruction.

The United States, which sets a very high bar as far as structures and the winds that they have to be able to sustain, most of them are built to a 150-mile-an-hour category. This storm well exceeded that.

So the challenges for the government were, one, trying to get people out of the way. And in some cases, it might have been just get them away from the water's edge.

In other places, it was let's move them to cities. They tried to do that, moving a lot of American tourist to Guadalajara. Places directly our of the storm, but still having the infrastructure to care for a lot of people. And then the rest, well, they were asked to shelter where they could.

So there were indications that the government was also placing heavy earth-moving equipment ahead of the storm, realizing the need that you get landslides, that you get debris. The only way first responders and the emergency crews can get through this if the roads are open and that's one of the primary things you have to do.

They say that there are about 15,000 tourists that were evacuated. Many of them were actually sent off to places like Guadalajara, other major cities or they were bussed out to other locations to get out of the storm's path.

Those that could not were sheltered in place in many of these hotels. They're not staying in their hotel room. The accommodation is not quite so nice, but at least they were in solid structures. They were protected. And that was the safest way to handle things.

The lights have remained on. Communication has remained open. There's no reports of significant damage here in Puerto Vallarta. All of that is good news.

On the flip side of that is, of course, this storm did go somewhere and it's done extensive damage as far as can be told, at least in the darkness, and that is to the south by about maybe 100, 135 miles or roughly 215 kilometers. There seems to be structures, even significant structures that were knocked over. I'm talking about bricks and cement.

So the concern is in Puerto Vallarta, for the rain, elsewhere, daylight will reveal the damage.

Back to you.

VAUSE: Martin, thank you for that report.

And, of course, tens of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate including thousands of tourists. And earlier, I spoke to Carl Emberson. He is the general manager of the St. Regis Hotel at Punta Mita, that's just north of Puerto Vallarta. And he told me why he took the decision to evacuate every single guest from his hotel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CARL EMBERSON, GENERAL MANAGER, ST. REGIS HOTEL (via telephone): Upon receiving the communication from the local government authorities, we took the immediate steps to secure the safety of our guests, and we got that message on Thursday night, and by Friday morning at 8:30, we had them all evacuated to Guadalajara, which is about a four-hour drive from here, from Punta Mita.

And since then, we've had, you know, inclement weather, lots of rain. Thankfully at this part of the region, John, not much damage. We're looking at opening -- hopefully, back within the next 24 to 48 hours from the property, but that's about an update down here in Punta Mita.

[04:05:17] VAUSE: And you say the guests made the trip to safety, but I guess the staff stayed behind along with yourself.

Can you explain what it was like? I mean, imagine, you're expecting the worst and when that didn't happen, clearly, there must have been a huge amount of relief.

EMBERSON: Indeed. You hit the bottom there, mate. It was hearing all the forecasts and what was coming up potentially upfront was indeed a little scary. But, you know, the comfort of our guests and following Stalwart's (ph) policies, security-wise, ensuring that comfort, that was very -- you know, that was a great feeling to have done that.

And have an emergency team, that's what we're trained for and that's what, you know, the team was trained for to do and are passionate about. You know, it's making the guests happy. That's what we do. And also to take care of the property with a team here just in case anything else could go wrong here.

VAUSE: I'm just wondering if you could comment on the preparation that you've seen so far by the Mexican government, I mean -- because, clearly, there wasn't a lot of warning when this storm came in. And it intensified very quickly from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane in about 24 hours.

How do you think the local authorities dealt with all of this? What was your assessment?

EMBERSON: I think it was exemplary, to tell you the truth, John. I think, you know, the communication, how they got it down to the field. How they gave enough warning to react and also the manner in which they communicated it, saying it is time to move. And those that did, I think, are happy hoteliers than those that might be dealing them, who still have their guest in hotel rooms.

And I think that having that communication with enough time for you to react and the right message, I think that's crucial in these type of situations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That was Carl Emberson there speaking to me a short time ago. And to get a better idea of the size and the scope of this storm, we need to go above it in outer space. Now astronauts aboard the international space station took some images of Hurricane Patricia.

One of this images was taken at noon eastern time on Friday. You can see the eye of the storm there, clearly made out. And, of course, Patricia was moving at a clip of around 10 miles per hour at that stage.

It was a fairly compact storm, you can see, and about 30 or 40 miles out from the eye of the storm, but a very powerful one at that.

Let's find out exactly where Hurricane Patricia is right now and how much damage it's expected to do.

And the concern for that, we go once again to Karen McGinnis at the CNN Center, who has been following this storm for many, many hours now.

So, Karen, exactly what are we looking at now? We got a bit more rain coming down here in Guadalajara. I guess we are just on the trailing edges of storm.

KAREN MCGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. But in no way does this hurricane, category 2, it has weakened so much. But it doesn't even resembled what we were looking at 24 hours ago when the National Hurricane Center said this is unprecedented. And this is one of those sneaker hurricanes.

Back in 1959, hurricane took aim at just about this general region. And they called it the sneaker hurricane because it just blew up. Exactly what this did. Right now, barely a category 2 hurricane, 100- mile-per-hour winds, higher gusts.

I want to point out one area. We've got this ton of cluster just to the south of Manzanillo, but also near Guadalajara. There is just kind of another little punch of moisture.

Puerto Vallarta, you'll see a couple more showers. That's not to say this is all said and done. It's not. The ground is saturated. We'll still expect more rainfall, but this is not that power house system that we were looking at. The storm that will probably have some arguments as to whether it was the all-time, strongest hurricane ever, anywhere. But we did see some reports of in excess of 10 inches of rainfall and that will produce mud and landslides. I want to show you this.

Let's go to the floor and show you what's happening. There are those coastal ranges. And those coastal ranges acted as a buffer if you will. Not entirely. But 200-mile-an-hour winds that slammed onshore and it just kind of wrung out the moisture here. We were expecting between 10 and 20 inches. That's not to say that we won't see those amounts because this made landfall about 6:30 local time and because that was the impending darkness.

[04:10:10] And then now we're looking at, you know, sunrise taking place here in the next couple of hours, and that's when you can assess all the damage. And it is a beautiful spot that's why tourists flock there. But with a category 5 that was this ferocious? Now some of that moisture is sneaking its way into Texas.

So from one disaster to another. And from Dallas all the way down to San Antonio, this is what we're looking at. Along that Interstate 35, Interstate 45, we're looking at the flood disasters for the weekend. That will be a secondary big story from the Dallas/Fort Worth area over towards Houston and San Antonio.

Some areas could pick up as much as 15 inches of rainfall. We have flash flood watches, warnings, and all kinds of high water rescues that are taking place just to the south of Dallas. This has really been a big story that hasn't played so high lately because we have talked about the all-time strongest hurricane in the western hemisphere, maybe of all time.

We'll have to compare that with Typhoon Tip back in the late '70s. That was in the Western Pacific. And, John, that's one of those systems that we'll make some strong comparisons and scientists are going to be looking at this and meteorologists assessing what's going to be happening and see if it is the all-time worst that we've ever seen.

Back to you.

VAUSE: OK. Still early days, of course. But the big concern right now, the immediate concern, flooding, landslide and mudslides. And as you say, this certainly isn't over yet.

Thank you, Karen.

Of course, a lot of the impact of Hurricane Patricia played out on social media as these storms often do. So let's go to London now and Laurie Segall was standing by there.

And, Laurie, what was going on on social media with a very interesting moment if you like, snap shots of how residents and tourists and many people here were dealing with Hurricane Patricia.

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. There was one very touching tweet we found online. A resident named Alicia Martinez. And she was thrilled because her Labrador dog had come home and wasn't harmed in the storm.

I want to read you what she said in this tweet. She said, "thank you to whoever gave him shelter. Our two guests are asleep." And people are using the hashtag, #HurricanePatricia, #Patricia.

There you're looking at the tweet now. So you begin to see some of the relief. Whether it's having their pets be OK, whether it's having family be OK.

The office of the president also tweeting all support to deployed workers. I want to read you what he said here. I'm translating that. He said, tonight, I acknowledge the work of thousands of public servants who are deployed in affected areas.

Obviously, you have so many people working so hard to make sure people are safe and people are sheltered. You're looking at some images right there.

The Red Cross also tweeted. And this is a reminder. You know, they wanted to remind people that despite the downgrade the storm is still dangerous. You know, there's a lot of relief that the storm has downgraded, but you got to remember you have all these folks in these areas that might not 100 percent be safe. So people need to be very cautious still.

Another tweet from the Red Cross. They're talking about having ambulances and relief supplies ready to go, ready to be deployed in case, in case anyone needs them. They use obviously the #Patricia.

You're looking at images of that right there. And then, you know, John, one of the most touching parts of the storm is watching all of this support from around the world. You're seeing people use the #PrayForMexico. This is actually the third that it's trending on Twitter at the moment.

And one tweet that's particularly interesting, astronaut Scott Kelly, he's tweeting from space as you guys have probably mentioned earlier, showing images. And he is saying Patricia's force isn't lost on me. My thoughts are with friends and all in Mexico, and then he's signing off from space saying goodnight.

You also have relief (INAUDIBLE) putting out some video, which is a pretty shocking video saying this is right as the Hurricane Patricia touched land. It says Hurricane Patricia has touched land. Our team is already on the way to the affected area.

So, you know, as we see during these disasters, social media has become increasingly important in getting the word out, telling people where to go. They have been tweeting maps of shelters so people have an idea where to go. Tweeting information about evacuation because oftentimes when people don't know where to turn, they go to their mobile devices, they go to Twitter, they go to Facebook and that's where the message is getting out.

John?

[04:15:11] VAUSE: Yes, it has become so important, so much more so than you could ever have possibly imagined just a few years ago.

Laurie, thank you for that.

And, of course, we'll have much more coverage of the devastation caused by Hurricane Patricia later in this hour. And, of course, in the hours to come here on CNN. But in the meantime let's go back to our London studios and Fred.

PLEITGEN: Thanks very much, John Vause there in Guadalajara in Mexico, where of course the worst of that storm might not yet be over. And coming up, we'll update you on some of the other stories making headlines around the world, including a deadly attack in Bangladesh capital as thousands gathered together to mark a holy day.

Plus, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Russia's foreign minister about Syria and announces the next step in trying to end the civil war there. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: And welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm John Vause reporting live from Guadalajara, Mexico. And this is CNN's special coverage of Hurricane Patricia.

We are watching as this powerful storm moves across Mexico's southwest. Patricia has now weakened to a category 2 storm with sustained winds of up to 165 kilometers per hour.

[04:20:12] And earlier, NASA release these still shots of Hurricane Patricia as it closed in on Mexico as a record-breaking category 5 storm. You can easily see the eye there with intense wind and rain wrapped around it. It was a breathtaking sight. What is terrifying, though, it's so close to land.

And earlier, we heard from a U.S. Air Force pilot who flew inside the hurricane to record its wind speed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHASE ALLEN, U.S. AIR FORCE: There's a lot of rain associated with the storm obviously. The eye was very well-defined and very-well wrapped around, I guess you could say. And so penetrating the wall was, like I said, severe turbulence and a lot of rain. And it was a small eye wall, so we had to work really quickly to drop the weather instruments. Usually in a storm, you have an eye that might be 30 nautical miles so you have more time to work on dropping your weather instruments.

In this case, everything happened so quickly with a small eye like that. There's a lot going on, and we were just having to work as a crew together and deal with the task at hand and just back each other up all the way. So it was a pretty intense ride, but overall it worked out. We got some good data.

I was expecting this going in to Patricia, but this was definitely the most severe storm that I've flown to date. Normally, when you break out in the eye, you have what we call the stadium effect, so you'd see the whole eye wall from inside the eye, which is a really good picture and you can look straight up sometimes. It clears skies. But we didn't have any of that. We could just see lightning flashes, and that was pretty much it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: In so many ways it seems Hurricane Patricia is one for the record books. We'll have much more of our coverage of the storm, Fred, but back to you in the meantime.

PLEITGEN: Yes, thanks very much, John.

Absolutely amazing to hear from that pilot who flew into the eye of the storm. And we'll check back, of course, with you very shortly, but first, we have some other stories to get you up to speed on.

One person is dead and dozens more wounded after a bomb attack outside the main Shia site in a Bangladesh capital city. A series of blast went off early Saturday in Dhaka as Shia Muslims gathered to mark the holy day of Ashura. Police are investigating the bombing, but say they are unsure who carried out the attack.

Officials in southern France say their priority right now is to identify the victims of a fiery road crash that killed more than 40 people on Friday. A bus carrying mostly elderly passengers burst into flames when it collided with a truck on a narrow road near Bordeaux. A truck driver and his young son were also among those killed.

And eight people survived including the bus driver. The French president said he's plunged into sadness. Local media are calling it the worst road accident in France in at least three decades.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has had a very busy week on Friday. He met with Russia's foreign minister to discuss Syria's ongoing civil war. And at this hour, Kerry is in Jordan to meet with King Abdullah and Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier in the week, Kerry said there may be a way to defuse the violence in Israel, which has killed nearly 60 people this month alone.

And our own senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman joins me now live from Jerusalem to talk about the ongoing violence that's been happening there.

And, Ben, the big question, of course is, is this flare-up going to continue or do we think it might be dying down?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, all eyes at the moment, Fred, are on Oman to see these meetings. First of all, Secretary Kerry is at the moment meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and in an hour and a half, he should be meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan to try to bring all the parties together again.

Now we understand that the Israelis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would like both the Jordanian and Palestinian leaders to publicly state that this status quo, this unofficial, unwritten arrangements that exists on the Temple Mount or the Haram-esh-Sharif as its known to Muslims remains intact, but today, of course, have been saying particularly -- the Palestinian president has been saying that Israel -- has been saying this for weeks, that Israel is trying to change the status quo to allow, for instance, for more Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount.

[04:25:00] Palestinians were worried that somehow the Temple Mount is going to be divided between Muslim and Jewish worshippers. So it's going to see -- it will be interesting to see if Secretary Kerry can actually pull this off.

And, of course, the violence now has been going on for more than three weeks. More than 50 people have been killed as a result. And when you go around the West Bank as we did yesterday, you seem to be going from one clash to another. So the terrain isn't very promising at the moment. But Secretary Kerry has been very busy trying to somehow tamp down the flames this time.

Fred?

PLEITGEN: What about people that you're speaking to? As you said, you've been in the West Bank. Did people there have any sort of hope that things could improve, that politicians are actually listening to them?

WEDEMAN: Well, there is sort of a general feeling that the current, for instance, Palestinian leadership is out of touch with the street. Mahmoud Abbas is 80 years old. He's -- many people will tell you he's run out of ideas and that he doesn't really speak for the street.

You have to realize that, you know, you go to these clashes, and a lot of them -- I covered the Second Intifada. There are clashes with people in their late teens, early 20s at these events. Now you go there, you see kids like 8, 9, 10, 11 years old there, in addition to, you know, teenagers as well. And it does seem there's sort of a disconnection between the generation that's out there throwing the stones and shooting the marbles with their slingshots as opposed to the leaders who have VIP passes drive around in Mercedes around the West Bank.

Fred?

PLEITGEN: Senior national correspondent Ben Wedeman, thanks very much for that update there from Jerusalem.

South Africa's president says the government will not hike university fees next year as students have been demanding in week-long protests. But Jacob Zuma cancelled plans to make the announcement in person in Pretoria after clashes erupted outside government offices. Some demonstrators throw rocks at police and responded with water cannons and stun grenades. Students have been protesting the high cost of education with some even calling for free tuition.

Now thousands of tourists heading to Mexico for sunshine found themselves in the path of that devastating Hurricane Patricia.

Coming up, we'll hear from an American now spending her vacation in a shelter, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:31:02] PLEITGEN: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. We are, of course, continuing our breaking news coverage of Hurricane Patricia, which has been downgraded, but is still considered to be highly dangerous.

I'm Fred Pleitgen here in London and I'm joined by my colleague John Vause who is live in Guadalajara in Mexico.

John, what's the situation?

VAUSE: Well, Fred, now U.S. forecast is now predicting that Patricia could dump as much as a foot of rain, that's 30 centimeters across many parts of Mexico, and in some isolated areas it may even be almost double that.

Now there's huge storm land into Mexico on Friday. There wasn't a lot of warning when it came in. It was a category 5. It is now moving inland as a category 2 hurricane. Thousands have been forced from their homes, but others have been waiting it out. It is fair to say, though, there is a lot of relief here across this country from the president on down.

He says so far damage has been much less than feared, but we must note it is still early and it is still dark. When the sun comes up, we'll know a lot more.

Louisa Valentin was in a shelter. Earlier, she was on a holiday to Puerto Vallarta. She was there with her boyfriend. They went to that resort town for a wedding. We spoke to her a little earlier to find out what her ordeal was like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOUISA VALENTIN, EVACUATED TOURIST: I didn't think we actually got enough warning. I know there was some talk about the storm that was heading off the coast toward us. Obviously, the hotel staffs was talking about, you know, what we could possibly do to prepare, but when we woke up this morning, most of the guests actually had no idea what the hotel was planning in terms of evacuation.

It was all a bit rush. While we were having breakfast, we have -- one of the managers was actually going around telling people that there was a meeting going on at 10:00 a.m. to basically let us know that we had half an hour to evacuate the whole hotel to go towards the shelters.

And we were told we're only allowed to bring one small bag with our essentials and everything else should be left in the hotel room. It was a bit of chaos in the morning, but as the afternoon went on, everything got a little bit more organized.

But there was definitely, (INAUDIBLE), the hotel could have probably warned the travellers maybe the night before. Again, a lot of people woke up and they just had no idea what was going on.

Right now, it's still raining. It's been raining most of the day. Now thankfully the wind isn't going to get too strong. There is still -- as we were going through town out, there was significant flooding in some parts of town. Some parts were lower than others so some of streets they had at least three feet of water in there. The higher roads -- there wasn't much damage there. Just a lot of water everywhere, thankfully. Most of -- you know the -- we were transported to the shelter with a strong hold, concrete structure. There was a lot of mountains around it. (INAUDIBLE) But the town proper was deserted. There were a couple of flooded streets, but it doesn't seem to be a lot of major damage to the structures.

There's staff -- I did see some police patrol cars just making sure that everybody was off the streets and not in the way of danger. But everything else as you previously mention pretty much goes fine at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That was Louisa Valentin there from the U.S. State of New Jersey. Just one of 15,000 or so tourist who have been evacuated because of this storm.

Mexico's Red Cross has been collecting donations since Thursday, but officials are now waiting to see the full impact before asserting where to direct those resources. And we got the very latest from a spokeswoman, from the International Federation of the Red Cross.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Mexican Red Cross is clearly of assistance to the government. So they have been mobilizing assistance since yesterday. They have mobilized relief items including food items and blankets, and it's close to the coastal area, and they have mobilized response teams as well.

[04:35:13] They're waiting for the impact of the hurricane in order to start making assessments and identify the immediate needs. There are around 50,000 people have been evacuated around the coast area -- Jalisco, Nayarit and Colima.

Evacuation centers have been set up and are equipped to shelter approximately 258,000 people. Also, the Mexican Red Cross has established a donation center in Mexico City to capture all donated items for the affected people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And we have compiled a list of resources to help people that have been affected by this storm.

For more information, please head over to our Web site, CNN.com/Impact and find out how you can help.

Of course, a lot more on Hurricane Patricia later in this hour, but in the meantime back to London and Fred Pleitgen for all the other day's news.

Hey, Fred.

PLEITGEN: Thanks very much, John. And next on CNN, we're learning more about a military raid to rescue dozens of Iraqi hostages and how it cost one U.S. commando his life.

Plus, after a gruelling day of Benghazi testimony, Hillary Clinton was all smiles on the campaign trail on Friday. We'll look at the latest poll numbers and you will see why. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PLEITGEN: Welcome back, folks, to our ongoing special coverage of Hurricane Patricia.

Now, Patricia has now been downgraded to a category 2 storm, but not before it slammed into southwestern Mexico Friday night as a category 5 hurricane, which is of course the fiercest level.

[04:40:06] Even as it loses steam, forecasters warn, it is still a very strong, powerful storm and flooding and mudslides remain big threats as the rain continues across the country. Mexico's president is urging people in Patricia's path to stay in shelters.

And we're learning more about the first U.S. ground operation against ISIS forces in Iraq. Daring hostage rescue mission left one U.S. Special Forces Commando dead, but also saved the lives of dozens of people believed to be facing imminent execution by the terrorist.

CNN's chief international security correspondent Jim Sciutto has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Faced with the first U.S. combat death in Iraq in four years, Pentagon Secretary Ash Carter made clear that U.S. troops will continue to face danger there.

ASH CARTER, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: The administration has taken great pains, the president in various permutations to say it's not ground combat, it's not a major combat route. They will be in harm's way, there's no question about it. And I don't want anybody to be under any illusions about that.

SCIUTTO: U.S. military official confirms to CNN that master sergeant Joshua L. Wheeler, 39 of Rowland, Oklahoma, a 20-year military veteran, was a member of the elite Delta Force.

The deadly battle was the first time U.S. forces have directly engaged ISIS fighters on the ground in Iraq. In a joint operation with Kurdish commandos, U.S. special operators from the Delta Force raided an ISIS compound. The rescued hostages thought to be in imminent danger of execution.

U.S. warplanes bombed makeshift ISIS training camps, staging sights, and bridges in the area and five helicopters brought in nearly 30 U.S. Special Forces and 40 Kurdish troops. The U.S. forces were not meant to enter the walled compound or directly engage the ISIS fighters, but when Kurdish forces inside the compound were overwhelmed, the U.S. commander made the decision to enter the fire fight.

Master Sergeant Wheeler was shot inside the compound and died later after being transported to a military hospital in Erbil. When the mission was over, U.S. aircraft overhead destroyed the compound.

U.S. troops are deployed to Iraq on a train, advised and assist mission. However, under current rules of engagement, they are allowed to return fire when they or their partner forces come under attack.

CARTER: When a fire fight ensued, this American ran to the sound of the guns and all the indications are it was his actions and not of one of his teammates that protected those who were involved in breaching the compound.

SCIUTTO: This risky mission was launched with U.S. military officials after U.S. surveillance spotted freshly dug mass graves inside the compound. U.S. official say that 70 prisoners were rescued, 20 Iraqi security forces, as well as Iraqi civilians and interestingly ISIS fighters accused by their own group of spying.

Missing, however, with the Kurdish captives they were originally sent in to rescue.

(on-camera): Defense Secretary Carter said that he was proud of Master Sergeant Wheeler. He said in his words that he ran to the sound of the guns. He made the decision to go into that fire fight. He lost his life for it, but Secretary Carter said as well they will continue to be risky missions like this for U.S. forces in Iraq. He said they will continue to be in harm's way.

Jim Sciutto, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: And U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was all smiles as she returned to the campaign trail after -- one day after 11 grueling hours of questioning on Capitol Hill.

House Committee grilled the former secretary of state on her handling of a deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in eastern Libya. Republicans as you might imagine weren't satisfied with Clinton's answers, but many analysts say she emerged from the hearing largely unscathed.

Clinton mentioned the hearing Friday while addressing a women's leadership forum.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's been quite a week, hasn't it. Well, thank you all so much. I am absolutely delighted to be here. As some of you may know, I had a pretty long day yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: And another thing that might delight Hillary Clinton, a new poll released by the Quinnipiac University, indicates Hillary Clinton has recaptured the lead among likely democratic caucus goers in the key early voting State of Iowa. The survey of almost 600 people showed 51 percent backed Clinton, while 40 percent support her rival Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

And we have some news from the world of baseball. The Kansas City Royals are heading to the World Series for a second year in a row after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3 on Friday. The Royals will play the New York Mets with the first game of the world championship happening on Tuesday. A lot of people can't wait for that.

[04:45:20] Coming up, climate change and storms like Hurricane Patricia. We'll discuss whether they're connected. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PLEITGEN: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Fred Pleitgen here in London. Of course, we want to update you on our top story, Hurricane Patricia. And we do have some breaking news just coming in.

The storm has weakened again and is now considered a category 1 hurricane. But, of course, it did make landfall on the Pacific Coast as the most powerful hurricane ever recorded. And even though, it is losing strength as it moves inland, authorities say Patricia is still highly dangerous. Right now, flooding and mudslides are among the main concerns.

And even though it's rapidly weakening, our experts still call Hurricane Patricia, quote, "historic," because before it made landfall, it was the strongest storm ever measured in the Western Hemisphere. And it was also the second strongest storm ever observed globally behind Typhoon Tip in the Western Pacific in 1979.

[04:50:14] At 355 kilometers per hour, Hurricane Patricia had the strongest winds ever observed. And when it was over, the Western Pacific, the storm intensified very, very quickly, one of the fattest on record.

At 12:01, Thursday, Patricia was a tropical storm, then at 5:00 a.m. Friday morning, it had become a category 5 hurricane, just to give you an idea of how fast all this happened. And now it's been downgraded less than 24 hours later to just a category 1, which, of course, is still very dangerous.

Now the initial magnitude of Hurricane Patricia has some people wondering, whether climate change made this hurricane worse.

As CNN's meteorologist Derek Van Dam tells us, some scientist say weather disasters make climate change harder to ignore.

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DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: When it comes to climate change, public opinion is near 50/50. But 97 percent of scientists, who dedicate their lives to studying our climate, say that it's happening and it's happening because of human activities.

With all the evidence we have of warming earth, it's harder and harder to be a skeptic these days. We're talking about temperature measurements, sea level rise, ocean acidification, and the reduction in ice shelves in Greenland and Antarctica, for example.

The fingerprint of climate change is clear in extreme weather events like our heat waves in India that's kill thousands. And we look back to 2010 where, in Russia, tens of thousands of people were killed because of extreme heat. We're talking about nine of the ten warmest years happening since 2000.

2014, in fact, was the warmest year on record, with 2015 looking to set the charts as well. The IPCC, says that a warming climate is unequivocal, it's happening. Humans are causing temperatures to rise by burning fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions, specifically co2, reaching levels that we've never experienced before.

In fact, 400 parts per million, first time in 800,000 years. As we pump more co2 into the atmosphere, the oceans are absorbing it, making it more acidic, and threatening the marine life. The oceans have seen a rise in acidity by 30 percent since the industrial revolution. This is an urgent situation. This is not something that has just come to mind so quickly. It is astounding to see the facts, astounding to see the statistics. Something that we have never experienced before. Highlighting that red flag that we need to deal with this in an urgent manner.

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PLEITGEN: Derek Van Dam reporting there. And a crucial aspect of natural disaster is, of course, how governments deal with them.

Joining us from right here in London via Skype to talk more about this is Emily Wilkinson. And she's a research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute.

And, Emily, first of all, good morning to you.

EMILY WILKINSON, RESEARCH FELLOW, OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE: Good morning, Fred.

PLEITGEN: And, first of all, there was so much talk with this hurricane that perhaps El Nino contributed to the fact that the waters were warmer, making it this powerful, this fast.

How can governments react better to something like that?

WILKINSON: Well, the Mexican government has a very good civil protection system. And I think they've responded very well. The evacuations they've carried out have been really effective and so far there'd be no mortalities related to this hurricane.

But I think what really needs to be done is better planning and better development planning, so there are lots of people living in coastal areas who are very exposed to these events. We need to think a bit more about locating people further inland, avoiding destruction of mangroves, which form natural barriers protecting people from these kinds of events, and considering in our development planning, how we can actually avoid some of these very extreme events having a major impact on human lives and on property.

PLEITGEN: That's a pretty long-term undertaking. And also, of course, quite an expensive one. What does that mean, for instance, for house construction and coastal areas? What does it mean also for disaster planning? I mean, in this case, it went so quickly that all of a sudden, people got the evacuation order.

How does this have to be dealt with in a long-term perspective?

WILKINSON: Yes, I mean, in the short term, it means that we need every season when the hurricane season is coming to work with communities to make sure that they are prepared, to make sure that they know what's going to happen and that they are ready to evacuate, they know where they're going to go. They're aware of where the evacuation centers are, where the shelters are. And that they're able to move and trust in government is an important aspect of this. And so working with communities in advance of these events will make a big difference.

Over the longer term, we need to think about housing on the coastal areas, being lifted up on stilts. It's less likely to be affected by storm surge. We're going to -- if we can move some of these inland to apply regulations, which are in place to keep constructions from going up on coastal areas and very near areas that are going to be affected by storm surge in particular.

In land, it's about avoiding deforestation. A lot of the problems we're going to be seeing over the next couple of days, I'm sure, will be related to landslides and flooding and that has got to do with trees being cut down and settlements going up in places where they are on stable slopes.

[04:55:00] PLEITGEN: So do you find that governments from the research that you do, do you find that governments are sensitive to this issue and are taking it seriously enough, because we have seen here in Mexico, by what we've seen so far -- we're obviously waiting for it to become day there, that it seems as though the response there has work.

But when you look back for instance at Hurricane Katrina or even that Typhoon Haiyan, there were catastrophic effects and some of them people say had to do with the fact that urban planning neglected these risks for such a long time.

WILKINSON: Yes. I think that's right. And the situation for New Orleans with Katrina were obviously very different than the areas that we're talking about that had been immediately affected in Mexico, which are more rural areas and of the same density of population.

So evacuating people is an easier task. But I think, you know, these are questions that need to be taken more seriously by governments. And I think there are serious incentives for allowing construction to go up in coastal areas.

There are -- there's profit to be made. There's taxes to be gained. So I think it's about changing the mindset and working with governments to think about how we can improve planning to reduce exposure in the future. There's a vast population. There's a huge amount of people the world over close to perhaps 200 million people living below 5 meters above sea level, which is a large exposed population of these kinds of events and we need to do more to try and protect those people.

PLEITGEN: Emily Wilkinson, thank you so much for joining us from London.

And, once again, I'm Fred Pleitgen right here in London. Thank you very much for joining us as well. We'll be right back in a moment.

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