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Dorian Threatens Eastern U.S. After Devastating Bahamas; President Trump Digs In On Mistaken Alabama Hurricane Projection; Climate Change Battle, Climate Crisis Town Hall; Race For The White House; Death Toll from Hurricane Dorian Escalates; South Carolina Braces for Dorian; Foreign Aid Not Easy to Bring in Devastated Island; Boris Johnson's Brexit in Shaky Ground. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired September 05, 2019 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and, of course, all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. This is CNN Newsroom.

Hurricane Dorian is getting stronger. It's once again a major category three storm with winds of 115 miles or 185 kilometers per hour. And as the U.S. feels the effects of the storm, we are getting a better idea of the devastation Dorian left behind in the Bahamas.

In the past few hours the death toll there went up to 20. But that number is expected to go much higher. And right now, Georgia and South Carolina are feeling the brunt of the storm. More than 34,000 people on the coast of South Carolina are without power right now. There is flooding in downtown Charleston. A county official who we just spoke to feels the worst is yet to come.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELLIOTT SUMMEY, CHAIRMAN, COUNTY COUNCIL CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: We're seeing some flooding downtown in the city itself. And then in some of the outlying areas that normally flood. We, again, we're surrounded by several bodies of water down here, so it's not unusual to have flooding.

We're hoping that this thing will hurry up and get out of here, but the next high tide is what we're really worried about at 1 p.m. when the storm could be right near us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Emergency officials are warning against traveling on the bridges and the National Hurricane Center warns of a life-threatening storm surge, dangerous winds and flash floods.

And we have full coverage of this. CNN's Patrick Oppmann has an exclusive report from Freeport coming up. Our Paula Newton is on the island of Abaco and our Derek Van Dam is standing by in Charleston, South Carolina.

But first we want to go to our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri, who is tracking the storm. He joins us now from the International Weather Center. So, of course, we're hearing about this flooding in Charleston and we're worried about this 1 p.m. high tide that's a few hours away now.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. Yes, we had a 1 a.m. high tide and a 1 p.m. One going to be coming here in the next few hours, of course. The storm system is going to be on its closest approach to Charleston around that time.

Once we get into late morning early afternoon, it will come within say 40 to 50 miles of Charleston. At this hour it sits about 90 miles south of the city. And of course, you take a look the western periphery of this storm has really been sheered apart here by the land. Of course, been interacting with land for the last 24 or so hours from portions of eastern Florida to now portions of eastern Georgia and the Carolinas.

But even with all of these variables in the path of the storm, still able to strengthen in the last several hours up to a category three. Notice we are seeing tropical force winds from Hilton Head towards Charleston.

And these are the areas that within say 50 to 70 miles, not only are we seeing tropical force winds, but even hurricane force winds expected within the next few hours. Heavy rainfall on that northwestern side of the storm right now. So, we expect this heavy rainfall to continue for much of Thursday morning even into the afternoon and evening hours.

Charleston could be one of those cities that picks up as much as six to 10 inches of rainfall by the time we get into this time tomorrow as the storm begins to gradually pull away.

But here is the hour by hour breakdown here. By eight in the morning, we think the storm will be near its closest approach to Charleston, again, about 30 to 50 miles offshore. We will have the storm surge at its highest across this region, potentially up to seven feet.

And really important to note, when it comes to storm surge in a city like Charleston where you're surrounded by two rivers and of course the ocean right in your doorsteps here, you're going to have a tremendous amount of water funnel through the low-lying city.

Of course, Charleston built on reclaimed land and was just once a marshy landscape across this region sitting right at sea level. So you're going to bring in a lot of water into the city and then you think when you're talking about say five, six, seven feet of storm surge will cause significant damage.

And then beyond that the storm skirts up the North Carolina coastline and we think landfall will happen between somewhere between, say, Thursday night into Friday morning. We're on the outer banks of the Carolinas. That's the highest likelihood area for the storm to cross over lapped.

And beyond that, it quickly skirts away from the Eastern United States after some 13 days of threatening the Caribbean and the United States before making landfall on Thursday overnight. Rosemary?

CHURCH: We are looking forward to it removing itself from the coastline there. Our Pedram Javaheri bringing us the very latest on the forecast. We appreciate that.

JAVAHERI: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well, so far, the United States has only seen glancing blows from Hurricane Dorian but that could change in the coming hours and one place on high alert is Charleston in South Carolina.

Now, Derek Van Dam is standing by for us there right now. And Derek, I know you've moved location there in Charleston, and the big worry here is the flooding.

[03:05:04]

We can see some water there. And of course, they're counting down the hours until the 1 p.m. high tide which is going to bring some more problems with it.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right. This city is on high alert tonight. As you mentioned, Rosemary, a trio of threats. We have hurricane force winds in the forecast. We have storm surge and the potential for flash flooding. All exist tonight and into the day tomorrow with high tide, again, occurring between 1 and 2 p.m. tomorrow afternoon in Charleston, South Carolina.

This is a city on edge tonight because they know just how vulnerable of a coastal city they are.

Now, since we've been in this location, we have seen green flashes illuminate the sky every few minutes as transformers continue to blow around the area. I am, quite frankly, still surprised that we have electricity at the hotel that we're hunkered down in at the moment. I believe that will probably change. Good thing that we do have generator power available to us.

The police are reporting flooding streets, downtown Charleston, and that all has to do with the susceptible nature of this city. All of the topographical things coming together to put this city at risk for storm surge and flash flooding.

CHURCH: Yes, and let's talk about the risk of this city because it has added vulnerabilities because of its topography surrounded in water.

VAN DAM: Yes.

CHURCH: It sits very low. Talk to us about that.

VAN DAM: Yes, I think all we need to do really is look at a map. If you look closely, there is nothing between the city of Charleston and the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Rosemary.

It's similar for our international viewers to the city of Hong Kong. Nothing between them and the Pacific Ocean. If we have an approaching storm system like a Hurricane Dorian, a major hurricane Dorian with winds of 115 miles per hour, there's a lot of time for that to push up the ocean water right into the Charleston harbor.

On top of that, you factor in the combination of extremely heavy rainfall. We've had rainfall rates between two and three inches an hour. You can see this gusts that come and go with the rain bands that are moving in. Two to three-inch hour rains at the moment. That's 70 millimeters of rainfall in an hour's time.

That's a lot of rain for any city, let alone Charleston, South Carolina, that's so vulnerable to flooding. So, there's going to be competing water sources. Fresh water coming from the tributaries and the rivers finding its own level, moving down towards the ocean, and then the oncoming tidal surge from the approach of the hurricane. Both of those are going to compete. And water seeks its own level.

So, the water is only going to go up in the downtown locations. And we've had reports of that, confirming just that already this morning.

CHURCH: Yes, indeed. I mean, we're getting word, 34,000 people without power in South Carolina. That is a lot of people.

VAN DAM: Yes.

CHURCH: And we don't know how long that will go for and how long it will take for them to fix everything.

Our Derek Van Dam bringing us that live report. Derek, get into the shelter, get warm and get dry and we'll talk to you again very soon.

Well, for two days, Dorian's category five winds of relentless rains devastated Grand Bahama Island. The airport in Freeport is usually one of the busiest in the country. And one of the main entry points for tourists headed to the island paradise.

And our CNN team made it there on Wednesday and describes the damage as breathtaking. Our Patrick Oppmann filed this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We saw airplanes coming over this island along with helicopters, the first sign of any organized search and rescue effort any effort to bring in help from outside this island. We thought perhaps that meant the airport here was functional or had re-opened.

So, we went to the airport and what we found was total devastation. We are on the runway at the Freeport airport. It has been inaccessible for days. There was a river between. The rest of this city and this airport it was completely under water. It looked like the waves were crashing, waves were crashing against this airport. Look how destroyed it is right now. Just about every side, eight feet

to 10 feet up has been levelled, ripped in, torn in. Look at it now. I don't recognize it. There's not a wall standing. You think about the need this island has right now for a functioning airport to get injured people out, to get supplies in, and this airport right now is completely destroyed.

[03:10:02]

I've never seen anything like it in my life. This is complete and utter devastation like I've never seen. Jose's going to point the camera over here. Look at this. That's a wheel. This is the underside of a plane. This is what's left of the wing.

You think of the force required to throw a plane from the runway into a terminal, if anybody was here, I don't know how they would have survived. I've seen a lot of damage on this island. This is the absolute most devastated area I've seen so far.

It will be impossible for anybody who was injured or just wants to get off the island to leave from here. Aid will not be able to come in to this part of the airport, into this airport at all because it's just a debris field now.

So, if help is going to come, it's going to have to come through some other way. Boats, another airfield, but this is really the only -- this is the only airfield for this island and it is in utter ruins.

So that terminal that we gained access to was one of the domestic terminals. We tried to visit two other terminals that were still standing but had been in floodwaters for days and at one of the terminals which is for flights to and from the United States, we were told that it was simply too dangerous to enter, that nobody has been in there to do a damage assessment just yet.

We looked inside and we could see tremendous damage from the days of flooding. No one has begun work so far to clear the runway, and that debris will keep flights from landing at this airport, flights that could be carrying vital aid.

Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Freeport, the Bahamas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: An incredible account there of the damage in Freeport from CNN's Patrick Oppmann.

And my next guest is Christy Delafield. She is the director of communications for Mercy Corps and joins me now from Nassau. Thank you so much for talking with us.

Thank you.

CHURCH: Now, we just saw there in Patrick Oppmann's report the total devastation at Freeport's airport in the Bahamas. Clearly unable to receive planes at this time. Although the international terminal is apparently still standing but damaged from flooding. What's your organization's plans right now for getting aid deliveries in for those most in need?

CHRISTY DELAFIELD, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, MERCY CORPS: Well, you've put your finger on just the biggest challenge that we're facing right now. These are two islands that were incredibly hard hit. There's widespread flooding and there's almost no way to get supplies in.

There was a flyover done yesterday in which we saw basically Freeport sort of standing and then flattened ground on either side of it to the north and south of the island.

So at this point all responders are standing by while we allow the authorities to prioritize search and rescue efforts because that medevac is so important and just can't wait, that lifesaving aid, and we're using this time to mobilize, to assemble ourselves and to coordinate supply chains so that we know that we're prioritizing the aid that's needed most urgently and that we're going to be ready the second that we're able to get on the islands.

CHURCH: Right. And what about perhaps some other alternatives like receiving aid from boats and distributing those deliveries to people across the islands? Is that possible? How would that work?

DELAFIELD: At this point it's not because, as I said, there are some limited access points and the local authorities are really trying to prioritize those lifesaving elements, search and rescue, getting people medevac, and kind of making sure that that gets first priority.

As a very important and very urgent next step, we're looking at getting clean water supplies to people. What we're seeing in particular on Abaco is that all of the groundwater supplies are likely contaminated. So, this means that salt water and flooding has made it so that those wells are just undrinkable.

So, we're going to be needing to look at getting desalination supplies in. We're going to be needing to look at getting jerry cans and other containers so that people can transport clean water. And this, as you know, is a huge health risk because water borne illness can creep in so quickly after a disaster like this.

CHURCH: Yes. I mean, it is the highest priority, isn't it? What about air drops from above with water, food and medical aid of some sort? Has that been considered and how viable is that?

[03:14:55]

DELAFIELD: So, the challenge with an air drop -- and I haven't heard it raised in a coordination meeting. That doesn't mean that it hasn't been considered. But the challenge is then having organization on the ground to ensure that supplies get distributed fairly, evenly to those people who need it most.

So, you really need that ground game in place so that you can ensure that once supplies get there, they get to the people that need it. But, look, we need to -- we need to be considering everything that we can, everything that we can do safely, everything that we can do efficiently because these are people who are in desperate need at this point.

CHURCH: Mercy Corps is a great organization. It does so much for people in need and after devastation like this and disasters across the globe. The task ahead is immense for sure. Christy Delafield, thank you so much for all you do and your organization.

DELAFIELD: Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: And stay with us as we continue to track the path of hurricane Dorian.

Ahead, our Paula Newton has just arrived in Abaco and takes a look at the devastation there.

Plus, Britain's parliament hands the prime minister major setbacks on Brexit. A live report from Brussels just ahead.

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[03:19:58]

CHURCH: The British prime minister's Brexit plan has been scuttled. The House of Commons voted to prevent Boris Johnson from leaving the E.U. without a deal. He's lost 21 members of his own party and the opposition dismissed his demand for an election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Forty-eight hours ago, he was leading the chants of stop the coup, let the people vote. Now he's saying stop the election and stop the people from voting.

I think there's -- I think there's only one solution, I think he has become the first, to my knowledge, the first leader of the opposition in the Democratic history of our country to refuse the invitation to an election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Nina Dos Santos is in Brussels at this hour. She joins us now live. Good to see you. So, how's the European Union reacting to Boris Johnson's troubles with Brexit and parliament?

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you can imagine it's been a long night here in Brussels as well as for lawmakers in Westminster because here members of the European Commission who draft the E.U.'s laws and are spear heading negotiations with the U.K. will have been watching and waiting on every single word that was said there to find out whether or not Boris Johnson, a, will be locked into a position to come back to the E.U. and ask for an extension, and, b, whether or not he will call an election after it appears as though M.P.s on the other side of the House of Commons called his bluff on that subject.

There is a real sense here talking to E.U. diplomats that the E.U. on one hand is very conscious of being played here as part of the political game by Boris Johnson as part of his election campaign.

One E.U. diplomat we were speaking to yesterday evening said we're very aware, quote, unquote, "that we could be used as a backdrop to an election campaign."

Also, E.U. officials saying that they're concerned that they're being played off against the potential for a trade deal with Donald Trump in the United States.

You'll remember that yesterday evening Donald Trump also decided to comment on how he thought Boris Johnson was steering these negotiations with the House of Commons.

When it comes to the negotiations, well, let's call them technical talks at this stage, Rosemary, to give them their full diplomatic terminology, they have been taking place yesterday for about five hours in the European Commission building behind me.

After that we saw Michel Barnier from the European Commission who is the head of all of this project, he came out and said three terse things, one, that the E.U. remains calm, vigilant and also united.

Vigilant obviously because E.U. diplomats will tell you here in the Belgian capital that there appears to be a real concern of trust when it comes to dealing with Boris Johnson's government and the negotiating team that he has here in terms of how emboldened they are to offer something new and concrete and then, of course, the E.U. has to present a united front.

Now, already is a sign that the U.K. is starting to withdraw itself from some of these E.U. day-to-day matters. As promised a couple of weeks ago when we saw Michael Gove say that the U.K.'s teams would not be taking place in -- taking part in standard meetings with the E.U.

We've now heard from two E.U. sources that the U.K. has on the first step started to do that. In fact, just yesterday they were planning on nominating judges -- a Dutch judge to one of their European courts. The U.K. stepped back and allowed another country that holds a rotating presidency of the E.U. to make that decision in its part. So, you're seeing a disassociated U.K. and a very vigilant and alert Brussels these days, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Just incredible. Nina Dos Santos reporting there from Brussels. Just cup coming up to 9.30 in the morning there. Many thanks.

And earlier I spoke with CNN European affairs commentator Dominic Thomas and I began by asking with Boris Johnson looking weak and isolated right now, where is all this going.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Yes, Rosemary, he's looking weak. Remember when he won the conservative party election just a few weeks ago, he came out with the acronym DUDE. His goal, first of all, was to deliver Brexit by October 31st. That's not going to happen.

He promised to unite his party. His party is perhaps historically never been more fractured. He has members being booted out of the party. Members voting against him. He's been talking about prorogation, which means that the action of defeating Jeremy Corbyn or energizing the country has completely backfired because in fact now you see a coordinated response from the opposition who have taken control of the legislative agenda.

You have a prime minister that can no longer legislate because he's lost his majority and he now, essentially has to sit and wait, and have the future of the outcome here dictated by the opposition that are now in complete control.

[03:24:57]

CHURCH: So, what do you see as the next step forward? I mean, what can we expect in the next few days? I mean, it's been difficult to predict all of this, but just give us an idea of possible scenarios here going forward.

THOMAS: What we can certainly expect is the unexpected, as we've seen with Brexit throughout. What's interesting now is that the House of Lords have said that they will support this parliamentary bill to prevent a no-deal.

And so, the big question then comes, at what point do we trigger or does a general election get triggered by the opposition providing their ascent?

We know that on Monday the queen can provide ascent. That would be the earliest point at which she could approve a legislation blocking a no- deal. But there is a lot of suspicion amongst opposition ranks that if a general election called on the desired date proposed by Boris Johnson, which is mid-October, that should the conservative party win and should he have a new and parliamentary majority that he would then endeavor to repeal this particular action.

So there's a lot of pressure here to try and gather guarantee that will not happen, and that seems difficult to do legislatively, or to wait until after the 31st of October to ask Boris Johnson to go to the European Union and ask for an extension, which, of course, strategically works very well for the opposition because it will further weaken his attempt to bring the Brexit party into the fold and to support the conservatives going into a general election.

So, we end up with a very fractured political landscape in which ultimately the outcome of a general election remains highly unpredictable.

CHURCH: Although Boris Johnson was fairly right when he mentioned the opposition is trying to avoid an election because when they look at the numbers, so far it doesn't look like they would do well.

THOMAS: Well, this is the big question. For them the number one concern right now is the question of the no deal. So, they want to try and make sure that if a general election is triggered and the power is with them now, the government cannot just simply call a snap election and Boris Johnson was unable to get the two-thirds majority.

But yes, you're absolutely right. The polling points to the fact that the conservative party is ahead. They're not ahead sufficiently to garner a total majority. For them to do that, they'd need the Brexit party and the Brexit party is not going to be happy with the way in which this is unfolding, and certainly in the kind of leadership that Boris Johnson is providing.

When one looks then to the opposition, there is no way in which the liberal Dems end up with an ultimate majority, and there's a big question as to whether Jeremy Corbyn can lead the Labour Party to a majority. But there is a possibility then of a coalition of an opposition that could do very well in the election. Certainly, things have not been going well for the conservative party over the last few days.

CHURCH: Dominic Thomas, always a pleasure to get your analysis. Many thanks.

THOMAs: Thank you, Rosemary.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And back here in the United States, a federal judge has ruled that the government's list of people on its terrorist screening database violates American citizens' constitutional rights.

Being on that database can restrict people from traveling in and out of the country and exposes them to greater scrutiny. The judge wants the plaintiffs and the government in the case to file more briefings before deciding what legal steps to take next.

Well, hurricane Dorian is making its way up the southern U.S. coast. Several areas will soon be facing a triple threat of wind, rain and storm surge. And the results could be devastating. A look at the forecast when we come back.

And what's wrong with this picture? President Trump stands his ground on the hurricane with a map and a sharpie.

[03:30:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Rosemary Church. Hurricane Dorian is growing more powerful. It is back up to a category three as it batters the southeastern coast of the United States. Parts of Georgia, South Carolina and -- they're all feeling Dorian's wrath. And it didn't cause significant damage as it moved up the Coast of Florida over the last day.

Unlike in the Bahamas where it left behind unprecedented destruction. At least 20 people have died. That toll is likely to go up as search and rescue efforts continue. How Dorian has -- now Dorian has its sights on the Carolinas where it is already flooding Charleston in South Carolina.

And in the Bahamas, picking up the pieces from hurricane Dorian could take years. Our Paula Newton is on the ground in Abaco and describes the devastation there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now, I have to say the one thing that is stark is that I'm looking at stars and that is good news. This is the first time they've seen clear stars. And what is it showing us? The light of day and now even it's quite eerie in the nighttime. It's absolute destruction because you actually see all the debris strewn everywhere. The extent of the damage.

The buildings that were supposed to withstand hurricane force winds is completely crumpled and torn apart. And that is the kind of devastation. I mean, you're seeing the appliances strewn everywhere that would just go flying. Even boat was turned upside down, that was send flying through the air. You see people's furniture from one house end up in another person's backyard meters away.

It is indescribable. Air conditioners pulled out from their homes, tossed upside down. It is just an absolute mess. An absolute mess. And when they see that -- when you see the debris and you witness that for yourself, you realize how lucky people felt to come out of this storm alive. When you look at the devastation and you see the amount of people that are missing, it was traumatizing just listening to people talk about all of the people they could not account for, and that is the terrifying thing for everyone here right now.

And in the middle of all of that, they're trying to put together their lives. They're doing the best they can. Today was a good day in terms of trying to at least get out to the people that needed medical help. There was a lot of traffic in the air medevacing people out and that was a good thing, but it is going to be a struggle each and every hour out here for several months if not years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: All right. Our Paula Newton reporting there. So let's get the latest on hurricane Dorian's track. We turn again to our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri, who joins us from the International Weather Center. So Pedram, what are you seeing?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, it's getting uncomfortably close to some of these regions across the coastal area of the Carolinas. We know, wind gusts expected to push towards hurricane strength here within the next 30 minutes to an hour across places such as Charleston, certainly places even around Savannah as well.

[03:35:02]

And you'll notice as the storm really closes towards land, say around 6:00, 7:00, 8:00 a.m., we think these gusts could exceed say, 80 to 85 miles per hour in Charleston. Of course, in itself, that's significant, but that's also ushering in a significant amount of water. With rainfall and also the storm surge right toward these communities.

And then the storm really closes in on its approach to landfall here, we think some time into the overnight hours of Thursday and to Friday. Wind at that point, places such as Moorhead City, Cape Hatteras, up to 70 to 115 miles per hour once the storm cruises out of here. And of course, with it we're going to have significant coastal erosion, significant storm surge damage as well.

But notice very broad reaching feature here, spanning some 500 miles from end to end. It is a category three, as you mentioned. It's been very organized in the past few hours. But the concern now in the folks in the National Weather Service out of Charleston, it's kind about the western periphery of the storm. It's been really kind of riding up the coast here, producing a tremendous amount of rainfall in the past several hours. We're beginning to see really heavier bands to push toward this region given the next few hours.

And some of the models indicating potentially 15-plus inches of rainfall in places such as Charleston, (inaudible), Isle of Palms and to Mt. Pleasant as well. This will leave to significant flooding, you factor in these storm surge potential, the high tide coming on around 1:00 this afternoon. All of this could really be a catastrophic sort of scenario for places such as Charleston with a storm such as this, category three parked just offshore.

Landfall potential here really going to be most likely Thursday overnight and into early Friday morning. At this point it looks anywhere from say, Wilmington on into the outer banks in the -- around North Carolina there. They are going to be the most likely scenario for landfall, potentially at that point, Rosemary, a strong category two, when it makes landfall early Friday morning.

CHURCH: All right. Thanks for keeping an eye on that track. I appreciate it, Pedram Javaheri.

Of course, we all know the U.S. President is not one to admit when he is wrong. In a barrage of tweets over the weekend, Donald Trump warned hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama. Almost immediately the National Weather Service in Alabama corrected him in no uncertain terms saying the state would not see any impact from the storm. But President Trump took his insistence that Alabama was in the forecast to a new level on Wednesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That was the original chart, and you see it was going to hit not only Florida, but Georgia and could have -- was going toward the gulf. That was what we -- what was originally projected. And it took a right turn. And ultimately hopefully we're going to be lucky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: OK. So a closer look at that National Hurricane Center map shows it was apparently altered by a black marker or black sharpie to include Alabama. A note here. It is against federal law to alter official government weather forecasts. Mr. Trump followed that up with a tweet showing another map that does include Alabama in the path, but it was dated August 28th. By the time the president tweeted his warning Sunday, none of the projections included Alabama.

Well, on climate change the positions are clear, the Democrats are on one side and President Trump is on the other. Coming up, the candidates' plans for dealing with the crisis. Back in a moment.

[03:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: More now on our top stories, Dorian has strengthened into a category three hurricane again. It is battering the southeastern coast of the United States. And is now flooding downtown Charleston in South Carolina. Forecasters say Dorian's destructive winds, heavy rain and life-threatening storm surge will impact the coast of the Carolinas for many hours to come. More than one million people in north and South Carolina are under mandatory evacuation orders.

Well, the frequency and severity of storms like hurricane Dorian is one result of climate change, and while President Trump rejects climate science as a hoax, his Democratic challengers take the opposite view. In a CNN town hall, the candidates stressed the urgency of the climate crisis and outlined how they would address it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I-VT), 2020 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So I think that Donald Trump is dangerously, dangerously wrong. I may be old fashioned, but I believe in science. And Richard, as I'm sure you know, what the scientists have told us, climate change is real.

JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2020 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The fact of the matter is that we make up 15 percent of the problem. The rest of the world makes up 80 percent -- 85 percent of the problem. If we did everything perfectly, everything, and we must and should in order to get other countries to move, we still have to get the rest of the world to come along.

And the fact of the matter is we have to up the ante considerably. And I have great experience in leading coalitions, both at home and internationally. And I think I can do that better than anybody who -- no matter what their plan.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), 2020 U.S. DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE: Don't sit around and tell me what's not possible. Sit around and look what happens if we don't make change. You know, we've got, what, 11 years maybe to reach a point where we've cut our emissions in half, and that is not just America. We're only 20 percent of the problem. Now, that is a big hunk of the problem, but there is another world out there that is 80 percent of this problem. So you bet that this is a moment where we better dream big and fight hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And Natasha Lindstaedt joins us now from Colchester in England. She is a Professor of Government at the University of Essex. Good to see you.

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX, ENGLAND: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: So you watched the whole lineup. Who came out on top as the strongest performer? Was there one big winner?

LINDSTAEDT: Actually, I didn't think that there was one big winner, but I also didn't think that there was one big loser either. In the past debate it was a little bit more clear, you know, which Democrats did the best and which Democrats really faltered. And in the past we also saw Democrats really digging at each other. And this is what happened with this debate.

Everybody was on the same page with the exception of Klobuchar, who was trying to present a little bit more of a moderate view, and I think you could probably put Joe Biden in that category. A lot of attention is on Joe Biden and how he handles these debates and town halls. And I think in this instance, he came out OK. He was able to present himself as a leader.

One of his weaknesses is his record hasn't been that great. There are questions about his connections with these big industries and with big donors and he was able to sidestep the question OK, and actually say, well, he's going to look into what donors are giving him a little bit more, instead of not really acknowledging the issue at all. And he tried to present himself as someone who could lead the world on this because of his past experience.

[03:45:05]

But all of the candidates came out looking pretty good in terms of their knowledge of climate change, what their plans were. Probably the most extreme example would have been Sanders, who proposed a $16 trillion plan. And then you also had Warren with a ton of huge plans as well. They all seem very energetic and positive and interested in combatting climate change. So we'll have to see how that resonates with Democratic voters.

CHURCH: All right. Well, that is all very encouraging for anyone looking for an alternative, right? And so, so Bernie Sanders made this very pointed remark. Let's just listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: We are fighting for the survival of the planet earth. Our only planet. How is this not a major priority? It must be a major priority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Now, he is specifically talking about President Trump not making climate change a major priority. And he calls him dangerous for doing this. Why is it such a low priority for the president and why does he deny the science behind this?

LINDSTAEDT: Well, I just think it's inconvenient and he also feels that his base isn't behind the climate change, he doesn't believe in climate science. And we see the way he was dealing with hurricanes. He doesn't think it has to do with global warming and he didn't really seem to know where the hurricane was even going to hit, pointing to it may be hitting Alabama. He just doesn't understand climate science at all.

His base, it's hard to know how much of them actually believe in it, but we do know of the American public, 70 percent think we need to be doing more about the environment, but the issue is in this same poll, there wasn't a majority that supported spending an extra $100, being taxed on this to support environmental issues. I think that the American public is hoping that they can use the environment to create more jobs, but they don't want it to actually affect him.

CHURCH: Right.

LINDSTAEDT: Affect themselves. And for Trump himself, he doesn't think this is a way to win 2020, by focusing on the environment.

CHURCH: All right. Let's listen to what Joe Biden said on the same topic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: We got to start choosing science over fantasy here. The fact of the matter is that what he did by removing the United States as the leader of the Paris Climate Accord, he in fact dissipated the enthusiasm across the board. The rest of the country are saying, whoa, wait a minute, why are we engaged in this if the United States is stepping down?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: So, Natasha, did the removal of the United States by President Trump from the Paris Climate Accord give other nations reasons to say why should we be doing anything if the U.S. isn't? Is Biden right on that point? And you know, and all the candidates, of course, said they would get back into that accord on day one as president.

LINDSTAEDT: I think it's possible that it could affect the leadership of other countries, seeing that the U.S. isn't taking the lead on climate change and isn't putting climate change at the top of the agenda and instead saying we're going to back out of these climate change accords. It was very, very significant.

But it's also significant because the U.S. is supposed to lead on issues. And climate change is probably going to be the biggest challenge that the world will be facing. If we believe the science on it. And the U.S. is basically saying we are not going to be the leaders on this. And then that then leaves room for other leadership, like in Germany, like in France to take the -- to steer things forward, because the U.S. has basically dropped out and said, you know, we don't really believe in it under Trump.

CHURCH: Natasha Lindstaedt, thank you so much for your analysis and perspective on this. I appreciate it.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: And we'll take a short break here. Still to come, rescuers in the Bahamas are looking for survivors after hurricane Dorian's catastrophic blow to the islands. More on our top story and where the storm is headed next.

[03:50:00]

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CHURCH: Hurricane Dorian is moving toward the coast of South Carolina with renewed strength. The storm is expected to run along the coast of the Carolinas from Thursday into Friday. And is already flooding downtown Charleston in South Carolina. More than one million people in parts of both North and South Carolina are under evacuation orders at this time.

Hurricane Dorian has left behind epic devastation in the Abaco. As CNN's Victor Blackwell reports, urgent rescue efforts are now under way.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORREPONDENT: Wednesday, we saw a steady flow, not a massive amount, but a steady flow of evacuees transported from Abaco to Nassau. The stories they are telling, they really are searing, but we're also hearing emotional stories from people waiting, waiting to hear from friends and relatives who they haven't heard from since the storm hit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Megan and Raevyn Bootle arrived at Nassau's airport early Wednesday morning to wait for three evacuees from the Bahamas, Abaco.

RAEVYN BOOTLE, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: We haven't had any direct contact with either our mother, our aunt or our grandmother since the hurricane hit Abaco on Sunday, so we're hoping that they'll be evacuated soon and we can see them when they arrive here.

BLACKWELL: U.S. Coast Guard and Royal British Navy Rescue Teams have plucked scores of stranded people from the northern island. Some arrived with injuries from the ruthless storm. Stephen Rolle, rushed to a clinic in Marsh Harbor for shelter after his roof started to tear away at the height of the storm three days before he was rescued.

STEPHEN ROLLE, BAHAMAS RESIDENT: We were trapped inside our apartment. The wind came, blew every window out. This couldn't have been a cat five. If they had a category for this, this had to have been like an eight. BLACKWELL: Ten-year-old Alex ran from a chopper to his aunt after

days without power or clean water. By sundown, Raevyn and Megan got word through a relative that their mother and grandmother and aunt are fine and they say they will wait at the edge of the tarmac until their flight lands.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Well, Megan and Raevyn are so dissatisfied with the information that they're getting from the Bahamian government that they work with another family member to set up a social media chain to share information and whereabouts of people on Abaco.

[03:55:03]

There is a Facebook page with more than 11,000 members doing a similar thing. I even watched a television host spend a significant amount of time on her show locally to just read names and whereabouts and conditions of people. For the government's part, they have set up a hotline that people can call to get information about evacuees. Victor Blackwell, CNN, Nassau, Bahamas.

CHURCH: And here's an encouraging story, a farmer in Florida is doing his part to help those in the Bahamas. The man who wants to remain anonymous walked into a supermarket in Jacksonville, Florida and walked out with 100 generators and some food essentials. All of that is now on its way to the Bahamas by boat. His mega purchase cost nearly $50,000. Getting the goods to the Bahamas, though, could prove challenging. The ocean is rough and there is still debris from the storm. But, wow, what an effort there.

And if you would like to help those affected by hurricane Dorian, just go to CNN.com/impact. There you will find a list of organizations working to help Bahamians with medical supplies, food and water. And stay with CNN as we continue to follow hurricane Dorian. We are getting reports that more than 34,000 customers are without power along the South Carolina coast. Most of those are in Charleston County.

Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. Remember to connect with me any time on Twitter and "Early Start" is next. Have a great day.

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