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Hurricane Laura Predicted to Strengthen to Category 3; Many Permanently Leaving New York City Following COVID-19; Jerry Falwell Jr. Withdraws Liberty University Resignation and Is Under Investigation. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired August 25, 2020 - 10:30   ET

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

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[10:32:07]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: The storm is in the warm waters, the very warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, gaining strength as it takes aim at Texas and Louisiana.

CNN's Martin Savidge, he is in New Orleans. And meteorologist Chad Myers, tracking the path from the CNN Weather Center.

And, Martin, it struck me when you said earlier, 15 years to the day today from Hurricane Katrina, and those memories still sharp there. Tell me about preparations people are making.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, let's talk about Texas because it appears more and more that Texas and the western part of Louisiana are the ones that are really going to face the brunt of Hurricane Laura.

The fact that it's now projected to potentially be a Category 3. A Category 3, that's a whole different animal. I mean, a Cat 2 is a very strong storm, but one you get into the realm of Category 3 and check and talk about this, you know, sustained winds possibly up to 129 miles an hour. So Galveston right now, mandatory evacuations, as you say, under way.

No surprise there, right up on, you know, the coast. It's a very vulnerable kind of community. So you need to start moving people early in advance of a storm with this kind of size and mass. And then on top of that, there are other parts of coastal Texas that are also either coming under mandatory evacuations, or people are being encouraged to start moving. Same is true for the western parts of Louisiana here.

The oil rigs out in the Gulf, you know, those are important commodity for the economies here. Even before this storm, they had about almost half of them had evacuated or were in the process of being evacuated. So the implications of the storm go far and wide.

And then on top of that, you know, we have to point out that as we talk about these evacuations, we're still in the middle of a pandemic, and you're still talking about two states that have suffered heavily, Texas and Louisiana. And though the numbers have been trending down, when you start these sort of emergency movements, you start bringing people into shelters? Even with the self-distancing and the other medical protocols, that's a problem.

So a pandemic --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

SAVIDGE: -- and a Cat 3? Nobody wants to face both of those.

SCIUTTO: No question. We just got a little taste of that a couple weeks ago along the East Coast, but this one looks worse. Martin Savidge, thanks very much.

Chad, you're watching the track. Tell us where and when and what all that warm water in the Gulf means.

CHAD MYERS, CNN AMS METEOROLOGIST: It means that without the shear that we had from Marco that tore it apart, it appears that Laura's going to be a much bigger storm. And as Marty just said, Cat 3, 115 miles per hour, that's the forecast. And even at this hour, you're plus or minus 10 percent from there because it's not close to land yet, we still have another about 36 hours before as you asked (ph).

But you will see, though, the storm getting stronger, a hurricane hunter through it right now just found a 77-mile-per-hour wind and it's forecast to turn to the right and on up toward the -- really, the Texas-Louisiana border, that's where I could call the center.

But this is too close to call. If it gets much stronger -- and we call it rapid intensification -- it could turn right a little bit. If it follows the track that it's been kind of going on the past couple of hours, it could be left a little bit. That's why there's a cone in the first place, right?

[10:35:10]

Temperatures are in the 90s. Something I don't want to talk about, but if you want -- if you hear this, this is what it is. If the storm rapidly intensifies, that's 35 miles per hour gain in 24 hours. Rita, Katrina, Michael. And I was just reminded by a viewer on Twitter, Charlie as well, all devastating storms when they rapidly intensify.

And where are we now? right there at that crossroads, Jim, right in the warmest water, the deepest, warmest water. It's called the Loop Current. It comes across from Cancun and Cozumel, and right up to where this storm is right now.

SCIUTTO: Keep an eye on it, we know you will, Chad. And we'll bring everybody the latest as we learn more. Thanks very much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

SCIUTTO: Now to California. And goodness, the situation there, just breathtaking. Wildfires in the States have now killed at least seven people. More than 14,000 firefighters, some working 24-hour shifts battling to contain the flames. In many areas, they just don't have enough to do it. CNN's Dan Simon, he's in Napa County with the latest.

Goodness, so many people being forced to evacuate. What's the progress now? Any rain on the way? What are you seeing there?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well hey, Jim. The good news is that fire crews were able to take advantage of better-than-expected weather over the past 24 hours. And so the containment numbers have gone up a little bit as far as this fire is concerned, the LNU complex fire.

This is the fire that has destroyed more homes than any other fire currently in California. It's now at 25 percent. The bad news is, there's a long way to go and you have a lot more fires burning throughout California.

But they were able to keep -- fire crews were able to keep the fire from burning towards some of the populated areas. Of course it's too late for this neighborhood, this is Wine Country, Napa County. And this area's just been obliterated.

You have tens of thousands of people who have been forced from their homes. And you know, the sad thing is, these people just don't know when they'll be able to return to their homes or what their neighborhoods are going to look like.

Governor Newsom talked about the week ahead and the challenge for firefighters. Take a look.

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GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): -- the winds will be very determinative in terms of our ability to suppress these fires and mitigate the spread of these fires. And that's why I say this week is going to be a profoundly important week in terms of our efforts, and we are going to put everything that we have to do what we can.

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SIMON: And once again, Jim, the numbers have just been mind-boggling, and there have been some 12,000 lightning strikes, more than 600 fired, about two dozen of them considered major because there are so many fires, resources are stretched thin. You talked about the number of firefighters, 14,000 of them -- 14,000, they're from all over the country: Texas, Arizona, Kansas, they're all making their way in here to augment the resources that are available to the state.

And so hopefully, crews will be able to, again, take advantage of the break in the winds and the fact that we haven't seen much lightning over the past day or so -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I mean, we're talking about hurricanes in the midst of a pandemic, and here, wildfires in the midst of a pandemic there. Dan Simon, good to have you on the ground.

[10:38:29]

Well, coronavirus drove some New Yorkers out of the city, shut down once-thriving businesses. Though a lot of folks have come back, what will the city look like once the pandemic is over? We'll have more.

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SCIUTTO: After months of stay-at-home orders and a record death toll from coronavirus, New York City is on the mend. The city is now reporting its lowest COVID-19 positivity rate since the start of the pandemic. So as residents and business owners work to reopen, what does it look like on the other side? CNN's Jason Carroll has more.

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MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK, NEW YORK: We New Yorkers take on challenges all the time, and we overcome them.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): But there are troubling signs of more challenges the city faces. More than 5,000 businesses, closed since March. The number of people shot, up by a staggering 84 percent compared to last year. And real estate sales, stalled. The number of homes on the market? Up 87 percent in Manhattan, headlines declaring New York City dead forever.

LORI CHEEK, FORMER NEW YORKER: New York will come back on some level, but it's not going to have that magic that I wanted to pay so much money to live there for.

CARROLL (voice-over): After 25 years in the city, Lori Cheek, a 47- year-old dating app creator, packed up and moved home to Louisville, Kentucky, initially to live with her parents. Now, in her own place with no regrets.

CHEEK: I did it, and I was in New York City through 9/11 and Sandy and the recession, and I wasn't about to give up on New York. But there was something about this that was completely different.

CARROLL (voice-over): Interest in moving out of the city has doubled compared to last year, according to United Van Lines. The governor has called for people who left to return.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: You've got to come back. When are you coming back? We'll go to dinner, I'll buy you a drink. Come over, I'll cook.

CARROLL (voice-over): But even for self-described die-hard New Yorkers, patience is running out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I say, who's going to come back to this? I was here in the '70s when things were really, really rough, and people are afraid that we're heading back to that.

[10:45:06]

CARROLL (voice-over): Increasing calls from New Yorkers to do more about the homeless in the wake of the pandemic.

CHRIS O'CONNER, NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT: There's incidents that are troubling. You know, there's a man masturbating in front of the Natural History Museum, there's reported drugs being sold and used more commonly now.

CARROLL (voice-over): According to the city's Department of Social Services, more than 10,00 people have been moved from group shelters to hotels due to the pandemic.

OLIVIA BAILY, NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT: I definitely think New York City is going to survive and come out of this. We went through 9/11, I was actually working in one of the towers when that happened. You know, we're very resilient. We can get through anything.

CARROLL (voice-over): Mayor Bill de Blasio agrees, but says the city will need time to recover.

DE BLASIO: What we got hit with was an absolute perfect storm: a health care crisis, an economic crisis, a budget crisis, a social justice crisis, a crime uptick, all at once, and all interrelated. But this too shall pass.

CARROLL (voice-over): Restaurants such as Extra Virgin in the West Village, weathering that storm for now.

JOSIP RASPUDIC, GENERAL MANAGER, EXTRA VIRGIN RESTAURANT: I don't think the city is dying, I think the city is definitely going through a phase where we need to adjust and adapt to new things.

CARROLL (voice-over): And that meant laying off most of the staff, and table service only outside until further notice.

RASPUDIC: I'm only worried about my job and this restaurant and my life personally when it comes to the city. I think it's going to be a quiet summer, it's going to be even a more quieter winter.

CARROLL (voice-over): Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

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SCIUTTO: All right, well one famous New Yorker, the comedian Jerry Seinfeld, says don't count his city out. In a "New York Times" op-ed, he had a message for New Yorkers who left for places such as Florida during the pandemic, writing, quote, "You say New York will not bounce back this time. You will not bounce back. In your enervated, pastel- filled new life in Florida... This stupid virus will give up eventually the same way you have.

"We're going to keep going with New York City if that's all right with you. And it will sure as hell be back. Because of all the real, tough New Yorkers who, unlike you, loved it and understood it, stayed and rebuilt it. See you at the club." As a fellow New Yorker, I tend to agree with him.

Well, what started as an affair between a pool attendant and the wife of a prominent evangelical leader, leads to a bizarre back-and-forth that has now ended with the resignation of Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., big backer of the president there. We'll bring you all the latest.

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[10:52:08]

SCIUTTO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is now demanding a full and transparent investigation after a German hospital confirms that the Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was poisoned last week. Merkel's comments remain in stark contrast to President Trump, who has yet to make any substantial statement himself regarding the poisoning of a high-profile critic of Putin.

Remember, Russia has a history of poisoning dissidents and opposition leaders.

So far, just a spokesperson on behalf of the U.S. ambassador to Russia has tweeted similar sentiments to Merkel, awaiting the president's comments himself. So far, he has just said they are looking into it. Navalny remains in a medically induced coma.

Another story we're following, "The Wall Street Journal" is now reporting that the president of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Jr., has officially resigned. During a phone call late last night after -- well, a strange back-and-forth over whether or not he was really stepping down, Falwell Jr. agreed to resign Monday after admitting that his wife had an affair with a pool attendant. Hours later, he withdrew. That investigation now, it appears to be back on.

CNN national correspondent Athena Jones. Falwell Jr., he's saying the whole ordeal is due to blackmail. What are the facts?

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jim. Well, look, Jerry Falwell says this is about blackmail. The man in question -- his name is Giancarlo Granda -- says actually it's about a business dispute he's having with the Falwells, with whom he had invested in a hotel- type property down in South Florida.

But let's rewind here. This affair that Jerry Falwell's wife Becki Falwell had with this man, Giancarlo Granda, began back in 2012 when the couple met this man while he was a pool attendant at the Fontainebleau in Miami.

Granda, telling Reuters that he and Becki Falwell had a years-long affair and that Jerry Falwell would -- enjoyed watching them have sex. This is something that Jerry Falwell denies. He admits the affair happened, but that he had no -- says he had no involvement.

Now, he had already been on an indefinite leave from his post as president of Liberty University after he posted photographs on Instagram earlier this month of his pants unzipped or unbuttoned, opened, revealing some of his underpants and -- along with the assistant of his wife. And so that caused the university to put him on indefinite leave.

He had a long back-and-forth with "The Wall Street Journal" last night, at one point, saying, look, they put me on leave because of self-righteous people. Later on, saying, I've given my life to this university, to building it. And then finally, calling back before midnight saying, well, you know, he's embarrassed the school and so he's going to step down and do what's best for the school. Now, this further confusion.

So today is when this board -- the school's board, the executive committee along with the full board are meeting to decide his final fate. But it's certainly an unflattering situation to find himself in.

[10:55:05]

And I should remind our viewers, this is one of President Trump's earliest evangelical supporters, and it's now yet another ally of the president's who's dealing with a very unflattering situation -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Athena Jones on the story, thanks very much.

And thanks so much to you for joining us today -- so much news to follow. I'm Jim Sciutto. NEWSROOM with Kate Bolduan will start right after a short break.

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