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Millions Suffering in Texas As Power & Water Crisis Grows; Sen. Ted Cruz Travels to Cancun as Millions of Texans Suffer Amid Power and Water Crisis; Updated Guidance on One-Dose Johnson & Johnson Vaccine; Crippling Weather Hampers COVID Vaccine Deliveries And Distribution. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired February 18, 2021 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:16]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you for joining us this.

At this hour, an unfolding humanitarian crisis in Texas. People there forced to spend another night with no power and no heat as the temperatures remain below freezing. The winter storm that started this all has killed at least 37 Americans, more than a dozen of them in Texas. Just yesterday, the state was hit with another round of ice.

Nearly half a million customers in Texas still without power. That is actually though an improvement as there were more than 4 million customers without power in the beginning of the week.

But make no mistake: people are truly suffering right now. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVIA CERDA SALIANS, TEXAS RESIDENT (via telephone): Times were tough. I wasn't working because of the pandemic. So, financially, I maybe don't have the options to go out and buy a generator or to purchase fast food even.

So it's hard. Shelters are at capacity. There is no hotels anywhere. Even if I wanted to take my kids somewhere to be warm, there is nothing. We've been driving around during the day with the heater on in the car just to keep warm.

JEFF PENNIE, TEXAS RESIDENT: It is very stressful to be in a cold house, and if you're in a cold house you're definitely not eating any warm food. And then when you go out, you can't find food.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The crisis is not over. People don't know when this is going to end. But the finger pointing is well underway.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has offered no clear timeline and when power will be fully restored. He's pointing the finger at the manager of the state largest power grid. That organization known as ERCOT says that more rolling outages are likely today and they are trying to say that this is an unforeseen catastrophic event. But many local officials say that is even close to the case.

Water is also becoming an issue with nearly 12 million people facing disrupted service and boil water advisories. Officials in San Antonio and Austin are telling residents to boil their water and use bottled water. And, of course, as we know, when this happens, groceries are flying off the shelves. So, there aren't grocery -- getting groceries like bottled water is nearly impossible for many at this point.

So that is the scope of the problem that they are facing right now.

So let's go to Texas and CNN's Camila Bernal. She's live in Dallas for us.

Camila, what are you hearing today?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kate. So, we are hearing that there is progress when it comes to the power grid. But the county judge here in Dallas also telling us that the reality is that there was also a lot of damage specifically to transformers and power lines here in the Dallas area. So until all of that gets fixed, a lot of residents here are still going to be waiting and likely cold, angry and still with a lot of questions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BERNAL (voice-over): Texas in crisis. Hundreds of thousands of residents still without power and heat after days of brutal cold temperatures.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm nervous. I'm nervous. I don't know what's going to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The house is 32 degrees inside. We're worried about the pipes.

BERNAL: Residents documenting the damage. Some posting photos on social media of frozen pipes bursting, sending water and ice into their homes.

BRIANNA BLAKE, TEXAS STORM VICTIM: We had no fire wood left and we started using things in the house to keep the fire going and seeing my two sleeping babies under a bunch of blankets in front of the fireplace, that was slowly going out, was heartbreaking.

BERNAL: Many are seeking refuge wherever they can, including warming centers or furniture stores.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You could freeze in the middle of the night. So we had to find someplace to go.

BERNAL: Some even sleeping in their cars to stay warm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is not like sleeping in your own bed. But we were warm. BERNAL: Grocery stores running low on food. Nearly 12 million Texans

are experiencing water disruptions with most of those under a boil water notice. Even hospitals are struggling to maintain water pressure.

In Galveston, most residents have no power or heat. The local medical examiner setting up a refrigerated truck outside its building, anticipating an influx of deaths. The county's judge furious.

JUDGE MARK HENRY, GALVESTON COUNTY, TEXAS: Everyone knew this was coming. We had a week's advance notice, so I'm very upset.

BERNAL: The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, also known was ERCOT, under fire for the power outages. The company said on Wednesday it restored power to more than 1 million households.

[11:05:02]

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has called for an investigation and for the company's executives to resign. But Abbott himself is under fire.

Critics accusing him of deflecting responsibility by placing blame on renewable energy sources.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.

BERNAL: Changing his tune just hours later.

ABBOTT: The companies that generate the power, they're operations have frozen up or have trip wired and are nonoperational. That is the lead reason why there is a shortage of power.

BERNAL: Beto O'Rourke disagrees.

BETO O'ROURKE (D), FORMER TEXAS CONGRESSMAN: Our renewable energy portfolio actually outperformed the forecast, regardless of what, you know, Greg Abbott and other Republicans and right wing media are saying.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERNAL (on camera): And the rolling blackouts are expected to continue throughout the day in this neighborhood, someone told me they were at three hours on and eight hours off. They're expected to get shorter but at the moment they don't have any guarantees, Kate.

BOLDUAN: That is the worst part of it.

Camila, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

This just coming into CNN right now, Senator Ted Cruz, he is now facing a whole lot of questions after he was spotted on a plane traveling to Cancun, Mexico, in the midst of this unfolding crisis in home state of Texas.

CNN's Jessica Dean, she has the details on this. She's joining me right now from Capitol Hill.

Jessica, what are you hearing about this?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Kate.

We have confirmed what multiple social media users posted photo of and that is that Texas Senator Ted Cruz and his family traveled to Cancun, Mexico, while all of this is going on in his home state. Of course, he is elected to represent and advocate for these millions of people who right now are without power, without water, without groceries, as you just laid out right there.

We do know that Senator Cruz did travel to Mexico. We've also confirmed with a source familiar with his itinerary plans that he is booked on a return flight to Houston for today but who is to say if he gets on the flight, we don't know until that happens. But that is certainly the case right now.

One Texas State Representative Gene Wu tweeting that Cruz is traveling while the straight is freezing to death and having to boil water. So it is dire circumstances in his home state of Texas, as Senator Cruz travels to Cancun, Mexico, with his family.

Again, right now, the Senate is out. They are on recess. So they are obviously not here doing any work at the capitol. He had traveled home and we now know that he had traveled to Mexico while this humanitarian crisis is unfolding in his home state -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Jessica, thank you so much.

And, look, while Senator Ted Cruz might not have a role on the ground in Texas, as this crisis is unfolding as he's a senator and he represents them in Washington, of course, this is, as we know, all of us know, that when a major crisis happens in any state, it is the lawmakers from that state who could serve as a critical advocate for hearing the complaints and hearing the concerns and hearing the dire conditions that their constituents are in so they could help bring word to people, bring word to the people who are on the ground in those emergency situations, to help things move in the right direction and get help to the people who need it most.

Joining me right now is Texas State Representative Chris Turner. He's a top Democrat in the Texas statehouse.

Thank you for coming on.

I'll ask you about Ted Cruz in a second but the most important thing needs to remain the crisis at hand at the moment. What's the situation where you are?

CHRIS TURNER (D), TEXAS STATE HOUSE: Good morning, Kate. Thanks for having me.

The situation is dire but improving slightly. It is been a catastrophic week across Texas, including in my area in the Dallas- Fort Worth metroplex. We've had millions of Texans without power. As your report indicated, power is returning, although there are still several hundred thousand households throughout the state that still do not have power.

In addition, we have some households without natural gas. Here in my neighborhood in Grand Prairie, Texas, we have several hundred homes without natural gas, so they can't warm their homes even though they do have electric power.

Adding to that problem is we have people across state with water shortages. The city of Arlington, which I represent, a city of 400,000 people, is under a boil order. You have to boil your water in order to be able to use it and the same is true in cities across the state affecting several million people. So the situation remains quite serious.

BOLDUAN: And, look, these aren't just people you represent, these are your neighbors. What are you hearing from your friends and neighbors about what they're having to deal with?

TURNER: Well, it's heartbreaking. And I heard your report from Texas and we're hearing those kind of stories throughout our neighborhoods and district and state.

People are scared. People are cold.

[11:10:00]

They're worried about their elderly neighbors and parents and others who don't have access to a warm shelter, where that young children and infants are in similar circumstances and people with underlying health conditions.

A lot of people, you know, in my district and elsewhere depend on certain medical devices to keep them stable in their homes. So when you lose power, that could be a catastrophic health event for people.

So people are -- have had a very, very rough time this week and a lot of this could have been avoided and that is the tragedy of it.

BOLDUAN: I want to ask you about that. You've said that this entire episode represents a catastrophic failure of leadership. What do you mean?

TURNER: Yeah, well, a couple of things. One, this weather event was predicted. This is not something that just came out of the blue. We've been hearing for well over a week from weather forecasters that we're going to have severe winter storms that would drop the temperature into single-digits across much of the state and drop a lot of snow and ice across much of the state.

And so, power generators knew what the weather forecast was going to be. Somewhere between the power generators and ERCOT, which you mentioned and the Public Utility Commission which regulates the energy -- the utility industry in Texas, there was a breakdown to where no one understood exactly how much power was going to be knocked offline on Sunday night into Monday morning.

That is what resulted in millions, over 4 million Texas households losing power. That should not have happened. And the fact that there was no advanced notice that this could happen is, I think, a catastrophic failure in leadership.

And we've seen the lack of preparation for this event that's taken a tremendous toll and that is what I mean. And I think there is a lot of questions that has to be asked in the public and private sector.

BOLDUAN: So, let's talk about some of the leaders. We just had a report on where we know Ted Cruz is, Texas Senator Ted Cruz. He's in Cancun, Mexico, amidst this winter disaster.

What is your reaction to that?

TURNER: You know, it's just unbelievable. And just when I think Ted Cruz couldn't disappoint Texans more, he finds a new way to do it. You know, like I said -- I said a month ago that Ted Cruz should resign the Senate for his role in the insurrection in the Capitol and promoting the big lie that somehow Donald Trump has won the election. And so I still think that is the case and he's given us one more reason to resign.

As far as I'm concerned, it would be fine if he remained in Cancun, he doesn't do anything for us in Texas or Washington. So I don't know that we're going to notice when he comes back.

BOLDUAN: So, you also have another leader, former governor, longest serving governor of Texas, Rick Perry, who -- he is also the former secretary of energy under the Trump administration, he said in a blog post the following, he said that Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business.

What do you make of that after what you just described, you and other residents, your friends and neighbors are going through, I don't really understand -- I conceptually understand what Perry is trying to get at there but I don't really understand it when you're literally in the middle of a crisis?

TURNER: Well, Rick Perry is wrong about that and it's laughable. You know, Governor Perry is retired now so we don't have to worry too much about what he says anymore.

But it's just absurd. People want the power to be on. And I think they care less about is the state regulation or federal regulation. They want the power to work. They want government to work and assure basic essential services are available to them and their families. It's not too much to ask for Texas --

BOLDUAN: So the current -- the current governor is blaming ERCOT. Is that the right place to be placing all of the blame?

TURNER: Certainly some of the blame, someone needs to go to ERCOT, but not all of the blame. What the governor is not talking about is the Public Utility Commission which has oversight over ERCOT. The Public Utility Commission is a state agency run by three commissioners appointed by the governor of Texas.

So, Governor Abbott appointed the three Public Utility Commission commissioners who oversee ERCOT. So we need to look at them. We need to look at the governor and certainly the legislature, which I'm a part of it.

We all need to look at what everyone could have done differently on all levels to prevent this terrible catastrophe in Texas this week.

BOLDUAN: But, first and foremost, just literally for some, just surviving another day, which is so sad. We're talking about Texas here, the cap -- the energy capital of America at this moment.

Thank you for coming on.

TURNER: Well, absolutely, and I'll just say that Texas is a great state, people are great, we need our government to live up to the greatness of our people.

BOLDUAN: Texas is a great state. That is true. Thank you very much.

[11:15:00]

Coming up for us, severe weather is also disrupting and delaying vaccine distribution across the country. I'm going to talk to the CEO of Michigan's largest health care system next.

And later, a startling new statistic and sign of how the coronavirus is impacting Americans. Average life expectancy in the U.S. has dropped a full year.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: This just into CNN. A top White House COVID adviser now saying that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could need a second dose, and J&J is looking into whether a booster is required.

Joining me right now with this is CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.

[11:20:01]

Elizabeth, talk to me about this. What are you learning?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is actually very much in keeping with what we've been learning about this variant and what it means for the vaccine. And let me sort of walk you through it. All of these vaccines, whether it was Johnson & Johnson or Pfizer or Moderna or AstraZeneca, they were based on a blueprint of the virus that was done early last year before these variants started to appear, Kate.

And so it is not surprising to hear that Johnson & Johnson, if they're approved, that there might have to have a booster. It just wasn't designed with the variant from South Africa in mind. Now, it doesn't mean it wouldn't work at all against that variant. It might, in fact, all of the data shows that it will have some effect but it's likely not going to be 95 percent effective as we saw in the clinical trials for Pfizer and Moderna.

In other words, it will -- this variant will make the vaccine less effective for that variant. But still, a good vaccine to get.

So we may need boosters for all of these vaccines. And certainly the companies that make these vaccines have indeed talked about that. But this is all at this point in the realm of science.

I want to talk a little bit about what it means for you and me. For all of us, if we could get the vaccine, get it. It works so well against nearly all of the coronavirus that is out there in the United States. We know that it works so, so well for the predominant strains.

If it works less well for the variant coming out of South Africa or other variants that might appear, that is okay. We could get a booster later. But in the meantime, get the vaccine. It works so well against the coronavirus that is out there. If you could get it, get it.

BOLDUAN: There is also new pretty striking data from the CDC showing just how much COVID is impacting all of our lives. That U.S. life expectancy was fell by over a year in just the first half of 2020, Elizabeth.

COHEN: That's right. And it rarely in modern times have we seen that life expectancy has gone down. It's gone up and up and up in modern times. So, to see it go down and go down so dramatically just over the course of the first half of last year is really just so sad and so striking.

So let's take a look at these numbers. So what they found based on data from the first half of last year is that overall in the entire U.S. population, life expectancy went down one year to 77.8 years. For black people, if we take that separately, it went down 2.7 years and that is so horrible and speaks to how this outbreak has had a disproportionate affect of people on color.

So, down 2.7 years to 72. For Hispanic people down 1.9 years to 79.9. For white people, down eight tenths of a year to the age of 78. So again as you could see, down overall and particularly dramatic and terrible for people of color.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Thank you, Elizabeth. I appreciate it.

Let's turn now to this. The wild winter weather is impacting COVID vaccine distribution across the country. More than half of states are experiencing shipment delays as the weather is impacting major distribution hubs in Tennessee and Kentucky.

The dangerous cold, the snow, the ice is all forcing vaccination sites, also forcing vaccination sites in many places to shut down temporarily. It is just one more factor in the already complicated and unpredictable vaccine supply chain.

Just this week, Michigan's largest health care system, Beaumont Health, was forced to cancel nearly 2,000 vaccine appointments. They're not working to reschedule those second dose appointments. Beaumont is citing in its press release the following. They said it's, quote, an unexpected and significant reduction in Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine allocation from the state of Michigan.

Joining me right now is the chief operating officer for Beaumont Health, Carolyn Wilson, for more on this.

Thanks for coming in. Talk to me about this. Explain to me what happened here. Why did you need to postpone these appointments?

CAROLYN WILSON, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, BEAUMONTH HEALTH: Thank you, Kate.

Really related to the vaccine that we received from the state of Michigan. As you said, Beaumont is the largest provider. We took care of the most COVID patients and really responded to vaccination in a major way.

We started with large supply of Pfizer from the state of Michigan and were able to give it to Michiganders in our team who want that vaccine. So we're giving about 115 now vaccines in the first few weeks, we needed a lot of second doses. The state has since changed its strategy for allocation and moving more away from hospitals and health systems, into rural areas and counties and others, and so we just did not get enough vaccine.

BOLDUAN: The spokesperson for the state health department told CNN, they said it's unfortunate that they chose to cancel second dose appointments while we're continuing to work with them. What's going on here?

WILSON: We too, we're just exceptionally disappointed.

[11:25:01]

As you could imagine here if the state of Michigan, vaccination applications are high, the demand is high. And most of our doses were scheduled when people got their first vaccine. We wanted them to leave the first vaccine with their second appointment.

So we knew and the state knew and people getting vaccinated knew when the second doses were due. We've done a lot of reconciliation with the state on the numbers and the need for vaccine. Unfortunately, we were told how much we would get and, quite frankly, we used every last dose of yesterday.

Meaning, I have absolutely no vaccine for today in order to keep the appointments that were prescheduled. We did work through the state again over the weekend and into Monday I just got notice about 15 minutes ago that another 7,000 doses are arriving here today, which will allow us to avoid cancellations for Friday and Saturday of this week. BOLDUAN: I have to ask you, though, have you gotten really like --

this seems like this is a problem between your health system and the state and you guys seem to be caught unawares by this change in strategy. But have you guys worked this out? Because this is --

WILSON: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- obviously no joke. You don't want to have to cancel these appointments. People want to get these shots.

Have you gotten assurances from the state that they're going to be able to make up for this? And how confident could you be that this won't happen again?

WILSON: We're doing everything that we can to have this not happen again. We spent several hours with the state and the National Guard reconciling numbers. As you said, the last thing that Beaumont wants to do is cancel.

I do want to make sure that you understand, we're working with the Michigan Hospital Association and our peers. We are not the only health system that has not received our second doses.

BOLDUAN: Right.

WILSON: It's a state problem.

I do understand, though, and we are working collaboratively with the state, we are dependent on them for vaccine. We want to be part of the solution.

Beaumont believes in vaccination. There are about 480,000 people here in southeast Michigan that look to us for health care that are over 65 years of age and many of them want the vaccine.

So we're doing everything that we can to partner with this state in a collaborative way to get the vaccine --

BOLDUAN: Well --

WILSON: -- to people that want it.

BOLDUAN: Let me ask you about that. Let me ask you about that, because the Biden COVID response team have stated they're giving states visibility to be able to know reliably how much vaccine they're going to have three weeks out. It is supposed to avoid situations just like this.

So is that not happening?

WILSON: We are not privy to state receipt numbers. And we would love that transparency, because for us to plan ahead, we don't want to cancel. And as you said, we have zero degree weather here, a lot of snow. The last thing I want to have is people coming to the clinic and not having vaccine. So, we hope this will never happen again.

BOLDUAN: Well, we'll follow up. Thank you so much for your time.

WILSON: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, federal authorities, they're now looking into how New York's governor handled data on COVID deaths in nursing homes in the state, just as a state lawmaker that you see on your screen right there claims that the governor threatened to destroy him over the scandal that is now erupting. The details are next.

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