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Power Getting Restored in Texas, Water Crisis Worsens; Texas Mother Details Experience in Dangerous Winter Storms; U.S. Winter Storms Causing Widespread Vaccination Delays; Biden Proposes Path to Citizenship in Immigration Reform; Iran Seeks Lifting of All Sanctions Imposed by Trump; First G-7 of Biden Presidency Begins in Coming Hours. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired February 19, 2021 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: A devastating week in Texas gets worse as the state confronts its latest crisis, a terrible shortage of water. This as the severe weather in the U.S. is causing delays in COVID-19 vaccine shipments and deliveries.

And NASA's rover perseverance lives up to its name completing a 300 million mile journey to mars.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. Welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans in the state of Texas are bracing for another day in the dark as many face the freezing temperatures, the heat, food or water. So far millions of businesses and homes now had their power restored after harsh winter storms earlier in the week knocked out most of the state's power grid.

But now the bitter cold is threatening another basic necessity, water. Some 13 million Texans are under boil water notices and some have no water at all. Many people have been lining up at public pumps while others have turned to melting snow.

Reports are pouring in across the state of frozen water pipes bursting. The city of Austin alone says it has lost 325 million gallons of water after pipes there burst from the cold weather, flooding homes and businesses. CNN's Camila Bernal has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QIANA ABRAMS, DALLAS, TEXAS RESIDENT: This is what we came back to.

Our whole apartment! Look at the -- you all, I cannot believe this.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Anger boiling over, as Texans endure more pain. Millions are now facing a new problem, major water disruptions, this woman's apartment in Dallas flooded. ABRAMS: And now we aren't got (BLEEP). Everything that we brought here, we don't have nothing, you all.

BERNAL (voice-over): Broken pipes, failing systems piling on to the pain Texans have felt since Sunday.

The White House has declared states of emergency for Texas and Oklahoma, with 22 million from Texas to Louisiana now under hard freeze warnings.

PHILIP SHELLEY, FORT WORTH, TEXAS RESIDENT: We're just left sitting in a cold dark room in the middle of the night with a crying baby and an in-pain wife. And that's what hurts the most, is -- and there's nothing we can really do besides sit and wait.

BERNAL (voice-over): Texas Governor Greg Abbott pledging to reform the organization that runs nearly all of the state's power grid, known as ERCOT.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): I'm taking responsibility for the current status of ERCOT. Again, I find what's happened unacceptable.

BERNAL (voice-over): And saying an investigation is under way.

ABBOTT: We have already begun the process to make sure that events like this never again happen in Texas. And that starts with reforming the agency in charge of electric reliability in Texas, which is ERCOT.

BERNAL (voice-over): People trying to do all they can to stay warm, even burning a baby crib.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the only way you can stay warm because the power's out.

BERNAL (voice-over): And this mother trying to keep her kids warm in the car.

SYLVIA CERDA SALINAS, MCALLEN, TEXAS RESIDENT: It's horrible. We have been driving around during the day with the heater on in the car just to keep warm.

BERNAL (voice-over): The water disruptions on top of everything.

MAYOR STEVE ADLER (D-TX), AUSTIN: It is too much to ask of anybody. People are angry and confused and frustrated. And I am too.

BERNAL (voice-over): The cities of Austin and San Antonio issuing boil-water notices Wednesday evening.

ADLER: This is a dire place.

BERNAL (voice-over): ERCOT saying they were actually only moments away from an even more catastrophic failure.

BILL MAGNESS, CEO, ERCOT: It was seconds and minutes, given the amount of generation that was coming off the system. BERNAL (voice-over): At its peak, more than three million people were without power. The vast majority have had their power restored. Some may be days away from getting it back. And people here want answers now.

RACHEL SIEGAL, DALLAS, TEXAS RESIDENT: I expect a full apology as to how this has been handled. And I expect some sort of solution so that this doesn't happen again.

BERNAL: And most of the people that we've talked to over the last couple of days say they agree with the investigation. They want to know exactly what happened here in Texas and why this became such a big mess.

[04:05:00]

But before they get any answers, they need to deal with the problems in front of them and for millions of Texans, that problem is water. Not just boil water notices, there are many people here who don't have any water whatsoever. So what they're doing is collecting some of that ice and that snow, putting it into buckets, taking it inside their homes for later use.

In Dallas Texas, Camila Bernal, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: And in the midst of all that Texas Senator Ted Cruz flew off to Mexico for a family vacation. He stayed one night, then as word of his trip blew up on social media, he came back on Thursday, calling the getaway a obvious mistake.

Protesters are gathering outside of Senator Ted Cruz's home in Houston. People are holding signs calling on him to resign. Cruz said he had regrets about his trip as he was returning home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): We left yesterday. The plan had been to stay through the weekend with the family. That was the plan. I started having second thoughts almost the moment I sat down on the plane. Because on the one hand, all of us who are parents have a responsibility to take care of our kids, take care of our family. That's something Texans have been doing across the state. But I also have a responsibility that I take very seriously of fighting for the state of Texas and, frankly, leaving when so many Texans were hurting didn't feel right and so I changed my return flight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Sharon Peterson is a resident of Katy, Texas. Her home has been badly damaged with burst pipes and water pouring in. She and her family have been camping out in a hotel with one bed for six people. Sharon, thanks so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. Before we get into what you've been through, just tell me how are you doing right now? SHARON PETERSON, RESIDENT OF KATY, TEXAS: Well, I'm coming to you from

the hotel bathroom, so I think that pretty much sums up my week so far. It's been a very long month this week, I guess you could say.

BRUNHUBER: Take me through what exactly happened to your house.

PETERSON: Sure. So Monday about 2 a.m. the power went out and we were out about 36 hours total. So when we woke up Tuesday morning it was 39 degrees in our house. And I have four children, 14 and under, two of them have special needs. So it was definitely a time of bonding under a lot of covers.

And so Tuesday morning we decided we would pack up our stuff and head to our church to at least charge up our things because they had power there and power was kind of some places had it, some places didn't. It was kind of all over the place. And on our way there, we stopped at Walmart which happened to take hours to get through. By the time I got done the neighbor texted and told me that our power was back on. And so we had been gone maybe two hours and when we opened the front door there was water pouring out of our vents downstairs.

BRUNHUBER: Oh, my gosh, and we were showing some video just there that you sent to us that just showed that water coming through the ceiling. Yes, we're seeing it right now. That must have been -- when you saw that, I mean, what went through your mind?

PETERSON: I was just stunned. Like I couldn't -- I didn't -- it's so hard to put into words because you think you've done -- you know, we kept our faucets dripping like we were told to do. We thought we were doing all the right things and we were just so relieved to finally have power on for a little while and then our house is basically destroyed. The plumber actually came this evening and he said there's so many cracked pipes at this point that he just thinks the whole house needs to be re-piped.

BRUNHUBER: You sent some pictures of the lineups to get food that you've had to go through, and water as well. How are you coping with all of that?

PETERSON: Right. So right now we're under a boil water watch for the city of Katy and I think the city of Houston, pretty much anywhere around here. You know, Houston is 3 million people. So you know, when you tell 3 million people, they can't drink water out of their faucets, of course the first thing that's going to go is bottled water. And it's sort of like the hunger/thirst games around here trying to find what you need in a grocery store. It's just -- everything is gone.

BRUNHUBER: I know a lot of people are angry at what happened. Your Senator Ted Cruz leaving to Cancun certainly didn't help. How frustrated are you at everything and at the politicians and the system right now?

PETERSON: I think it's been really frustrating for us because we don't know -- we don't really know what's happening and these rolling blackouts were -- they just -- there was no kind of warning or anything or any kind of you know -- any kind of schedule to let us know when they were going to happen so you could prepare for them.

[04:10:00]

It was just in and out, in and out and then, you know, boiling the water, that's really challenging when you're in a hotel room and you have four kids.

So, you know, on the other hand though, I have seen so many neighbors, I've seen so many church members just step up and help each other and, you know, that's what the people of Texas are like. You know, they're always looking out for their neighbor. And so I guess I choose to just focus on that stuff, what we can change, how we can help.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, that's a great note to end on, a note of hope there. And certainly we hope that, you know, all the best for you and your family. You've been trying to go through this by yourself let alone four kids, two kids with special needs. Just horrific circumstances there. But we wish you the best and, you know, hope the weather cooperates and finally you're able to rebuild your home. Thanks so much for talking to us. Appreciate it.

PETERSON: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: Firefighters in San Antonio, Texas, are battling a huge apartment fire and the water supply is a big concern. About 75 firefighters are struggling as many of the hydrants on the scene are frozen due to the severe storm that passed through. Fire trucks have to load up with water at a different location further away. One building is on the verge of collapsing, but thankfully no injuries have been reported yet.

Now the dangerous weather conditions are crippling the vaccine rollout in the U.S. Many states are being forced to cancel vaccine appointments and shipments of doses have been delayed. The nation's leading infectious disease expert says the country will have to work double time, in his word, to catch up. CNN's Nick Watt reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSEPH DIVINCENZO JR., EXECUTIVE, ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY: We have five sites here in Essex County. Today, they are all closed down.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That's Newark, New Jersey. Similar scene down in Houston, Texas. Every county-run vaccination site is closed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vaccine shots will probably start again on Friday.

WATT (voice-over): More than 2,000 vaccine sites are in areas with power outages, says FEMA, vaccine delivery delays from North Carolina to California.

NATHAN FLETCHER, SUPERVISOR, SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: While it might not snow in San Diego, the snow is directly impacting San Diego.

WATT (voice-over): Because snow has fallen on delivery hubs in Memphis and Louisville, Kentucky.

GOV. CHARLIE BAKER (R-MA): We're currently talking to the National Guard about -- and they will do this -- about going down to Kentucky and Tennessee, which is where this stuff is currently located, and bringing it back.

WATT (voice-over): The pace of vaccination was picking up before the cold took hold. But average shots in arms every day just took a little dip.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We're just going to have make up for it, as soon as the weather, you know, lifts a bit, the ice melts so we can get the trucks out and the people out.

WATT (voice-over): Meantime, average daily COVID-19 case counts down 26 percent in just a week, still high but going down for now.

The broader impact of all we've been through, still going through, drug overdose rates rose sharply when the pandemic hit, according to early CDC data, which also reports that U.S. life expectancy fell a full year first half of 2020, falling even further for Latin X and black Americans.

WATT: The sun is shining here in Southern California but, still, the massive vaccination site at Disneyland has closed down. Lack of supply, the shipment just didn't arrive because of bad weather elsewhere in the U.S.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right. Still ahead, a possible path to U.S. citizenship for millions trapped in legal limbo. We'll explain the details of President Biden's plan to revamp America's immigration laws.

Plus, Biden administration signaled a willingness to talk with Iran about the nuclear issue. Well now Iran has responded so we'll have a live report from London just ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: The ongoing investigation into the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol has led to about three dozen police officers being investigated for their actions that day. A spokesperson for the Capitol Hill Police says six officers now have been suspended with pay but other details about their suspensions haven't been made public. In all, 35 officers are under investigation. The acting police chief says any officer whose behavior that day didn't meet the department's guidelines and would face disciplinary measures.

Inside Congress, House Democrats are moving full speed on President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief package. Lawmakers are optimistic it can come to the House floor by the end of next week. And while that's happening, the president is unveiling an overhaul of

immigration laws that will put undocumented immigrants on the path to citizenship. CNN's Kaitlan Collins has those details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden preparing to take a crack at his next legislative battle.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is a reasonable path to citizenship.

COLLINS (voice-over): Democratic lawmakers unveiled what he believes that reasonable path is, introducing the most far reaching immigration overhaul attempted in three decades, while acknowledging how other efforts has crashed and burned.

REP. LINDA SANCHEZ (D-CA): Sometimes it seems that citizenship can defeat us before we even try. I get it, I really do. Congress has tried and failed in the past and we aren't naive about the challenges that we face.

COLLINS (voice-over): Biden's plan would offer an eight year path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants while expanding worker visas and reducing restrictions on family immigration. It would also remove the word alien from immigration law and replace it with non-citizen.

BIDEN: Everyone is entitled to be treated with decency, with dignity.

COLLINS (voice-over): But passing immigration legislation in Washington is like landing on the moon. It rarely happens.

[04:20:00]

And politics have only become more polarized since the last time lawmakers tried.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I think 2013 is the year of immigration reform, I really do believe it.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): We all wish we didn't have this problem, but we do, and we have to fix it.

COLLINS (voice-over): With a slim majority in the Senate, Democrats have acknowledged it'll be tough to get the ten Republicans needed on board. Leading some to suggest breaking the bill up into small pieces.

BIDEN: If you had a refugee bill by itself, I'm not suggesting that there are things I would deal by itself.

COLLINS: Right now Biden's top aids aren't saying how they believe the bill will become law or when.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: In terms of the mechanisms or the timeline or the mechanics, you know, we are happy to have that conversation in the weeks ahead, but today we're just -- the bill is just being officially introduced.

COLLINS: Now to be clear, what Biden is proposing here would amount to a massive overhaul of the current U.S. immigration laws. And of course, we've got to note that the United States has not passed a major citizenship bill since Ronald Reagan was in office. But the White House says that they are aiming high here. That they are hopeful this could be a bipartisan bill that can actually get some Republicans on board.

Though we should note, people like Senator Marco Rubio and Senator Mitt Romney have already expressed their opposition to what is being laid out in this bill. So where it goes is still a massive question.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Joe Biden has two major foreign policy events coming up in the next several hours. The first will be the annual G-7 summit. It'll be virtual this year because of the pandemic. President Biden is expected to announce $2 billion in aid to COVAX. The World Health Organization's international COVID vaccination effort. Then after that he'll lay out U.S. foreign policy goals in a virtual address to the Munich Security Conference.

Iran has responded to a U.S. overture about possibly restarting group nuclear talks.

The tweet from Foreign Minister Javad Zarif reads, Iran will reverse all remedial measures if the United States lifts all the sanctions the Trump administration imposed.

And this is after the U.S. State Department said the U.S. would sit down for talks with Tehran and the other signatories to the Iran nuclear deal before either side takes any tangible action towards compliance.

Well Nic Robertson is covering this for us in London. Nic, so the Biden administration making overtures to Iran. Iran has some pretty significant pre-conditions. But there now seems to be a way forward. So take us through these new developments.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, both sides have very significant pre-conditions. The U.S. had previously said that unless Iran comes into full compliance with the JCPOA, that it wasn't going to sit down and talk to them. But it did want to talk to them about extending and changing the current JCPOA. The international agreed nuclear deal.

But Iran's position was also quite simple. The United States needed to get rid of all of its sanctions, come back into compliance itself under the terms of the JCPOA, or there was a deadline on this, or this coming weekend Iran was going to stop letting in the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors on short notice visit to Iran's nuclear facilities.

So there was a real deadline approaching this weekend. A diplomatic fix has been found and this does seem to indicate a sort of a softening on the position of the Biden administration. Although this has been sort of explained as not giving in to Iran but sort of going along with common sense to try to get around the table.

And the fix is this, that the EU's foreign policy chief invites the United States to join all the other signatories to the JCPOA including Iran to get into talks about how to move the process forward. And the United States has taken a couple of sort of small diplomatic actions to indicate to Iran that it's acting in good faith. That it's taken off restrictions on the diplomats in New York, their missions there, and it's also saying that it will not issue Trump's demand that the U.N. snap back sanctions being pushed on to Iran.

But the issue of Iran's compliance with the terms of the JCPOA big because they are well beyond the terms at the moment. This is a breakthrough, and this does seem to be the sort of diplomacy that President Biden came into office promising.

Is Iran going to take it up? I think the signs are good, but we don't have a firm yes. What we heard from the Iranian foreign minister this morning in a tweet was that the United States needs to drop all its sanctions, those that are renamed, relabeled or whatever, they all need to go. But what he didn't do was saying that would put a deadline on it. And I think that indicates there's a chance for everyone to get around the table here.

[04:25:00]

BRUNHUBER: Yes, and speaking of, you know, making diplomacy a priority, remember President Biden said diplomacy is back so now pivoting to the G-7, what are we expecting there?

ROBERTSON: Yes, more diplomacy. Biden back on the international stage bringing America with him. You know, over the past four years since he was Vice President, he's obviously been absent, but this is much, much bigger than that. This is bringing the United States back. Today is the day 30 days after he said that the United States would rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. This is the day that it actually happens. And that the G-7 which is a virtual meeting had leaders meeting ahead of what will be the real and expected to be in person summit in the U.K. later this year in June.

President Biden is expected to sort of announce again a diplomatic shift. He has said that the United States, unlike President Trump, is going to continue supporting the World Health Organization and he's going to manifest that by giving $2 billion to the W.H.O.'s COVAX facility which is a facility that gets vaccines to poorer nations. The hope is to get 20 percent of the needed vaccines to 92 poorer nations around the world by the end of this year.

There's a big demand for it because so many poorer nations are falling behind, 130 nations around the world haven't got any vaccines. The criticism has been that 75 percent of all vaccines are only going to the ten richest nations right now. So Biden is making a big overture there stepping up with real big money to help out poorer nations. And that's a message that's expected to go down well.

BRUNHUBER: All right, Nic, always appreciate the analysis. Nic Robertson in London.

A young protester in Myanmar who was shot at a demonstration last week has died. Her family tells CNN. So far, she's the only protester known to have been killed in the demonstrations. Her death could become a rallying cry as the anti-coup demonstrations enter their third week. Police have arrested more than 500 people since the protests began, and the military is publicly going after at least six national celebrities accusing them of supporting and encouraging the civil disobedience.

Well no heat, food or water. Tens of thousands of Americans are still in the dark days after a powerful winter storm swept through the South. Is relief from the cold in sight? We'll check on the weather when we come back.

Plus there is better news about COVID vaccines from Europe. Scotland's first minister says there's strong and compelling evidence the vaccine program there is bringing down the number of deaths. We'll have more on that. Stay with us.

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