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Millions Of Texans Without Safe Water; Midair Engine Failure On Boeing Jet; Over 200,000 Without Power In Five States; Pro-Democracy Protests Continue After Myanmar Coup; Gaza To Start COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout On Monday; Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans Spark Calls For Change; Strangers Become Friends During Snowstorm. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired February 21, 2021 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.
Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, debris dropping from the sky. A Boeing 777 carrying more than 200 passengers has engine failure. The dramatic images and the harrowing stories coming up.
Also, long lines for clean water in Texas as anger mounts over what many say was a crisis just waiting to happen.
And calls for action after a disturbing rise in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
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HOLMES: Welcome, everyone.
Our top story this hour, a happy ending to a terrifying incident in the skies over Colorado but investigators still need answers about why it happened. Officials say an United Airlines jet suffered an explosive engine failure shortly after takeoff on Saturday.
You can see the result of that there. The Boeing 777-200 was able to return to Denver International Airport and landed safely. Debris from the plane, meanwhile, rained down on suburban neighborhoods.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's all going that way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, are these --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw the plane sputter and then I saw things fly out the back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Incredible. Amazingly, officials say no one was hurt on the ground nor in the air. Check out the mayday call from the pilot telling air traffic controllers what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mayday, mayday, United 28 -- United 328, heavy mayday, mayday, aircraft --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 320, again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Denver departure United 328, heavy mayday, aircraft just experienced an engine failure. Need return immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: CNN's Lucy Kafanov is on the ground follow this update.
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LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So we are in Broomfield, Colorado. This was the area most impacted by the debris raining down from United Flight 328, the Boeing 777 that took off from Denver's International Airport. It was bound for Honolulu but minutes after takeoff, the pilots reported a problem with the right engine.
They then turned around and, as they were doing that flying over this area, residents, eyewitnesses on the ground reported hearing the sound of an explosion. One eyewitness described it as a sonic boom and that's when they saw black smoke coming from the plane and pieces of metal raining down.
Just to give you a sense of the scope of the debris field, I mean, down the block behind this cop car is a massive soccer field. There's a dog park, a lot of folks out and about earlier in the day, playing soccer, walking their dogs, enjoying the nicer weather that Denver had earlier in the afternoon.
All of that disrupted by this incredible event. The Broomfield police said they used a massive amount of police tape to section off these areas because, anywhere you go here, you can find pieces of debris. They're still urging residents to report those pieces. They're saying you shouldn't touch that, get the authorities involved.
And a miracle that no one was hurt, not any of the 241 people on board that craft nor any of the residents here on the streets of Colorado -- Lucy Kafanov, CNN, Broomfield, Colorado.
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HOLMES: Now we did hear from a passenger about what it was like on the flight during the frightening ordeal. He says the trouble started when the plane reached 10,000 feet. Have a listen.
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TRAVIS LOOCK, UNITED AIRLINES PASSENGER: There's a big boom and the kind of sound you don't want to hear when you're on an airplane. And I instantly put my shade up and I was pretty frightened to see that the engine on my side was missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, wow.
LOOCK: So we were just glad we weren't over the ocean. Because that's where we were heading.
It was pretty calm, actually. But like I said, the noise we heard was just not a noise you ever hear on an airplane. We have turbulence all the time coming out of Colorado. But this was different.
And so there was -- you could sense the fear a little bit but everyone was very calm and there wasn't shouting or anything like that. Just wondering what was going on. And a lot of people couldn't see the engine on that side, right?
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LOOCK: So I was a little more freaked out because I could see it and I knew that was not right. There was some cheering when we landed. So that was something you don't hear very often on a plane. But there was cheering. We didn't cheer a whole lot right away. The flight attendants -- I mean, the pilots were busy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
LOOCK: So they were taking care of us. But we heard we will be landing in four minutes. Everyone was like OK, good, let's get us back on this ground. So yes, it was pretty calm. But nervewracking. You could see it.
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HOLMES: Yes, there were some shocking and scary moments for people on the ground as well. The man you're about to hear from says he was just outside, enjoying the day, when the United Airlines jet came into view.
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KIERAN CAIN, WITNESS: I was playing with our two kids at the local elementary school on the basketball court, just having fun. An airplane was flying really high overhead. And basically what a sounded like a sonic boom made everybody look up.
As we did, we could see there was a giant black cloud of smoke high up in the sky immediately followed by, you know, what looked like pieces of the aircraft really just coming off. And basically a shower of things that were falling out of the sky, you know.
So immediately you could see stuff wafting down, some pieces bigger than others. It was hard to get a sense of how big the things were because it was so up. But after a while they started to get closer and closer to the ground.
You could really see sort of giant -- what looked like -- one big one in particular -- that was a giant O, metal ring plummeting to the ground. Unbelievably, the plane kept going on its own trajectory. But, yes, basically just all of this stuff really started showering down on the neighborhood.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: CNN safety analyst David Soucie joins me from Pensacola Beach, Florida, he's a former FAA safety inspector and author of "Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and Safer Skies."
Good to see you.
How unusual is it for an engine to break up in the way it did?
DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Extremely unusual. I've never investigated anything or heard of anything, at least in the United States, that caused that. It's very, very rare. Now I've seen where, like, a door came off or a piece came off or something like that but never seen an inflight failure of this significance.
HOLMES: What are investigators going to be looking for?
What links to your mind when you see not just the debris but the video we're showing now of the engine itself?
What does it tell you?
SOUCIE: As you can see, it's not just standing still, it's not just staying in one place. It's rotating. It's off balance. You can see that. So I'd be looking to see if the fan blades had come off the engine.
Does any of the debris on the ground have burn marks or does it have explosion or impact marks that would tell us whether it was an explosion or not?
The eyewitness said it sounded like a sonic boom, so the only thing that that noise could come from that aircraft in a normal sense would be a compressor stall. That happens when something hampers to flow into the engine or slows it.
At that point it can slow down to a significant amount where it's not pushing the compression out the back anymore. It starts overpowering itself and comes out the front of the engine.
That's common when you go to -- when you're landing an aircraft. Sometimes the compressor stalls will happen when you put on the thrust reversers and you feel the thrust coming back on the airplane.
But that's on the ground and this was in the air, of course. So that's the first thing I'd be looking for is the fan blades, see if they're intact and then looking at the debris to see if there's any fire or evidence of explosion there. But I really don't think they'll find that. What I think they will
find is what I think they will find is that compressor stall occurred. It can happen from a flock of birds, from a lot of different things to get in the intake of the aircraft or the engine. At that point, that Pratt Whitney engine will just kick back at you and it would be pretty severe when it does.
HOLMES: It was interesting to see the pilots' union make the point that no United pilots were furloughed over the last year. It points to retention of experience, which would be pretty important at times like this.
What would have been the challenge for the pilots, the changes how the aircraft behaved immediately and getting it back on the ground?
SOUCIE: I think the first thing, they handled it right, they called mayday immediately, which is what has to happen. They did that to clear the skies, make sure they don't get in the way of any other aircraft in the area. They weren't very high. They hadn't been flying very long. They were still in the exit path from the airport.
So they did the right thing by clearing the airway.
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SOUCIE: Next is extinguishing any fires. Obviously from the videos, you see there is fire. Where that fire is, is really interesting to me, because it appears to be coming from right behind in what we call the intermediate stage or the intermediate compressor stage of the engine.
That particular area, it's not a high pressure. It's a medium pressure. It's not a high pressure. But to have a failure there and have flames come out of there is very, very rare. Again, the pilot would have to be faced with how to extinguish that.
It's the challenge, when the cowling and the cells have come off the engine because it's designed, if there's a fire in the engine and you pull the fire bottles, it's going to try to extinguish the fire around the engine. But if the cells aren't there, it doesn't contain all the fire retardant, so it doesn't work very well. It's not effective.
So the fire continues to burn because there's nothing encapsulating it. All that stuff has been torn off and all that, by the way, is attached to that big ring you saw in the front. That's the inlet. If that comes off, that's pretty much what attaches to all the cowlings. If that major piece comes off, it's going to take the cowling with it.
HOLMES: Some good flying and fortunately a good outcome. CNN safety analysis David Soucie, good to see you. Thanks, David.
SOUCIE: You, too. Thank you.
HOLMES: Well, the power is back on for many Americans impacted by the deadly winter storm that hit the U.S. But now the water still off for a whole lot of people. How millions of Texans are dealing with this latest crisis.
Plus, anti-coup protesters in Myanmar are refusing down even after the bloodiest police crackdown yet. The latest on the fight for democracy, when we come back.
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HOLMES: The power is back on for most Texans but the crisis far from over. A lack of safe water has become a big problem.
Last week's winter storm disrupted over 1,000 public water systems. More than 14 million people were without running water on Saturday. And electricity, well, that's still a problem for a lot of people as well.
As of Saturday night, hundreds of thousands of customers in five states, including Texas, were still in the dark. Federal resources now headed to the Lone Star State as thousands of National Guard troops helped distribute food and water. CNN's Omar Jimenez is in Austin with more.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The water's not even bubbling.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The lights may be on but across parts of Texas the water isn't. Drinking water still needed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a panic mode that we didn't have enough drinking water. We would love showers but we'll get that when we get our water turned back on.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Texans waiting in long lines just to pick up cases of water, with nearly half the state under boil water advisories.
MAYOR STEVE ADLER (D), AUSTIN, TX: This is a community of people that are scared and upset and angry. We're eventually going to need some better answers. But right now we're just trying to get water to our neighbors.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): But it's not just drinking water. Some residents can't even flush the toilet without melting snow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We relocated back to our house, five adults and two dogs, and we started harvesting snow because we also lost water at that point. Harvesting snow for toilet water.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): That lack of water making it difficult for those suffering from kidney failure. Some dialysis clinics have been forced to temporarily close, meaning patients have to go to the hospital to keep their kidneys from shutting down.
DR. PAUL NADER, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS DELL MEDICAL SCHOOL: So we've had double, sometimes triple coverages of physicians at all the hospitals. We cover many hospitals in Austin.
Ordinarily we finish most of our dialysis between about 8:00 and 5:00 or 6:00 at night for a regular day. We were working 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, dialyzing patients in the hospital.
JIANG (voice-over): President Joe Biden approving a major disaster declaration for Texas, freeing up more help from FEMA.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): You know, when disaster strikes, this is not just an issue for Texans. This is an issue for our entire country. Disasters don't strike everyone equally.
When you already have so many families in the state and across the country that are on the brink, that can't even afford an emergency to begin with, when you have a disaster like this, it can just set people back for years.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): As residents wait for the water and power to come back, some still forced to use their cars for warmth. Others, if they're lucky, find shelter in a hotel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guests, frankly, it's been the equivalent of camping indoors.
JIMENEZ: And moving forward, officials here are going to start looking at what exactly went wrong over this past week. Among what they're investigating is that many customers here in Texas reported getting extremely high power bills, even amid this catastrophe.
So Texas officials are investigating that.
On the water front, when could we see the water come back to Texas?
Well, in some places, we're well on our way. In Houston, for example, they've reached that minimum threshold for water pressure. Here in Austin, officials are optimistic they can get water citywide by the end of the weekend -- Omar Jimenez, CNN, Austin, Texas.
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HOLMES: Najmedin Meshkati is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Southern California. He joins me now.
It's such an important issue. There seem to be among many in power in Texas a sense of almost, wow, this was unexpected, didn't see this coming. But the fact is, experts like yourself argue, it was entirely predictable.
It's just the reality wasn't accepted and precautions weren't taken, correct?
NAJMEDIN MESHKATI, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: Absolutely. There was another similar situation in 2011. Two major reports came out about that, one, the utilities for the weatherization of their system, the report came by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC, which is a federal agency.
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MESHKATI: Also there is a little bit known agency called NERC, North American Electric Reliability Corporation. I think they set it and made many recommendation but unfortunately the recommendations were not heeded.
HOLMES: The focus has rightly been on impacts in Texas because that's where the main effect was. But there were blackouts in Oklahoma and Mississippi, several other states. Incredibly, a third of the country's oil production stopped. Drinking water systems in more than one state knocked offline.
It seems the foundations of the country's infrastructure are kind of shaking a bit with climate-related extremes.
So what to do about that?
MESHKATI: As you said, we are facing an uncharted water of these extreme events primarily because of climate change in this context.
And this is what we need to be very proactive and what I say in my classes, we need to think about unthinkable and being proactive, meaning that if you have seen what has happened in Texas or during even summer in California, which we faced massive blackouts here last summer, the demand is going up.
Of course, the temperature in winter goes down, in summer the demand goes up. And then at the same time, unfortunately, some of our facility that are not ready for that, the supply goes down. So we need to shut down some power plants. The grid is not working.
And we see a widening gap over here. Demand is up, supply is down and if we don't address this issue, this gap is going to be increasing and it's going to be more difficult for us.
HOLMES: It's not like there hasn't been fair warning for years -- decades, really -- about changing weather and the potential consequences.
Is it fair to say that the U.S. seems to be forever treating symptoms and not causes?
MESHKATI: You are absolutely right. In fact, this issue of being proactive and the utilities in the United States being able to foresee and some understand the hazards that they're dealing with, we have a similar situation unfortunately that happened in Japan almost 10 years ago vis-a-vis Fukushima, which belonged to one utility and another nuclear plant that survived the tsunami.
This is exactly because Orizaba's owner utility Tohoku was proactive. They raised their defenses and learned from the lessons and hazards, other tsunamis they had. However, Tepco Fukushima, they didn't learn. That's why you see the result.
HOLMES: Quickly, if you will, critics say the whole system in the U.S. was engineered, designed to sort of benefit the generators than the customers and the people itself.
What would you like to see done going forward so stuff like this doesn't happen again?
Does there need to be systemic changes to how it's all run in this country?
MESHKATI: I would suggest that we need to do soul searching from the utility themselves. They need to realize that, for example, PG&E in California, all the utilities in Texas, they missed the boat. They need to do soul searching and they need to come together and develop some proactive -- and again I emphasize that.
Please be proactive. The business as usual is gone. You're facing a new normal because of the climate change.
HOLMES: Professor, thank you so much. Appreciate your expertise on this.
MESHKATI: Pleasure, sir. Thank you.
HOLMES: We've been seeing more prodemocracy protests in Myanmar today. They follow the deadliest day of demonstrations so far. A volunteer emergency worker telling Reuters that two people were killed and 20 wounded on Saturday when police opened fire on protesters.
This was in the city of Mandalay. World leaders watching all of this with alarm, begging military leaders not to crack down on peaceful demonstrators. Selena Wang tracking all of these developments for us from Tokyo.
Clearly, you know, a bit of a stalemate. Neither side's giving up on this. But one side has the guns.
SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, the protests today marked the 16th straight day of protests. And as these protests have been intensifying, there have been these growing fears about the potential for violence.
And now we are seeing those fears play out. Police opened fire on protesters on Saturday in Mandalay, leaving at least two dead and at least 20 injured.
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WANG: This is according to Reuters and AFP, who were citing emergency workers on the ground there. Now CNN has confirmed that there was the use of live rounds as well as tear gas to disperse the protesters.
We've obtained video in which you can see a large crowd of people running away from police, taking shelter behind whatever they can. In another video you can see a person being taken away by medics. And now, Michael, this violence that we're seeing follows a woman who
died on Friday from a fatal shot to the head. She is the first known casualty since the protesters -- these protests began. And she has now really been seen as a symbol of the movement, galvanizing these protesters who are each day risking arrest by their actions -- Michael.
HOLMES: Well, tell us more about how the protesters are sort of dealing with the increasing pressure from the military, the sentiment among them. Some of them fear just getting swept up out of their beds at home at night.
WANG: Michael, that's right. We have spoken to numerous protesters, who say they are fearlessly protesting during the day but then, at night, they are going into hiding, moving from house to house to avoid arrest.
We've spoken to many who say they are terrified of being dragged from their beds at night or during these early morning raids, which have become more frequent. According to a Burmese human rights organization, more than 500 people have been arrested since February 1st.
And this includes civilians, activists, journalists, students, politicians and even monks. These protesters are also managing to organize, despite these internet curfews. Each day before the internet goes down, they are scrambling to organize on social media, on encrypted messaging apps.
Many of these protesters feel that they are fighting for their future. While these protests are dominated by young people, there are many who remember the brutal dictatorships. For more than 50 years Myanmar was ruled by military regimes that ruthlessly cracked down on dissent, that plunged the country into poverty.
And now that they have experienced and tasted democracy, they do not want to give it up -- Michael.
HOLMES: All right, Selina Wang there in Tokyo for us. Appreciate it, Selina, thanks.
Well, while some countries are ahead of schedule when it comes to vaccinations, others have yet to even start. We'll bring you up to speed on the situation in the U.S. and around the world.
Also, this shipment of COVID vaccines is letting Gaza finally begin its vaccination program. Why it's been a long time coming -- next.
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HOLMES: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Hospitalizations from COVID-19 are dropping in the U.S. New data showing they're at the lowest level since early November. That's when cases and deaths were picking up right before the holidays.
And that's not the only bit of good news out of the U.S. A new study from the Mayo Clinic showing coronavirus vaccines may actually prevent infection, not just symptoms. But on the ground, some areas are running out of doses and turning people away. Paul Vercammen in Los Angeles for us.
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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When it comes to the vaccines in Los Angeles, it's the story of the agony and the ecstasy. We'll start with the ecstasy. They've been moving through about 5,000 people a day at this newly opened site at Cal State Los Angeles.
This is the FEMA site, along with California emergency services and the U.S. Army, 220 soldiers. We've thrown in the California National Guard as well. They're putting shots into arms at a rapid clip.
This is designed to serve an underserved community, primarily Latino in this part of Los Angeles. They've had no issues with vaccine supply here. In fact, it's moving smoothly.
But at Dodger Stadium, they had to shut down the site. They just couldn't get shipments from Kentucky and Tennessee. They don't know when they'll reopen at Dodger Stadium. But frustration as, lo, tens of thousands of people had to be turned away.
Now back here to Cal State Los Angeles. We spoke with a soldier, an Army medic. He had tours of duty in Mosul among other places, two tours in Iraq. He saw mass casualties, gunshot victims, people who had stepped on IEDs. And now he's fighting a virus on American soil.
SGT. GERRARDO GUZMAN, U.S. ARMY: I was trained to be a life saver. So that's my primary job. But this is also what I joined the army to do, not only just to help people overseas but also to help people at home.
That's one thing I'm extremely proud to be doing at this time. The fight against COVID has been a fight that we've been fighting for the past year. And it's been -- I'm glad to be fighting against it.
VERCAMMEN: Now also here in Los Angeles County, which is a patchwork of vaccine sites, the L.A. County sites have been up and running, different from the L.A. City sites and as you can see behind me this new pilot program site, one of the 100 proposed by the Biden-Harris administration. It is moving people through at a fairly fast pace.
Reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen. Now back to you.
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HOLMES: And our thanks to Paul there. Let's take a quick look around the world for you. Britain's vaccine rollout appears to be ahead of schedule. The U.K.
now planning to move up its target date for offering at least one dose to all adults to July 31st.
And in Australia, prime minister Scott Morrison has become one of the first to get a shot there. The country's mass vaccination program supposed to start on Monday.
Now Palestinian officials say Gaza will begin its rollout on Monday after finally receiving its first vaccine shipment. CNN's Sam Kiley joins me now from Jerusalem.
It's been a complaint among Palestinians, that vaccine doses have been slow in coming, but even more so in Gaza.
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. As ever, Michael, Gaza, because it is largely surrounded and pretty much under a state of siege, not just by Israel but also by Egypt, people often forget that. The southern border to Egypt is actually open at the moment.
But travel in and out of Gaza is always very restricted at the best of times. And, of course, it's an area that is under Palestinian control.
But here's the complication: it's ruled by Hamas but the administration there is still paid for by the Palestinian Authority. And the two are bitter rivals.
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KILEY: Palestinian Authority itself is hoping to begin rolling out its vaccination campaign. It started vaccinating medical workers with fairly limited supplies. So we are expecting the vaccination campaign to be rolled out in a very similar low level into Gaza, with some 2,000 doses expected to start to be delivered into patients' arms come Monday.
And, of course, Gaza's population is over 2 million. And, of course, it's very heavily reliant on international aid really for the survival of the population there, very, very densely packed.
Interestingly enough, neither on the West Bank nor the Gaza Strip, Michael, has what one would describe as a catastrophic COVID problem. In Gaza, for example, there's close to 60,000 infections, close to 600 deaths, which is, of course, terrible.
But by some of the standards and some of the figures that we've seen out of Europe and the United States, a relatively low morbidity rate.
There's also a bit of good news also out of Israel, with the health ministry issuing a statement that the two doses of the Pfizer vaccination that the Israelis have been world leading in terms of distributing to their own population, of course, they define their population as not including the Palestinians on the other side of what's known as the green line, as you well know, Michael. The efficacy of the Pfizer vaccines, 95.8 percent in preventing
infection. Now that is a real-world scientific study rather than an abstract one or one with a limited population. And that's very good news, if it is the case that it means that transmission effectiveness of COVID is drastically reduced by this vaccine -- Michael.
HOLMES: All right. Good stuff. Thanks for the reporting there, Sam. Appreciate that. Sam Kiley in Jerusalem for us.
We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, hate crimes against Asian Americans have been increasing across the U.S. One activist shining a spotlight on the problem. I speak with her next.
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HOLMES: Now the U.S. is seeing a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans. Thousands of incidents from verbal attacks to physical assaults have been reported.
In fact, a study by Pew Research in June of last year found 31 percent of Asian Americans have been targets of racial slurs or jokes; 26 percent feared actual physical violence. Now rights groups say the problem has gone on far too long and they're demanding action. CNN's Kyung Lah reports.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happy birthday, dear Grandpa --
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Turning 84 was a milestone for Vichar Ratanapakdee and his family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- happy birthday, Grandpa.
LAH (voice-over): The San Francisco grandfather had just received the vaccine and stayed healthy through the pandemic, walking for an hour in his neighborhood every morning. It was on his walk when an unprovoked attacker ran across the street.
LAH: How did you find out what happened to your father?
MONTHANUS RATANAPAKDEE, VICTIM'S DAUGHTER: The officer answered the phone and then he told us, like, they found him, got assaulted. He got injury very bad about his brain, bleeding. And he never wake up again. I never see him again.
LAH (voice-over): A 19-year-old suspect is charged with murder and elder abuse, but Ratanapakdee's family calls it something else.
ERIC LAWSON, VICTIM'S SON-IN-LAW: This wasn't driven by economics, this was driven by hate.
LAH (voice-over): Ratanapakdee's death is part of a surge in reported attacks against Asian-Americans during the pandemic.
In Oakland, a man walked up behind a 91-year-old man and threw him to the ground, one of more than 20 assaults and robberies like this one in Oakland's Chinatown.
In Portland, more than a dozen Asian-owned businesses in recent weeks have been vandalized.
These incidents are not new. In New York, the MTA retweeted this video of what they called racism. This man sprayed Febreze at an Asian American on the subway at the start of the pandemic, prompting an NYPD hate crime investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Asian piece of (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god.
LAH (voice-over): A coalition has tracked more than 2,800 anti-Asian hate incidents between March and December of last year, like this one at a California restaurant. Before the election, this man invoked President Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump's going to (INAUDIBLE) you, you (INAUDIBLE), you (INAUDIBLE) need to leave.
LAH (voice-over): The then-president's words --
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- China virus --
Kung flu --
LAH (voice-over): -- have lasting impacts, says Professor Russell Jeung, who tracked those 2,800 hate incidents through Stop AAPI Hate because no governmental agency would.
RUSSELL JEUNG, PROFESSOR, STOP AAPI HATE: Mainstream society doesn't believe that we face racism and we needed to document what was happening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we're just offering like our support to the community.
LAH (voice-over): Identify and change them, says this group of Bay Area volunteers, offering escorts for the elderly and offering a bridge to those who may not even know how to talk to the police.
DEREK KO, VOLUNTEER, COMPASSION IN OAKLAND: You want to take that rage and it's like, let's do something for -- what can I do? And this is what we're doing.
LAH (voice-over): Vichar Ratanapakdee's daughter spent the last year ignoring what people said to her.
M. RATANAPAKDEE: You bring the COVID, screaming, spin on us, but we just walk away.
LAH (voice-over): She won't do that anymore.
M. RATANAPAKDEE: He got to be proud about, we protect a lot of the another people in this city or the whole country.
LAH: The San Francisco Police Department has not charged the suspect in Ratanapakdee's murder with a hate crime because, as in many of these cases, it's so difficult to prove.
Activists believe that incidents of hate against Asian Americans in this country are probably far higher than anyone realizes, especially when you consider this community is often immigrant and has language barriers -- Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.
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HOLMES: Amanda Nguyen is the CEO and founder of Rise and she joins me now to talk about this important issue.
Amanda, great to see you, first of all.
Do you think most non-Asian Americans are even aware of the level of anti-Asian racism and attacks, that it's so prevalent?
AMANDA NGUYEN, CEO, RISE: I think people are beginning to sense what is going on and that's because Asian Americans, Asians are starting to speak up.
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HOLMES: What is your own experience?
I know you're an advocate and you're an activist. What is your own experience?
Try to personalize it for us.
NGUYEN: Yes, you know, it goes from the minute, very daily things, like being afraid, stepping out of the door -- you know, many of these attacks have been places that are grocery stores, on the street, regular everyday things -- to that fog of terror, has been something I've certainly felt and so have my Asian friends.
Now, of course, there are larger things as well, moments that I remember, being the only Asian American in a room, even in progressive spaces. And all of them really boiled down to the fact that we need more exposure.
HOLMES: I find it so incredibly sad.
It's not just the more violent attacks but it is smaller but still very impactful things, isn't it, too?
Looks, little comments and so on.
Why is it so common, do you think?
NGUYEN: I think we're at a moment of reckoning right now where we get to choose as a people, as not only a country in the United States but as a community, a global community, what kind of people we are.
And I think a lot of this has to do with the model minority myth, this idea that Asian Americans, if we put our heads down, if we work really hard, then maybe one day we'll get the keys to the kingdom. That's just not true.
HOLMES: That actually was going to be my next question. It's been reported that Asian Americans often underreport incidents. And so the actual numbers are probably way higher than the official ones, which are already horrific.
Why is that?
And how to change that reluctance to report?
NGUYEN: Well, first of all, the Asian community is not a monolith. And so often when people speak about Asians or Asian America. It's this huge diverse coalition of people and we can start first off, by one, fighting for the bare minimum, which is to have Asians be recorded in data and then second disaggregate that data.
Because even within that group there are huge disparities, socially, economically and with what is happening right now.
HOLMES: I saw the story on the Oakland man, a Hispanic man, not of Asian descent, who came up with the idea of escorting anyone who wanted an escort in the Oakland area and got 300 volunteers within a few days. It's horrible such outreach was even needed.
But the reaction I guess on that level was encouraging.
Have you encountered support as you carry on your activism?
NGUYEN: You know, a couple weeks ago, I read the news of Vicha (ph) being murdered and, in the same week, of a Vietnamese grandmother being assaulted. And the same day she was assaulted, a Filipino man being slashed across the face in the subway in New York.
And I thought to myself, well, beyond Asian blogs, where in the mainstream media is covering this?
And because I didn't see it, I turned on my camera. I recorded a video and posted it to Instagram, asking people to help me tag you, tag other journalists. And people have responded.
That video itself has had over 8.5 million people interacting with it, with thousands more sharing it. So I want to say thank you to everyone who has responded to that call to action.
HOLMES: Wow, that is amazing. We're out of time. But I've heard incidents, I've recounted my friends and colleagues, about the pain that it causes, you know, deep personal pain. Quickly, if there's one thing you would say to people, what would it
be?
NGUYEN: Speak up. And speak us into the consciousness of the country and the world. I want everyone who is listening now to understand that the most powerful tool we have is our voice. And silence is violence. The opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy.
Silence erases us. So please, please talk about this with your family, with your community, because it makes a difference.
HOLMES: Really, really good advice. I hate that we're even having this -- or have to have this conversation. But we do. And I appreciate you speaking up. Amanda Nguyen, thank you so much.
NGUYEN: Thank you.
HOLMES: We're going to take a quick break now. When we come back, a friendship made in an unlikely situation. How the snowstorm in Texas turned strangers into family.
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HOLMES: Welcome back.
The White House says President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit to his close friend, Bob Dole, on Saturday. The former senator and one time Republican presidential nominee announced this week he had stage four lung cancer.
Mr. Biden and Bob Dole worked together in the Senate for many years and Dole was one of the first key Republicans who recognized President Biden's victory.
Prince Philip received a visit on Saturday from his son, Prince Charles. The 99-year old is expected to remain in the hospital in London through the weekend for observation and rest. He was admitted on Tuesday after feeling unwell, according to a royal source.
The illness was not an emergency nor related to the coronavirus. Queen Elizabeth remains at Windsor Castle just west of London.
The horrible weather in Texas is bringing out the best in some of its residents. I am going to show you some pictures.
You would think they were taken among friend but this relationship started by accident on Valentine's Day. That's when delivery driver Chelsea Timmons lost control of her car amid the ice and the snow.
[01:55:00] HOLMES: Driving down the driveway of these people there, she ended up crashing into a flower bed outside the home of the couple. She could not get the car back up the driveway it was so icy. So of course the couple invited her into their home.
Chelsea ended up staying five days. The family wouldn't hear of her leaving. She actually baked that coconut cake for them as a thank you.
Lovely story.
Now Naomi Osaka is showing once again she's the person to beat in women's tennis. The 23-year-old from Japan won the 2021 Australian Open, defeating the number 22 seed Jennifer Brady from the U.S. on Saturday. It was a tight first set but Osaka's skills and experience proved too much for Brady, who was in her first grand slam final.
Osaka winning in just under 1.5 hours. After the match talking about what remains her long-term goal.
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NAOMI OSAKA, AUSTRALIAN OPEN CHAMPION: Hopefully, I play long enough to play a girl that said that I was once her favorite player or something. For me I think that's the coolest thing that could ever happen to me. I think I have those feelings of, you know, watching my favorite players.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to play Li Na. But, yes, I just think that that's how the sport moves forward.
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HOLMES: Osaka's fourth grand slam title.
I am Michael Holmes. Follow me on Twitter and on Instagram. Don't go anywhere, my colleague, Robyn Curnow, will be here in just a little bit with more CNN NEWSROOM.
