Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Special CNN Live Coverage of Tropical Storm Henri; Interview with Gov. Daniel McKee (D-RI). Aired 12-1p ET

Aired August 22, 2021 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:30]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone. Welcome. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta along with my colleague Chris Cuomo on Long Island. This is Special CNN Live Coverage of Tropical Storm Henri.

Right now parts of the east coast are already feeling the impacts of this extremely dangerous storm. Imminent landfall is expected in Rhode Island. You're looking at a live picture from Newport, Rhode Island, as Henri makes its approach. Forty million people are in the storm's path. Tropical storm warnings are now in effect from Long Island to Cape Cod.

Chris?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Hey Fred, thank you very much. I'll tell you more about what's happening now. The story in New York is a light story. We do have one part of the storm cell is stalling over New York City right now. That increases the chance of flooding.

You've seen we know the story from last night, a lot of rainfall in areas that weren't expecting it, three, four, five, six inches. We'll have to watch that. The main area for us will be in about an hour. That's when Henri is going to make landfall and its biggest effect in this area.

Again, about 100,000 people without power. Only 2,000 in New York, but bulk in Rhode Island, as Fred was referring to, about 65,000, 66,000, that's going to increase. Connecticut about 12,000, 15,000, that's going to likely increase. So we'll be watching that.

And to start with where the storm is right now let's go to Derek Van Dam in Newport where the landfall is immanent. Derek can you hear me? And what's the situation?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes Chris you and I have ridden out enough of these hurricanes to know that this storm means business and it's the fact that there are so many trees and the saturated ground that's going to bring up that power outage map very, very quickly.

In fact, we know in Rhode Island we've already had over 66,000 customers without power. Trust me, take it from me, someone who rode out a storm last week for four days without electricity, that is hugely impactful and it will impact you at home.

Every once in a while we'll get these strong tropical storm force gusts that come through. Sometimes some branches will fly past us as well. But people are venturing outside here in Newport. It is generally safe to do so, but there have been reports of trees down near the coastal roads.

And, you know, people just taking advantage of what is an out of the ordinary day for New England. Remember, they haven't had conditions like this in a long time. They're used to Nor'easters in the winter time when there are no leaves on the trees.

But in the summer time when you have full foliage like this those act almost as a sail and that is why we are seeing such a large increase in a spike in our power outages because trees are toppling because of what you're just about to see here.

Here are those gusts, I've been measuring them with my anemometer for the past several minutes and we've had consistent gusts over 30 to 40 miles per hour. It's worse on the coastline, directly near the coast of Rhode Island. And that is the area where we anticipate landfall, western Rhode Island here maybe within the next hour up to two hours from now as the storm continues to slow down.

You mentioned the heavy rain throughout New York City, that is all thanks to this slowed forward motion of Tropical Storm Henri and that, of course, leads to the potential of flash flooding.

Chris, back to you.

CUOMO: All right Derek, so let's stay in the loop with each other. You let me know what you're hearing about that local color there and how it's impacting that community. Obviously you have the power outage problem that makes this a high degree of trouble because of the humidity and the heat that's going to come behind it.

So, we'll check back in with you. Now back here, south right and to the west from where he is we're going to see Long Island and at the very edge of the south fork of Long Island you have Montauk Point, OK, that's where Shimon Prokupecz is and that was one of the floating major concerns.

The whistles you hear are lifeguards just telling people, as Derek was just saying, people love to come down and observe the storm. The lifeguards here are to keep you safe.

We're now coming towards low tide, that was a big aspect of this by the way, the moon tide, high tide.

If you see -- here goes the lifeguard is going to go tell somebody to get off the beach. They're doing their job. Those are the whistles.

Now Montauk that was an early concern for a major point of impact of this storm, vulnerable community, narrow land mass can flood easily.

Shimon Prokupecz is there right now. Now Shimon, it's interesting, they have been very worried there. Henri is a storm that can't make up its mind, right? It bounced east of you about 10, 15 nautical miles to the east, that's Block Island. They are getting hit in a very more dramatic way that we'll probably hear about when more cameras can get out there.

What's going on with you right now?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: So really Chris I think the last hour we have seen some of the more -- the worst wind, some of the more severe rain in the last hour.

It's kind of subsided now, but it came through on the beach side actually. It's really interesting, you know, you look at these waves and they've been tremendous all day, just pounding the beach all day.

And as you said, the big concern was the surge and whether or not that was going to create problems inland. And so far we have not seen any of that. High tide was just after 9:00 am this morning, so we seem to be past that point. And mostly it's been quite out here. We have lifeguards out here as well telling people to stay off the beach.

What's really interesting, Chris is that when you get on the other side of this, and just if we can show, I mean there's people standing over here now, but the wind on the other side of where these homes are and some of these hotels, the wind there is much worse. You can really feel it.

There is some pooling of water because of the rain. You know, the rain has just been sitting over this area for several hours now, so you're getting some pooling of water. But that's generally it. People have been staying off the beach. As you know, usually you see surfers out here. We're not even seeing them. That's how serious they are even taking these waves and they're not coming out here.

So for now though things seem to be OK out here Chris. And it seems, you know, that for now at least that the worst is over. We'll see what happens, how this rains goes. Because as you said, the surge, the surge was the big concern. That seems to kind of be over now. We'll see how the rain goes for the rest of the day, Chris.

CUOMO: Right. Shimon, you're straight on it of course as, you know, we both know having done this we never get ahead of the weather. Where we are right now we're good.

You better not see any surfers because all the beaches are closed. So if they're out they're doing something they're not supposed to. You have a significant riptide situation, especially out there.

Montauk, again, is the end of the south fork of Long Island. There's a lot more wave activity out there. There's a lot more current activity out there.

So the tide is going to get a little bit later and later as you move west. So for him it was about 9, 10 o'clock. For us it was about an hour or so later. So we are now moving towards low tide here in the afternoon. They're telling us the most recent reading is that within the next hour or so we will see landfall of this storm. What does that mean?

Looking at the bands, if you can put them up right now, Pam, you'll see that it's going to be about -- these types of sustained winds. I don't have an anemometer on me, but the idea of somewhere between 20, 30 gusts, that's what they're supposed to see.

Sustained for how long? That's an interesting coefficient here. Because as Derek Van Dam was pointing out from Newport, having leaves on trees does create a different density, does create a different effect of what the wind can do taking down power lines.

Again, to be cautiously optimistic, this has been much better than what we were anticipating on the earlier storm tracks. If we can make it through the mid-afternoon here, 3, 4 o'clock Eastern time, Long Island will have been spared a much worse fate.

Now that doesn't mean that you're not going to hear about hardship. So as we move west from where we are here in East Hampton, New York, you find yourself in parts like Long Beach. That's where Alison Kosik is. Vulnerable areas, dense low into the water table, flooding is not uncommon there. Storm surge in that areas more of a concern right now.

Alison, if you can hear me check in and let us know what the situation is.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Chris. We are actually experiencing some of the heaviest rain yet and also some of the strongest winds that I have felt sine I've been here since last night.

Also watching the ocean here it's really being churned up. You mentioned the surfers. They're certainly not deterred today. They are out there in full force. The surfers certainly trying to catch some waves.

There's a tropical storm warning under effect here on Long Beach, also a storm surge watch as well. The big concern here, as you can imagine, is flooding. You know, this is an area as you can see, if we turn around Daniel, this is an area that is very close to the water. You can the apartment building are homes and the big concern here is, as I said, flooding not just from the ocean but from the rain that I coming from Henri.

Who can forget Super Storm -- Super Storm Sandy? Long Beach was devastated by that storm. Tens of millions of dollars in damage and that storm, Chris, it hit New Jersey and it was only after it left that that storm surge happened and the devastation happened.

So I think that what you're seeing is residents here still on edge about what the effects of Henri will be. Yes, this does just seem like a rain storm.

We've got surfers out there enjoying when they really shouldn't be enjoying the conditions.

But I think that residents are concerned about the storm surge, which forecasters say they are concerned about it, at least until tomorrow morning, a one to three foot storm surge.

Chris?

CUOMO: Right and Allison the same conversation I was having with people here, you know, this is where I live. I know you can handle it and go out there and you want to test the surf. But then you put the lifeguards and you put the rescue people at risk. Because if something goes wrong somebody's going to have to come out and get you so think about them.

Now this is going to be a story a little bit in New York of wait and see. Right now Henri has been better than expected. But duration could play a role in this story, Fred. So, you know, look, is it going to make landfall in the next hour or so, yes. Are there storms cells, rain bands stalling in areas of the island right now and over Manhattan? Yes. Can that create more intense problems? Yes. But hopefully when we make landfall we are on the western side of this storm. And as people know from watching storms the northeast quadrant you don't want to be in. Be on the west side of a storm is a better place to be.

And just for all the people who are Sandy fears and nightmares and flashbacks, that storm was many times bigger than this storm. It hit New Jersey as a hurricane, it bounced into New York. That isn't happening this time. That's why the storm surge was so much more impressive and devastating with that storm than what's expected here.

So again, we're coming towards low tide, it was a little spooky because as it was with Super Storm Sandy it was a moon tide, full moon, bigger tides, right. So we're dealing with that again. It was full moon last night but this is going to be low tide, it's going to be in about an hour. So we're going to be monitoring more of New England for the worst impact not New York. But we'll be here for you, Fred, for the duration.

WHITFIELD: Sure. I love the comparisons of the hallmarks but as we know all of these storms so unpredictable. Chris, we're going to get back with you and that's why we have Tom Sater right now tracking this storm. Right now what does it look like? It has the potential to do?

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well if you look at the infrared satellite imagery it doesn't look very impressive. But Chris mentioned, moments ago, do not get ahead of the weather. Because even though we look at the darker colors on an infrared, those are the higher colder cloud tops there are still a lot of convective activity. However what you do not see is the energy it's still carrying with it. Now at 7:00 a.m. this morning, National Hurricane Center weakened the storm system down to a tropical storm. At 8:00 a.m. the hurricane warnings went away.

But Chris also mentioned on the radar that we have some interesting kind of comparison of radars. What you typically see and do not see, more on that in a minute. Here are the tropical storm warnings, they're going to remain in-place. But, again, the direction means everything and the slower pace that is expected later tonight through the day tomorrow it's going to mean a lot for a lot of rainfall. Look at the winds. Now we still have tropical storm gusts, sustained

they're still near 50. These are not the type of winds that are going to snap trees. But because the ground is a saturated sponge you're going to have uprooted trees. That takes a lot longer for crews to get in and clear the roadways to help with the power outages which are now over 100,000.

All right, as far as Montauk, this is our highest storm surge at 2.11, all right. What we're watching here, however, as it circulates counterclockwise the residents that live on the north shore of Eastern Long Island are having the winds come in from the north across the Sound. So they're seeing - their probably heaviest surge that they will see at least the water creeping in toward the residents than they're going to see to the west.

Parts of Cape Cod are areas to watch now. Forecast wind gust; Hartford, 41 miles per hours, Providence, 39. The high tide in Bridgeport, Connecticut was just a little bit ago at 11:51. So that's going to start to improve. The winds will die down but the problem is they do not have to be strong to move into this area and knock out power to tens of thousands more. Those that live here know they're vulnerable.

Some of the weakest of storms can knock out power to hundreds of thousands for one week, two weeks, even three weeks. And power companies are still kind of leery of that and for good reason.

Now we're waiting for the National Hurricane Center to officially give us a landfall. We believe it has possibly happened in the southwestern corner on the coastal areas of Rhode Island. Connecticut in its history has never had a landfall of a tropical system whether it's a tropical storm or a hurricane. I mean the angle approach has to be just right. But this is probably the closest in history they have ever been to it.

Now, again, interesting to note, all of the rain is on the western flank. Yes, the winds are going to be stronger in the that east to northeastern corridor but Chris had also mentioned earlier is down toward New York City there's some convergence going on. So it's prolonging the rain. Yesterday 4.45 inches in New York City was a daily rainfall record that has stood since 1888. They also got just under two inches in one hour. That is the greatest rainfall for one hour in New York City.

More flooding is going to be a problem through all of New England as this dog leg to the right slows the system down. We could see record breaking rainfall in the days ahead for some states still in New England. So even though it looks like it's falling apart, Fredricka, the system has a lot of energy and that's going to unfold and I think it's probably going to shock a few people in the hours and days ahead.

WHITFIELD: All right, so we'll consider this still in the early stages of its potential. Thank you so much Tom Sater in the CNN Weather Center. All right Rhode Island is now in fact feeling the full brunt of - or at least parts of the full brunt of Henri as the storm nears landfall. A state of emergency has been declared. Joining us by phone right now Rhode Island Governor, Daniel McKee.

Governor, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us. So what is the situation right now? What kind of deterioration are you seeing? What are you witnessing?

GOV. DANIEL MCKEE (D-RI): Well first thanks, Fredricka, to having us on again. And, yes, the Ocean State is, you know, has a storm that's on our borders right now. And right now what we're asking from Rhode Islanders is to stay safe. I've asked yesterday and again this morning for people to stay at home. And rather - be safe rather than sorry. We - earlier this morning we had a press event. We were 8,000 people out of electricity. Right now we're approaching almost 10 times that and expecting - and expecting to be over 100,000 in a state of million people.

So we are very concerned about the impact that the storm is having on us. I'm calling actually from the Westerly Police Station. I heard Chris talking about the impact of Sandy just, you know, 2010. We got crushed here in Westerly, you know, Rhode Island so I'm down at the police station right now ready to kind of take a look on the, you know with our police department, with our public safety, with our state police exactly what's happening here.

So, yes, we're in the middle of a - of the eye of the storm and - but we do have our emergency management people that have done this before and I have as a Mayor and now as a Governor, a new Governor as of March. So we're ready and yesterday we did talk to the President, President Biden, with Governors from Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey. And we did have a state of emergency signed by the President yesterday and he committed support during the storm and also on a quick recovery that we are hopefully - we're going to work as hard as we can to get everybody back.

Because we're facing 90 degree weather on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and if we're without electricity you know that means in terms of the health and the economy relative to the, you know our seniors and others and our business community. So -

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: And I'm sure that preempted -

MCKEE: -- (inaudible).

WHITFIELD: -- yes, that preemptive state of emergency is very helpful because it does seem to be imminent that you will have power failure in a very large way. We know you'll have those uprooted trees that are likely to come down as is being forecast. That too is going to be a sizable problem. What about Block Island? This is a popular tourist destination already feeling the effects - the early effects of this storm. What kind of precautions have been made? How have you been able to execute evacuations?

MCKEE: Yes, that's started late on Friday and all day yesterday in terms of Block Island, people who are not living there, getting off the island. I believe that I was told this morning, 60, 70 mile an hour winds have already started there. So, you're right that's a big concern of ours. It's a, you know, we're the Ocean State as we talked about before. We have many, many visitors here right now from all over the world, all over the country and Block Island's one of them. So we are taking that precaution.

You know the last time we spoke, Fredricka, we were talking about the, you know, the impact that the - that the COVID virus has on us. And so, yes, -- so we're all-hands on deck right now and our ferries were taking people off Block Island, bringing them to our mainland all day yesterday.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And back to those trees. Because that seems to be a gigantic concern, the uprooting of trees. You're going to have soggy soil because of this, you know, deluge. There's nothing you can do to prevent them from coming down. But what kind of precautions we're you able to put into place so as to lessen the danger to people?

MCKEE: So we have the national grid which is our utility company here in Rhode Island and also PPL which is from Pennsylvania who actually they're in the middle of a transaction. So they got about - I think it's the last I heard over 200 trucks on the ground, you know, for line work and forestry work I think we have over 100 vehicles on the ground as well.

So and then we have - we have trucks coming in and help coming from out of state. That's one of the things that the President did offer up and, you know, to make sure that states weren't getting impacted, Fredricka, where (ph) they were sending their workers and their staff to us with their vehicles to mitigate any issues that have to do with trees, you know, coming down on lines and all - everything that brings with it, right, the safety.

[12:20:00]

That's why we're telling people stay in your house, don't -- you don't have to go see, you know, the waves on the, you know, down in Narragansett, they're not our beautiful beaches and that type of thing. Stay at home. And also when trees are coming down stay away from those.

Lines can come down, they can be live, we don't need any, you know, body, you know, getting hurt. Or potentially, you know, dying because they decide to kind of move a live wire off the street or off their yard.

This is when you call for help and that's what we've done. Communicating we had a press event his morning, we've got another now at 4:00, and we're in constant communication with the people in the state of Rhode Island.

WHITFIELD: Yes, good point. The dangers don't just come in the height of the storm but afterwards as well. Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee, thank you so much and all the best to you and all the Rhode Islanders.

MCKEE: Well, thank you -- thanks for the good wishes, we'll be talking. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you.

MCKEE: Bye.

WHITFIELD: Also, breaking today, the desperate push to get people out of Afghanistan. CNN learning the conditions are worsening at Kabul Airport. And stay with us as we continue to track Tropical Storm Henri.

[12:25:00]

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. Conditions are worsening at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Entry gates are now closed for the most part according to sources and families are begin separated and sent to different countries. The U.S. has evacuated 25,000 people since August 14th mostly through military flights.

There are still thousands more trying to leave the country. And earlier National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the Taliban have been warned not to interfere with the operation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: We're engaging through military channels with the Taliban. The Taliban, obviously, to a considerable extent are integrated with the Haqqani network. Our effort is with the Taliban military commanders currently in charge of security in Kabul.

Because they need to understand that Americans and those who have worked with us need safe passage to the airport. And if that passage is disrupted or operations are interfered with the United States will deliver a swift and forceful response.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Sam Kiley is now at the airport in Kabul and had this reporting.

SAM KILEY, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: We've landed just a few moments ago here at Kabul International Airport and clearly the pace of evacuation has been picking up. There are planes leaving pretty regularly now and large numbers of refugees, of evacuees getting ready to get on those flights.

This is a group that are heading into Qatar where they're hoping to then either stay there or move on. Diom (ph), you're about to leave, what is going through your mind and your -- and your heart at the moment?

UNKNOWN: Yes, actually I told this many times with others. That right now I have a mixed feeling that being a journalist myself probably I -- I'm lucky enough to leave because of a lot of threats that exist here. But I'm also leaving a family, a whole family behind and that's -- a lot of friends behind. And also, most of, I mean, most importantly, my city, Kabul that I've been raised and born here, that's a really -- it seems that I'm just taking one piece of my soul that's leaving a lot of pieces just back at home.

So, it's really strange. I don't know that -- how to describe this. Am I happy, am I sad. With this government, with this new rulers they - - I'm sure they will not leave us any space to be here.

KILEY: That must break your heart.

UNKNOWN: Of course, certainly. That has already broken but, you know, that's reality.

KILEY: Your hearts already broken?

UNKNOWN: Yes, yes, yes.

KILEY: Yes. Good luck. It's not just the personal tragedies that are so heartbreaking here. It is the tragedy of Afghanistan itself. For 20 years so many millions of people believed that they would receive western support. They'd believed in the evolution of female education, of the arts, of cinema. They thought they had a future, now that future is getting on aircraft and leaving. As one of the evacuees just said to me, Afghanistan is seeing a total brain drain.

Sam Kiley, CNN, Kabul International Airport.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much, Sam and his entire team for excellent reporting. All right, we're following Tropical Storm Henri as it nears landfall in the northeast of the U.S. Rain and waves are starting to pound the areas. Much more straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All right, we're here in east Hampton on Long Island in New York. This story of Henri as a tropical storm is going to be much more of a New England story than a New York story.

[12:30:00]

This is not a repeat of Super Storm Sandy, thank God. That was a hurricane that hit New Jersey, bounced into New York, it was a tremendous storm. It brought many feet of storm surge and it lasted a long time.

We may see flooding. Right now it's about 100,000 people without power in the entire region. Just a couple of thousand in New York. We'll see if that sustains that way. Most of those who have lost power are in Rhode Island and in Connecticut.

Now part of the unknown story, we had the governor of Rhode Island not long ago, Block Island is a part of Rhode Island even though, if they can show on the map, it's right off the tip of the southern fork of Long Island, but it's Rhode Island, right. It's part of that state. It's just about 10, 12 nautical miles off of

Montauk, which is the eastern most point of the south fork of Long Island. They got hit pretty solidly by this storm. Very small population, 1,000, 2,000 people in season. We'll see what stories come out of there.

[12:35:00]

Now the storm is making landfall though in Connecticut. New London you'll hear about gusts 40, 50 miles an hour. In terms of here, OK, Dave do me a favor pull out and show this, you'll see the counterclockwise movement of the clouds, right? That is an outer band of this storm. Is it making landfall? All depends on how you want to define it.

We're going to bring in Ken Graham from the National Hurricane Center. You know, technically this is starting to make landfall here with some of these outer bands, Ken. But this is that southwest edge of the hurricane, best place to be.

It's that northeastern quadrant that's now going Newport, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, that's where we're going to have to see what stories there are to tell about Henri.

Take us through it.

KEN GRAHAM, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Yes absolutely Chris you're right and you're asking that question at a perfect time about that landfall.

Breaking news, we've had the Air Force out there and the Air Force is indicating we have had landfall in the last 10 or 15 minutes near westerly Rhode Island. So we have officially declared landfall of Tropical Storm Henri from the National Hurricane Center here in Miami.

So taking into the future Chris, we've advertised this slowdown with time and that's what we're seeing, down to 12 mile an hour movement. And the latest forecast tracks the center across Connecticut with time and then we're going to make that turn, very slowly make that turn back to the east and that won't occur till overnight tonight into Monday.

In the meantime tropical rain, just heavy amounts of rain. And wherever those rain bans set up like you were mentioning that's where you're going to have your flood problem. But we still get some incredible rainfall and it won't take much wind to knock down some trees and create some more power outages. So still some impact yet to come.

CUOMO: All right, so we're going to be watching it Ken. Let me ask you something before I lose you, OK. Explain to people why this storm Henri did not become what it was feared to be, let's say, 16 hours ago? What happened with the path? What is attributable for that change in path?

GRAHAM: Yes, little wiggles matter Chris. I mean you're going to have some bouncing back and forth. Sometimes they waddle -- wobble back and forth 20 and 30 miles and you have the colder water.

But the big thing here is, you know, the difference between a hurricane and a tropical storm is only one mile an hour. In the meantime the impacts usually don't change too much.

So a little bit of movement back and forth does happen with these systems, but we're still talking you know some of that storm surge. But the big story is still going to be the tropical rain and some of the flooding that we're going to get and also some of the power outages.

So still a big impact despite whether we call it a tropical storm or hurricane, still a big impact for a lot of folks.

CUOMO: All right Ken thank you very much. And again, you know, you used the key word there, stalling. Big deal. There's a part of that happening over New York City. We saw the rain last night. One of the outer burrows of New York, Brooklyn got over six inches of water.

You know, that can change a community quickly. We're going to see that in different pockets of Long Island depending on how long different aspects of this storm stay in the same place dumping rain.

Even if you don't have the winds you could have six, eight hours of rain and then we'll see what that story that tells. Now the reason I follow that in a storm, thanks to Ken we'll check back with you later.

I want to go Boston, we have correspondent there. The reason that duration matters, OK, is if power were to go out because you have 20 to 30 mile an hour gusts, I understand that that's not that impressive to you by hurricane standards, but if that's enough with foliage to knock out power the backside of a storm like this could bring days of big time humidity and heat. And that can be insufferable, especially for the vulnerable and the elderly.

No air conditioning inside, not being able to get help. Not being able to contact. Bad things can happen. So we have to watch that even though it's not the drama of a hurricane it is part of managing the health consequences of this.

All right, so if we're going to get lucky here and we'll see. If by the middle of the afternoon the sustained rain, the sustained low winds even by hurricane standards haven't taken out power in big pockets of Long Island the story has to move on from there.

And it takes us into New England. You heard about Rhode Island. You're hearing about Connecticut. Also Boston, we have a correspondent there. What's going on in Boston?

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Chris as you mentioned the preparation is a big story here in Boston. About 40 minutes ago we had high tide at the Long Warf. This is one of the parts of Boston that if Henri's going to do anything to this city it's going to do it here first.

And as you can see we've had some storm surge here, we have some high tide coming in. We have some waves coming in. But the big story here has been about this city is trying to prepare for what this storm might bring.

We've seen stormed (ph) walls going up around T stations. We've seen, you know, new preparations trying to batten some of these boats down around where I am.

And the mayor talking today about how she's trying to prepare this city for, you know, power outages by preparing more teams to bring in to raise power lines if they fall down. Trying to clear out storm drains.

This city so far has not seen a huge hit. We had rain all morning but so far not a huge hit. But they are trying to prepare themselves for the worst as more of Henri comes in. Chris?

[12:40:00]

CUOMO: Evan McMorris-Santoro, it's probably the best name of the storm coverage so far. I want you to know that. I'd love to see it on a jersey.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: (Inaudible).

CUOMO: Thank you for keeping us in the loop with what's happening in Boston. That storm is going to move all the way through that region and we'll have to see, again, time matters, OK.

This is the storm that couldn't make up its mind, Henri, and you're going to see as people are dealing with where they got caught off guard, where they didn't, people in New England who were thinking this was going to bounce off of New York and go east, you know, there could be some surprise stories as well.

So we're going to go break right now and we're going to keep monitoring the storm. It has made landfall in about the last half hour. What will that mean? About 100,000 people right now without power. How long will it take to get it back? Again, time matters. After the storm is going the suffering does not end. Heat, humidity, it can make a big difference.

Now, before that we're going to have the drama of the instantaneous, where these winds are, what they make as an impact all along the coast of New England stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:45:55]

CUOMO: Hey, I'm Chris Cuomo. CNN is here in east Hampton, OK. That's on the south shore of Long Island off of New York. This is where we were very concerned about Henri would mean for a very vulnerable coastline, especially because it was eerily reminiscent of Super Storm Sandy. You'll remember that was a hurricane that hit New Jersey as a category 1 and then bounced into New York. But one, it didn't happen. Good. Two, that was a tremendous storm that

brought a lot of storm surge with it. Henri is not that kind of storm. The storm surge was never anticipated to be that. This storm is proving to be a challenge because it is confusing. It is making choices about where to be almost as if it had some kind of sense of volition.

It didn't hit the east coast of New York, the southern coast of Long Island the way we expected it to. But it has been stalling, rain pockets all over Long Island and into New York City.

Block Island which is a part of Rhode Island which is right off of Long Island if they're showing you a map right now, that is where this storm made landfall taking a direct hit.

It is a small island, it has parts of high elevation and it has a population of somewhere between one and -- 1,000 and 2,500 people depending on what part of the season. It's a huge vacation place. It's a beautiful place. What has happened there? Those stories are going to be revealed throughout this day and this night.

Now, for New England what we're seeing is that the storm has now made landfall. You have just over 100,000 people without power. That number will likely increase. Why? Areas are going to get hit by this storm that didn't expect it.

Most of the power outage right now is Rhode Island, Connecticut, but you'll see it in Massachusetts. New York about 2,000. Will that change? Maybe. That will be a function of how these outer bands, Dave, if you want to pull out and just let them see. You know, we see the counterclockwise of the outer bands here moving from this storm.

How long they stay in an area when they drop rain can make an significant difference in flooding in that area. So flooding is going to be the story in New York. The speed of winds here not the story, 20, 35 mile an hour gusts tops.

In fact, Henri has not been impressive in this region of the country in terms of wind speeds. I was just monitoring it in the break and the notes I'm getting are about 53 mile an hour gusts, you know, look that can make a big difference, especially with foliage and power lines. And you're going to hear about problems. But in terms of what was anticipated so far so good.

Now what does that mean in the New York metropolitan area? We have Brian Stelter whose driving around looking for pockets of concern. Brian what do you see?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know I'm a weather geek Chris, so I hopped in the car after reliable sources. We're in Battery Park right now. We're in the lower tip of Manhattan. And Willa (ph) go ahead and flip the dash cam on as we make our way across the lower Manhattan toward the South Street Sea Port.

You know, these are neighborhoods that are prone to flooding. They were, of course, under water during Super Storm Sandy. As you said, this is a very different storm. But it's remarkable to see the amount of rain that some of these communities are dealing with.

Right now the flash flood warnings have expired in New York, but in Connecticut, New London, Groton we are seeing those flash flood warnings right now. As you said, these different rain bands sitting on different areas.

And people who were watching the concert here on CNN last night when you saw that tremendous rain band come into Central Park we now know it was the wettest hour in New York City history, 10:00 to 11:00 pm when the concert was actually called of almost two inches of rain dropped on Central Park. That is a record going back more than 100 years and it might tell us something about this new normal of climate extremes.

So we're riding now, if you see the dash cam here, nothing major to report in the city. I think the governor and the mayor are pretty pleased with the response that things seem pretty calm in New York City, no drama, no major flooding to report. But, you know, we will see as these rain bands come in this afternoon if that changes.

And Chris, I do want to thank you. You gave me some great advice for covering a tropical storm last night.

[12:50:00]

You said bring towels. And I already had to use a couple towers when we were out here getting ready to broadcast. So thank you for the tropical storm advice.

CUOMO: Semper Preparandum, always be prepared, Brian. Doing a great job. Thank you very much. Double duty for you today.

STELTER: Thanks.

CUOMO: This is been thankfully very easy for us here in East Hampton. This is where I live so it's a great chance to see a lot of people that I see all the time coming down and checking out a dramatic surf scene. Luckily nobody is taking the foolish chance of going in the water to test it. It's not really organized well for surfing anyway. But this is going to be a little bit of a wait and see for different pockets of the area to see if these winds make a difference and people lose power.

Because remember on the back side of this storm you have to think about what happens next; the heat, the humidity for vulnerable populations, the elderly, no air conditioning. It can get - it can get threatening and it can get that way quickly.

Fred, we'll keep monitoring from here and then if you need us we're right here.

WHITFIELD: That's right. And back up footwear, a variety, because the conditions change. Another bit of advice. All right, Chris, we'll check back with you. Thank you.

All right, so this afternoon President Biden is set to speak to the nation on both Tropical Storm Henri and the worsening situation in Afghanistan. CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House for us. So, Arlette, what do we know about what the President is likely to say?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, President Biden is spending the afternoon monitoring both that tropical storm and the situation in Afghanistan. And he is expected to speak in the Roosevelt on both of those issues around 4 o'clock this afternoon.

To start with the tropical storm, the President, today, has approved additional emergency declarations for the states of Connecticut and New York. He had approved one previously last night for Rhode Island. And officials say he is constantly being briefed on the trajectory of this storm. Yesterday he also spoke with Governors from northeastern states to talk about the federal response as this storm was approaching.

But also President Biden's day is keeping tabs on the situation in Afghanistan. He met this morning with his national security team to receive the latest security updates and updates on plans to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies. And White House officials today have provided an updated number for the number of people evacuated from Afghanistan yesterday.

About 7,800 individuals were evacuated from Afghanistan. Half of those came out on U.S. military planes. The other half came out on coalition flights. And the Pentagon, today, also is mobilizing 18 commercial airliners to help transport these evacuees. This will be flights -- planes from five different commercial airlines. And one thing to note is that they will not be traveling and flying into the Kabul airport. These flights will be used to transport evacuees who are already out of the country.

Now as the President speaks and provides an update on these evacuation efforts a little bit later today we could also hear him discuss the counterterrorism operation that he was briefed on yesterday. There is a concern that terror groups - the terror group known as ISIS-K is posing a possible threat outside the Kabul Airport. And that is something that the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, spoke to today. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: The threat is real, it is acute, it is persistent and it something that we are focused on with every tool in our arsenal. Our commanders on the ground have a wide variety of capabilities that they are using to defend the air field against a potential terrorist attack. We are working hard with our intelligence community to try to isolate and determine where an attack might come from. It is something that we are placing paramount priority on stopping or disrupting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now that possibility of a terror threat has prompted the U.S. military to establish alternative routes for transporting people to the Kabul Airport as the security situation on the ground is constantly evolving. Now the White House today also announced that President Biden will be meeting virtually with G7 leaders on Tuesday to discuss this situation in Afghanistan. As there is some concern among allies about the United States handling of the drawdown in Afghanistan as we've seen that play out.

But in just a few hours we will be hearing directly from the President on both the latest relating to that tropical storm and the situation in Afghanistan. Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, we'll look forward to that later on this afternoon, 4 o'clock eastern time. All right, Arlette Saenz, thank you so much. All right commercial airlines in U.S. indeed, as she just reported, are stepping up and helping in the humanitarian effort to get people out of Afghanistan. This after the Defense Department activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. A program created back in 1952 to help the U.S. military during emergencies.

United, Delta, and American Airlines are among the companies set to assist. They will not fly planes into the airport in Kabul but instead will help transport passengers from military bases after those evacuees have left Afghanistan.

[12:55:00]

The Pentagon says this is just the third time the Civilian Air Fleet has been activated in its history.

All right, we're following Tropical Storm Henri. It just made landfall in Rhode Island. Much more straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Hello, again everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta along with my colleague, Chris Cuomo on Long Island. This is CNN's Special Live Coverage of Tropical Storm Henri.

[13:00:00]

And we begin with this breaking news, Henri has made landfall in Rhode Island. Take a look at live pictures of Newport where Henri is thrashing the coast right now.