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Seven Crushed To Death Among Crowds Fleeing Afghanistan; Hurricane Aims For Northeast U.S., 40 Million Plus Under Threat; Report Outlines U.S. Failures In Afghanistan; Top Qatari Envoy On Control Among Taliban; UNICEF Says One Billion Children Face Extreme Impacts From Climate Crisis. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired August 22, 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 and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.
Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, New York City declares a state of emergency as hurricane Henri takes aim at the Northeast.
A deadly stampede at the airport in Kabul as an alarming new threat emerges from ISIS that is changing U.S. evacuation tactics.
Plus the Delta variant spreading, young children can't get vaccinated and yet some governors are suing to prevent mask mandates in schools.
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HOLMES: Our top story now, more than 40 million people across the northeastern United States are under hurricane or tropical storm warnings right now. Hurricane Henri has been building strength over the Atlantic and landfall is expected in the coming hours on either Long Island or southern New England.
We've got live pictures to show you. This is from Columbus Circle near Central Park in New York. Mayor Bill de Blasio declaring a state of emergency ahead of this storm, saying in a news conference that heavy wind, rain and storm surges are expected in the hours ahead.
It certainly looks wet there in Columbus Circle. The mayor is urging everyone to stay indoors if they can. Flash flood warnings are in effect for much of the New York City area, including Newark and Atlantic Beach.
Have a look at what happened a few hours ago in Central Park. A massive crowd attending the "We Love New York City" concert told to leave, go home. They'd been enjoying the show until severe weather moved in.
And here was the thing, lightning was reported nearby. So that triggered the concert organizers to cancel it. They halted it and then called it off. As performers gathered in tents backstage, waiting out the storm and as CNN's live coverage continued, here's what happened.
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HOLMES (voice-over): Performers doing what performers do, an impromptu performance there caught on smartphone and beamed all around the world. That's The Killers by the way. The concert was officially canceled, New York's mayor tweeting, "The safety of everyone in attendance had to come first."
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HOLMES: Now let's head to the airports. The storm already causing flight cancelations and lots of them, some 300 on Saturday in New York and New Jersey. More than 80 flights scheduled for Sunday out of LaGuardia airport in New York already canceled.
Now in Connecticut, both mandatory and voluntary evacuations have been posted across several coastal cities. And the state's governor encouraging others to shelter in place.
In fact, across the Northeast, millions of residents have been preparing for the storm for days. People have been removing boats from the water, boarding up their homes and stocking up on food and essential items.
Emergency personnel and disaster response teams on high alert and prepositioned as well. Listen as three state governors weigh in on the preparations.
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GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): I feel confident saying to New Yorkers that they could not be in better hands in terms of an experienced team. Now that doesn't mean that Mother Nature doesn't win. She wins. She wins. She won at superstorm Sandy. She wins every time. But we will be doing everything that we can do to be prepared.
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER (R-MA): We plan and prepare for the worst and hope we never have to use those plans. And maybe that, in this particular time, that will be the case.
GOV. NED LAMONT (D-CT): We're prepared for what could be a tough storm. We got the folks on the ground, ready to hit the ground running and do everything we can to keep you safe.
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HOLMES: The U.S. President, Joe Biden, will be giving remarks and updates on the storm and also about Afghanistan at 4:00 pm Eastern time on Sunday. CNN will, of course, carry that live.
Last hour I spoke with Lieutenant Commander Robert Mitchell. Literally he was flying through hurricane Henri aboard one of the hurricane hunter aircraft. Here's how he's tracking the storm. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER ROBERT MITCHELL, NOAA PILOT: Well, every time we go into the storm, we are really just trying to measure the winds and the effects of the different dynamics of the storm as it's trying to grow and progress along its forecast track.
So what we try to do is provide information on the wind speed, the rain rates and a (INAUDIBLE) temperature to the forecasters at the National Hurricane Center so they can provide their forecast and updates and try to warn the public of where the storm is going.
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HOLMES: What's the ride been like on -- on this trip?
MITCHELL: This storm has been uniquely bumpy. Our flight yesterday was heavily influenced by some of the dry air that was coming in from the -- from the west.
And so, we had some of the strongest air turbulence that we have had from storms for quite a few years. All that dry air intruding into the hurricane has really caused a really tough ride for us, to try to fly and measure each of the quadrants of the storm, to try to get a good picture of what the storm is trying to tell us.
HOLMES: And -- and just explain that, again.
You get into the center and you are trying to measure what?
MITCHELL: Yes, sir. So we try to measure all four corners of the storm with some sensors, including sensors that can measure directly the surface wind speeds, as well as we drop instruments called dropsondes that measure the wind, temperature and pressure profile throughout the entire atmosphere.
We try to get ourselves into the center of the storms to be able to mark exactly where that -- that storm is, so that the models have a way to project that out into the future. So we try to drop -- center our dropsonde right at the center of the storm to measure the central pressure and wind speed to be able to feed that in to the forecasters so they can make their forecast and figure out what the storm is doing.
HOLMES: And -- and how quickly -- like, from what you're doing right now, how quickly will that translate into information that we, down here on the ground, can use?
MITCHELL: So the -- the information that we're gathering on the plane is sent in real time through satellites directly back to the National Hurricane Center and some of the forecasters. So by the time we land, that information is already being utilized in the forecast to make those updates.
HOLMES: And -- and these flights continue throughout the path of the storm. How long do they go on for?
MITCHELL: So we have been doing these flights the last few days. Each of our flight -- our current flight here is going to be about nine hours long. And between us and the Air Force Reserve squadron that flies in, we'll be in the storms continuously until landfall.
HOLMES: And -- and how -- how rare is a storm like this for this part of the country?
I mean, I was hearing there hasn't been one this strong in this part of the coast in -- in decades really.
MITCHELL: If there is a hurricane season, you always have to be prepared for -- for storms like this. This storm on this track, with the dry air coming in from the west -- the last time that I flew on something like this was actually superstorm Sandy.
That was a much stronger storm and had much more organization prior to being impacted by some of the weather systems coming off the U.S. But this track and this kind of left-hand turn that it's going to make in the next day here is -- is somewhat rare.
HOLMES: Yes, I covered Sandy on the ground up there. I hope this is nothing like that. What a privilege to get to speak to you up there, as you are gathering this information in real time, Lieutenant Commander Robert Mitchell, really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
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HOLMES: We've actually just learned that all beaches in East Hampton and Montauk in New York will be closed on Sunday.
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HOLMES: Severe weather also causing devastation in middle Tennessee. At least 10 people have died during severe flash flooding.
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HOLMES (voice-over): This was in Humphreys County, which is about 60 miles west of Nashville. The sheriff's office told a CNN affiliate that two of the bodies they recovered were toddlers. More than 2 dozen are still missing. Officials say around 50 National Guard troops have now been deployed to help with rescue operations.
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HOLMES: At Kabul's international airport, the crush of thousands of Afghans and others hoping to be evacuated was always dangerous.
Well, now we learned it has indeed turned deadly. The U.K.'s defense ministry says at least seven people have died among the swollen crowds trying to escape the Taliban. It's not known exactly what happened. Some were apparently crushed to death. But one witness described the ongoing chaos.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Girls, old -- elderly, kids. Kids were suffocating, crying. And on top of that, they are shooting right next to the kids' eardrums.
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HOLMES: The British defense official reported fatalities among a crush of people just outside the airport and at another incident at a nearby hotel, where a large crowd had also gathered.
President Biden is expected to address the deepening crisis later on Sunday. U.S. officials estimating about 2,500 Americans have been evacuated in the past week. But an unknown number are still in the country and the U.S. embassy is now warning them not to come to the airport unless told to do so.
Growing fears are emerging that terrorists might try to attack the airport or that sea of people surrounding the gates. Because of the emerging security threat, the U.S. says it is setting up alternative routes in Kabul to safely escort stranded Americans and qualified Afghans and foreign nationals to the airport.
And we have learned that the administration is now considering pressing U.S. commercial airlines to assist in this mammoth operation. The Pentagon says military planners are constantly adjusting as circumstances change.
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ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: We're fighting against both time and space. That's really what we're -- what we're -- what we're -- that's the race that we're in right now. And we're -- we're trying to do this as quickly and as safely as possible.
I'm not going to speculate about whether windows are closing or opening. We are focused on accomplishing this mission as fast as we can.
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HOLMES: And CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is following all these developments from Istanbul.
It's interesting, you'd think things would improve with time in terms of the logistics. But it seems there are just increasing problems at the airport and how to get people to the gates.
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michael, it's one week into this situation. And it's not only chaotic, it seems to be getting more dangerous by the day. So chaotic and so dangerous that the U.S. is now telling its citizens
not to travel to the airport until they get a message notifying them that they should head to the airport. We have seen over the past few days those crowds outside the airport growing. You've got thousands of people who have converged on the airport.
And not all of them qualify to get on these evacuation flights. You've got so many desperate Afghans who are trying to flee the country. I mean, we saw that desperation tragically turn into death yesterday.
According to the British MoD, as you mentioned, at least seven people, civilians, lost their lives outside and around the airport's perimeter. And this is coming after reports we've gotten the past few days that at least 12 people lost their lives trying to get to the airport.
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KARADSHEH: And it's not just the risk of getting caught up in a stampede right now. We're hearing from U.S. officials, saying that there's a strong possibility, they say, that ISIS might be planning to carry out an attack.
They don't give details about this alleged ISIS plot, possibly to attack the airport, but they say it could involve car bombs, suicide bombs or mortars. So they are concerned about this situation and they say that they are working on alternate routes, access points, to get people into the airport.
It's really not clear, Michael, how they're planning to do this with very limited options of how to get into that airport. But what we do understand from U.S. officials is that they are coordinating this with the Taliban. They are working on this plan right now.
And we also heard the U.S. officials saying that, look, there are no plans right now for them to go out and physically collect Americans and bring them to the airport. But they've not ruled this out.
We also understand the State Department has set up this task force to directly communicate with Americans who want to leave the country, to try and coordinate these efforts.
In all of this, you've got Afghans who worked, who helped, who associated with the U.S., who are watching all this. And no matter what assurances they're hearing from U.S. officials telling them that they are also a priority, that they won't be left behind, there is a real fear amongst them that they will be left behind.
And that window of opportunity to get out of that country seems to be coming to an end very soon, with that deadline drawing near for a full U.S. withdrawal on August 31st; 10 days to go -- Michael.
HOLMES: Yes, evacuating those Afghans who worked with the U.S. starting months too late. Jomana Karadsheh in Istanbul, thank you.
COVID cases are growing worse among children in the U.S. as passions flare over mask debates in schools. How kids are paying the price for pandemic politics. We'll have that coming up.
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HOLMES: Welcome back.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to grant full approval of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine as early as Monday. But children under 12 still are not eligible for vaccines and that makes some parents pretty anxious.
The rate of kids with COVID under 19 is surging and a record number are actually in hospitals. Still, debate rages over whether masks should be required in schools. CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro has more.
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EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This Tampa 11- year-old had a strange first week of middle school.
ANA GOMEZ, STUDENT: In two classes I had like five kids quarantined.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: That seems like a lot.
GOMEZ: It is.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was it scary?
GOMEZ: No, but one of my friends said that everyone around her was quarantined. So I'm pretty sure she was scared.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Are you worried you might be quarantined?
GOMEZ: Maybe.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO (voice-over): At least 15 states have now mandated universal masking inside school buildings, following CDC guidelines for safer reopening amidst the Delta surge.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The masks are uncomfortable but it's for safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I wear my mask, that means I get to see my friends, I'll just wear a mask.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO (voice-over): CDC data showing last week that the hospitalization rate for children is 33 percent higher than it was in January, the previous peak.
As cases have stacked up, school systems have faced widespread quarantines and rushed to make policy changes. Between the 1st and 13th of August, Mississippi reported around 6,000
cases among students, 1,500 among staff. And that's just from the counties reporting data. Mississippi leaders reinstituted hybrid learning options.
Despite the urgency of these numbers, pandemic politics remain. In Florida, the state board of education vowed to punish two school boards that passed mask mandates. Other boards voted in mandates, too, defying governor Ron DeSantis, who opposes universal masking rules.
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NORMA MAIZ, PARENT, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS: It just -- try to (INAUDIBLE) the location (ph) as much as possible. if you look at your guidelines, it just said if you -- if everybody wore the mask, from what I understand from it, there will be less quarantine, even if you had the same positive cases.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO (voice-over): More than 8,000 cases among students and staff have been reported in Florida's largest school districts. More than 29,000 people have quarantined so far in just those districts.
And the largest district, Miami-Dade, hasn't started school yet. President Biden has said he'll step in, vowing legal action to protect school leaders battling DeSantis over masks.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO (voice-over): But DeSantis is refusing to budge on school policy, seeming to relish a fight with the White House over schools.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Think seriously about, if the Federal government can come in and overrule the rights of the parents with COVID and force masking of kindergarteners and first graders, given how COVID is such a small risk relative to past flus and other respiratory viruses, then will they be able to do that every single school year?
MCMORRIS-SANTORO (voice-over): Evan McMorris-Santoro, CNN, New York.
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HOLMES: And the famed civil rights leader reverend Jesse Jackson and his wife are both in hospital after testing positive for the virus. That's according to the organization Jackson founded, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
It says doctors are currently monitoring their condition. The 79-year old we know is at least partially vaccinated. He received a dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine in January.
Still ahead here on the program, tens of millions of people bracing for hurricane Henri as it barrels towards the northeastern U.S. Coast. We'll have the latest forecast when we come back.
Also, the U.S. has spent tens of billions of on war and reconstruction in Afghanistan.
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HOLMES: A new report explains why there is not much to show for it. An awful lot of your money went to waste.
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HOLMES: The northeastern U.S. bracing for impact as hurricane Henri churns towards the coast. The storm expected to make landfall on Sunday near Long Island and southern New England.
Some areas are starting to feel the impacts already. Heavy rains from the storm that forced hundreds of flight cancelations in New York and New Jersey. The National Weather Service says some areas could see flooding overnight.
States of emergency declared in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Officials in other nearby states are also warning residents to prepare for potential impacts from the storm.
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HOLMES: All right, I want to go back to another one of our top stories; that is, of course, the fall of Afghanistan.
For years, Qatar played the role of middleman between the U.S. and the Taliban. It hosted peace talks between the two groups and it has been home to Taliban negotiators and U.S. troops. CNN's Sam Kiley sat down with Qatar's foreign minister to discuss his country's legacy in the Taliban takeover.
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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No Western ally has as much experience with the Taliban leadership than Qatar. This tiny, gas-rich nation already hosts the vast American air base and command center at Al Udeid. And it's used in operations against the militants.
But it's also hosted and mediated the peace deal between the U.S. and Taliban under the Trump administration. That arguably set the timetable for American withdrawal, Afghan government collapse and Taliban victory.
Sheikh Mohammed Al-Thani, Qatar's foreign minister, was central to the negotiations then.
KILEY: Do you regret getting involved in this?
Do you regret a process that arguably hastened the victory of the Taliban?
SHEIKH MOHAMMED BIN ABDULRAHMAN AL-THANI, QATAR FOREIGN MINISTER: So look, regretting to be able to help and making peace between countries and saving lives of people I think this will never happen for us, as long as what we are doing with good faith as a country, trying to save lives of people, even if we save a single life.
We were trying the last mile, we put it this way, in order to have any negotiation between them and the government. But unfortunately, the events occurred very quickly after the departure of the president Ashraf Ghani and the situation over there turned into a chaotic situation.
KILEY (voice-over): Qatar is now the leading diplomatic connection to the Taliban in Kabul.
AL-THANI: We are trying our best to push them, to stress on them the importance of acting and behaving as an engaging party over there, as part of the Afghan society.
But we cannot predict what their action will be until they come back to us with a clear answer. We didn't sense from them a rejection of these ideas that we put forward for them.
But we didn't also hear from them an acceptance for these ideas yet.
You need to engage, you need to agree on a peaceful resolution over there, a format of power sharing that everybody is represented, protect the minorities' rights, protect the basic human rights for the people, the women, the right of education, all these things.
This is what Qatar is standing for. Other than that, then not only Qatar but also the rest of the international community cannot help.
KILEY: You've still got a very important embassy, one of the very few still functioning in Kabul.
Are they really listening?
I detect in your response when you say, well, they haven't rejected us but nor have they accepted the broad ideas of moderation, that there is -- and you know these people. There is a real concern that we might see a return to sort of medieval-type rule that we saw 20 years ago.
AL-THANI: Well, none of us, I think, wants to see Afghanistan to be such a country. What we can judge right now is the current activities on the ground. The current activities on the ground, until now, we've been by facilitating the evacuation.
KILEY: Do you think they're still the men that can actually control their own movement?
Can they still control their own movement? AL-THANI: Well, I don't know exactly like for Taliban. But any group, any military group, they always have their differences and disagreements among them.
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AL-THANI: And you won't see them, you know, having the same approach and the same attitude. And I'm sure that the people who are here negotiating are different also than the people who are there.
KILEY (voice-over): Amid the chaos unfolding at Kabul's airport, where thousands are trying to escape, Qatar is using its local influence to help people get out.
AL-THANI: We hope that this evacuation will not take a long time but, I think it will remain for a week or two.
KILEY (voice-over): No matter how hard Qatar has worked alongside its allies, the route across Kabul, to even get to the airport, is becoming an even more dangerous gamble -- Sam Kiley, CNN, Doha, Qatar.
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HOLMES: The U.S. has spent 20 years in war in Afghanistan and has poured $145 billion into the effort supporting the Afghan government, training security forces, building infrastructure.
Now the watchdog agency, the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, has been analyzing all of this for years, really. And the latest report dissects the failures in statecraft and nation- building that led to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
Now the nonprofit journalism organization, ProPublica, has also been tracking how the U.S. has spent money on trying to build democracy in the country and also found billions of wasted dollars.
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HOLMES: Megan Rose is a reporter for ProPublica. She joins me now from Washington, D.C.
And you've written a lot about what we're about to discuss. The inspector general has for some time put a spotlight on government financial missteps in Afghanistan. This was particularly sharp criticism. I think they said "clumsy and ignorant."
What to you was the headline in terms of the culture of how money was used or wasted?
MEGAN ROSE, REPORTER, PROPUBLICA: I think you hit it on the head right there. The fact that there was no coherent strategy was the underlying theme of that report. They just did not have a plan going forward with what it was they were trying to accomplish.
That was always changing, how they were going to do it, how were they going to figure out if it was successful, how they were going to make it sustainable. There was just never a plan.
So 20 years and $145 billion and nobody really had a place of where they were trying to get, other than this grand idea of, let's make it better and more stable.
HOLMES: Yes, in many cases, no idea where it went. I've seen myself in Afghanistan -- and Iraq, for that matter -- where there was almost a hubris or an unintentional arrogance in assuming that we know best what the locals need, often without asking the locals in a meaningful way.
I saw a school get rebuilt three times because every time it was finished, the Taliban destroyed it again.
What were the main failures in terms of goals and executions?
ROSE: So that was a big thing, never talking to the Afghans. They didn't have a stake at the table or there wasn't a consideration to, if this is a good project, can it be maintained?
Can they afford it?
And, unfortunately, the answer was almost unequivocally always, no.
And so we would go forward with these projects, regardless of whether or not the Taliban was going to come through and destroy it or if it was going to fall into disarray, because the nascent (ph) government couldn't afford or didn't know -- have the know-to -- the knowhow to keep it built up.
And a good example of this is hospitals. You really see throughout the country that we would build these great big hospitals and they didn't have the doctors to staff it. They often didn't have the need for these modern hospitals in these areas because we built them where the U.S. military happened to be standing, not because there was an overall strategy of, here's the best places to build a hospital.
HOLMES: It's head-shaking. I know you mentioned in your article a $335 million power plant that the Afghans couldn't afford to run.
I think one of perhaps the saddest aspects of the report is it identified, I don't know, little appetite to change course. I mean, the beast had been created and it ran and ran. And that, in fact, was, in many ways, counterproductive. It fueled corruption and created insecurity.
ROSE: Yes. Yes, we were -- almost always our solution to when things weren't working was, more money, bigger projects. Just pour in more resources.
And then, of course, all of this influx of cash was not being funneled correctly or it was going to warlords, who would then use it to enrich themselves. It was sometimes going directly to the Taliban. And so we just saw insecurity increase. We always -- often had the opposite effect of what we were trying to accomplish.
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HOLMES: And I wanted to ask you this because you personally and ProPublica have looked at this issue for years. In 2015, ProPublica identified $17 billion in likely wasted money. Six years later, it seems not much was done.
Were you surprised that, despite the criticism all along the way, the waste and misuse and corruption basically continued unabated?
ROSE: It is pretty flabbergasting. You'd think having a special inspector general, whose entire goal is to look at how things are going in real time and give you feedback, would lead to some sort of changes.
But it just -- it hasn't. We did this big reporting and didn't see much of reaction at all. Iraq had the same kind of special inspector general and the same lessons learned report that came out in 2013. That did not impact anything that was done in Afghanistan.
You know, quite frankly, we had after action-type analysis of Vietnam that seemed to have gone into the ether.
And so despite the outrageous headlines and the waste of money and the tragedy that's happening in the Afghanistan streets right now, as the security forces, we poured $83 billion into training have completely disappeared, we just see this happening again and again.
And that was actually one of the biggest critiques in this latest inspector general report, is that we have no plan for keeping this from happening the next time we go into a country like this.
HOLMES: It's head-shaking, isn't it?
Terrific article in ProPublica. Megan Rose, really appreciate it, thanks so much.
ROSE: Thank you.
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HOLMES: A grim task more than a week after that devastating earthquake hit Haiti. Survivors bid a final goodbye to their loved ones. We'll have that story and more when we come back.
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HOLMES: It has been more than a week since that devastating earthquake struck Haiti but, in some areas, survivors are still bidding final goodbyes to the loved ones they lost.
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HOLMES (voice-over): What you're seeing there is a funeral held for four members of the same family on Saturday. The victims included a 90-year-old woman and three children. The grief too much for some mourners, who collapsed during the ceremony.
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HOLMES: The earthquake struck August 14, killing more than 2,100 people. The earthquake has also left more than 12,000 Haitians injured. But those who can get proper medical care are lucky, because hospitals in the earthquake zone are now flooded with far more patients than they can possibly handle.
The most seriously injured are being evacuated to the capital, Port- au-Prince. As Joe Johns reports, they have terrible stories to tell.
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JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The helicopter convoy bringing the most seriously injured from the earthquake zone to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, running from sunup to sundown.
Today, they're greeted by a surgeon, a broken bone specialist, who quickly evaluates their condition. The 7.2-magnitude earthquake left more than 2,000 people dead and over 12,000 people injured, causing hospitals in Haiti to be completely overwhelmed.
A short distance by air from Les Cayes to Port-au-Prince but getting here can be a slow process.
This 23-month-old girl suffered a laceration running from thigh to ankle in Saturday's earthquake. When she finally was flown into the capital, her leg was badly infected.
JOHNS: Took a long time to get her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To get her saw. It's about three days. The facilities are pretty good over there. It's the issue that they are dealing with in the countryside.
JOHNS (voice-over): Many of the patients coming in, children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): As I was sleeping, the bed was shaking. And then I ran. And there was a brick in front of me that fell on my feet.
JOHNS (voice-over): From the airport, ambulances fan out across the city, taking the patients to hospitals that should best suit their needs. Here, at the hospital run by Doctors without Borders on the west side of town, where the staff have been dealing with more than just the rapidly filling beds.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The hardest part is when a staff member knows or sees a patient, to whom they may be related. And it's tougher for them.
JOHNS (voice-over): The stories of the patients, heart-wrenching.
"My first son died next to me," this mother of four says.
She lost not one but two sons in the earthquake, both dying right next to her when their house collapsed on top of them. She was pinned in the rubble for hours before being rescued.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When they started digging and they made a hole, I grabbed one of the people's feet so they knew I was alive.
JOHNS (voice-over): After being pulled from the rubble, her right leg was amputated. But she says her spirit is unbroken.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I have a sister and a mother who are living in the States. I want them to know to stay strong, because God is giving, God will take away.
JOHNS (voice-over): Joe Johns, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
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HOLMES: Incredible courage.
You can find out how to help the people of Haiti suffering from this earthquake. Go to cnn.com/impact. Plenty of good, reliable resources there to look into.
Everyone on Earth is facing some level of risk, of course, from the climate crisis. But according to a new report, nearly half the world's children are facing uniquely extreme effects. We'll have that after the break.
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HOLMES: UNICEF says 1 billion children around the world are at extremely high risk from the impacts of climate change. A new report shows that young people are facing direct threats from extreme weather conditions, like cyclones, heat waves and droughts. And it's putting those kids and their futures in danger. Kim Brunhuber reports.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Across the globe, an entire generation faces a dire threat. Now their voices demand to be heard.
MITZI JONELLE TAN, PHILIPPINE CLIMATE ACTIVIST: We have gone for so long having these conferences with only coming up with empty promises and empty, vague plans.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Young activists voicing their frustration after the United Nations Children's Agency, UNICEF, published a new index Friday. It finds that almost all of the world's 2.2 billion children will suffer from the climate crisis. Its impacts range from toxic air to catastrophic floods to detrimental heat waves.
GRETA THUNBERG, CLIMATE ACTIVIST: In order to -- to really change things and to find solutions to the actual climate crisis, not only just -- not just to the symptoms of the climate crisis, we need to go to the roots of the climate crisis and we need to treat it as a crisis.
And unless the people in power are willing to do that now in (INAUDIBLE), then it will just continue like now.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): The index was launched in partnership with the youth-led climate movement spearheaded by Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg, who's been rallying students from around the world to demand more action.
The index finds that half of the globe's children live in countries at extremely high risk. The 10 nations most exposed are in Africa, which illustrates a disconnect, the index says, between where most greenhouse gases are emitted and where young people face the worst impacts.
NKOSILATHI NYATHI, ZIMBABWE CLIMATE ACTIVIST: Climate change come from an agriculture-based society. Due to the (INAUDIBLE) and incidence (ph) of these weather patterns, we are struggling to -- to decide which crops to grow.
Some may even be resolved to planting small grain crops. However, if the weather continues like this, it could lead to a serious food crisis in my community.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Some of the most vulnerable are facing what the index calls a deadly combination of extreme climate hazards.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): According to the report, 1 billion children are highly exposed to extremely high levels of air pollution; 920 million to water security; 820 million to heat waves; 400 million to cyclones.
TAN: I have such vivid memories of doing my homework by the candlelight as typhoons raged outside, wiping out the electricity. Growing up, being afraid of drowning in my own bedroom as I would wake up inside my room and my story is already such a privileged one.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Sadly, her story is likely to become more common among young people around the world, as they face a climate crisis from which virtually none can escape -- Kim Brunhuber, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Hurricane Henri forced the Big Apple to cancel what was supposed to be a big night of fun.
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HOLMES (voice-over): Rapper LL Cool J there, before organizers had to pull the plug on the "We Love New York" concert on Saturday. Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and other top names were set to perform before this vaccinated and tested crowd to celebrate New York's comeback through the pandemic.
But the concert was cut short during Barry Manilow's set and then cancelled after nearby lightning strikes. With hurricane Henri hovering offshore, organizers sent people home, saying, too dangerous to continue.
Bummer.
Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @HolmesCNN. My colleague, Robyn Curnow, is up next with more CNN NEWSROOM. You will enjoy that.
