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Delta Variant Drives New Cases, Hospitalizations Across U.S.; Hurricane Aims For Northeast U.S., 40-Million-Plus Under Threat; U.S. Embassy Tells Americans, Stay Away From Airport; Israel Lowers Age For Booster Shots As COVID-19 Surges; Afghan Evacuees Being Housed At Ramstein Air Base; UNICEF Says One Billion Children Face Extreme Impacts From Climate Crisis. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired August 22, 2021 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Robyn Curnow.
Coming up on the show, hurricane Henri is bearing down on the northeastern United States. More than 50 million people are in its path, bracing for strong winds, torrential rain and storm surges.
And a new threat from ISIS is now changing evacuation plans in Afghanistan. As we're learning, seven people died, crushed, trying to reach the gates of Kabul's airport.
And we go inside Ramstein air base, where thousands of evacuees are being housed as they await their next escape, their next step in escaping the Taliban takeover.
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CURNOW: Our top story this hour, more than 50 million people across the northeastern U.S. 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.
The National Hurricane Center has a stark warning, especially for those in areas under a storm surge warning, saying plainly, this is a life-threatening situation. And we are already seeing signs of danger.
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CURNOW (voice-over): As you can see, CNN just obtained this video of flooded streets in downtown New Jersey. This is part of a rain system already hitting parts of the Northeast.
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CURNOW: In Connecticut, both mandatory and voluntary evacuations have been posted across several coastal cities. The state's governor is encouraging others to shelter in place.
In fact, across the Northeast, millions of residents have now been preparing for the storm for days. And emergency personnel and disaster response teams are on high alert 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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CURNOW: 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. Put that in your diaries. CNN will, of course, carry that live.
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CURNOW: A short time ago, CNN spoke with Lieutenant Commander Robert Mitchell. He's part of a Hurricane Hunter team that flew directly into hurricane Henri on Saturday, gathering data that helps forecasters know exactly what to expect from the storm. So here's what his team is learning, take a listen.
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LIEUTENANT COMMANDER ROBERT MITCHELL, NOAA PILOT: 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 in storms for quite a few years. All that dry air intruding into the hurricane has really caused a really tough ride for us.
We try to fly into the center 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.
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CURNOW: One of the biggest concerns about hurricane Henri is the potential for storm surge and flooding, as you heard there. That is basically true in low-lying areas. Brian Todd is on the ground in New London, Connecticut, where residents are bracing for this storm. Brian?
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here, in New London, Connecticut, and in Groton, just across the Thames River, there are some low-lying areas. So there is real concern about storm surge, about flooding in these two towns. A lot of water around here. You have got the Thames River right behind me. You have got Long Island Sound just south of that.
That's where these two bodies of water converge. And again, some low- lying areas. A lot of neighborhoods in these areas could be vulnerable to storm surge and flooding. I just talked to the mayor of Groton, Connecticut. He has ordered mandatory evacuations in at least two neighborhoods covering about 40 homes.
So that covers at least 80 to 100 people. Not everybody has taken him up on that. Of course, mandatory evacuations mean they strongly suggest you get out of your home but they do not require it. They cannot force you out of your home.
But they are trying to get some people in low-lying neighborhoods to evacuate. We did speak to a couple of them. A lot of them are saying that they're not going to get out because they're concerned about their pets. They are concerned about other things. They may wait it out. They may kind of make a last-minute call during the height of the storm.
But the mayor of Groton says that's really not the time to make that call. He is not going to be able to get first responders out to these people at the height of the storm on Sunday -- Brian Todd, CNN, New London, Connecticut.
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CURNOW: President Biden is expected to address this ongoing crisis in Afghanistan in the coming hours as well. U.S. officials estimate about 2,500 Americans have now been evacuated in the past week.
But an unknown number are still in the country and the U.S. embassy is warning them not to come to the airport unless alerted. There are growing fears terrorists could attack the airport or the crowds clustered around the gates.
The U.S. says it is setting up alternative routes in Kabul to safely escort stranded Americans and others to the airport.
There's certainly been tragic consequences to so many people trying to flee the Taliban. The U.S. Defense ministry says at least seven Afghans have died amidst the frantic push to get into the airport. At least some of those victims may have been crushed to death. The British defense official said the deaths happened outside one of
the airport gates and at a nearby hotel. Nick Paton Walsh is following these developments from Doha.
Watching these scenes outside the gates, really concerning.
Do we have any sense how many people have made their way to the Kabul airport to try and get out?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, I mean, the situation is worse than it was when we talked yesterday, if you can imagine that. Yesterday we were talking about 14,000 people on the airport. A source familiar with the situation now tells me there are 18,500 on that airport.
My appalling maths would suggest that's about 40 planeloads, depending how tightly you pack them. At that rate, we're talking probably, at the current rate of plane departures, a good day, two, three, four days of plane flights to get them out.
On top of that, my source says there are 2,000 people at each of the two, three gates still trying to get on. We're probably talking in the region of 25,000 people who still are on or near the airport who need to get taken out.
Obviously, there's capacity issue down the runway, too, where they get off, where they land, where they go.
Another interesting element this source told me about as well. There are many reasons how people manage to get on the base. There was a moment the filtration system basically collapsed and humanitarian issues were allowed on people who didn't have the correct paperwork, seemed to have been allowed on the base.
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WALSH: Also, I'm told by the source, one key factor was the decision by the United States to issue some SIV applicants, that's their special immigrant visa program, to issue this particular image -- you'll see it here.
It's essentially a nameless, numberless visa of sorts, which says, you can come on the base. It's done on the visa notepaper, we're all familiar with it. If you have a U.S. visa in your passport, that's what it looks like.
But this was essentially screenshotted and handed around -- I've got one -- to anybody who could possibly obtain it. That means many, many, people are on the base now who do not have the appropriate paperwork.
That is a staggering thing to hear. It's not entirely surprising, given how I obtained one, anybody who was on any particular group, any Afghans at some point were probably being handed that.
But it raises the question of who's on the base that shouldn't be there, what's their history, where they're going to go, a lot of questions. Understandably, when the chaos began, nobody could have imagined it would be that bad. Nobody knew how to handle it.
And those on the gates, those on the base, are doing an incredible job with zero sleep, in punishing heat, not knowing how long they can be there, not knowing if there's going to be food or water down the line.
They're dealing with thousands of desperate and angry Afghans, who are looking for their one chance to live. But the mismanagement of this, I hate to call it that but it has been extraordinary.
Now there are very desperate, poor Afghan souls under the sun with very desperate, poor American officials and other nations, trying to work out how fast they can get simply them off the airport.
The broader question here, talking about the numbers and 3,800 were taken off yesterday, if it's just 3,800 they're able to do every day and that's kind of the largest number I think I've heard so far the Americans have been able to shift -- just doing 4,000 a day, we're about 20,000 on the base -- that's five days' worth of flights that still have to happen.
How long can they keep this up?
Can they keep 20,000 people constantly on the base?
The U.S. put out indicators yesterday they're concerned about the security situation around the base, the possibility of ISIS or Al Qaeda moving into that particular area.
Make no mistake, it's going to get worse. The MoD's tragic U.K. announcement of the deaths at the Barron Hotel nearby is an indication of how bad it can get when people get desperate.
I was in the crowd myself during that crush, it will get worse. We'll hear this probably from President Biden later today.
How long does this go on for?
How many people can they save?
What cost will there be in that process?
CURNOW: And also, what do you make of the one suggestion that's come out, that commercial airlines might be called in to help, that this could be the equivalent of Dunkirk, where everybody tries to sort of help and get people out?
Is that possible?
WALSH: Good luck with that. I mean, at the moment it appears the Americans, with their best military in the world, their capabilities, are not able to get their cargo planes in fast enough. They run traffic control, their C-17s have the capacity, it seems, to take 800 people out at a time.
Add into that dozens of civilian aircraft trying to do a similar thing, then they will have to land on the civilian side of the airport or the military side. Then you will essentially have that American system fraying at the edges because the Taliban-controlled side of the airport to get people on or start contributing people to flights -- I mean, the runway, essentially, of which there is one, will probably collapse if you start introducing other aircraft onto that, too.
As far as I'm aware, very few charter or commercial aircraft have got into the mix on that at the moment. So I think, however many brilliant, wonderful humanitarian ideas there are to ease this crisis, the fundamental questions are two.
How many people can you get off the base every day?
That's the question for the Americans, because they're running that runway right now.
The second question is, how long does this go on for?
How many people can you get on the base?
How many people do you intend to take out of Afghanistan?
How long does this go on for?
I hate to say, there is essentially somewhere in the region of millions of Afghans who would love to take the opportunity of going to the West for a new life. This is what they pay tens of thousands of dollars, often, to human traffickers for over the past years.
So this process is potentially indefinite. And in between their freedom and their justifiable request for a better life that we would all have, is this process, which is swelling, groaning, collapsing as we speak. And as you just saw earlier on, for a number of days, depended if you had a screenshot on your phone, whether you'd be part of it.
CURNOW: Thanks for that update, Nick Paton Walsh live in Doha, thank you.
So COVID cases in the U.S. continue to surge as well, thanks to the Delta variant.
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CURNOW: Booster shots have been given the go-ahead. But one expert says those jabs might not be enough to curb the climbing cases.
Plus escalating COVID cases despite widespread vaccinations. We'll find out what Israel is doing to combat the spread.
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CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow. So the Delta variant is fueling a huge spike in Israel's COVID cases,
despite high rates of vaccinations. The country's new case numbers have been escalating in recent days as you can see from this graph here.
On Friday, the Israeli health ministry began opening up COVID booster shots to Israelis of 40 and up. They're hoping that a third dose will boost antibody levels and stop the spread of the virus. Let's go straight so Jerusalem. Hadas Gold joins me now.
This is surprising in many ways in Israel because Israel was way ahead of everybody when it came to vaccination.
HADAS GOLD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, a few months ago Israel was registering barely a handful of positive COVID cases a day.
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GOLD: At one point there was even two weeks with no COVID deaths and restrictions were lifted. People didn't have to mask indoors, no restrictions on gatherings.
But right as those restrictions were lifted, the Delta variant started coming into Israel, and it was bad timing, people's restrictions being lifted, people's vaccine immunity potentially being waning because, as you said. Israel is one of the first countries to have mass vaccinations.
And many of the over-60 population were vaccinated by the end of January and that was months ago. Now experts are thinking that the vaccine reduces in efficacy over time and that hit at the same time as Delta came in.
In the past few days, Israel has registered more than 7,000 cases per day, numbers that Israel has not seen since the beginning of the year. More than 650 people are now seriously ill in hospital.
As you noted, the country is racing to administer this third booster vaccine. Three weeks ago, they started with people over the age of 60. They've been lowering the ages. Now it's anyone over the age of 40 in addition to anybody who might be in contact with a lot of people, health care workers, teachers, people who work in prisons.
And there is the expectation they will continue to lower the age, the eligibility, so that soon everybody will be able to get that third booster shot, as long as a certain amount of time -- right now it's about five months -- has passed since people's second doses.
I spoke with the head of the Israeli government's COVID advisory board, Dr. Ron Balicer, and he said he's more optimistic now because they are starting to see positive news from the data, that the rates of positive cases and serious cases for those over the age of 60 are starting to stabilize and, in some cases, even go down.
They are saying that is because of the booster shot. They're very much hoping, as more people get this third dose, they will continue to see the cases go down.
CURNOW: Hadas Gold in Jerusalem, thanks so much.
Coronavirus vaccinations in the U.S. are slowly heading in the right direction. For the third day in a row, more than 1 million doses of the vaccine were administered. Even as more shots go into the arms, the sobering reality of skyrocketing infections is impossible to ignore.
The governor of Louisiana says his state is seeing a, quote, "astronomical number" of new cases. The state reported nearly 6,000 new infections on Friday alone.
We are hearing that famed civil rights leader reverend Jesse Jackson and his wife are both in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus. That's according to the organization that Jackson founded, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
The 79-year-old is at least partially vaccinated. He received a dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine back in January.
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CURNOW: Dr. Kent Sepkowitz is a professor of medicine in infectious diseases at Weill Cornell Medical College and joins me now. He's also the deputy physician in chief for quality and safety at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Thanks for joining us on CNN, thanks so much. I want to get your take on these breakthroughs, very unsettling.
Will boosters help stem the virus?
DR. KENT SEPKOWITZ, DEPUTY PHYSICIAN IN CHIEF FOR QUALITY AND SAFETY, MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER: I think boosters will absolutely help those who are already vaccinated. So it will be a bonus for those who have already signed up for the double shots, absolutely.
There's good evidence already from Israel that it works well. It is not perfect. You will probably get a 6- to 12-month benefit from it. Then we'll be having the same discussion if we don't do something new or if the virus doesn't just decide to go elsewhere. In other words, it's a temporizing measure.
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CURNOW: It's great that people here in the U.S., for example, have that option. Many people around the world don't have the option of the first one. So there's that conversation.
But from a scientific perspective, how demoralizing is it?
Or is this part of the expectation, that people are still getting sick even after three doses of the vaccine? SEPKOWITZ: Yes, I think that it's totally demoralizing. Every day of this 18-, 19-month pandemic has been demoralizing in one way or the other, either personal tragedies or individual tragedies or else just the fact that we scientists and doctors have been incorrect so many times.
But the virus, the COVID virus, is really, really different than anything we've seen. So, yes, this is a real slog for everyone.
CURNOW: With all of this happening with vaccines and the option of a third dose, what can be done by ordinary people in the coming years, if you say this is a pretty long-term situation?
How important is it for us to have rapid tests so that we can know, if our kids have been exposed at school that week, we can basically do it at home?
How crucial is that, in addition to vaccines, for example?
SEPKOWITZ: Yes, we need to know who's up and who's down.
[03:25:00]
SEPKOWITZ: So if you knew that when you went somewhere, the people entering that space had all been tested in a rapid test and were all negative, you would feel differently than if you went to the same place now and didn't know.
In addition, you would yourself, if you were infected, behave very differently. So that's one thing is we have to push, the rapid testing.
The other is that all this masking and stuff, it works. It's really annoying. I don't like it. It fogs up my glasses when I'm wearing glasses. You can't hear people talk as well. It's not fun.
But this is not fun. This is even less fun than wearing a mask, worrying about breakthrough infections. So we're left with an annoying option or a life-threatening option and those are the two choices. And for some reason, people act like they are equivalent. The mask is annoying.
So what?
Wear it. Same with social distancing, same with public health hygiene in general. But they're very intrusive, unpleasant but effective ways to do this. And nobody seems to want to do them.
CURNOW: Simple doctor's orders; frustratingly for you and many in your profession and many of us who are vaccinated, they're not listened to. But thank you very much.
SEPKOWITZ: Thank you for having me.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CURNOW: Still ahead, millions of people are bracing for impact as hurricane Henri barrels towards the northeastern U.S. When and where the storm is expected to make landfall after the break.
And more than a week after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, word that the focus of the emergency response will likely change in the coming days. It's what we'll be talking about as well.
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CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow. It is 30 minutes past the hour.
The northeastern U.S. is bracing for impact as hurricane Henri churns toward the coast. The storm is expected to make landfall Sunday near Long Island and southern New England. Some areas already are starting to feel the effects of the storm. Heavy rains have forced hundreds of flight cancelations in New York and New Jersey.
States of emergency have been declared in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Thousands of utility workers from the U.S. and Canada have now been prepositioned to respond to the expected power outages.
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CURNOW: In Haiti, an estimated 600,000 people are in dire need of aid following that devastating earthquake more than a week ago. We're talking about those who need food, water, medicine or a roof over their heads. CNN is learning the aid deliveries are expected to pick up. But the focus of emergency mission is likely to change. Matt Rivers has more on that.
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MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We managed to have a conversation in Port-au-Prince on Saturday with the man leading the response for USAID here in Haiti. They're here in support of the Haitian government as they continue their search and rescue operations.
And unfortunately now, more than one week after this earthquake hit, this representative from USAID telling us that the shift is beginning to happen, going from a search and rescue operation, unfortunately to more recovery operations, moving into the next phase of what will surely be a long recovery process from this earthquake.
They haven't officially made that yet but he said that shift is beginning to happen. He talked about how USAID spent the day in concert with Haiti's Civil Protection Agency, visiting several different hardhit villages, basically going and trying to figure out exactly what each one of these towns, these villages, very hardhit by these earthquakes, exactly what they need.
What they were told, the top needs are water, food and shelter, crucially shelter, in many different places, according to USAID, the number one concern at this point.
In good news, they say do have a lot of air assets and even barges that they believe they can use to get aid to where it needs to go. But basically saying they want to strike while the iron's hot, take advantage of the fact that they have these air assets that they didn't have earlier in the week to get aid to these places.
We're told the Haitian government, the Civil Protection Agency, is trying to prioritize which places are the worst, which are next, which are next, in order to get the aid where it is needed the most.
That is the status of the -- what is still a search and rescue operation, moving into the recovery phase more than one week after this earthquake hit here in Haiti -- Matt Rivers, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
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CURNOW: Thanks, Matt.
[03:35:00]
CURNOW: Americans in Afghanistan who want to evacuate are being told to stay put for now. Coming up, the U.S. military says it's working on new ways to get them out of the country safely. We'll explain what we know. That is just ahead.
Also, a climbing team of women and girls is among the many Afghans hoping to flee the Taliban but they haven't had much luck so far. Their story next.
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CURNOW: I want to take you back to one of our top stories, the race to evacuate people from Afghanistan. The U.S. has said it is in talks with the Taliban to get out people.
But it wants to establish alternative routes to the Kabul airport out of fears of an attack by a local ISIS affiliate.
Meanwhile, both U.S. and Afghan evacuees are arriving in the U.S. A senior administration official says the Biden White House may even compel U.S. airlines to help with getting tens of thousands of weeks to the states. Jomana Karadsheh joins us.
The backlog of people, the logistics, the red tape is amplifying the crisis, isn't it? JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been a week since the fall of Afghanistan, a week since the Taliban took control, a week since this crisis began and the situation seems to be getting worse, seems to be getting more dangerous by the day.
It's gotten a point right now where the U.S. is telling its citizens, do not come to the airport until you are notified personally to head to the airport.
We've seen these large crowds gathering outside, thousands of people. And they're not all necessarily people who are eligible for evacuation.
You've got thousands of Afghans who are desperately trying to flee the country, to escape Taliban rule, who are right outside the airport. We're literally seeing people dying trying to get out of the country, trying to get to the airport.
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KARADSHEH: The British ministry of defense confirming that at least seven people lost their lives yesterday outside near the airport in two separate crushes. This is coming after the past few days, where we have reports of at least 12 people who lost their lives trying to get to the airport.
If the risk of being caught up in a stampede wasn't enough, now we've got the U.S. Defense officials saying that there's a risk, a potential ISIS plot to target the crowds outside the airport, the possibility of using car bombs, suicide bombers or mortars.
That's why they're looking at alternative routes and access points to get people to the airport.
But it's not just the issue of getting people to the airport. Of course, this is one of the biggest challenges right now. Then you've also got the issue of the backlog. As you heard earlier from Nick Paton Walsh, his reporting from his sources that there are 18,500 people right now at the airport, waiting to get on flights.
The U.S. is aiming to get 5,000 to 9,000 people evacuated every day. We haven't seen them reach those numbers. So that is a huge challenge right now and they're up against that looming deadline, August 31st, for all U.S. forces to leave the country. So it's a real race against time.
And watching all this, absolutely terrified Afghans, who worked with the U.S., who are associated with the Americans, really worried that, because of bad planning, because of late planning, because of the bureaucracy, the red tape, a process that is taking so long, they are very concerned that they are going to be left behind.
No matter what U.S. officials are telling them, reassuring them that they're a priority, there is a real fear that they will be left behind. And, for them, that is a matter of life and death.
CURNOW: Thank you for that update, Jomana Karadsheh in Istanbul, thank you.
Many people trying to reach the U.S. from Afghanistan are being taken to Ramstein airbase in Germany. Atika Shubert has visited Ramstein air base and join us now from near the base.
What did you see, what did folks tell you when you were there?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's an amazing logistical operation happening there, just enormous. To give you a sense, yesterday when we arrived, there were a few hundred evacuees on the base.
This morning, I've confirmed 5,000 evacuees. There's been more than 17 flights in the last 24 hours, another 14 scheduled today. So it is filling up fast. It is a huge effort. We were on the base yesterday, take a look at what we saw.
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SHUBERT (voice-over): Plane after plane, carrying men, women and children, evacuees who are part of the chaotic scramble to airlift people out of Afghanistan following the Taliban's takeover.
Now safe at the Ramstein U.S. airbase in Germany, one of the biggest outside of the United States, soon capable of taking in up to 7,500 people from this unprecedented airlift, explains 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing Commander, Colonel Adrienne Williams.
COLONEL ADRIENNE WILLIAMS, WING COMMANDER, 521ST AIR MOBILITY OPERATIONS: It's enormous because it is such a huge humanitarian mission. But I can tell you, on each of those C-17s, we have gone from 75 passengers on board all the way up to 400.
SHUBERT: So as you can see behind me there, that's a C-17 Globemaster and these are the flights that have been coming in and out of Ramstein airbase bringing passengers. One just landed.
And what happens is passengers disembark. They're brought here by bus and the first person they meet is a USO imam. They are given a welcome to Germany, to the Ramstein airbase and then they proceed through medical checks, as well as security checks.
Then, they are brought to a holding area, where their IDs are checked. Then finally, they will be able to get to their temporary living quarters here on the base.
SHUBERT (voice-over): This is an all-hands-on-deck effort between the U.S. Air Force, Army, as well as more than 1,500 civilian volunteers, including the Red Cross. But safety and security is the priority here.
That includes rigorous ID checks, fingerprints and iris scans to screen for anyone flagged by federal databases, says Brigadier General Joshua Olson, 86th Airlift Wing and Installation Commander. BRIGADIER GENERAL JOSHUA OLSON, 86TH AIRLIFT WING AND INSTALLATION
COMMANDER: First and foremost is the security. So we focus heavily on the security. And then from making sure we take care of all of their -- their health needs, COVID checking. And so making sure that they don't have any symptoms.
And then, also, we -- we do a very robust check with the Department of State and also all of our federal agencies.
SHUBERT (voice-over): This is their home for the next two or three days, hastily assembled cots for beds and 40 people to a tent.
Women and children are inside the cavernous airplane hangar. Men sleep in the tent city outside with a small area in between for families to meet.
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SHUBERT (voice-over): None are allowed to leave yet.
SHUBERT: These are the temporary living facilities. The capacity here at the moment is 5,000. They are hoping to get that up to 7,500. But there is a flight arriving here almost every 1.5 hours. And it's filling up fast.
SHUBERT (voice-over): On our way out, we meet this Haseeb Kamal. He says he is a U.S. citizen from Virginia and had flown to Afghanistan to visit family and got married there last week.
HASEEB KAMAL, U.S. CITIZEN: So I just, like, rushed, like everybody else. And the only people that I could get in was my dad and my sister. U.S. forces were shooting fires, the Taliban and also, like, Afghan forces, too, at the gate. So people were getting hurt left and right. And it was a really bad situation.
SHUBERT: I mean, that's incredibly traumatic.
What did -- have you been able to speak to your family since you were separated from them at all?
KAMAL: Only this morning for two minutes. That's it.
SHUBERT: What did they say?
KAMAL: They're in shock. They were worried about us. And we were worried about them.
They're saying what's going to happen to them?
And I was like, I don't know.
SHUBERT (voice-over): But this is only a temporary reprieve. There are still so many questions about where they will go and what will happen to family still trapped in Afghanistan. Many here, looking to the U.S. for answers.
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SHUBERT: Robyn, this is very much an ongoing operation. Again, more flights expected today. One of the reasons Ramstein is a particularly good base, it has extensive medical facilities. I've just confirmed the air mobility command here actually helped with the delivery of a baby yesterday on one of those flights.
The 86th Medical Group rushed on board, was able to help deliver a baby for a mother who went into labor in mid-flight. They were able to safely deliver the baby in the cargo bay of the plane. Both mother and child are safely in hospital now and doing well.
CURNOW: All these stories, all these individual moments, it just keeps on coming. Thankfully, both mom and baby are OK. But thanks for that update, Atika Shubert in in Germany, thank you.
Before the Taliban takeover, nonprofit group Ascend worked to empower Afghan girls and women by teaching them to climb mountains. Now the organization is desperately trying to get out its members.
I spoke with the group's founder and executive director, Marina LeGree, and asked her how difficult it's been to try to get these young women out.
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MARINA LEGREE, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASCEND: It's been a nightmare. Continues to be. It's -- we have tried everything. We have people pulling for us all over the world and at all levels. And we still can't seem to get people out.
CURNOW: What have been some of the stories in terms of your attempts to get them out?
LEGREE: Well, I have been in touch constantly I'm not there, myself. But it's been agonizing to be trying to lead the girls to whatever we've been told will work. And they're constantly on the phone with me, sometimes, on video. And I can see how badly it's all failing.
We've been three times caught in mobs that are -- where people have died. Fortunately, our girls haven't died; we've had injuries. They have kept their heads and kept their families safe.
But someone was shot right next to a 7-year old's sister of one of our team members. One of our team members had her father -- his -- he had a head injury from, apparently, U.S. troops doing crowd control. It's -- it's been really bad.
CURNOW: So have they tried to get from Kabul to the airport and just failed?
Or -- or got through and then couldn't -- couldn't be processed, I understand.
LEGREE: No. Nobody can get through. If you're -- if you get through, then you're in a safe zone. And this is what I'm calling for to anybody who will listen.
We need the U.S. military to get outside the wire and establish a safe zone to process civilians. It is not going to work to call people to the airport and tell them -- it doesn't matter what you tell them. It doesn't matter what their visa status is. They can't get in the gate and they are dying in the -- in the attempts.
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CURNOW: Marina LeGree speaking to me earlier.
Find out how you can help refugees or if you're a veteran troubled by these events. Go to cnn.com/impact for assistance.
Everyone on Earth is faced by the climate crisis but according to a new report, nearly half the world's children are facing uniquely extreme effects. That is next.
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CURNOW: UNICEF says 1 billion children around the world are at risk of extremely high impacts from climate change. A new report shows young people are facing direct threats from extreme weather conditions, like cyclones, heat waves and droughts. 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.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): 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. 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.
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CURNOW: That's the show for today. I'm Robyn Curnow. Thank you so much for your company. I'm going to hand you over to Kim right now as CNN continues.
