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U.S. Evacuation From Afghanistan In Its Final Phase; Gulf Coast Braces For Impact As Hurricane Ida Bears Down; Louisiana Hospitals Nearly Full As Hurricane Approaches; ISIS-K Commander Talks About The Kabul Attack; Pilot Plucks 17 People To Safety From Tennessee Flash Floods; Mississippi Braces For Hurricane Ida Amid Surge Of COVID Cases. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired August 28, 2021 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:04]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAYOR LATOYA CANTRELL (D), NEW ORLEANS: Now is the time to leave.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST (voice-over): The National Weather Service warning some areas could be uninhabitable for weeks or months, as Hurricane Ida barrels towards the Gulf Coast.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Pay attention and be prepared. Have supplies for your household on hand.

BROWN: The U.S. strikes back for the Kabul bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members.

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM TAYLOR, JOINT STAFF DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR REGIONAL OPERATIONS: The two high-profile ISIS targets were killed, zero civilian casualties.

BROWN: Meantime, the mission to get American forces and their allies out of Afghanistan reaches its final phase.

TAYLOR: We continue to evacuate American citizens and vulnerable Afghans to meet the mission requirement by August 31st.

BROWN: And judges in Texas and Florida push back against bans on mask mandates.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: The school districts are violating state law.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Parents' rights are very important, but they're not without some reasonable limitation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Saturday evening.

A monster named Ida. The hurricane is intensifying quickly and drawing chilling comparisons to Katrina. Ida is charging straight toward Louisiana right now, and it's due to make landfall tomorrow as a category 4 storm near New Orleans and on the 16th anniversary of Katrina's catastrophic siege of the Gulf Coast. Louisiana's governor says Ida will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the state since the 1850s.

Parts of Louisiana are under mandatory evacuation orders, and time is quickly running out to escape the impact zone. And Mississippi, which was also ravaged by Katrina, the governor has declared a state of emergency. The National Weather Service is warning that Ida could leave some places, quote, "uninhabitable for weeks or months."

We are covering all of the angles of the approaching hurricane. But let's start with meteorologist Tom Sater in the CNN Weather Center.

What's the latest, Tom?

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, Pamela, we've got reconnaissance aircraft that are flying through the system. They're collecting data, and we'll be able to get that for the 8:00 p.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center. This is a visual image probably last time we'll show it tonight because the sun is setting, but this is where you really get to see the detail in what's happening.

Look for the detail in the ridges of the shadows from the sun. Those are thunderstorms, not where we want them to form, all around the core which tells me that most likely later on tonight our category 2 Ida will become a category 3 which will now classify once it does as a major hurricane. Infrared imagery showing of course everything right around the center, well-defined core.

Now moving into even warmer waters without any wind shear to tear it down, without any dry air to infiltrate the system. So it's all systems go for this to intensify as we have seen the last couple of years. A lot of these have been intensifying. Rapid intensification just before landfall, and that's possible.

Once this makes landfall as a hurricane, we can now say after it does so that we'll be able to say that four of the last five hurricanes that made landfall in the U.S. made landfall in the state of Louisiana. Laura was a category 4, Zeta was a category 3. Together combined, $20 billion in economic losses, and we're looking at a possibility of a category 4 again. This time edging closer to a larger populated area, get to around New Orleans and Slidell, Mobile, don't let your guard down with this.

Tropical storm-force winds will move inward around 6:00 to 8:00 in the morning and already making their way to the north. It will be 2:00 in the afternoon until they start to spread to the north. But by then it will be the hurricane-force winds. Very concerned now if we see at 8:00 the National Hurricane Center just edges it ever so slightly to the east as it did in the 5:00 p.m., because in the 5:00 p.m. we found the center of the storm had wobbled somewhat.

You change that pinpoint of where its center is, it changes where landfall is in that track. But take a look at that eastern eyewall. Makes its way very close over metro New Orleans. Those are where the winds are the fastest. Could see winds obviously over 110 miles per hour and gusts could be possibly even higher than that. But they move inward. I mean, you still have 57-mile-per-hour winds well north up to the north in parts of northern areas of the state, in toward Tennessee.

Two models, pretty good agreement. European's a little bit slower. This is 1:00 p.m. Central time. But if we always talk about those strong winds, it's that northeastern quadrant because you take the speed of the wind and you add its forward movement. So you have 110 mile-per-hour winds, you add 10, on that eastern flank, you're up to 120. You subtract that 10 mile-per-hour movement on the west side, but this is where Lake Charles is, where thousands of homes still have blue tarps.

There are many that are still in FEMA trailers. Again, they can't take much in the way of wind. Even though it's the lesser impact, you're still close enough to the eye.

[19:05:04]

Again, the surge, it's not going to be like Katrina. Katrina was a category 5 at one point, didn't make landfall at a five but it carried that wall of water with it and of course all chaos broke loose with the levees breaking.

But, Pamela, we'll get another update in the next hour. We'll continue to bring all the information to you. But this one is going to leave a tremendous mark in a very, very bad way with not just the surge and the power outages but the amount of rainfall this could drop, a foot to even two feet in many locations, all the way into the Tennessee and Ohio valleys.

BROWN: Yes. And that's why tonight we're hearing the sense of urgency from officials in those states you just pointed out.

Tom Sater, thank you so much.

Now let's go southwest of New Orleans to Houma. That is a city in the crosshairs of the approaching storm. CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam is there.

Derek, how are things there?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Pamela, we have been watching hour after hour of people coming here, filling up sandbags, taking advantage of that narrowing opportunity to protect property, to protect their businesses, and quite frankly their lives. But as you can see now, there is no one. It seems as if people are taking heed of the mandatory curfew that was just -- went into effect at 6:00 p.m. local time.

The evacuations were ordered at 6:00 a.m. this morning. And people have really vacated this particular area, and this is all that remains. Of course, this particular region where I'm located, the Terrebonne Parish, is extremely vulnerable to storm surge. You think about the previous storms that have just wreaked so much

havoc on the south coast of Louisiana, it has completely changed the natural barrier within that particular region, making this coastline very vulnerable to any approaching storm, let alone a category-four hurricane.

We talked to a local nurse here that didn't want to be on camera, interviewed live. But she told us in one of the local hospitals here that she'd only witnessed in her entire career only one other time where she had to evacuate patients. That was during Katrina 16 years ago as of tomorrow. But this time it's completely different. They have no beds available in the regional hospitals here. So that, of course, provides all kinds of complexities within this region.

So not only do we have an approaching landfalling major hurricane soon to be, I should say, this is all taking place amongst the backdrop of our global pandemic that is still ongoing, Pamela. Quite a tricky situation.

BROWN: Yes. It certainly is. I'm about to speak to a doctor about that.

Derek Van Dam, thank you so much.

And as Hurricane Ida closes in on Louisiana, hospitals across the state are already overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. The governor today making it clear that evacuating hospitals ahead of Ida will not be possible. Add to Louisiana's worries a surge in new cases. 3400 reported just yesterday.

Dr. Jonathan Richards is a critical care physician working in the COVID units tonight in Baton Rouge.

Wow, Doctor, you are already slammed with this pandemic there at the hospital. Now you have this massive hurricane heading your way. How concerned are you?

DR. JONATHAN RICHARDS, OUR LADY OF THE LAKE PHYSICIAN GROUP SURGICAL HOSPITALISTS: Well, we're very concerned. We're taking it absolutely seriously just as we always do when hurricanes come to south Louisiana. We're very seasoned as a hospital system. We're all very seasoned individually in terms of what it takes to prepare to keep our families safe, to come to work and do our job. So it's something we're taking very seriously, just as we're taking the care of our patients in the hospital very seriously, too.

So we feel safe. We're prepared as much as we can be, and we're really just kind of taking it hour by hour.

BROWN: It's worth noting as the governor is telling people to evacuate, that the window is closing to evacuate, you don't really have a choice, right? Because you've got to stay there and care for your patients. And you're in the middle of a COVID crisis. So what safeguards can you put into place for you, the other staff members, and these patients? RICHARDS: So the hospital has done a great job of accommodating us. We

have space to be able to sleep. We're going to have, you know, the things that are necessary like sleeping bags and pillows and things like that. And so we're going to have physical space here.

Being in the hospital is actually a very, very safe place. You know, hospitals are built to be sturdy, especially in south Louisiana. So I think that most health care workers probably would actually, you know, maybe feel safer in the hospital. For those that have families, of course we like to be with our loved ones to make sure that they're protected. But when you're on duty the way that we happen to be right now and your number comes up during hurricane season, this is part of the job.

You know that if you live in an area where hurricanes can come, if you're on duty, you may get activated. Our hospital system calls it a code gray. And so if we get activated during code gray, we plan basically to hunker down in place and do the best we can and ride the storm out.

[19:10:02]

BROWN: And of course power outages are something that so often comes with big storms. So what is your backup plan in the event that happens?

RICHARDS: That's a great question. Our hospital here has a very, very large natural gas generator which can actually power the entire hospital. So -- and that's something that gets tested on a regular basis in or around hurricane season, and everything seems to be going the way that it should in terms of all the preliminary testing that needs to happen for that system. And we're confident that we're going to have everything that we need to continue to take the best care possible of these patients.

BROWN: The reality is many people are choosing not to evacuate. How will hospitals handle the certain hurricane patients that they're going to receive when they're already dealing with ICUs maxed with COVID patients?

RICHARDS: That's a great question, and it's an opportunity for us just to remind people that, you know, it's not just about what happens when the storm comes. There are a lot of injuries, loss of life that happen after the storm passes through.

Things like carbon monoxide poisoning from generators, you know, things like people clearing debris, electrocutions that happened from downed power lines, cuts, people using chainsaws, people who are going to be on their roofs cleaning up debris or nailing down that blue tarp that you see so often.

And so we're going do the best that we can. Our emergency department is well equipped to be able to help people who need that type of help. Certainly as everybody knows, there's a large strain on all hospital systems. It will be an extra layer of strain for us that are in the area of the hurricane, but we're going to do the best we can to educate the public, try to keep them safe, try to keep them out of the hospital.

And then if they get here, we are available, all our services are available to all patients. There may be some delays in care. Sometimes that's inevitable when you're facing something like we're doing with kind of a crisis on top of a crisis.

BROWN: Well, Dr. Jonathan Richards, thank you, thank you, thank you for all the hard work that you do and all of your colleagues, especially during this critical time. Best of luck to you.

RICHARDS: Thank you.

BROWN: Later this hour, new footage of the heroic pilot who plucked 17 people to safety from deadly flash flooding in Tennessee.

But first, the president warns that another attack in Afghanistan is highly likely in the next 24 to 36 hours. CNN's international correspondent Sam Kiley joins us live when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:16:38]

BROWN: Tonight, a troubling new warning from President Biden. He says another Kabul airport attack is, quote, "highly likely in the next 24 to 36 hours." And this comes after the Pentagon confirmed two high- profile ISIS-K militants were killed and another was wounded overnight in retaliation. You see the aftermath of the drone strike in this exclusive video obtained by CNN. It shows the damage in and around a building.

President Biden vows that this strike will not be the last. And with days left until the U.S. is fully out of the Taliban-controlled country, evacuations have entered the final phase. Here is what Kabul looks like tonight. Streets deserted amid heightened security concerns.

CNN's senior international correspondent Sam Kiley is in Doha, Qatar, with more on the final evacuation efforts.

So, Sam, where does the mission stand this hour?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, they're down to the last few hundred effectively people that they can evacuate, whether that's U.S. citizens or Afghans with SIV visas. They are very, very difficult to get them in. The last few will be brought in over the next few hours. They have promised -- this is the United States -- to manage to continue to evacuate right up until the last minute.

But it's going to be very, very difficult indeed and very, very dangerous to do that. They won't have the personnel to go out, snatch them from remote areas. They won't even after a while have the personnel to properly guard the outskirts of the airport. There is some talk about possibility of the Taliban collapsing back towards the airport to provide perimeter security for the Americans, but the British have withdrawn over the last 24 hours.

They're rapidly leaving now with 1,000 troops. The Americans beginning to move their mostly material out. They'll be following with men and women from the service members, and all of this coming amidst continuing threats from ISIS-K, continuing intelligence assessments that they are planning multiple attacks potentially against these coalition troops led by the United States at the most vulnerable time -- Pamela.

BROWN: Sam Kiley live for us from Doha, thanks so much.

And now to a CNN exclusive. Our Clarissa Ward spoke with an ISIS-K commander before the Kabul attack, and he explained why he turned against the Taliban and what his group is hoping to do once other nations pull out all their forces out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two weeks before the attack, just days before Kabul fell to the Taliban, we were in touch with a senior ISIS-K commander who said the group was lying low and waiting for its moment to strike. Words that turned out to be eerily prophetic.

(On-camera): So this commander has said that he'll do an interview with us at a hotel here in Kabul, and he says it's no problem for him to get through checkpoints and come right into the capital.

(Voice-over): To prove his point, he let us film his arrival into the city. Abdul Munir, as he asked to be called, is an ISIS-K commander from Kunar, the heart of the terrorist group's operations. He agreed to talk on the condition that we disguise his identity.

In a Kabul hotel, he told us he's had up to 600 men under his command. Among them, Indians, Pakistanis, and Central Asians.

[19:20:04]

Like many of his foot soldiers, he used to fight with the Taliban but says they've fallen under the influence of foreign powers.

ABDUL MUNIR, ISIS-K COMMANDER (through translator): We were operating in Taliban's ranks. However, these people were not aligned with us in terms of belief so we went to ISIS.

WARD (on-camera): Do you think they're not strict enough with their implementation of Sharia?

MUNIR (through translator): You see, they can't present one example where they have enforced fixed Islamic law punishments, where they have cut off a thief's hand, have stoned to death an adulterer, have stoned to death a murderer. They cannot enforce fixed Islamic law punishment because they are under people's control and they implement their plans.

So we do not want to implement someone else's plans and we only want to enforce Sharia. If anyone gets along with us on this he is our brother. Otherwise we declare war with them whether he's Talib or anyone else.

WARD: So have you carried out public executions, suicide bombings, things of this nature?

MUNIR (through translator): Yes, I have too many memories where I was present myself at these scenes. One memory is that the Pakistani Taliban had come to the Nazyan district and during the fighting we captured five people. Our fighters became over excited and we struck them with axes.

WARD (voice-over): It's that chilling brutality that made ISIS-K a primary target for U.S. forces. In recent years, air strikes and special forces operations have ruthlessly targeted the group in Kunar and Nangahar.

(On-camera): Has your group engaged in any fighting with U.S. special forces?

MUNIR (through translator): Yes, we have faced them on many occasions. We had close combat with them, too. They used to land in (INAUDIBLE), in Kunar they carried out air strikes. We have faced them a lot in firefights.

WARD: Are you interested ultimately in carrying out international attacks?

MUNIR (through translator): This point is higher than my level. I can only give you information about Afghanistan.

WARD: With U.S. forces out of the country and the Taliban potentially in control, do you think that will make it easier for you to expand?

MUNIR (through translator): Yes, this exists in our plan. Instead of currently operating, we have turned to recruiting only to utilize the opportunity and to do our recruitment. But when the foreigners and people of the world leave Afghanistan, we can restart our operations.

WARD (voice-over): That moment has now come as the world saw all too clearly on Thursday. A brutal attack on an already-battered country, and a threat that is not going away as U.S. forces complete their withdrawal.

(On-camera): Abdul Munir would not comment on whether the group was interested in pursuing transnational attacks, but he did say that he hopes with the withdrawal of U.S. forces that potentially they might be able to try to establish a caliphate like the one Abubakar Al- Baghdadi established in Syria and Iraq.

Now most terrorism analysts say that ISIS-K is at least five years away from potentially being able to launch international attacks. But this bloody attack on the airport certainly raises very real questions about the Taliban's ability to control groups like ISIS-K and whether Afghanistan could once again become a safe haven for terrorist.

Clarissa Ward, CNN, Doha.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: What an interview.

In just a few minutes, we're going to get an update from the National Hurricane Center. Ida is getting stronger ahead of landfall in Louisiana tomorrow. And we are following the very latest for you.

Plus, a dramatic rescue caught on camera. A helicopter pilot saving more than a dozen people from floodwaters in middle Tennessee. I'll talk to the woman who took the dramatic video.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:28:18]

BROWN: A short time ago Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards pulled no punches with his warning about Hurricane Ida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D), LOUISIANA: This will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit anywhere in Louisiana since at least the 1850s. We can also tell you that your window of time is closing. It is rapidly closing. And just like we said yesterday, by the time you go to bed tonight, you need to be where you intend to ride this storm out.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Right now, Ida is a category-two intensity but is expected to strengthen overnight.

Intensity is far from the only concern. Forecasters say Ida's sheer size is also a worry. With a storm surge that could measure 15 feet, Jefferson Parish has closed its floodgates. Storm warnings have been issued as far east as the Alabama-Florida border.

Ida eventually could bring more rain to middle Tennessee and to a town still reeling from intense flash floods. Around 15 inches of rain fell in a six-hour period last Saturday in Waverly, about an hour west of Nashville. The pounding, relentless and unexpected rains were catastrophic. 20 people dead, nearly 500 homes destroyed or damaged. Deadly rivers, debris, and water knocking roads and cell phone towers out of commission.

But a Nashville-based helicopter pilot named Joel Boyers and his fiancee got word of what was happening and flew right into the chaos. They plucked 17 people to safety in a delicate and dangerous private rescue operation.

[19:30:00]

Jeani Rice-Cranford was seeing the disaster unfold when Boyers arrived and shot video of the heroism on display. Jeani joins me now live. Thank you for making time for us tonight, Jeani.

JEANI RICE-CRANFORD, SHOT VIDEO OF TENNESSEE FLOOD RESCUES: You're welcome.

BROWN: First, I want to ask if you and everyone in your family are okay.

RICE-CRANFORD: Yes, yes, we're good. We actually live on a hill. So, we didn't take on any floodwater or anything like that. We're good.

BROWN: So, you're seeing this play out. You grab your phone and take video. The video you shot shows us just how astonishing the disaster was, and just how equally astonishing Joel Boyer's heroism was. Tell us what was going on before he arrived.

RICE-CRANFORD: Yes, he's a hero, for sure. You know, we heard the rain was really heavy and we went outside and we saw all the floodwaters coming in. And, you know, we saw some people on rooftops. And we were all just feeling very, very helpless.

And you know, everybody was trying to figure out ways to get to them. But we've all estimated that within the intersection, there was probably 10 to 12 feet of water, and so we stood there for a very long time, just praying for the people on the rooftops.

And my sister-in-law actually said, hey, there's a helicopter and, so we kind of started watching and we saw him kind of skipping over the highway and realized that he was rescuing people. And by that time, some of the floodwater had receded and we were able to get down into the intersection a little bit better, where I could definitely get better footage.

BROWN: And we're seeing video right now of the helicopter. I mean, as you were watching this, what were you thinking? Were you worried that it would crash?

RICE-CRANFORD: I was, yes. I was. Actually, I believe it's in this particular video -- I don't know if it's because of the rotors and how the -- you know, the air being pushed down onto the surface of the water or whatnot, but it wasn't windy at all, all of that water is moving just because of the force. But the helicopter kind of tipped and kind of you know, so we were all holding the breath.

But really, we were just praying and thanking God that he was there.

BROWN: Oh, my gosh, I'm seeing the video right now. I would have been so nervous. If he hit the wires or something would have gone wrong. I'm watching.

RICE-CRANFORD: Yes, he's a hero. He's a hero.

BROWN: Look at him. He's right now I'm picking up someone on the top of a gas station it looks like.

RICE-CRANFORD: Yes. BROWN: So, you mentioned earlier in this interview that you live on a

hill. You took survivors in to your home. What kind of condition where they in? And what did you do for them?

RICE-CRANFORD: Well, you know, they were shocked and it was a huge family effort on our part. It's just -- it's just the way that we operate.

So, we have been waiting to be able to help for so long that as soon as he dropped them at the foot of the hill there. That's the hill that where we live. And so we immediately took them up, got them dry clothes, got them food, got them water, sat with them.

One of our family friends is in the medical field and she showed up and was doing triage and everybody was just pitching in as best we could. As soon as we got communication we were getting in contact with people.

BROWN: It's just been really nice amid all this to hear the stories of the community coming together like you and your family. There is this example of a local bank and an anonymous donor covering funeral expenses for all 20 Humphreys County flood victims.

The volume and the intensity of the rainfall caught forecasters off guard. It was about three times what was expected. When did you realize the town was in trouble?

RICE-CRANFORD: Honestly, I heard the water or heard the rain, you know, during the night and just sounded like an awful lot of rain. I didn't really understand what was happening until my sister-in-law called and let us know that we needed to come over to my father-in- law's house and check it out.

And we were all just amazed. I mean, you could hear people hollering for help, and I've never felt so helpless in my life because there was nothing that we could do to get to them at that point.

BROWN: And you just think about those people on the rooftops, they are watching the water rise, and then suddenly, this helicopter comes and rescues them. It's just an incredible story.

RICE-CRANFORD: Yes. He is a hero.

BROWN: Given the extent of the damage and the loss of life, how long do you think it will take before life returns to a semblance of normalcy?

RICE-CRANFORD: You know, I've never been through anything like this. I'm actually from Kansas, and so the community that I'm from has been through tornadoes multiple times. But this damage and the way that this has impacted our community and the loss of life has been pretty tremendous. And we're -- you know, I think we're becoming a huge family. I think we all felt that way to begin with, but this is really solidifying that so we'll get through it together. That'll be the only way. BROWN: Well, and you may have more ahead to get together because

Hurricane Ida could hit your area with more flooding, possible tornadoes next week. How are you preparing and bracing yourself for that?

RICE-CRANFORD: I think that what we will be doing is making sure that we're really stocked up on water and provisions in case there is additional flooding and we need to get -- you know, we need to help people again. We'll be definitely better prepared to do that.

BROWN: All right, Jeani Rice-Cranford, thank you for taking this video and for walking us through it right here on the show. We appreciate it and best of luck with everything.

RICE-CRANFORD: Thank you. Thank you very much.

[18:35:04]

BROWN: Time is quickly running out to get Afghans who helped Westerners for the past two decades out of the country.

I just spoke to a former British service member who is working tirelessly to get the translator whom he worked with out of Afghanistan. Hear how he describes the situation at the airport right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:40:00]

BROWN: The scene in Kabul tonight away from the airport, mostly empty streets, stores closing earlier, and pharmacies shut down. And with Afghan allies of the U.S. still desperate to escape, some of those they once helped are now racing to try and get them to freedom.

Toby Harnden says his Afghan interpreter is risking his life over and over again to get into the airport. We're concealing the interpreter's face.

I spoke with Toby Harnden this evening. He is a veteran of the British Royal Navy and a journalist and author. His upcoming book is called "First Casualty: The Untold Story of the C.I.A. Mission to avenge 9/11" and he talked about the danger his interpreter faces.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOBY HARNDEN THIS EVENING, VETERAN OF THE BRITISH ROYAL NAVY: Yes, it's heartbreaking. It's kind of a roller coaster of emotions, and facts, and speculation, all mixed together every single day.

So yes, my heart sank. I had a real feeling of dread when I didn't hear from him for really an hour or two after that attack. He was just getting away, you know, checking on his sister, checking on his family. Then I did hear from him.

And so yes, you know, there was a sort of a surge of joy. But then, of course, he's still in this situation, he still has to go back into danger to try and get into the airport. And yesterday, he was picked up, but he had a rendezvous point with one of these outside groups, a former C.I.A. officer put me in touch with somebody. So, he was in the right hands, he was on a bus.

He then spent 26 hours standing on this bus, outside a gate, once again in danger. He was turned away first by U.S. military, and then hours later by the Taliban. And so now, he is getting a few hours of sleep and we are going to go through the same cycle again once he wakes up tomorrow.

BROWN: And now you have President Biden warning tonight that there will likely be another attack in the next day or two. Are you still hopeful he will be able to get out? Is helpful at this point?

HARNDEN: We have nothing else to do, but hope. But time is running out. We've got less than three days now. And every day, it gets -- it gets more dangerous. It gets less likely that it's going to be able to get through that gate.

I mean, the terrorist attack on Thursday, obviously was a huge tragedy. Thankfully, As (ph) and the sister survived or escaped without injury, but it's vastly complicated the situation and he went through that yesterday.

BROWN: Why is it so important to you to help him?

HARNDEN: Well, I mean, kind of a simple human, really. He helped me. I was in Afghanistan for six weeks at the end of last year, I was up in Mazar-i-Sharif, and he worked with me. He is 29 years old, an intelligent young man, learned his English mostly from movies, but his English was very good.

He had a journalistic instinct, which translators often don't. So, he helped track down two doctors who witnessed the last moments of Mike Spann, who was the first American casualty after 9/11, a C.I.A. officer.

So, he showed a real resourcefulness. We had great conversations.

I remember us talking about movies. He was very interested in idioms and vernacular English. I remember explaining to him what the phrase "a perfect storm" meant. And I remember explaining to him also what the term "groundhog day" meant, and now he is going through a groundhog day of every single day outside that airport.

But it's not just a movie, it is real life and it's life and death.

BROWN: Do you think the Biden administration appreciates the urgency of what may happen here? What may happen if the U.S. does in fact leave people like your translator behind?

HARNDEN: I hope they do. I mean, I've applied for an SIV - Special Immigrant Visa for him, then I'll apply for a P-2 and I was advised that that was a better route to go. I haven't had any word back from the State Department. Absolutely nothing. No case number. So really, it feels like his fate is in the hands of brave Afghans,

Afghan-Americans, and Americans who want to help, private groups who are going to do their best to get him out. So yes, it's one of those times where, you know, you feel a little bit abandoned by your government. And I know that he feels certainly sort of abandoned by the Afghan government that sort of bolted in the way it did.

And also, you know, by the U.S. government, which has promised to get American citizens and green card holders, but also American allies out of that country and away from, you know, the prospects of a medieval Taliban regime.

BROWN: Toby Harnden, thank you so much. Please keep us updated on how this unfolds. We hope that he can get out.

HARNDEN: I will. Thank you very much, Pamela.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, a Mississippi nurse so burned out from the fight against COVID that you had to quit, only to go right back into work just days later.

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[19:49:16]

BROWN: Mississippi is seeing potentially deadly threats on two fronts right now, from a possible Category 4 hurricane on the outside, and from COVID-19 on the inside. Mississippi is one of the least vaccinated states and the raging delta variant is keeping its hospitals full -- too full.

Hospitalizations are hitting new highs. Just a few ICU beds are left and now there is another shortage. The stress of the deadly and endless pandemic has driven many nurses to quit.

CNN's Erica Hill introduces us to a Mississippi ICU nurse who hit her breaking point and resigned only to go right back in to battle.

[19:50:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In Ocean Springs, Mississippi, the ICU is full.

Every patient here battling COVID, every one of them on the ventilator.

Fifteen miles east, it's the same story. The nursing staff at a breaking point,

NICHOLE ATHERTON, NURSE, SINGING RIVER OCEAN SPRINGS: I come in here and it's war. It's sometimes chaos.

HILL (voice over): Just 38 percent of Mississippi's population is fully vaccinated. Along the Gulf Coast, it is even worse, hovering around 30 percent, pushing new cases and hospitalizations, higher.

Officials warn there aren't enough beds. But on the front lines, the focus isn't space, its staff.

LEE BOND, CEO, SINGING RIVER HEALTH SYSTEM: There's not a bad shortage. There's a nursing shortage.

ATHERTON: We have had situations in here with COVID, with people this critical where two people start to go bad at once and you have to decide which room you run to. That's a hard decision to make.

HILL (voice over): The stress of those decisions, of the growing number of young COVID patients and preventable death brought Nichole to a breaking point earlier this month.

HILL (on camera): You made the decision to resign. Why?

ATHERTON: Sometimes it feels like we're fighting a losing battle.

HILL (voice over): Yet a week after that conversation, Nichole was still in the ICU.

ATHERTON: I realized, as I was saying goodbye to these nurses here that I couldn't leave them in the middle of this.

HILL (voice over): Nichole is cutting back her hours. But for now, her resignation is on hold.

BUDDY GAGER, NURSING MANAGER FOR PERSONAL CARE, SINGING RIVER OCEAN SPRINGS HOSPITAL: That's where a nurses heart comes in. You know, you don't want to see your coworkers suffering as much as you don't want to see a patient suffer.

HILL (voice over): While it helps, one nurse choosing to stay isn't enough.

Mississippi has at least 2,000 fewer nurses than it did at the beginning of the year.

ATHERTON: It looks heroic, and it looks -- but that's not what it is. It's sweaty, and hard, and chaotic, and bloody.

MELISSA DAVIS, NURSE, SINGING RIVER PASCAGOULA: I didn't even know really what burnout meant as a nurse until I hit COVID.

HILL (voice over): Melissa Davis has worked in the ICU for 17 years. It's never been this bad.

DAVIS: I've seen a turnover nurses I never would have thought would have turned over because they can't take it anymore.

HILL (on camera): Do you feel that you're close to a breaking point?

GAGER: I think we already broke.

HILL (voice over): Burnout, stress, grueling hours -- there are multiple reasons career nurses are choosing to leave.

DR. RANDY ROTH, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, SINGING RIVER HEALTH SYSTEM: We've been seeing it probably hit a peak recently. We have over 120 nursing vacancies open right now.

HILL (voice over): When they do, that experience is also lost.

DR. SYED ABDULLAH WAHEED, SINGING RIVER OCEAN SPRINGS: It takes years of training to get to the point where you can actually take care of a COVID patient. This is nothing like we've seen before.

HILL (voice over): The head of Singing River Hospital System is now urging the state to use some of its $1.8 billion in COVID relief funding for retention bonuses.

BOND: We need to give them an incentive to want to stay and continue to be a nurse.

ROTH: I think every little bit helps. Do I think it's going to fix the problem? A lot of nurses have told me it's not about the money at this point, it is about, I need to recharge my battery.

HILL (voice over): Yet with fewer staff and a surge in patients, that chance to recharge increasingly difficult to find.

DAVIS: It's hard to say a 34-year-old -- to the family, will not make it. You can't describe that.

ATHERTON: To have friends, colleagues who understand that, it is the only way we're all getting through this. It is because we have each other.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Powerful reporting there from CNN's Erica Hill.

And earlier in the week, Governor Tate Reeves announced a thousand healthcare personnel will be coming to Mississippi to help fill the gap. Singing River Health System confirmed the state has committed 59 nurses both ICU and Med-Surg nurses, and 18 respiratory therapists to its three hospitals. They are all on 60-day contracts.

We are about to get an update from the National Hurricane Center on Hurricane Ida as the potentially powerful and deadly storm moves towards Louisiana. Stay with us.

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[19:59:46]

BROWN: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Saturday and we have a lot going on tonight.

We're following two major stories developing tonight. In Afghanistan, the deadline draws closer and so does the threat of terror.

President Biden is warning that another attack on the Kabul Airport is highly likely within the next 24 to 36 hours.

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