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9 Dead in NY & NJ After Ida Remnants Unleash Massive Flooding; Rescues underway in New Jersey. Aired 9-9:30am ET

Aired September 02, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

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[09:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Good Thursday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto. The breaking news this morning, a monumental storm slammed parts of the Northeast overnight, at least nine people have been killed, many still in need of rescue. New York and New Jersey are both understates of emergency. Homes flooded, hundreds of thousands of residents without power.

In New York, the city issued its first ever flash flood emergency. That's a subway tunnel there, subway service is coming back this morning after it was suspended. In a scene like that last night imagine hundreds are still stranded in stations across the city. And New York City saw rainfall worth 50,000 Olympic sized swimming pools in the course of just five hours. This is not normal, folks. These are live pictures from New Jersey. That is flooding communities up to their doors and windows and that is a live rescue underway. First responders in an inflatable there, going door-to-door seeing if people need rescue at this hour.

A tornado ripped through parts of Gloucester County, New Jersey. Newark had its wettest day on record. Records are being set virtually every day, folks. Again, this is not normal. Nearly all transit rail service has been suspended in New Jersey. This morning, United Airlines says it is suspending operations from its hub in Newark that has tremendous repercussions for travelers across the country. All of this is caused by remnants of Hurricane Ida, which of course, first pummeled Louisiana earlier this week, but it's been moving up towards the Northeast. The damage so severe in some of those coastal communities in Louisiana. They've almost been wiped off the map. These are new pictures that you're seeing here from New Jersey. We also have new pictures this morning from Louisiana that shows the devastation there.

But joining me now, we want to begin in Newark, New Jersey on the phone is the Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka. Mayer, thanks so much for taking the time this morning. Because we know you and your community facing so much. First question is as we watch live rescues underway, do you know how many lives are at risk at this point?

MAYOR RAS BARAKA, (D) NEWARK, NEW JERSEY (through phone): Well, I think that right now, the potential for life risk is low. I mean, last night it was pretty dangerous. I think that a lot of crews are out, a lot of people are rescuing cars, mostly there are about 200 cars in Newark alone that are stranded. I'm sure they're more across the state of New Jersey. We still have substantial flooding, flooding in the airport, flooding in schools, a lot of folks are working remotely are delayed opening, they just can't get around. So, we're basically just trying to remove cars and debris and out of the street and get some power back on and in some areas. That's it.

SCIUTTO: Understood. Now we know at this point that the death toll so far in New York and New Jersey stands at eight. Are there people still missing, right? I mean, as these crews go out, and as you're removing debris, are you concerned that that tool might rise?

BARAKA: Not in Newark. We haven't had that issue here in the city, by the grace of God. I can't speak for the entire state. But I do know in Newark we do not have any missing folks in the queue. Thank God for that. Right now, we're just assessing property damage for the most part.

SCIUTTO: OK, that's good to hear. I do want to ask because this has become such a familiar story, right? the wettest day on record in in Newark, the first flash flood warning ever issued in New York City, saw those pictures of the subway, what does a city like Newark do to prepare for what seemed to be regular historic climate and weather events?

BARAKA: Yeah, we've had at least about 10 inches of rain in Newark, you know, so we -- what we've really done is blocked off streets before the flood come, so people to stay off the road, for the most part and many people listened someday and obviously, you know, we opened up our Emergency Operation Center, we got everybody on the phone, everybody moving, making sure that we're able to rescue anybody that was in trouble if that happened, and it did happen, we rescued, you know, maybe 56, 60 people last night from the storm. So, I think we were prepared to respond to it. We just want to prepare for the devastation that it would cause to property and damage that it would cause to our community.

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SCIUTTO: As we're watching these live pictures here, of course, you can't see this, but this is a neighborhood in New Jersey Mullica Hill where you see an inflatable boat, right, going down flooded streets, and I see so many homes here with the water right up to window level. I guess I just -- I'm just curious how we know all those people are safe?

BARAKA: Well, I mean, I noticed state folks around. I mean, Mullica is pretty far from me. A tornado actually visited that community, unfortunately, you know, and that is rare in our state. So, you know, I pray for the folks there. And I know the state and local officials are out there right now, trying to do rescues and assessing any damage, any folks right now.

SCIUTTO: Understood. Newark Airport, United Airlines has suspended operations from Newark, that has repercussions around the country, right, because it is a major hub. Have you heard anything from United and the airport about how long these cancellations last?

BARAKA: Not yet. We're on a call with them back and forth. We're trying to report authority folks, trying to find out if we need to send additional crews up there to help. But I would imagine, you know, at least for the rest of today that there's going to be a problem.

SCIUTTO: Understood. And in terms of power, do you have any sense of how long power will be out for households and businesses in your community?

BARAKA: Well, in Newark I think the power is coming back on. I think power, we have some power outages. Most of it came back on at 5 a.m. You know, this is probably a few sparse here and there. But our crews out PSE&G has been doing an excellent job. And I would imagine a couple hours everybody would be fully operational.

SCIUTTO: Mayor, we've been talking to you. And again, this is not your community, this is Mullica Hill, but we see the rescuers pulling up to a home where the water is half up way, the doorway, and it looks like they found someone in need there. It's -- and I know that this is something that's struck across the state of New Jersey, so a lot of communities facing real challenges right now. I guess I wonder another thing. So, here you are, your mayor in Newark, these kinds of weather events, you know, you have to be pretty confident this is not the last one you face, right? In the next few weeks, what's the next one going to be, right? Is it going to be a drought? Is it going to be a major storm? Is it going to be a hurricane? Is it going to be tornadoes? How does a community like yours prepare for that?

BARAKA: Well, I mean, the weather events becoming more and more severe, and more and more often, you know, so, you know, it's becoming difficult for infrastructure to withstand this thing. Obviously, you know, you need resources, whether it's equipment or money or folks who are losing property and damage, even the help from the state and the federal government, more and more as this stuff happens. And I think, you know, start talking about resiliency in the cities, like Newark and places like that, how to withstand some of these weather events.

This is a discussion that needs to happen more frequently, a national discussion that needs to take place because these events are becoming more and more severe, and more and more frequent in order for us to save lives in our community and prevent some of the stuff. We're going to have to talk about infrastructure resiliency, you know, withstanding some of the weather events that are happening in our communities.

SCIUTTO: Understood. Well, we wish you the best of luck of that. And because I know you got a lot to handle today there but perhaps going forward as well. Mayor Ras Baraka, a Newark, New Jersey, one of the many communities facing the results of this storm right now. I should note that rescue, you're seeing right there is in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, it's not Mullica Hill, New Jersey, it's Bridgeport, Pennsylvania. And as you can see there, folks still in need, it looks like they've discovered someone in that household going into get them out.

CNN's Polo Sandoval, he is live in New Jersey as well, this morning. Polo, tell us where you are and what you're seeing?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jim, there's so many faces to this, right. You have some life and death situations that are certainly unfolding in surrounding states. And then in New Jersey, as you just heard the Mayor described here in Newark, there are some serious efforts right now to get that infrastructure back online. The mayor touched a little bit about clearing those roadways, those crucial roadways. That's actually what took place here. You see what looks like a parking lot is actually it's actually McCarter Highway. For those unfamiliar with this, this is basically a stretch of highway that connects Downtown, Newark, with the airport with Newark International Airport, which is about two miles down that road. That traffic on the other end, on the other side, finally actually getting into the city. So now law enforcement here and tow trucks and authorities are trying to clear this way out.

These vehicles were actually, they were just scattered all over this highway about maybe 30, 45 minutes ago, but they actually came out here, moved on with the tow truck over a couple of lanes. And you see some folks that have actually trying to scoop out water from inside their vehicles but these cars ain't going anywhere anytime soon. So, they're in the process of hopefully getting some help to get these vehicles out of the way, because that's what it's all about right now at least here in Newark, is to try to clear those roadways again, to get those people moving. And even to get some goods moving.

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Just off camera, there's a tractor trailer rig, there's a gentleman who he could have actually gone through the water, but all those stalled out vehicles blocked his path. So, he still has that cargo that he has to deliver. And he's anxious to get that out as soon as they can clear some of these roads. So again, this really speaks to the more infrastructure side of things. You don't necessarily have to be in New Jersey to be affected. Some of the goods that may be heading your way are also potentially stuck for now until they clear those roadways. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Even where it's not flooded, a lot of those roads are blocked. Polo Sandoval, there in Newark, New Jersey as well. Thanks very much.

Let's go to New York City now. CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro, he is there. Evan, I mean those images overnight were catastrophic. To a to have a flash flood warning a born and raised in New York, first time ever in New York City and to see biblical flooding in those subway stations, just remarkable. Where does it stand right now where you are?

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, as you mentioned, in that excellent interview with the Newark mayor, this is a tragedy of epic proportions here in New York. There's been a lot of death. And we don't know if those numbers are going to rise. And if they rise, how high they're going to rise. But we know now, based on numbers, we have now that the majority of people who lost their lives in this storm last night died here in Queens, where I am standing. And I'm in a neighborhood where that was affected by some of that death last night.

And I want to show people what it's like when a flash flood comes through. We never been in one, it's a very eerie experience. The water rises, it does its damage, it takes lives and it just sort of shrinks back away. Behind me is a house that has a basement apartment in it. And you can see how the water just rose up there and collapse that wall behind me.

Neighbors here telling me that there were two people inside there. We have reports from local authorities saying that one person was taken and passed away at the hospital, another pathway at the scene. This is what that kind of scene looks like. And people in this neighborhood say this is a tight knit place. They knew these people. They saw this water coming. And they tried to warn each other, they tried to do the best they could to get away from this. But it happened so fast. That tragedy just comes out of nowhere. And it's unbelievable to see it. Because right now there's no clouds in the sky. It's dry on the ground, but just hours ago was that historic flooding, that has taken lives, knocked out infrastructure and is still being cleaned up here in New York. So, there's just a lot more to go, Jim. And it's just an amazing thing to see.

SCIUTTO: Evan, I'm curious, the death toll is it stands now in Newark, New Jersey is eight. You mentioned where you are. That's where a great number of those took place. Do authorities there have a handle on whether others are missing. It's a big city. There are a lot of homes, right? I'm curious if they've been able to account for everybody?

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Well, we know last night authorities were out trying to rescue people, rescuing people. We heard about that on the subway trains, getting people out of those subway trains in their houses that were calling 911. Here in this neighborhood, we've seen authorities going around, going door to door asking people if they are missing anybody, if people are everybody's accounted for. Those efforts are still underway, which is one of the reasons why we've seen official say to people who haven't been infected as much to stay home and stay off the streets and stay out of the way because this is still an active moment where they're actively searching for people. We don't know what those numbers are going to mean. We don't know what's going to happen with that. But we do know it's still an active thing going on here in New York. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. Let's hope that they're able to find everybody who's needed help. Evan McMorris-Santoro, good to have you there.

Again, the live pictures we're seeing right now, well, this is just moments ago. This is in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania. Those are flooded streets. The water up to window sill level and they got to use boats to go down those streets, to go look for people who may still be in need. Just a few moments ago we saw them take someone from their home. We hope they're able to get to everybody. It's a real challenge right now. Our Polo Sandoval. He is also covering the ongoing effects of this, this, of course, the remnants of Hurricane Ida but, you know, we say remnants, but pretty powerful remnants still left. Polo, tell us where you are and what you're seeing?

SANDOVAL: Yeah, we're actually right on the McCarthy Highway which is going to be in Newark. This is that main north to south stretch that connects downtown your Newark with the airport, with New York's National Airport, the busiest in the world here, an airport that was certainly hit hard by that storm yesterday. When you look at some of the pictures that surface from overnight and you see many parts of that airport that were basically completely flooded out, interrupting services to passengers, it also speaks to that, to just wide disruption that has been felt.

Now in terms of floodwaters as we hear traffic sort of trying to get back online here, this particular stretch of road was actually underwater most of the night. It wasn't until about a couple of hours ago that those waters began to recede and all these vehicles that look like they're neatly parked, were actually scattered all over this roadway. And it wasn't until about 45 minutes ago, that tow trucks came in here and moved them over to at least these first two lanes.

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The goal here for law enforcement is to at least get some of these main high, main lanes towards Newark International Airport, move it again. But here's the other thing, too. There are hundreds of flights at that airport that already been canceled. You mentioned a short while ago, Jim, how United Airlines has announced widespread cancellations at their, here at this particular point, which is a major hub for United Airlines that has potential impact for folks who are traveling around the world as well. So, it certainly speaks to the disruption that what is left of this storm has caused days after making landfall in the southeast made its way here and continues to make its presence felt as getting around is still proving to be quite a challenge for all parts of the Northeast. Jim

SCIUTTO: Polo Sandoval, thanks very much.

Let's go to CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar now to look at the big picture here. And Allison, your colleague, Chad Myers, was speaking on this program earlier this week talking about how the storm is going to drop a lot of rain as it moves north. And it's done that and we're seeing the catastrophic effects of that. Is it's still dropping that kind of rain as it moves further to the northeast?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So, the good news is we're starting to finally see an end to the storm is the bulk of it, does begin to move out to sea. But as Chad mentioned, as you just brought up again, I mean, this was probably one of the best forecast storms in recent memory, not just the track of where it was going. But all of the actual weather impacts. Everything from the tornadoes that we're expected to the catastrophic flooding, not just along the Gulf Coast, but also into the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast. This was forecast the National Weather Service offices in New York and Philadelphia, and you name it, they did a tremendous job of telling people days in advance that this is what could happen. We had the potential for tremendous record, flooding.

And here's a look at the widespread scope here. If you can see the rain, this red color here that you see, you're talking six to 10 inches of rain has fallen out. The rain that comes down, that's the flash flooding. That's the stuff you see in the roadways, or that you can see right there on the other side of your screen. But river flooding is going to be a more prolonged concern because river flooding takes time, all those creeks, streams and rivers that are now swollen, they have to go somewhere, but it's a delayed effect. So unfortunately, a lot of the river gauges that we're seeing at moderate or even major flooding, they're likely going to stay at those levels, not only today, but for several more days before finally coming back down closer to regular levels. So that's going to be unfortunately the scenes that you're seeing. On the other side of your screen here of some of these areas, a lot of those swollen rivers, creeks and streams are going to continue to look like that, at least as we head into the weekend. We had tremendous record set in some places Newark, New Jersey having its wettest day on record, over eight inches of rain fell just yesterday.

And again New York City also having records, they ranked in their top five wettest days on record picking up over seven inches. Now, the key thing about New York specifically is that a bulk of that rain really just fell in several short hours. Again, they had their wettest single hour on record 3.15 inches from 851 to 9:51pm last night. And that's why you had those subways looking like they did that's why you had these roadways that were underwater because it was a tremendous amount of rain in just an extremely short period of time.

Now, as we mentioned, Jim, here's a look at the radar, the bulk of that rain is finally starting to exit back out over the open Atlantic, so it is dry now in New York. It is dry in Philadelphia, it's dry in Newark, and it's about to dry out for places like Boston and even Portland, Maine. So, the end is in sight, we will have clear skies as we go through the rest of the day today, which is good for the cleanup. But on the flip side, especially when we talk about the rivers, it's going to be a long time before a lot of those areas can fully clean up.

SCIUTTO: To your point, Allison, we have a live picture up as we're speaking to you from Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, which was right in the path of some of that heaviest rainfall. I mean, the streets are still inundated there, they're driving boats down those streets looking for people do we have a sense of how long it takes for that water to dissipate?

CHINCHAR: Right. So, it also depends on where that river is or where that water is going to go? Is there an entity that it can flow into and how does the infrastructure work in those communities? How was the drainage setup, if you have good infrastructure with good drainage that can allow that water to come out? Sometimes it can take as little as a few hours. But unfortunately, if there's nowhere for that water to go, if the infrastructure isn't there, if there's not a river or a creek nearby, where the water can flow into because that river, creek, or stream is already sole in itself, that water can sit there for a day, can sit there for 24 hours, even 36 hours before you finally start to see it come down

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So, for some communities, they may get lucky and in just a couple short hours, we'll start to see a lot of that water go down, for other communities unfortunately, Jim, it may take a couple of days.

SCIUTTO: Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.

We're going to go to another hard hit area. This in Clifton, New Jersey where our Christine Romans has been. And Christine, I know it can be misleading, the morning after because it's -- it may be sunny now, but boy last night biblical storms, how was the community recovering?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, it was a terrifying night. You had power lines down, you had rivers turning -- streets turning into rivers right behind me where I'm standing right now. Last night at midnight, it was water up to my waist 25 feet behind me, I would have been underwater, I'm five eight, I would have been underwater 25 feet behind me. So, the water just rushed through here.

You can see people behind me now, they're trying to get back to their cars, waiting for tow trucks. These cars were either abandoned, or in some cases, they've come from the neighbor's driveways, the neighbors could only get one car out at a time. And the water was just too dangerous to get both cars out of the driveways. So, they're trying to kind of assess the damage this morning.

There are parts of this area that still don't have power. More than a million people that power in the path of Ida from Louisiana to here. So, that is still part of the recovery here. I've seen power trucks actually having to be rescued because they were flooded out where they were parked last night and we've seen tow trucks that had to be had to be rescued because the water was too deep for them last night when they came to try to get these cars out.

So, you know, people are just kind of gingerly stepping out trying to find their garbage cans and opening up their basements. I'm sure you've seen the videos and the pictures from last night in these basements here. I mean, this was epic three inches an hour at its peak here. And a lot of people here measure the damage to their property by the hurricane they've lived through. They're all saying this one was worse than Floyd, which is the high watermark for hurricanes in terms of damage in New Jersey in terms of inland damage in New Jersey. And they're all saying people are saying -- they've, it was much, much worse last night. Just a total wreck for many, many families here.

But, of course, there's also loss of life in say county where I am right now. There was an elderly man in a car. He was in a car with two family members and that firefighters tried to save them. The firefighters were swept into the car. The elderly man died. They did rescue two people there. So just a reminder of how quick and how devastating and how dangerous this one. This was even as the sun starts shining here this morning on the morning after. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, that old rule you try to drive through it or around it and so often people get caught. Christine Romans, glad you're safe. Good to have you there this morning. We're going to go back to New York City now where our Evan McMorris-Santoro has been in Queens, which is one of the hardest hit areas of New York, including where a lot of those deaths took place. Evan, you know, the big question now, I suppose is looking for others in need, right? Is it your sense that police authorities have a good handle on how many lives were lost and if there are still others that need rescue?

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Well, we know the official reports that horrible number of nine people so far in this region, the majority of them from here in Queens, where I'm standing, we don't know what's going to happen to that number. But I can say here I am in this neighborhood. The police have been on the scene, authorities have been on the scene. All days we've been here. They're talking to folks in the neighborhood, they're looking around trying to figure out if there are other people that need to be found.

The neighbors themselves also tell me that they were on that from the very beginning of this. When the torrential rains were coming in their use of some flooding with torrential rains, they obviously had no idea it was going to be like it was last night. And they got very nervous. They tried to check in with each other. One woman told me she was on FaceTime with your neighbor for 12 hours as they watched this rainwater come up and down and you sneak through their house and, you know, wreck a lot of their stuff and really puts people in danger and lost the lives of two of their neighbors in the collapse behind me.

So, the whole region where I am right now, this whole neighborhood is focused on that, is focused on cleanup, but also focus on rescue, finding yield making sure people are safe. And that's something that we're seeing on the ground. And we're hearing people talk about and focus on as this, the whole neighborhood and this whole city really digs out from this historic rain.

SCIUTTO: And that's exactly what it's doing, digging out, drying out. And as we've been speaking to you, Evan, we're seeing these live rescues still underway in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania. Rescues by boat because the streets are now rivers still presenting danger, and boy it takes a long time for those structures to recover from this kind of damage too. Evan McMorris-Santoro, thanks so much.

Our Allison Chinchar following this from the Weather Center in Atlanta. Allison, for folks who may still be in the path of all this, what should they expect in the in the coming day?

[09:25:07]

CHINCHAR: Right. So, the good news is that the additional rain at this point is really going to be limited to Eastern Massachusetts, Maine, areas like that, because the bulk of the rain has really moved out of a lot of areas. When you're seeing videos now of areas of New York and New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the sun is out, which is good, it will allow them to assess the damage, it will allow the cleanup process to begin because if it was still raining in those areas, it would delay them being able to get a lot of that cleared up.

The one thing to note though, we've talked about this before, it's the river flooding, it's a delayed process. It's not like roadway flooding, where the water eventually drains out. The river gauges that you talk about with this, it takes time for those river gauges to come down. In some cases, it can be days, and you have dozens of these river gauges that are either moderate or major flood stage. And they're not likely to get back to normal levels for several days. It could even be Monday or Tuesday of next week for some of these rivers, creeks and streams to get back to normal levels. And that's a concern because you want these communities to be able to start rebuilding, they want to be able to start getting back to normal. And to know that you might have to wait several more days before you can really even begin that process, has to be extremely stressful.

When we talk about a lot of the water that was a reset numerous records Newark, New Jersey having the wettest state on record, New York City having one of its top five weather stays on record. And again, keeping in mind, the vast majority of that water was set in such a short period of time in New York, for example, in about three hours or less. In fact, they had their wettest single hour on record, three inches of rain, over three inches of rain fell just between 8:51 and 9:51 p.m. last night. Again, just to kind of show you how much of that area dealt with such a tremendous amount of rain in a short period of time.

But yes, Jim, as we mentioned, again, when you look at this radar, you can really see that the bulk of the rain is starting to move out. There's light at the end of the tunnel, if you will. We do still have rain across the Cape, areas of Eastern Massachusetts, we do still have rain across areas of Maine, but the vast majority of cities in the northeast are starting to see things dry back out. The sun is shining, it will start to get a little bit better. Jim, just the unfortunate part is for some it will get better and a few hours for others it will take days.

SCIUTTO: And then there's the cleanup and the rebuilding to follow. Allison Chinchar there, thanks very much. We will continue to cover the aftermath of the flooding not just in the northeast but along that Louisiana coast.

Also breaking overnight, and this is enormous news, the Supreme Court officially denied a request to block an extremely restrictive Texas abortion law, makes abortion effectively illegal in the second most populous state in the country. The minority dissent to that decision was just scathing. I'm going to speak to one of the attorneys representing the last abortion clinic in Mississippi, which is set to argue its own case in front of the Supreme Court in a matter of weeks. That decision closely watched as well.

Plus, Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney has just been named the Vice Chair of the Committee investigating January 6. This after earlier this week, GOP Congressman, as the minority leader to boot both Cheney and another Republican Adam Kinzinger on the committee out of the Republican conference all together for taking part. We're going to have more head on this. And we're staying on top of the desperate need for power, water and gas in Louisiana. And all those damaged and flooded homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida there. I'm going to be joined live by the President of one of the hardest hit parishes. He says that many, perhaps, most of the homes are gone forever.

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