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Nine Dead in New York and New Jersey after Ida Remnants Unleash Massive Flooding; New Jersey Governor Tours Communities after Deadly Flooding; New Jersey Governor Speaks after Ida's Remnants Unleash Deadly Floods. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 02, 2021 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: A very good Thursday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

The breaking news this hour, we will hear from the governor of New Jersey, the mayor of New York as well, after a catastrophic storm hammered, flooded, inundated parts of the northeast overnight, the scenes just amazing. We're also waiting to hear from President Biden. He's expected to address the devastation from Hurricane Ida. That storm completely wiping out some communities on the coast in Louisiana. At least five people have died there. We'll have much more from Louisiana in just a moment. Look at those scenes.

But we do want to start with the monumental storm overnight in the northeast. Right now, firefighters in Passaic, New Jersey, are trying to locate bodies that may have been swept away into the river. In New York, the city issued its first ever, first ever flash flood emergency. Those are subway tunnels you're looking at there last night. They saw rainfall in just five hours, enough to fill 50,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, record rainfall in Central Park.

And happening right now in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, water rescues underway. We've seen live on our air in the last hour residents being pulled from their homes in to those inflatable rescue boats there, still people in need, still people's whose lives are in danger.

Let's begin with a storm chaser. He's Ray Leichner. Ray, you were following this during the worst of it overnight. Tell us what you saw then and what you're seeing this morning.

Ray, are you there?

RAY LEICHNER, STORM CHASER IN PENNSYLVANIA (voice over): Hello?

SCIUTTO: Bad connection there. We're going to come back to you, Ray, when you have a better connection so we can hear what you've seen. I do want to go now to CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro. He is in New York, Queens, New York, which saw some of the most devastating effects of the storm overnight and, in fact, sadly where a lot of the deaths were located.

What is the status of the recovery process right now, Evan? EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, as you know, last night the numbers that we have so far are nine dead, a number that could change, could rise. The majority here in Queens where I am, two of those deaths happening literally in the house right behind me, floodwaters coming in and just collapsing a basement wall killing two inside that house, just a tragic scene here.

We do know that rescue efforts are underway. We know there were a lot of them last night. Getting people out of subway trains, getting them out of their houses and we have heard people are still going around now to asking, checking on their neighbors, do you know where everybody is, has everybody been accounted for. The police are doing that. All of that is happening.

Here I am in this neighborhood, there's a real focus of this because it has flooded before here, the people here are very nervous about what happened last night and concerned about the future. And so we're expected to hear from the governor of New York and the mayor of New York City here in this neighborhood pretty soon. They're going to show up here. They're going to talk to some folks. And they're going to talk about what their plans are for the future of this recovery.

Right now, everything is really still triage mode. You talk about how the infrastructure, things like transit are still in real danger. We're talking about things like there are people without power still. And here in this neighborhood, just a huge mess and a tragedy to deal with after these two neighbors passed away in this storm. Jim?

SCIUTTO: No question. And then what do they do to prepare for the next one. Evan McMorris-Santoro, thanks very much.

Well, the remnants, we call them remnants but, Lord, they are powerful, the remnants of Ida just drenching the northeast overnight. Newark, New Jersey, shattered its record for the most rainfall in a single day. That has become the norm, it seems, almost every day, new records.

CNN's Polo Sandoval, he's been live in New Jersey throughout the morning. Polo, we still saw rescues underway in flooded homes in the last hour. I know you're on one of the highways there that may be dry but, boy, things aren't moving, one of the repercussions of all this.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is a thing too, Jim, as the sun comes out and the waters begin to recede, the road begins to dry out and leaves behind the devastation. Obviously, some of those rescues that we're seeing in other part of New Jersey and just roadways that are still, as you see here, you see dozens of cars, there are some here, there are some just down the road here.

We are actually standing on McCarter Highway. This is what connects Downtown Newark with Newark's International Airport. These are all vehicles that basically stalled out overnight. Tow trucks had to move them over so that they can then open this highway, which we expect to happen pretty soon.

And as this issue here slowly begins to resolve itself, as these drivers call their own tow trucks to have these vehicles moved out, a big issue that's perhaps having wider effects is United Airlines. According to our colleague, Pete Muntean, reporting that the airline is suspending a bulk of their operations just down the highway at Newark International, one of their major hubs, and that is affecting perhaps hundreds of flights. Apologies for some of the highway noise here.

So, that really does speak to the impact beyond New Jersey, beyond the northeast now with this storm that has already been felt for multiple days, already three or four days after landfall, now has a potential to impact people that are perhaps traveling in or out of the region here, Jim.

[10:05:13]

SCIUTTO: You shut down an airport, that has big effects. Polo Sandoval, thanks very much.

CNN's Christine Romans, she has been in Clifton, New Jersey, where, overnight, goodness, whole community under water. And, Christine, I know you experienced that yourself. Tell us what damage the flooding left in its wake.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, a lot of just completely swamped basements, cars that are totaled, strewn along the streets. They were either left or they were washed away by the floodwaters. I mean, the waters have receded. Where, I'm standing right now, it would have been waist high in water and behind me where there is this little creek. It would have been over my head. In fact, one of the drivers of an abandoned car back here told me that he got out of his car, he was knocked down and tumbled through the water before he could find his footing. So, a very dangerous situation but the street is dry now. So they're trying to get their cars towed, try to just survey the damage.

And I'll tell you, Jim, there is a real feeling of camaraderie in this neighborhood here in Clifton, New Jersey, where I am. People are checking on their neighbors. They're helping haul stuff out of their garages. We helped move one of these cars out of the way that was dead here. Everyone is just trying to kind of survey the damage and get moving forward.

It was supposed to be the first day of school here in Clifton. You've seen this kids out riding their bikes, surveying the damage. It will not be the first day they're going to try for that tomorrow. The Storm Ida, I mean, even though it was the tail end of this massive monster hurricane, it really left a record mark on this neighborhood and this region. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Yes. Folks were worried about COVID disrupting the start of the school year, here it was, record flooding. Christine Romans in Clifton, New Jersey, thanks very much.

As we've been saying nationally, the storm produced just an incredibly record-breaking amount of rain, never before seen, particularly in parts of northeast. Meteorologist Allison Chinchar, she is in the CNN Weather Center. Describe the records of this storm. We use the word historic all of the time. The trouble is those records get broken, it seems, every other day. Where was this the worst and where was this the worst ever seen?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, yes. I mean, you talked about it, the scope of this storm was incredible. This one particular storm has impacted 22 states, Jim, 22 states. Now, unfortunately, yes, we have two different spots that produce tremendous amount of rain. Obviously right there immediately along the gulf coast, where Ida initially made landfall and then the second wave, the area from the mid-Atlantic to the northeast seeing catastrophic flooding as well.

Now, the bulk of the rain that you're seeing that caused scenes like you can see on the other half of your screen, these are the areas where we saw widespread six to ten inches of rain. Again, when you look at the radar here, again you can see, we have got most of the storm starting to move out of the way. So, a lot of that rain is finally starting to end. You're getting blue skies, which is good for the folks who need to get out and start clearing out some of their areas.

The problem with a lot of this rain is it doesn't go away in the blink of an eye. It could be hours, if not, days before we finally see a lot of this rain really recede in some of these areas, especially along the rivers, creeks and even the streams that are out there.

When you talk about the records that are out there, Newark having their wettest day on record, and New York City setting the wettest hour on record, again, just to go to show you how much rain has really fallen in such a short period of time for so many of these communities.

Again, New York also having their top five wettest days, very much like we saw with Newark. The key thing to know though is, yes, these are 24-hour records but a lot of these communities got that rain in six, seven, even eight hours at most. So it was a lot of rain in a very short period of time.

We talked about the wettest hour on record, three inches from 8:51 to 9:51 P.M. last night in New York. That is why the roadways were flooded, it's why the subways looked like they did.

Now, on average, when we talk about climate change too, Earth warms. And the warmer the atmosphere is, Jim, the more water it can hold. So, when you have tropical systems like this that come in, they're able to dump a tremendous amount of rain in a short period of time.

Now, it is not so hurricanes themselves are new. We've had hurricanes before. But because of climate change, these storms are going to end up producing a lot more rain and become more extreme tropical cyclones than they would have been in the past.

SCIUTTO: And as you said, with those rising waters, right, there is a lag time, right? The rain may stop but the rivers may continue to rise. Allison Chinchar in the Weather Center, thanks so much.

We're also following another breaking story this morning, this overnight out of the Supreme Court. The conservative majority denied a request to block Texas' extreme, new abortion law. The chief justice, John Roberts, actually joined the liberal justices signing to what was a scathing dissent.

[10:10:05]

Today, the result of this, abortion effectively illegal in the second most populous state in the country.

Plus, nearly a million customers are still without power in Louisiana after Hurricane Ida. Details on President Biden's plans to tour the devastation there.

And later, I'm going to be joined live by a retired green beret who led a private mission to evacuate hundreds of Afghans who worked with U.S. troops and, therefore, their lives were in danger. He's going to tell us how he got them to safety and also what happens to the folks left behind.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:00]

SCIUTTO: We have an update just into CNN now, and that is that the death toll from flooding in the northeast has now risen to ten. We will keep you apprised of all updates there.

You're watching live pictures here out in New Jersey, where the governor, Phil Murphy, is touring the damage. We're going to bring you any update as we get them. He is expected to brief the press live shortly and we'll bring you those comments.

Another live picture we've been showing you in the last hour were live rescues still underway in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, where the streets have become rivers. And we've been watching first responders in an inflatable, in a Zodiac, going door- to-door and finding people in need and taking them to safety.

Keith Truman, he is the manager for Bridgeport and he joins me on the telephone now.

Keith, thanks so much. I know you have got a lot on your hands here. Can you tell us, as we look at these pictures from Bridgeport, how many people you believe are still in need of rescue there?

KEITH, TRUMAN, BRIDGEPORT, PENNSYLVANIA BOROUGH MANAGER (voice over): First off, good morning and thank you for having me. Yes, we can -- I can tell you that, at this point, we have rescued -- through the efforts of multi-jurisdictional emergency management and first responders teams, we've rescued at least 50 residents since this all began overnight last night. In terms of a sense of how many more are out there, we -- I don't know if I have a firm number ascertained at this point but we do have a large apartment building that still needs to be evacuated. They've been instructed to shelter in place. And we still have a few more blocks of the residential area that your videos have captured to evacuate.

SCIUTTO: Well, credit to those first responders. They're knocking on every day. They're shouting, they're looking for people in need and they're finding them. I hate to ask you this question because, of course, we only want the good news from this, but have they found any people who didn't make it? Do you have any sense of whether any lives were lost there?

TRUMAN (voice over): At this junction, all we have are a few scrapes and bruises, some very minor injuries. As you've noted, they have not been through every house at this point, so I don't have a concrete number on any --

SCIUTTO: Keith Truman, hold there just for a moment because we're getting an update now live from the governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy. He's speaking from Mullica Hills, New Jersey. Let's have a listen.

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): -- superintendent of the State Police, Colonel Pat Callahan, Dan Kelly on my team, Assemblyman Burzichelli and Assemblyman Spearman. I think that is it with who is with us up here.

You know, an extra sadly tragic historic 24 hours in New Jersey. There is no other way to put it. Needless to say, look, on either side of us right now in the impact of this -- these tornados that touched down, in this county and here obviously on Mullica Hill but also in Wenonah, Deptford, Woodbury Township.

Thank God, unless someone knows otherwise, casualties are extremely limited, which is there, but for the grace of God, which is extraordinary. Look at the house behind us if you want to get a sense of how it could have been. And as Steve Sweeney has said, if you look at other side of the path of this, you have got houses to the left and right, which are largely intact, if not, completely intact, and yet you have got houses right in the path that are destroyed.

Up north, the story was less tornados but overwhelming flooding. And, largely, the big roads are open, although 78 and 280 are still works in progress. And there are a lot of off-ramps and other road challenges that we still have before us. But it was largely a storm with tornados being the big story in the south and flooding being the big story in the central and northern part of the state. And this is going to take us some time to dig out of, there's no question about it.

And I want to just say, on behalf of all of us, we're going to stay here and be by the side of the residents and the small businesses that have been impacted so severely.

[10:20:05]

Yes, you barely get -- and if you're a small business, you're barely getting back on your feet from a pandemic and you get whacked by this. And you ask yourself rightfully, life is not so fair sometimes. But I promise that we will stay with everybody and it won't be a short road but we will stay with them on that road to recovery.

I just got off, which is why I'm a few minutes late, with the FEMA administrator, Criswell. I said to her, and she's been terrific and her team is terrific, that we will be sending in a major disaster declaration request today. I will speak shortly with the president and reiterate that and thank him for his support and help. And that will be a game-changer if that is accorded in terms of our ability to get individuals, families, businesses and our infrastructure and the clean-up back to where it should be.

NJ Transit is a work in progress, both on the rail and the bus side, somewhat depending on where you are in the state versus the Atlantic City line, I'm told, has been clear sailing, which is good news. But that is not the case for most every other line in the central and northern part of the state.

As I mentioned, the highways getting work in progress. The parkway and turnpike are wide open north to south and that's good. We have got a couple of challenges still on the interstates and, as I mentioned, some local off-ramp-type issues that will take some time to fix.

We have had fatalities. I won't get into the details or the numbers. We did not have them here, thank God, but we have had them in the central and northern part of the state. So, please, keep those folks in your prayers. And as we get more specificity on that, we will obviously let you know. But, sadly, more than a few folks have passed as a result of this. I think that is it.

As a general matter, other than as I say we'll stay at this as long as it takes. I will likely be doing some more stops later this afternoon, probably in central and northern part of the state. And those will be largely getting a handle on the flooding impact there. Again, we keep all of the victims, both individuals, families, small businesses on Main Street in our prayers and, again, we will not relent, we will stand by the sides of everybody who has been impacted by this in New Jersey until we get back on our feet.

I guess I'll close with a pretty obvious statement. But the world is changing, right? These storms are coming in more frequently. Steve and I were on the phone last night on this topic. They're coming in more frequently. They're coming in with more intensity. And as it relates to our infrastructure, our resiliency, our whole mindset, the playbook that we use, we have got to leap forward and get out of ahead of this.

Any infrastructure money we get, I bet you a lot of it will be put into resilient infrastructure because that is exactly what you need when you're the most densely populated state in the nation with our extraordinary location, which is second to none. I think any amount of investment we could make in the years ahead in resilient infrastructure will be investment that will help us, please God, if we have to deal with things like this going forward in the years ahead.

Anybody want to add anything, guys? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just from the federal side. First of all, thank you, Governor, for being here, Steve, the legislative team for New Jersey and certain -- the commissioners and nearing (ph) township. I'm looking across the street and that could be any of our closets. The shoes are there. And behind me, a swing set that children could have been playing on. The fact that people were not killed or seriously injured is just amazing.

But when we look at this and we were in Washington last night monitoring, we're in session until 3:00 this morning, we jumped on the train and, literally, I got stopped in Delaware because we couldn't get into Philadelphia or above, as you know. This is a problem that is going on. But we never had tornados of this nature when we grew up, occasionally a small one. What we see behind here is change.

And you mentioned the infrastructure. That is exactly what we're working on. Luckily we'll get that done and bring those much-needed resources to what we have here today. Speaking with FEMA, we reloaded them because this storm was supposed to make a righthand turn and go out to sea by North and South Carolina.

As we go into Labor Day weekend, I want to say thank you to all of those that labored to help the people behind us, whether you're the utility for the electricity or your neighbor helping them pull out, that is what makes New Jersey a great state.

[10:25:005]

We help each other in times of need and we're going to need more help. So, based on that, we just want to thank all of you who helped. And, certainly, if you're having trouble, obviously, give our office a call, certainly, the legislators and insurance issues, certainly, we want to be there throughout.

MURPHY: Amen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With that --

MURPHY: Steve, come on down. Thanks, Tom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want so start with thanking our first responders. They come out. They're the front line of defense and they do a hell of a job for us. And they put their own safety at risk. The county's OEM is outstanding, the coordination, everyone working together to make things work. And talking to Bob last night and Lou, the mayor, and most importantly, the governor, because I asked him for some help, and help came last night because we have a lot of trees down.

You're seeing property damage here but as you travel through this county, it looks like a bomb hit in some places. And getting those trees cleaned up is critically important. So, Governor, I just want to say thank you for stepping up once again to help the citizens of this county and this state.

Anybody who is a global warming denier, take a look at what is going on around. As Donald said, you might have had an occasional storm and it wasn't anything. These things are getting stronger, and there is more damage. We have got to do something, because it's too late now. But, Governor, thank you.

MURPHY: Thank you, Steve.

REPORTER: Governor, for families that are waiting for FEMA funds (ph), families impacted on state funds, they could look at or is that Red Cross? How do they get help right now?

MURPHY: Yes. We will probably -- not probably, we'll be putting put up a whole lot of information on where people should either go, websites or calls or phone numbers rather to go to. And it will be both a combination of state, federal and third parties, like the Red Cross. And it will obviously depend in part whether or not you have got a structure like this versus whether it is water damage, et cetera.

I want to reiterate before we take a couple of questions, the points that these guys just made, in particular our first responders. I was in a room this morning at the statewide traffic management system with the colonel and Dan and nobody in that room -- I slept a couple of hours, Lou. I suspect you didn't sleep much so last night, or Bob. Nobody in that room had slept. So the Atlantic City electric team to the DOT folks, DEP, to the county, Bob, to your and colleagues at the county, the state police, the local teams, OEMs, cannot thank you enough. You're on a pedestal. Brian? Bob, come on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor before you take questions -- I'm Bob Damminger. I'm the director of the Board of Commissioners in Gloucester County. Before the governor takes some questions, I just want to put it out, we have all of cameras here. It is the easiest way to get out to people in Gloucester County. Anyone affected by the storm in Gloucester County and the tornados, the Red Cross is set up at the Gloucester County Institute of Technology and they're there to help serve you. So, Governor, thanks.

MURPHY: That's great, Bob. Thank you. Everyone get that, because as Bob says, we have got a lot of cameras on us. Let's take advantage of it, right? Brian?

REPORTER: Governor, you and the legislature, Steve Sweeney, the speaker have a fairly ambitious course against climate change. Does this -- and you've said several times they're becoming more intense and the storms, more frequent, does this suggest you that we need to accelerate the efforts that have already been underway?

MURPHY: Unequivocally, yes. And I think -- I don't know where Donald went, but the federal infrastructure bill that is being debated, God willing, voted on sooner than later, I should say bills, you have got two different buckets there, any amount of that will be of huge help toward our efforts. I just want to make sure this isn't -- I can't see this. Yes, I believe this may be the president so I'm just going to take this and make sure --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell him I said hello. MURPHY: Bob Damminger, Mr. President says -- I think I missed that. But the answer is, unequivocally, yes. I assume you all would agree.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)?

MURPHY: I'm sorry?

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)?

MURPHY: State and federal. But there's only -- we will put state resources into this, as we have done, and we'll continue to do. But the game-changer here is the feds and the work that Donald is doing with federal dollars. Please?

REPORTER: Governor, we talked to some victims here in this neighborhood. They said the alerts that they got from the National Weather Service came quick enough on their phones to get to their basements to save their lives. Alerts also went out to flood emergencies throughout the north, yet a lot of people were still trapped in cars. Some died in their cars.

MURPHY: Sadly.

REPORTER: I don't know even how many water rescues there were. Is there a way to improve, to get people off these roads when these flash flood emergencies are issued before the inevitable happens?

[10:30:01]

MURPHY: Yes. It is a great question. We had this very conversation, the colonel and I and others, this morning. Thank God, the alerts worked in this case.