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Abortion Effectively Banned in Texas?; Hurricane Ida Aftermath. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 02, 2021 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: I will see you back here tomorrow at 1:00 Eastern.

In the meantime, join me on Twitter @AnaCabrera.

The news continues next with Alisyn and Victor.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Welcome to NEWSROOM. We have viewers with us from around the world this hour. I'm Victor Blackwell.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: I'm Alisyn Camerota.

And we begin with the dangerous aftermath of Hurricane Ida. The death toll and destruction in the Northeast U.S. are incredible. This is more than 1,000 miles from where Ida first came ashore.

At least 20 people have died between Maryland, New Jersey and New York, including a 2-year-old. Last night saw unprecedented flash flooding sweep through streets, homes and, as you can see here, the subway. At least 13 deaths were reported in New York. Most of the victims were found in basements that flooded before rescuers could reach them.

BLACKWELL: The streets of New Jersey were filled with water. Look at this. These are rescue operations happening. This is happening in New Jersey there in Newark.

Also, this is in Bound Brook. We have live pictures up for you now. You can see just at the edge of flooded roadways there. We know, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Delaware as well, there are rescue operations happening. We have seen people stranded on rooftops.

Crews are using excavators, rafts to pull people trapped in their homes. President Biden outlined earlier the federal help that he's deployed across several states.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all the first responders and everyone who has been working through the night and well into the morning to save lives and get power back. There's a lot of damage, and I made clear to the governors that my

team at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, is on the ground and ready to provide all the assistance that's needed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right. We have reporters across the Northeast.

Let's begin with Evan McMorris-Santoro in Queens. And that's where the majority of the deaths were reported.

Evan, what do you know?

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Victor and Alisyn.

You talk about the horror story of being in a basement during a flash flood. I'm standing in the place where one of those most tragic stories happened. This street in Queens where I'm standing right now, it is dry, it is a nice day out, but last night around 9:00, 9:30, there were feet of water here.

It swept through, filling up basements and filling up people's driveways. And behind me, you can barely see. You can see right through there a hole where the water swept through and it collapsed a wall in a basement apartment that led to two people inside dying.

That's just two of those deaths that we talk about. This neighborhood has been hit very, very hard by this storm, this unprecedented rainstorm, and now they're dealing with the fact that their neighbor, two of their neighbors have passed away, and now begins the massive cleanup.

You see one giant dumpster here. There's another one you can't see off camera. There's two big full-size garbage trucks here taking trash away. There's a lot of work to be done here in New York to dig out from this, and a lot of questions being asked about those deaths in those basements in places like this and how to prevent them in the future -- Alisyn, Victor.

CAMEROTA: Evan, thank you for all of that.

One of the incredible things is the different towns were hit with different extreme weather.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: So, that was just tremendous flooding.

Then, in New Jersey, where Paula Newton, that is in Mullica Hill, New Jersey, they saw these powerful tornadoes and it just destroyed all of these homes, Paula.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, Alisyn, Victor, look at the mess behind us right here. And the thing that is so stunning, look at this destruction, and yet I

can tell you, not far from here, in fact just a few feet, other homes were untouched. The ferocity of the winds coming through there all too punishing and very little warning.

Now, county officials here telling us that, as of right now, they're not aware of any serious injuries or any deaths, and that right now, you have got to call it a miracle. The last time I have seen anything like this was in Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas.

Look at these homes, have been absolutely shred. Here, I can tell you residents have already started the cleanup, but it is unbelievable the destruction. And next-door neighbors, one home almost destroyed, right next door, absolutely pristine and still in good shape.

They are in absolute shock here, I can tell you. And, again, as you guys were saying, this is in the southern part of the state. If you go to the northern part of New Jersey, it was the deluge of water. I was through it, some of it, myself last night, and the flooding was absolutely incredible.

And yet here they were dealing with tornadoes, tornadoes that just kept whirling and whirling around. And it seemed to last an absolute staggering amount of time.

[14:05:08]

The terror many felt here, without much warning -- some of them had warning on their phones and that was about it. But, again, still trying to figure out what happened here. They are saying they are getting both state and federal help, and a lot of them really looking for it right now.

As I said, they did not expect the ferocity of that kind of a tornado to go through this community, even though, at the very last minute, they did get those watches on their phones and were told to head for the basement.

BLACKWELL: Wow. A wind event there in Mullica Hill.

Paula Newton, thanks so much.

Let's go now to the water event.

Pete Muntean is in Philadelphia.

We can see the water rushing behind you there. Flood warning still in place, right?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Victor.

The flood warning here in Philadelphia stays in place until 7:00 tomorrow morning. The Schuylkill River behind me here only crested at 17 feet just a few hours ago. Now it is about 16 feet. The National Weather Service says the Schuylkill will not be below flood stage until well after midnight. The impact here, far and wide. You can see the famous Boathouse Row

behind me. It has been underwater for hours. That is Interstate 76, the Schuylkill Expressway. It is a parking lot right now because it is really hard to see where it begins and the Schuylkill River begins.

The Schuylkill is now overflowing the interchange between 76 and 676 downtown. That has made a big traffic snarl. And one of the biggest problems here is that there is a pumping station next to the interchange and it is underwater.

Not just here in Philadelphia. Even upstream of the Schuylkill in Bridgeport, there were dozens of water rescues, dozens of homes underwater there, according to the mayor. In Conshohocken, there is a problem. In Manayunk, there is a problem.

Montgomery County, which is to the north, there, according to Governor Tom Wolf's administration, were 500 calls for water rescues just last night. Governor Tom Wolf spoke earlier and he says he has no doubt that this is because of climate change. We have not seen river levels this high on the Schuylkill in Philadelphia since 1869.

Former Governor Ed Rendell spoke and he said he has not seen anything like this after the blizzard of '96, an entirely different weather phenomenon.

This came in fast and furious. The water is still rushing here. And the cleanup is now going to be on the top of people's minds, but not until the river truly recedes. And that will still be a while from now. A lot of problems here in Philadelphia and beyond.

CAMEROTA: Pete Muntean, thank you very much for that very vivid illustration of what is happening in the Philadelphia area. Thanks to Paula Newton and Evan McMorris-Santoro also.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

We are going to continue to get the latest from our reporters across the East Coast.

Let's go now to New Jersey, Elizabeth, New Jersey, to be specific, where we have learned that four people have drowned in an apartment complex that backs up to the Elizabeth River.

CAMEROTA: The mayor, Chris Bollwage, joins us now.

So, Mr. Mayor, this complex where this happened, we understand, is right across the street from the fire department headquarters, which makes it all the more tragic. So what happened? How did they drown so quickly in this apartment complex?

CHRIS BOLLWAGE, MAYOR OF ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY: So, early -- late evening last night, the fire department started to make rescues in the complex.

When the fire headquarters started to take on water, the fire apparatus had to leave that area. The firemen continued to work on rescues and operated from the second floor of the headquarters. They rescued hundreds of people that were trapped on the top of cars and in the buildings.

And the back Garden Apartments that are right near the river, we actually drilled holes in the second floor down to the first floor in order to rescue people upwardly. We were able to do that, yet two -- a male and a female in their 70s and a male and their female in their 30s succumbed to the raging floodwaters of the river.

And we found them when the water receded about 3:00 or 4:00 this morning.

BLACKWELL: Wow.

I mean, just to talk about the resilience of some of your firefighters there, that because they couldn't go through the windows, they went through the first floor, drilled down through the floor to try to lift people out, and they were successful there.

But I understand that that entire apartment complex now is uninhabitable, so this is now turning into a lodging and housing crisis for so many families there, where you are.

BOLLWAGE: I have been in touch with our senators and congressional representatives, as well as the governor, and my relocation team is out there. We are taking names.

We have relocated people temporarily to four different schools, and at the present time, we are getting hotel information that's available. The federal government has promised us vouchers to relocate these people on a temporary and long-term basis until these buildings can come and rehabilitate it in order to move people back in, which will take weeks to months because of the raw sewage and the floodwaters that went through the first floor of all of these apartments.

[14:10:19]

I have to say that the state and federal government has been extremely cooperative in all of our efforts, as well as our elected representatives.

CAMEROTA: That's good to hear.

Mayor, as you are speaking, we are watching a live rescue right now out of Bound Brook, New Jersey. Two people are climbing into an emergency rescue boat there as -- after they waded in waist-deep water to get there.

And this is just happening everywhere in the tri-state area. Rescues are still ongoing.

And so, Mayor, I mean, look, this is an extreme weather event that is unprecedented, but did your town have any warning? Were you able to tell people before the rain started last night to get to some shelter or higher ground?

BOLLWAGE: There's over 600 people who live in this complex.

And, unfortunately, four people passed away. There was an awful lot of attempts at rescues, not only at this location, but in other areas of the city. This was the hardest hit with the tragic loss of life. Yet throughout the city, we were making water rescues all night long with drivers who drove strictly into floodwaters thinking they could get through, as opposed to turning around or parking somewhere.

The fire department was extremely busy all night leading up to this event, including at this location. This was the most serious part of the city, but not the only part impacted in a negative way.

BLACKWELL: So, Mayor Bollwage, give us an estimate, if you have one, of the number of rescues citywide there in Elizabeth that were executed over the last period of time since the storm hit.

BOLLWAGE: The total rescues, we don't have, but it's clearly in the hundreds.

The fire department is accumulating that number now as we seek to relocate the folks that live there. But, currently, we have drones in the air that are going up and down the river, checking the banks of the river in case anyone was swept away by the raging river.

We also have the rent rolls of the entire complex and have a team of people making phone calls to see if anyone is missing. As of this conversation, no one is missing from the rent rolls provided to us. Yet the drone and the inspection of the riverbank leading into the Arthur Kill, which is where the river deposits, is ongoing as we talk.

CAMEROTA: Well, Mayor Chris Bollwage, we really appreciate your time. We know that you and your emergency service personnel have been doing yeoman's duty trying to save people for all of these past more than 12 hours now.

Thank you very much for your time. And we are thinking of everyone in Elizabeth.

BOLLWAGE: Thank you for having me.

BLACKWELL: All right, again, we are watching these pictures.

This is Bound Brook, New Jersey, as they are now rescuing people. The water at one point was up to their waist. Of course, we will continue to cover it, cover Hurricane Ida, what is left of it, what is now happening on the Northeast Coast, the search-and-rescue efforts that are happening.

Also, in Louisiana, hundreds of thousands of people are without power in that dangerous heat.

CAMEROTA: And, tomorrow, President Biden heads to the storm-ravaged area. This morning, he spoke about his infrastructure proposal and how his plans could help try to endure some of this extreme weather that we are seeing.

So, we have a live report from the White House next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:18:15]

CAMEROTA: We are continuing to cover the historic flooding in the north east.

Earlier today, President Biden said he will press Congress to pass his infrastructure proposals to help the country deal with these extreme weather events and natural disasters that we have seen so much of in the past days.

Phil Mattingly is with us now.

Phil, what is the president's message to, I mean, so many people who were affected by this?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think, when you heard the president speak, the one thing he made clear is that, for his administration, for the federal government, this is an around-the-clock effort that they have been focused on for several days, despite many other high-profile issues that have taken the president's time.

But it's also kind of implicit here that it's also an all-hands-on- deck effort from the federal government. Obviously, FEMA is the lead agency here. But the president has appointed Cedric Richmond, one of his top advisers, former Louisiana congressman, to run point out of the White House on hurricane coverage.

He's got agencies working across different areas, whether it's on cell phone service, electricity, gas availability, trying to streamline or address some of the very serious issues we're seeing, obviously, in the Gulf Coast, but now in the Northeast as well, and the president himself very involved. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: My message to everyone affected is, we're all in this together. The nation is here to help.

That's the message I have been making clear to the mayors, governors, energy and utility leaders in the region who my administration has been working closely with over the past few days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And, guys, I think the recognition inside the White House from both the president and his top advisers is that the onus is on the federal government in situations like this.

These are the moments where state and local governments certainly don't have the capacity to deal with the scale of what we have seen from Hurricane Ida. And that puts it really on the shoulders of the federal government to deliver. And I think that's why you have seen the president really to try and focus on these issues over the course of the last couple of days. Obviously, he will be traveling to Louisiana tomorrow. His team has made clear that they would not make that trip if they thought that they were going to get in the way of recovery efforts.

[14:20:10]

The Louisiana governor, John Bel Edwards, saying he invited the president and believes it will help bring attention to what is going on in the Gulf Coast.

This issue isn't going away anytime soon. White House officials know that. One final point, Alisyn, you mentioned, the president alluded to his infrastructure proposal and the second economic piece of his agenda. Those will be very critical in the weeks ahead as the administration tries to get those across the finish line, saying the climate provisions in both of those proposals, the resiliency efforts funded by a lot of those proposals are critical in the moments ahead, something obviously the president will focus on well beyond just the recovery efforts from Hurricane Ida, guys.

BLACKWELL: Phil Mattingly for us there at the White House.

And we just got an update on the number of those who have been killed in this ongoing storm that's headed up the East Coast, 23 dead now, that number continually -- continuing to rise over the last few hours as those search-and-rescue and, in some cases, recovery efforts have continued.

CAMEROTA: Yes, that's Maryland, New York and New Jersey.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: So, weather crisis from the Gulf Coast all the way to the Atlantic. We're tracking the devastation and the deaths from Hurricane Ida, even as the rescues continue that we're taking live.

BLACKWELL: Yes, Jennifer Gray is in the CNN Weather Center.

Jennifer, these rainfall totals are unbelievable, how much water fell, and not just that it fell, but in the window in which it fell.

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You're exactly right, Victor. You have hit it on the head.

We're not just talking about how much rain fell, but in the short duration that it fell. That's what created this flash flooding nightmare. This is the radar. And you can see all of the rain pushing through the big cities, and even the towns around across the Northeast.

A lot of rain fell in just a short amount of time. And that's what created this. Ida's path has stretched 1, 500 miles, more than 500 flood reports. Look at all of these records across the Northeast, more than 20 daily rainfall records. Staten Island, more -- almost nine inches of rain. And this is in a 24-hour time span, but we know that most of this rain fell in a much shorter time span than 24 hours.

Newark, New Jersey, had their wettest day on record with almost 8.5 inches. New York City's Central Park, top five wettest days ever, and a lot of this fell in just one hour, more than three inches of rain in one hour. And, guys, the rain has stopped falling. But you can see from the pictures the flooding is still there

The streets filled, the rivers filled, the creeks. It's going to take a while for that to drain. And that should be happening within the next 24 to 48 hours. We should see much improvement as far as the standing water goes.

CAMEROTA: Yes, let's hope so.

Jennifer, thank you for that.

Now to this. The Supreme Court broke its silence last night on why it did not stop that new law in Texas that essentially outlaws abortion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:27:42]

BLACKWELL: The Supreme Court is now on the record after its inaction let the nation's most restrictive abortion law take effect in Texas.

At midnight, the court released the order explaining the majority opinion on why it did not intervene to stop Texas from banning nearly all abortions. Now, the law outlaws the procedure as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected. That could be as early as six weeks, when most women don't know they're pregnant.

The dissenting justice, they're shocked by the court's failure to act, upending the precedent set by Roe v. Wade in 1973.

CAMEROTA: Justice Sotomayor plainly writes -- quote -- "A majority of justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand. The Texas act is a breathtaking act of defiance of the Constitution, of this court's precedents and of the rights of women seeking abortions throughout Texas."

New this afternoon, Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that the Justice Department is -- quote -- "deeply concerned" and looking at all options.

CNN Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic joins us now.

Joan, can you explain the majority opinion on the highest court? How did they explain what they did?

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Yes, good afternoon, Alisyn and Victor.

The majority justices by a narrow 5-4 vote said there's legal confusion here. We're not sure the challengers even have the authority to bring this case. And while lower courts look at this, there would be no injury to the women seeking abortions and to the health care clinics that have sued the state here for this law.

They let it go into effect, saying, we're not going to block it because there's -- there would be no harm. And they just didn't buy the arguments of the challengers that this would have a great chilling effect, that abortion clinics would have to close, that women who are beyond six weeks of pregnancy, which, as you mentioned is usually about the time that people even discover it, after six weeks of pregnancy, that they would have to go to other states.

The justices really questioned, the justices in the majority really questioned whether the law, as it was written, could be grounds for a suit. And the dissenters said, this was a very clever ploy by the state legislature in Texas to essentially shield state officials from lawsuit.