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Scramble for Food, Gas in Louisiana as 90K Still Without Power; Matthew Jewel, President, St. Charles Parish, Discusses the Destruction and Desparate Need Following Hurricane Ida; Blood Survey: Most in U.S. Have Some Immunity to COVID-19; FDA Calls Meeting to Discuss Booster Shots; Top Conservative to Ask McCarthy to Boot Kinzinger, Cheney from GOP. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired September 02, 2021 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:34:32]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: An update on the breaking news, the historic flooding here in the northeast part of the U.S.

At least 20 people now confirmed dead across at least three states, 13 in New York, six in New Jersey and one death reported in Maryland.

Again, at least 20 people confirmed dead in the historic flooding. The search and recovery and rescue efforts are continuing.

Meantime, in Louisiana, where Hurricane Ida first came ashore, began its multi-state rampage, the recovery is measured in months, if not years.

[13:35:03]

More than 900,000 homes and businesses remain without power, in just that state alone.

Amid the misery, made worse by sweltering heat, a scramble for the basics -- food, water, shelter.

CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is in New Orleans.

What are you seeing there, Addrienne, today?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, there's also a scramble for gasoline. Look at this line behind us. This is what we've seen all morning. People trying to fill up on fuel. Either for their vehicles or filling up their gas cans so they can power their generators.

I want you to meet a mother of four that we spent some time talking to earlier this morning.

I spoke with one gentleman who was here to fill up his pickup truck. He got here at 6:00 a.m., when the curfew ended. He waited in line for four hours. Four hours to get gasoline.

And come on over with me. I'm going to introduce you to Myra, a mother of four. She's telling us how she's been coping and what she's doing to get through this tough time.

You can stay right there, Sweetheart. I'm going to snake over on this side.

Talk to me about what's on your heart this afternoon.

MYRA CASTRO, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: We're in the heat. We ain't got no lights. It's been almost five days. I got to sleep in the car. My kids are hot. We're hungry.

We go to the gas station. The line is long. We got to wait two hours and then the gas station is closed. Do you know how much that is?

We got to sleep in the car. I got kids and it's very hot. We're going to die in here. Where's FEMA? Where's the Red Cross? We need help now.

Can y'all help us? We about to die. We got children in here. I'm a single mom and I'm doing it by myself. It's hard out here.

Can they help us? Where's the president? Can he come help us? Where's the FEMA? This is -- can they help us?

We putting gas in our car. Where we going to go? Got to sleep in the car to watch our backs. That's miserable, lady.

Can't y'all help us? Somebody.

BROADDUS: We have a mother here with two children sleeping in the car with her. You can hear her pain and frustration.

President Biden will be here tomorrow.

I hate --

(CROSSTALK)

CASTRO: Where is the Red Cross? Where is FEMA? We're on the streets back and forth.

BROADDUS: And you're sleeping in the car because it's too hot inside the house?

CASTRO: We're sleeping in the car because it's hot and I don't know who is going to rob my car because it's too dark outside. Who's going to help us? Nobody but us. We're out here in the darkness. We need help.

BROADDUS: And how long have you been waiting in line to get the gas?

CASTRO: Two hours now.

BROADDUS: I hate we had to meet under these circumstances. My heart is with you.

Stand by, I'll be back to chat with you.

This is what's hatching here, Ana. More than 900,000 people without power and they need help.

Back to you.

CABRERA: That is just one story. We hear the desperation in the woman's voice. My heart goes out to her family. Just heartbreaking.

Adrienne Broaddus, thank you for that reporting.

In so many areas, residents who evacuated before the storm are being urged not to return. Not yet. You hear that one woman sleeping in her car. She said she's out of gas. We know so many people don't have power or running water.

Take a look at this video from CNN affiliate, WDSU. It shows thousands of people lined up for food and water. This is in hard-hit St. Charles Parish.

Joining us by phone is Matthew Jewel, the St. Charles Parish president.

Thank you, first, for being with us.

There were initial estimates your parish could be without power for a month. Crews have been scrambling to restore water service. What progress are they making?

MATTHEW JEWEL, PRESIDENT, ST. CHARLES PARISH (via telephone): You're absolutely right. When you look at the track of Hurricane Ida, it got over land and jogged east and really just came at a direct impact into St. Charles Parish.

And even more, it stalled on top of us before it continued its way north. And with that, we received eight hours of sustained major hurricane force winds, and over 13 or 14 hours of strong tropical- storm-force winds.

And the devastation is very evident on the ground. I've been telling the folks -- I met with the governor yesterday and some of the top folks of the Louisiana National Guard and FEMA -- that every structure in St. Charles Parish had sustained some sort of damage.

We have residents who have been very lucky and had minimal, loss of siding or shingles, and then people who have lost their entire homes.

With that wind and the roofs flying off, there was also over 15 inches of rain that dumped, that flooded several areas in St. Charles Parish. And so it's just been devastating to see.

[13:40:01]

We are making progress on the ground. We lost water on both sides of our -- of the river. You know, during the storm. And our crews were able to restore water relatively quickly. We are under a boil water advisory.

Each day, we're making some limited progress. Communications continue to get somewhat better. But it's going to be a long road ahead.

CABRERA: You have a lot going on, clearly. What's your most pressing need today?

JEWEL: You know, really, we're still working on getting a lot of resources into the parish. A lot of our residents need tarps to patch the holes in their roofs.

The rain hasn't stopped. We've been getting rain showers every day since the storm.

One of the main things we really need is to get tarps into our parish so people can put a temporary fix on their roof.

And we've been putting in requests to the state and working on getting the resources. I've been making calls to every person I can to get that in.

I'm hopeful, by either by the end of today or tomorrow, we'll have more of those resources in.

And then obviously, you know, we need to get electricity restored as soon as possible in our parish. But you know, that is going to be a long time coming.

CABRERA: Well, Matthew Jewel, again, the president of St. Charles Parish in Louisiana, thank you for joining us today. Wishing you the very best.

And I hope that you get all of those resources that you need as quickly as possible, because we know that so many people are suffering right now.

Best of luck to you.

JEWEL: Thank you.

CABRERA: All of this and Labor Day travels really just starting to kick into high gear. The CDC has a warning for anyone who is not vaccinated.

Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[13:46:40]

CABRERA: We're back with our breaking news. Continuing to cover the historic flooding in the northeast. These images coming from Bound Brook, New Jersey, about 20 or 30 miles southwest of Newark, New Jersey. Look at the train and amount of water around that train. We believe

this is a New Jersey transit train. It appears there's a lot of debris around it. We'll gather more information about what's going on here.

We also have images from a baseball field. Again, this is Bound Brook, New Jersey. This aerial view gives you a sense of how high the water is and the flooding that still exists hours after the storm has already passed.

Parts of New Jersey saw more than eight inches of rain in just a matter of a few hours overnight. And as you can see, the flooding situation is still dire.

Again, these images from Bound Brook, New Jersey, a little southwest of Newark.

Meantime, let's talk about the pandemic. We have new developments there. Some surprising results from a CDC survey of blood donations pertaining to COVID.

It showed more than 80 percent of Americans have some level of immunity to the virus, mostly through vaccination. It also found about twice as many people have been infected than previously thought.

I want to bring in CNN medical analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He's a professor of medicine and surgery after George Washington University.

Dr. Reiner, researchers caution this was done pre-Delta variant. Still, 80 percent with some level of immunity. What does that mean for herd immunity?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Hi, Ana. I'm not surprised that blood samples find that degree of immunity. Remember, we've administered vaccines to 62 percent of the population. At least one shot to 62 percent of the population.

And we documented infection in 39 million Americans. Although, we do think that was far below the number of people who were truly infected.

So if you double that, let's say, 80 million Americans really have been infected since the beginning of the pandemic, yes, that brings us up to about 80 percent of Americans either through vaccine immediate immunity or natural immunity.

When you think about herd immunity, you need to think about community immunity. Because the number of people vaccinated and the number of people exposed to virus are not equally distributed around the United States.

For instance, there are five states that have fully vaccinated almost 70 percent of the population, but yet, there are about six states that have fully vaccinated less than 40 percent of the population.

So I think we're going to achieve degrees of, quote, "community immunity" in pockets around the country, and other pockets, particularly through the south, are going to struggle with new infections for quite a while.

CABRERA: Now, the FDA has called a meeting of advisers on September 17th to discuss boosters with the Pfizer shot. We also know Moderna applied for a booster with its shot.

What do you expect the FDA to do?

REINER: I expect the FDA is probably going to endorse it. The question is, will they endorse boosters six months post-the second shot or eight months as originally envisioned by the CDC.

[13:50:03]

The problem is that the CDC and the White House have already sort of predetermined that boosters will be released on the 20th.

The FDA is going to meet on the 17th, just a couple of days before the anticipated launch of the booster season.

And this has created I think a bit of discontent within the leadership, within the career leadership within the FDA in terms of the role of the FDA in approving, you know, boosters.

It is the FDA's job to license vaccines and to approve in what capacity they can be used. I think here they see that they've been marginalized.

CABRERA: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, as always, good to see you. Thanks for being with us.

REINER: My pleasure.

CABRERA: They are the only two Republicans serving on the committee investigating the capitol insurrection.

And now a top House conservative says Representatives Kinzinger and Cheney should be booted from the party conference all together. How will Kevin McCarthy respond?

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[13:55:46]

CABRERA: The fight for the future of the Republican Party continues. CNN has learned that the head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, Congressman Andy Biggs, plans to send a letter to House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, that will call on him to oust Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger from the conference.

The reason? Because Cheney and Kinzinger are serving on the Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection.

I want to bring in CNN politics reporter, Chris Cillizza.

Chris, is this in the realm of possibility? CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER & CNN EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yes, Ana.

A simple majority vote in the conference will do it. I'm not sure that McCarthy will bring it up because I'm not sure of the signal it brings.

The thing to know about the letter is that it is the latest attempt in the Republican Party to purify it, which is to make it more like Donald Trump, in pure fealty to Donald Trump.

Everyone knows the date of January 6th. And 121 House Republicans vote against the certification of the Arizona Electoral College, 138 vote against Pennsylvania.

This, despite the fact that there's this much evidence -- that's a zero -- that there's any widespread voter fraud. That happens.

January 13th, one week later, everyone was still recovering and trying to process January 6th. But a week later, we had a House vote on impeaching the president. It passed. Obviously, Democratic majority and these 10 Republicans crossed party lines.

Obviously, these are the two, Kinzinger and Cheney, who have gotten the most attention.

Fast forward about a month, February 24th -- one of my son's birthdays actually -- Liz Cheney comes out and makes news. She is asked about Donald Trump's future in the Republican Party, what role should it be and she says this.

I think we have the sound. Let's play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Congresswoman Cheney, do you believe former President Trump should be speaking at CPAC this weekend?

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Yes, he should.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Congresswoman Cheney?

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): It is up to CPAC. I have been clear on my views about President Trump and the extent to which following January 6th I don't believe he should be playing a role in the future of the party in our country.

MCCARTHY: On that high note --

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: But, Chris, that wasn't the end of it, was it?

CILLIZZA: Yes. It is sort of like and we're still not done.

OK. May 12th, Liz Cheney after voting for impeachment, after speaking out against Donald Trump, after saying he was responsible for January 6th, is ousted from her role as the third-ranking Republican in Congress, which is a pretty remarkable thing.

Let's play a little sound from that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Congresswoman, do you feel betrayed by today's vote?

CHENEY: I do not. I think that it is an indication of where the Republican Party is. And I think that the party is in a place that we've got to bring it back from.

And we've got to get back to a position where we are a party that can fight for conservative principles, that can fight for substance. We cannot be dragged backward by the very dangerous lies of a former president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CILLIZZA: OK. Now, in between then and today, what happens, Ana, is that a commission that would look into January 6th, a bipartisan, independent commission, passes the House with 35 Republicans voting for it.

Goes to the Senate where it is killed by mitch McConnell, which makes Nancy Pelosi then start a select committee on January 6th. On the 1st of July, she appoints Liz Cheney. On the 25th of July, she appoints Adam Kinzinger.

And now we've learned that Liz Cheney is going to be the vice chair. That's why Andy Biggs wants her gone.

Again, go back -- I went back to a speech in 1967, a guy name Ronald Reagan, who said the Republican Party has to be a big tent. They are making the tent smaller and smaller and smaller. And it is all Trump, Trump, Trump.

Liz Cheney is a conservative on everything but Donald Trump. And yet, Andy Biggs wants to get rid of her from the Republican conference entirely. That tells you where the Republican Party is today.

CABRERA: No doubt.

And Adam Kinzinger also responding it makes him want to double down in seeking the truth as well.

Thank you, Chris Cillizza, for laying it down.

[13:59:58]

That does it for me. I appreciate you being with us. I will see you back tomorrow at 1:00 Eastern. In the meantime, join me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera.

The news continues next with Alisyn and Victor.